White House Halloween event Sunday tweaked for coronavirus
WASHINGTON — Ghosts, goblins and other costumed kids are welcome to trick or treat at the White House on Sunday during a Halloween event that has been reworked to include coronavirus precautions. The gates to the South Lawn will be opened to children from military families, frontline workers and others,...
Trump, Biden lawyer up, brace for White House legal battle
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden’s campaigns are assembling armies of powerful lawyers for the possibility that the race for the White House is decided not at the ballot box but in court. They have been engaging in a lawyer’s version of tabletop war games, churning...
Census takers fall short of target goal in areas of U.S.
ORLANDO, Fla. — From tribal lands in Arizona and New Mexico to storm-battered Louisiana, census workers who go door to door were unable to reach all the households they needed for a complete tally of the U.S. population, a count that ended abruptly last week after a Supreme Court ruling....
Man arrested in 1976 slaying in South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A man has been charged with rape and murder in the slaying of a South Carolina woman who was killed more than 40 years ago after DNA evidence linked him to the case, authorities said. Charles Ugvine Coleman, 65, was arrested Thursday and jailed in Fairfield County...
Dutch hospital airlifts patients to Germany amid virus surge
ALMERE, Netherlands — A bright yellow helicopter rose into a blue sky Friday carrying a covid-19 patient from the Netherlands to a German intensive care unit, the first such international airlift since the global pandemic first threatened to swamp Dutch hospitals in the spring. The clatter of the helicopter’s rotors...
Trump, Biden debate marked by clashes, but less chaos
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After the first presidential debate was panned so widely that organizers introduced a mute button, Thursday’s second and final debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden was far more civil. Whether because of that button or the terrible reviews — especially for Trump —...
Debate Takeaways: Trump gets personal, Biden hits on virus
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden met for the second and last time on a debate stage Thursday after a previously scheduled town hall debate was scrapped after the Republican incumbent became one of the millions of Americans to contract coronavirus. For Trump, the matchup at...
Georgia teen pleads guilty in plot to kill worshippers at Black church
ATLANTA — A teenage girl who plotted to kill members of a predominantly Black church in Gainesville pleaded guilty Thursday afternoon and apologized for her actions. Caitlyn Pye, now 17, was arrested last fall after authorities foiled her plan to attack worshippers at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. She entered...
2nd group of judges blocks Trump order on House seats count
For the second time in two months, a panel of federal judges on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to exclude people in the U.S. illegally from being counted during the process of divvying up congressional seats by state. The decision from a panel of three district judges in California...
Another body found in search for Tulsa race massacre victims
OKLAHOMA CITY — The search for remains of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims on Thursday revealed another body in an unmarked mass grave at a Tulsa cemetery before coming to an end, Oklahoma’s state archaeologist said. “We are now able to confirm that we have at least 11 individual...
Illinois governor orders police patrols amid COVID spikes
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday that Illinois State Police will start patrolling bars and restaurants in regions of the state where coronavirus numbers are surging, and establishments that disregard his new restrictions could face sanctions including the loss of their liquor or gambling licenses. On another record-setting...
2nd Breonna Taylor grand juror criticizes proceedings
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A second person who served on the Breonna Taylor grand jury is criticizing Kentucky’s attorney general for the way the proceedings were conducted. The anonymous statement released Thursday reiterated another grand juror’s earlier publicized complaint that the panel was only able to consider endangerment charges against one...
Epstein ex Maxwell denied getting Prince Andrew sex partners
NEW YORK — Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend denied introducing Britain’s Prince Andrew to underage sex partners in a defensive and combative deposition made public Thursday, calling the prince’s accuser an “awful fantasist.” “Are we tallying all the lies?” Ghislaine Maxwell asked during the 2016 deposition, saying she could not recall taking...
FDA approves first covid-19 drug: antiviral remdesivir
U.S. regulators on Thursday approved the first drug to treat covid-19: remdesivir, an antiviral medicine given through an IV for patients needing hospitalization. The drug, which California-based Gilead Sciences Inc. is calling Veklury, cut the time to recovery by five days — from 15 days to 10 on average —...
Colorado wildfires drag on later than normal, break records
Orange skies, winds gusting up to 70 mph, smoke tornadoes and hazardous air. While it could be an apocalyptic scene out of a movie, it’s become the reality of Colorado’s wildfire season. The blazes have burned the second-most acreage since 2000 and included the state’s two largest on record. One...
Gov. Wolf wants to waive liquor license fees for bars, restaurants as pandemic reliefVideo
Gov. Tom Wolf has asked the state Liquor Control Board to waive all licensing fees for bars, restaurants, clubs and hotels next year in an effort to bring some financial relief to an industry slammed by the covid-19 pandemic. “This disease thrives when people get together, and it hits at...
French PM says 2nd virus wave is here, vastly extends curfew
French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Thursday a vast extension of the nightly curfew that is intended to curb the spiraling spread of the coronavirus, saying “the second wave is here.” The curfew imposed in eight regions of France last week, including Paris and its suburbs, is being extended...
Self-driving shuttle debuts in high-traffic Virginia spot
MERRIFIELD, Va. — The future of transportation arrived in northern Virginia, looking like a big blue toaster on wheels that seats six and drives itself through the region’s notorious traffic. State and local officials debuted the Relay system Thursday, an all-electric, autonomous vehicle that will provide free shuttle rides back...
Trump posts unedited ’60 Minutes’ interview before it airs
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump posted full, unedited interviews that he and Vice President Mike Pence did with “60 Minutes” on Facebook on Thursday before the show’s scheduled broadcast this weekend. The footage shows Trump growing increasingly agitated as interviewer Lesley Stahl presses him on his response to the...
New lawsuit targets Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballot deadline
HARRISBURG — A new lawsuit filed Thursday is challenging Pennsylvania’s court-ordered deadline to count mail-in ballots that are received up to three days after the Nov. 3 election in the presidential battleground state. Plaintiffs include a Republican congressional candidate and four registered voters from Somerset County. The lawsuit comes 12...
Pennsylvania reports over 2,000 new coronavirus cases
With 2,063 new cases, Pennsylvania on Thursday reported its highest number of single-day cases of coronavirus since the pandemic started in March. The state also reported 30 new deaths attributed to the coronavirus. The new cases bring the total number of cases in Pennsylvania to 188,360. October has seen all...
Trucker who drove through George Floyd protesters is charged
MINNEAPOLIS — A truck driver who drove into a large crowd of protesters on a bridge in Minneapolis following the killing of George Floyd was charged Thursday with two criminal counts. Hennepin County prosecutors charged Bogdan Vechirko, of Otsego, with making threats of violence, a felony, and criminal vehicular operation,...
GOP to high court: Move up North Carolina absentee deadline
RALEIGH, N.C. — Republican officials have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to move up North Carolina’s recently extended deadline for accepting late-arriving absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day. State Republican legislative leaders filed an appeal on Thursday. The North Carolina State Board of Elections had announced in late September that...
Judge dismisses 1 charge against former cop in George Floyd’s death
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota judge has dismissed a third-degree murder charge filed against the former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee against George Floyd’s neck, but the more serious second-degree murder charge remains. Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill’s ruling was dated Wednesday and made public Thursday. Cahill said...
Power cut in parts of Northern California to prevent fires
SAN FRANCISCO — Power was shut off in wind-prone parts of Northern California on Thursday to prevent sparking wires from igniting new wildfires during a new round of gusty, dry weather. Pacific Gas & Electric’s online map of public safety power shutoffs showed outages in the northern Sacramento Valley, northern...
