Safety board: Lack of oversight blamed for deadly California boat fire
LOS ANGELES — The lack of oversight by a Southern California boat owner led to a fire that killed 34 people on a 2019 scuba diving excursion, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled Tuesday. The predawn fire aboard the Conception is one of California’s deadliest maritime disasters, prompting criminal and...
Bill Cosby, now 83, grins in newly released prison mug shot
A newly released prison mug shot shows Bill Cosby smiling with a disposable mask hanging off his face. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections recently updated Cosby’s mug shot, something routinely done to document changes to inmates’ appearance as they age. Cosby’s new photo was taken Sept. 4. Cosby, 83, was...
Grand juror speaks after judge ruling in Breonna Taylor case
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A grand juror who won a court fight to speak publicly about the Breonna Taylor investigation took issue Tuesday with statements by Kentucky’s attorney general and said the jury was not given the option to consider charges connected to Taylor’s shooting death by police. The anonymous grand...
Police: Houston officer killed in shooting, another wounded
HOUSTON — A Houston police officer was killed and a teenager and another officer were wounded Tuesday morning when a man opened fire on law enforcement responding to a domestic disturbance call, authorities said. Police Chief Art Acevedo said officers arrived at the apartment in southwest Houston around 8 a.m....
Minneapolis police deputy demoted over ‘white boys’ comment
MINNEAPOLIS — A high-ranking deputy to the Minneapolis’ police chief said he was demoted after he was quoted in a newspaper story referring to white officers as “white boys,” which led to a backlash within the department. Art Knight, who is Black and who was Police Chief Medaria Arradondo’s chief...
How Trump plowed through $1 billion, losing cash advantage
President Donald Trump’s sprawling political operation has raised well over $1 billion since he took the White House in 2017 — and set a lot of it on fire. Trump bought a $10 million Super Bowl ad when he didn’t yet have a challenger. He tapped his political organization to...
Melania Trump nixes campaign trip due to cough from covid
WASHINGTON — Melania Trump’s return to the campaign trail will have to wait. The first lady has decided against accompanying President Donald Trump to a campaign rally Tuesday in Erie because of a lingering cough after her bout with covid-19, said Stephanie Grisham, her chief of staff. It was to...
U.S. spacecraft diving to asteroid for rare rubble grab
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA spacecraft descended Tuesday toward the surface of an asteroid 200 million miles away to collect a handful of rubble for return to Earth. The Osiris-Rex spacecraft dropped out of orbit around asteroid Bennu right on time, beginning a 4 1/2-hour plunge to the rough,...
Photo altered to Ice Cube, 50 Cent in ‘Trump 2020’ hats
An altered photo of rappers Ice Cube and 50 Cent in hats that appear to show support for President Donald Trump circulated widely on social media Tuesday, fueled in part by a tweet by Eric Trump. “Two great, courageous Americans,” Trump’s son tweeted. He removed the tweet with a photo...
Missouri capital to remove disputed Confederate general marker
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The City Council in Missouri’s capital city has approved removing a Civil War marker dedicated to a Confederate general amid a dispute about the accuracy of its description. Jefferson City Council members voted 8-2 Monday to remove the marker dedicated to Confederate Gen. Sterling Price. The...
First covid-19 positive cat reported in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania on Tuesday reported its first incident involving a cat contracting covid-19. State Veterinarian Dr. Kevin Brightbill announced Pennsylvania’s first confirmed covid-19 positive cat in a joint release from the state Departments of Agriculture and Health. The 16-year-old Cumberland County cat lived in a home with multiple people who had...
Pa. Supreme Court hears arguments on statute of limitations in priest sex abuse cases
Renee Rice said she was abused by a priest in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese from the mid-1970s until 1980. She filed a complaint with the diocese in 2006 and received a letter from them in July of that year inviting her to participate in an ongoing investigation. Rice declined because she...
