Trump aims to bypass lawmakers on virus aid
BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Ready and willing to bypass elected lawmakers, President Trump seemed set to claim the power to suspend payroll taxes and extend expired unemployment benefits after negotiations with Congress on coronavirus rescue money collapsed. The White House signaled Saturday the president was soon expected to sign four executive...
Schools face major virus test as students return to classroom
Reopening schools is easy. Keeping them open will be the hard part. As educators prepare to welcome students back to class for the first time in months, schools’ ability to quickly identify and contain coronavirus outbreaks before they get out of hand will be put to the test in thousands...
Few signs of pandemic visible at 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
STURGIS, S.D. — The coronavirus may be changing the world, but there aren’t many signs of the pandemic at the massive annual motorcycle rally being held this week at a small city along Interstate 90 in western South Dakota. The scene Saturday at the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was familiar...
Can hydroxychloroquine prevent covid-19? Hesitance to participate stunts large study
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For 30 days, Kansas City physician Michael Waxman took a daily dose of hydroxychloroquine. Or maybe, he didn’t. Maybe, those pills were nothing more than a placebo. He won’t know until the end of a national clinical trial investigating whether hydroxychloroquine — the drug that keeps...
Father, son charged in Ahmaud Arbery slaying seeking bond
SAVANNAH, Ga. — The father and son jailed on murder charges in the slaying of Ahmaud Arbery are asking a Georgia judge to grant them bond and to throw out two charges in their indictment. Gregory McMichael and his adult son, Travis McMichael, were jailed in May, more than two...
Students’ college plans change as virus drives changes on campus
When Ethan Wyman graduated from Fox Chapel Area High School a semester early last winter, his plans were pretty much set. The O’Hara Township teen would keep working at Giant Eagle and then head to the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg campus this fall. He and his family liked the...
Pennsylvania reports 813 new coronavirus cases, 16 deaths
Pennsylvania on Saturday reported an additional 813 cases of coronavirus. The state’s total cases is 118,092 since the pandemic began. Of the new cases, 114,755 are confirmed with 3,337 considered probable, according to the state Department of Health. The 16 new reported deaths bring the total attributed to covid-19 to...
Doctors, hospitals launch voter registration efforts
An emergency room doctor in Boston is assembling thousands of voter registration kits for distribution at hospitals and doctor’s offices. Later this month, students at Harvard and Yale’s medical schools are planning a contest to see which of the Ivy League rivals can register the most voters. And a medical...
11 kids in Washington state have been diagnosed with rare coronavirus syndrome
SEATTLE — Since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic, a total of 11 children in Washington state have been hospitalized with a rare but serious syndrome that appears to be triggered by infection with the virus, state health officials said Friday. The state’s first four cases were reported in...
Judge orders release of body camera video from night George Floyd died
MINNEAPOLIS — A Hennepin County judge has ordered the public release of body camera video from the night George Floyd was killed after a challenge by a coalition of local and national media companies, including the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In a ruling issued Friday, Judge Peter Cahill wrote that “Members...
Trump says he might sign order to boost unemployment checks. Can he?
WASHINGTON — Can President Trump quickly issue an executive order and start hundreds of dollars in unemployment payments flowing to millions of Americans again? Maybe, but he’d face significant hurdles. Like the Constitution. Congress, not the president, has the power “to lay and collect taxes” in order “to pay the...
Drug might lessen covid-19-related lung damage
MIAMI — A Miami hospital will be the first in the country to test a possible covid-19 treatment on humans this month. The research center at Westchester General Hospital in Coral Terrace is on its way to enroll patients to test Ifenprodil, a pill developed in the 1970s to treat...
Georgia school district lifts suspensions of 2 students after photos of crowded hallway went viral
ATLANTA — A student suspended this week after posting a now-viral photo of a packed hallway at her school had her punishment lifted Friday, and so did another student. The Paulding County School District made the announcement Friday afternoon, acknowledging the “significant national interest” in what it called “the issue”...
