Justices deny fast, new look at Pennsylvania ballot deadline
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would not grant a quick, pre-election review to a new Republican appeal to exclude absentee ballots received after Election Day in the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania, although it remained unclear whether those ballots will ultimately be counted. The court’s order...
Gang member who says he beat up R. Kelly sentenced in deaths
HAMMOND, Ind. — A convicted gang member who said he beat up jailed R&B singer R. Kelly in a Chicago cell in August has been sentenced to life in prison for a racketeering conviction that involved two 1999 murders. A federal judge in Hammond, Ind., sentenced Jeremiah Farmer, 39, on...
Florida man charged with changing governor’s voting address
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis couldn’t initially cast his ballot this week because someone illegally changed his address online, a complication that resulted in a suspect’s arrest on felony charges and raised questions about the security of the state’s online registration system. DeSantis went to an early...
Social media CEOs get earful on bias, warning of new limits
WASHINGTON — With next week’s election looming, the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google received a hectoring from Republicans at a Senate hearing Wednesday for alleged anti-conservative bias in the companies’ social media platforms — and were warned of coming restrictions from Congress. Lawmakers of both parties, citing the companies’...
60 charged in $300M phone scam targeting elderly victims
MINNEAPOLIS — Sixty people have been charged in a widespread magazine telemarketing scam that authorities say netted $300 million from more than 150,000 elderly and vulnerable people nationwide, the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota announced Wednesday. U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald called the scam the largest elder fraud scheme in the...
Justice Department charges 8 in Chinese harassment plot in U.S.Video
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has charged eight people with working on behalf of the Chinese government in a pressure campaign aimed at coercing a New Jersey man who was wanted by Beijing to return to China to face charges, officials said Wednesday. The defendants participated in a Chinese government...
Police: 7 taken to hospitals after Trump Omaha airport rally
OMAHA, Neb. — At least seven people were taken to hospitals after an Omaha airport rally for President Donald Trump that drew thousands, many of whom were left stranded miles from their parked cars in freezing weather. Omaha police said in a written statement that first responders dealt with 30...
Former DHS official says he wrote ‘Anonymous’ Trump critique
WASHINGTON —A former Trump administration official who penned a scathing anti-Trump op-ed and book under the pen name “Anonymous” revealed himself Wednesday as a former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security. The official, Miles Taylor, said in a tweet six days before Election Day that Donald Trump...
Germany, France look to more limits to curb rebounding virus
BERLIN — French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a second lockdown in France from Friday, to try to combat a strong resurgence of the coronavirus. With over 520 deaths recorded Tuesday, the French leader said that a new nationwide lockdown would be the only possible way to successfully fight covid-19....
Breonna Taylor grand jurors: Louisville officers deserved more chargesVideo
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky man who served on the Breonna Taylor grand jury said he felt police actions on the night of her death were “criminal” but grand jurors were not given the chance to explore charges related to her shooting death by officers. Two grand jurors, one a...
Pennsylvanians urged to drop off mail-in ballots in person
HARRISBURG — With six days until Election Day, Pennsylvania’s top elections official on Wednesday urged voters in the presidential battleground state who have a mail-in ballot to drop it off in person rather than mail it. In addition to concerns over Postal Service delays, litigation in front of the U.S....
What is ‘ballot harvesting,’ and who can and can’t deliver your mail ballot in Pa.
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — On...
German officials agree on partial lockdown to curb virus
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel says German officials have agreed to a four-week shutdown of restaurants, bars, cinemas, theaters and other leisure facilities in a bid to curb a sharp rise in coronavirus infections. Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors, who are responsible for imposing and easing restrictions, agreed...
All about Section 230, a rule that made the modern internet
OAKLAND, Calif. — Twenty-six words tucked into a 1996 law overhauling telecommunications have allowed companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google to grow into the giants they are today. Those are the words President Donald Trump’s administration has challenged directly via executive order, one that would strip those protections if online...
Lockdowns, business rollbacks threatened amid surging virus
The alarming surge in coronavirus cases in Europe and the U.S. is wiping out months of progress against the scourge on two continents, prompting new business restrictions, raising the threat of another round of large-scale lockdowns and sending a shudder through financial markets. “We are deep in the second wave,”...
Pennsylvania surpasses 200K coronavirus cases
Pennsylvania surpassed 200,000 coronavirus cases Wednesday with its second straight day of more than 2,000 new cases. The state Department of Health reported 2,228 cases, bringing the state total to 200,674. On Tuesday, the state added a record 2,751 cases. According to The Covid Tracking Project, 12 other states have...
‘We need you’: GOP hunts for new Trump voters in Pennsylvania
SLIPPERY ROCK — President Donald Trump’s campaign has a bold theory for how he will win reelection: It can tap a universe of millions of supporters who did not vote for him in 2016 but will do so this time. Supposedly, these voters are overlooked by polls that show Trump...
QAnon’s ‘Save the Children’ morphs into popular slogan
MORRIS, Ill. — At a busy intersection in this small Illinois town, Lynn Vermillion smiles at passing drivers who honk their support for the colorful posters she and friends wave: “Save Our Children. Save their Children. Save ALL the Children.” As the U.S. presidential campaign heated up in recent months,...
Philadelphia victim’s family sought ambulance, not police
PHILADELPHIA — The family of a Black man killed by Philadelphia police officers in a shooting caught on video had called for an ambulance to get him help with a mental health crisis, not for police intervention, their lawyer said. Police said Walter Wallace Jr., 27, was wielding a knife...
Anxiety 2020: Voters worry about safety at the polls
WASHINGTON — Gary Kauffman says he does not scare easily. So when men waving President Donald Trump flags drive by his house in downtown Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he stands on his front steps and waves a banner for Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. “Sometimes I yell at them. They yell...
Pa. National Guard being sent to Philadelphia in wake of police shooting
The Pennsylvania National Guard is sending several hundred members to support the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management and local agencies, according to a statement from the Guard. State Public Affairs Officer LTC Keith Hickox said the mobilization comes at the direction of Gov. Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management...
Election 2020: What to watch for in the campaign’s final week
The race for the presidency is in the home stretch, with less than a week until Election Day. Pennsylvania figures to play a prominent role in what unfolds over the next week and who ultimately wins the White House. Here are five things to watch: Where will the campaigns go?...
No right to certain service level for mail-in votes, U.S. says
WASHINGTON — Delivery delays during an election can’t be unlawful, because the Constitution doesn’t guarantee states any particular level of service when it comes to mail-in ballots, the U.S. Postal Service told a federal judge. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and President Donald Trump are seeking dismissal of a lawsuit brought...
2 conservative hoaxers charged in Ohio for robocalls
CLEVELAND — Two conservative operatives facing criminal charges in Michigan were indicted in Cleveland on Tuesday for organizing tens of thousands of hoax robocalls — made to predominantly Black Midwestern cities — that falsely warned people information gleaned from their mail-in ballots could lead to their arrest or forced vaccinations....
Coal magnate Robert Murray dies at 80; he long fought regulators
ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — Robert Murray, the board chairman of the largest privately owned U.S. coal operator, who long fought federal regulations to reduce black lung disease, died at his home in Ohio less than a week after announcing his retirement, a lawyer said. Michael Shaheen, an attorney who had...