Edgar Allan Poe’s letter pleading for $40 from a Philadelphia editor sells 173 years later for $125,000
Once upon a year so dreary, while Poe lay dead and the living weary Appeared a quaint and curious letter of forgotten lore. In the middle of a pandemic and a vote, suddenly there came a note Of a long ago anecdote, between Poe and a Philadelphia man of yore....
Pennsylvania reports 1,557 new covid-19 cases, 33 additional deaths
Pennsylvania reported 1,557 new covid-19 cases Tuesday, according to the state Department of Health. In addition, 33 new coronavirus-related deaths were reported, the second-most reported in October. All of the reported new deaths are from October. Total cases and total deaths in the state now stand at 184,872 and 8,533,...
Pa. justices review priest abuse lawsuit’s ruling on time limits
Pennsylvania’s highest court on Tuesday grappled with whether a woman’s lawsuit on claims of sexual abuse by a priest decades ago should be allowed to proceed — a lower-court ruling that has launched many other lawsuits since it was issued a year ago. In oral argument, the justices focused questions...
French mosque shut over message linked to teacher beheading
A mosque in a Paris suburb is being closed for six months starting Wednesday night on orders from France’s interior minister in a crackdown following the beheading last week of a teacher. A sign posted by the regional prefecture at the entrance of the Pantin mosque, northeast of Paris, said...
Republicans see bright spot in 2020 voter registration push
The Republican Party has cut into Democrats’ advantage in voter registration tallies across some critical presidential battleground states, a fact they point to as evidence of steady — and overlooked — enthusiasm for President Donald Trump and his party. Even though Trump trails in national polls and struggles with fundraising...
UK to infect healthy volunteers in vaccine research trial
U.K. researchers are preparing to infect healthy young volunteers with the virus that causes covid-19, becoming the first scientists to use the controversial technique to study the disease and potentially speed up development of a vaccine that could help end the pandemic. This type of research, known as a human...
Trump says Fauci is ‘terrific guy’ but not ‘team player’
WASHINGTON — A day after claiming that the American people are tired of listening to Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that he gets along with the nation’s top infectious disease specialist while also complaining the doctor who has clashed with him at times over the coronavirus is...
Innocent bystander killed by stray bullet in Pennsylvania
CHESTER — Police in an eastern Pennsylvania city on Tuesday were seeking a suspect after an innocent bystander was struck and killed by a stray bullet. Gunfire erupted as Diana Davis, 62, was driving on 9th Street and Central Avenue on Monday afternoon. Bullets struck her vehicle and Davis was...
U.K. sets deadline for Manchester to accept virus restrictions
LONDON — The British government has given the city of Manchester a noon Tuesday deadline to agree to tighter coronavirus measures, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson struggles to impose his plan for localized restrictions on restive regions. Johnson’s government is resisting a recommendation from its scientific advisors to have a...
Danish submarine killer recaptured after attempted prison escape
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A Danish man convicted of torturing and murdering a Swedish journalist on his homemade submarine escaped the suburban Copenhagen jail where he is serving a life sentence but was recaptured nearby Tuesday. The Ekstra Bladet tabloid posted a video of Peter Madsen sitting in the grass with...
Chinese drugmaker setting up vaccine production lines
BEIJING — A state-owned Chinese drugmaker is setting up production lines to supply 1 billion doses of two possible coronavirus vaccines that are being tested on 50,000 people in 10 countries, the company chairman said Tuesday. Testing by SinoPharm Group is “in the last kilometer of a long march,” chairman...
More than 1,300 inmates escape from prison in eastern Congo
BENI, Congo — More than 1,300 inmates have escaped from the central prison of Beni in eastern Congo after an attack by rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces, the town’s mayor said Tuesday. Mayor Modeste Bakwanamaha told the Associated Press that one inmate had died in the attack on Kangbayi...
Presidential debate commission adopts new rules to mute micsVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden will have their microphones turned off during parts of the final presidential debate on Thursday, the Commission on Presidential Debates said Monday night. Each candidate will have an uninterrupted two minutes to speak at the beginning of each of the...