Jerry Falwell Jr. steps away as Liberty University president after his social media post
Jerry Falwell Jr., son of Moral Majority co-founder Jerry Falwell and ardent supporter of President Trump, is taking an “indefinite leave of absence” as president and chancellor of Liberty University days after posting a photo of himself on social media with his gut exposed and his pants unbuttoned. Also appearing...
Joe Arpaio loses sheriff’s race in 2nd failed comeback bid
PHOENIX — Joe Arpaio on Friday was narrowly defeated in his bid to win back the sheriff’s post in metro Phoenix he held for 24 years before being voted out in 2016 amid voter frustrations over his taxpayer-funded legal bills, his penchant for self-promotion and a defiant streak that led...
Prosecutors investigating police who handcuffed Black girls
DENVER — Prosecutors are investigating whether suburban Denver police officers should face criminal charges for putting four Black girls on the ground and handcuffing two of them after mistakenly suspecting they were riding in a stolen car, a district attorney said Friday. The incident Sunday attracted national attention after a...
Canada’s last intact ice shelf collapses due to warming
Much of Canada’s remaining intact ice shelf has broken apart into hulking iceberg islands thanks to a hot summer and global warming, scientists said. Canada’s 4,000-year-old Milne Ice Shelf on the northwestern edge of Ellesmere Island had been the country’s last intact ice shelf until the end of July when...
U.S.: Border tunnel appears to be ‘most sophisticated’
PHOENIX — An incomplete tunnel found stretching from Mexico to Arizona appears to be “the most sophisticated tunnel in U.S. history,” authorities said. The tunnel intended for smuggling ran from a neighborhood in San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico, to San Luis, Arizona, where it stopped short of reaching the surface....
U.S. officials: Russia denigrating Biden ahead of election; China against Trump
WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials believe that Russia is using a variety of measures to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ahead of the November election and that individuals linked to the Kremlin are boosting President Donald Trump’s reelection bid, the country’s counterintelligence chief said Friday. U.S. officials also believe...
Study: Most Minneapolis police stops involved Black drivers
MINNEAPOLIS — Black drivers accounted for nearly 80% of police searches and routine traffic stops in predominantly white Minneapolis, according to a public defender’s study using city policy data. From June 2019 to May 2020, the study found Black and East African drivers were more often searched when pulled over...
Portland protesters cause mayhem again, police officer hurt
PORTLAND, Ore. — A crowd of about 200 people, some wielding homemade shields, clashed with police early Friday in Portland, Oregon for the third consecutive night as two other Black Lives Matter rallies proceeded peacefully elsewhere in the city, authorities said. The demonstration with unrest came hours after the city’s...
Gov. Andrew Cuomo clears New York schools statewide to open, carefully
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York schools can bring children back to classrooms for the start of the school year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday, citing success in battling the coronavirus in the state that once was the U.S. heart of the pandemic. The Democratic governor’s decision clears the way for...
Louisiana man serving life for $30 drug sale set to be freed
ABBEVILLE, La. — Prosecutors in Louisiana have agreed to release a Black veteran serving a life sentence in prison without parole over a $30 marijuana sale, according to his defense attorneys. The decision reached Thursday in Vermilion Parish will allow Derek Harris to be freed after nine years in state...
Pennsylvania adds 758 new covid-19 cases
Pennsylvania added 758 new covid-19 cases Friday, according to the state Department of Health. The new coronavirus cases, which bring the state’s total to 117,279, show a trend where new reported cases have ranged between 700 and 850 each day the past four days. The state reported 15 new deaths...
Southern schools illustrate complications of returning to classrooms amid pandemicVideo
As schools formulate their answers to the question of what the 2020 academic year will look like amid the covid-19 pandemic, reports out of Southern states, particularly Georgia, might add an extra layer of consternation among parents, teachers and school officials. The latest concerns a 7-year-old boy who became the...
