Justice Thomas’ wife Ginni boosts unsupported claims against Biden
WASHINGTON — The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is using her Facebook page to amplify unsubstantiated claims of corruption by Joe Biden. Ginni Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, asked her more than 10,000 followers Monday to consider sharing a link focused on alleged corruption by the Democratic nominee...
Judge stops Election Day gun ban near Michigan polling sites
DETROIT — A judge on Tuesday blocked a ban on the open display of guns near Michigan polling places on Election Day, agreeing with critics who said a Democratic secretary of state failed to follow state law with her sudden order. Gun-rights groups accused Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson of...
Medicare finalizing coverage policy for coronavirus vaccine
WASHINGTON — Medicare will cover the yet-to-be approved coronavirus vaccine free for older people under a policy change expected to be announced shortly, a senior Trump administration official said Tuesday. The coming announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services aims to align the time-consuming process for securing Medicare...
Still hampered by coronavirus, U.S. casinos want recovery aid
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The U.S. casino industry is seeking tax and regulatory relief from the government as it tries to recover from the coronavirus outbreak, which cost states more than $2 billion in lost tax revenue while casinos were shut down for four months this year. While 90% of...
NXIVM guru gets 120 years in prison in sex-slaves case
NEW YORK — Disgraced self-improvement guru Keith Raniere, whose NXIVM followers included millionaires and Hollywood actors, was sentenced to 120 years on Tuesday for turning some adherents into sex slaves branded with his initials and sexually abusing a 15-year-old. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis called Raniere “ruthless and unyielding” in...
Social media CEOs to face grilling from Republican senatorsVideo
WASHINGTON — Less than a week before Election Day, the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google are set to face a grilling by Republican senators who accuse the tech giants of anti-conservative bias. Democrats are trying to expand the discussion to include other issues such as the companies’ heavy impact...
Texas National Guard to send up to 1,000 troops to major cities for support after electionVideo
DALLAS — The Texas National Guard plans to send up to 1,000 troops to five cities to support local law enforcement and the Texas Department of Public Safety after the Nov. 3 election, the San Antonio Express-News reported. The troops could be sent as early as this weekend, the outlet...
Wife trapped in back of husband’s Miami cop car died of accidental heat stroke, autopsy says
The woman who got trapped in the back of her husband’s Miami Police SUV died of heat stroke, the county medical examiner’s office investigation has ruled. Clara Paulino’s death was also deemed an accident. The 56-year-old woman died on the afternoon of Aug. 21 after she climbed into the back...
Philadelphia shooting victim’s family: We sought ambulance, not policeVideo
PHILADELPHIA — The family of a Black man killed when Philadelphia police officers fired a dozen rounds 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 Tuesday. Additionally, Walter Wallace’s wife is...
4 dead, 15 rescued in English Channel migrant boat sinking
At least four people, including two young children, died Tuesday when a boat carrying at least 19 migrants capsized off France while trying to cross the English Channel to Britain, French authorities said. Fifteen migrants have been saved so far and rescue and search operations were still under way, according...
At least 11 shot dead ahead of Tanzania’s presidential vote
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania — Police in Tanzania shot dead at least nine citizens amid unrest over alleged fraud ahead of the presidential election, a major opposition party asserted Tuesday, while officials denied it and one of Africa’s most populous countries watched internet service slow to a crawl ahead of Wednesday’s vote....
Black women see Trump as an existential threat: ‘This election is to save our lives’
PHILADELPHIA — Sherrelle Pritchette has always been a loyal Democrat. But this year, she said, the election feels like life or death. Because death is something her North Philadelphia family has experienced a lot of in 2020. In late March, Pritchette’s mother and sister, who lived together, started to feel...
Barrett sworn in at Supreme Court; Luzerne County asks for her recusal from Pa. case
WASHINGTON — Amy Coney Barrett was formally sworn in Tuesday as the Supreme Court’s ninth justice, her oath administered in private by Chief Justice John Roberts. Her first votes on the court could include two big topics affecting the man who appointed her. The court is weighing a plea from...
Health panel proposes colon cancer tests start at 45, not 50Video
A panel of health experts wants U.S. adults to start getting colon cancer screenings at age 45, five years younger than it previously recommended. While overall, colon cancer rates have been declining, the draft guidelines issued Tuesday by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force reflect a growing concern about rising...
‘We’re working on it:’ Pope’s covid advisers and the mask
ROME — Pope Francis’ decision to forgo wearing a mask has been noticed, with some concern, by the commission of Vatican experts he appointed to help chart the Catholic Church’s path through the coronavirus pandemic and the aftermath. The Rev. Augusto Zampini, one of the key members of the pope’s...
Here’s what you need to know about the Libertarian candidate for president
Could a psychology lecturer at Clemson University cost Donald Trump the presidency? Possibly, according to Joseph DiSarro, chairman of the political science department at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington County. Jo Jorgensen is the Libertarian Party candidate for president. She won’t win, but for those who won’t hold their...
Pennsylvania sets record for largest daily increase of new covid-19 cases
Pennsylvania reported 2,751 new covid-19 cases Tuesday, per the state Department of Health. New coronavirus cases in the state represent the largest daily increase to date, according to the state. The coronavirus death toll in Pennsylvania continued to grow as 23 new deaths were reported. All 23 deaths reported Tuesday...
Trump trade policy: 4 years of high drama, limited results
President Donald Trump spent four years upending seven decades of American trade policy. In what became his defining economic act, Trump launched a trade war with China. On another front, he taxed the steel and aluminum of U.S. allies. And he terrified America’s own corporations by threatening to wreck $1.4...
Judge: U.S. can’t replace Trump in accuser’s defamation suit
NEW YORK — A federal judge on Tuesday denied President Donald Trump’s request that the United States replace him as the defendant in a defamation lawsuit alleging he raped a woman in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. The decision by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan came after...
Chorus of artists tell Trump to stop using their music
From the beloved opening lines of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” to the rousing, children’s-choir conclusion of the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies have been filled with classic songs whose authors and their heirs loudly reject him and his politics. It’s become a...
More than 3 million in Pennsylvania apply for mail-in ballots
HARRISBURG — A week ahead of the Nov. 3 election, applications in the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania for mail-in or absentee ballots exceeded 3 million, with Tuesday the last day to request one and legal wrangling creating uncertainty over the deadline to receive them. State data shows that, of...
Bomb at seminary in Pakistan kills 8 students, wounds 136
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A powerful bomb blast ripped through an Islamic seminary on the outskirts of the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday morning, killing at least eight students and wounding 136 others, police and a hospital spokesman said. The bombing happened as a prominent religious scholar during a...
Biden goes on offense in Georgia while Trump targets Midwest
WASHINGTON — One week until Election Day, Joe Biden is going on offense, heading Tuesday to Georgia — which hasn’t backed a Democrat for president since 1992 — and pushing into other territory where President Donald Trump was once expected to easily repeat his wins from four years ago. The...
Worst place, worst time: Trump faces coronavirus spike in Midwest
OSHKOSH, Wis. — Gabe Loiacono is the kind of voter President Donald Trump can ill afford to lose. He lives in a pivotal county of a swing state that is among a handful that will decide the presidency. A college history professor who last cast a ballot for a Democrat...
Gulf Coast braces, again, for hurricane as Zeta takes aimVideo
NEW ORLEANS — Residents of the storm-pummeled Gulf Coast steeled themselves for yet another tropical weather strike Tuesday as Tropical Storm Zeta took aim at southeast Louisiana, fraying the nerves of evacuees from earlier storms and raising concerns in New Orleans about the low-lying city’s antiquated drainage pump system. Zeta,...
