Arizona covid cases up 3.7%; Phoenix mayor faults federal government on testsVideo
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego is pointing to a “crisis” involving coronavirus testing shortages in her city due to surging cases in Arizona, which leads the U.S. in new coronavirus cases per capita. Gallego, a Democrat, said some residents over the weekend had to line up for eight hours by car...
Trump’s taxes, birth control top Supreme Court’s closing agenda
The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to cap a term like no other with potentially blockbuster decisions covering birth control, religious rights and President Donald Trump’s efforts to keep his financial records private. The justices will tackle their eight remaining cases starting Monday, when they issue opinions in July for...
Fearing outbreak, Spain locks down county of 71,000Video
MADRID — Authorities in northwestern Spain have ordered the lockdown of a county with a population of 71,000 for fears of a coronavirus outbreak. Regional authorities in Galicia announced Sunday that movement to and from A Mariña county located on Spain’s northern Atlantic coast will be prohibited starting at midnight....
U.S. should build up antibody therapy supply, ex-FDA chief says
The United States should be building up reserves of therapeutic antibodies now ahead of any potential approval or emergency use authorization to treat the coronavirus, said the former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “We need a more coordinated national strategy around this,” ex-FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said...
Cleveland officials decry violence as 20 shot, 3 killed
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Authorities in Cleveland are condemning rising gun violence and violent crime as a score of people were shot and three killed over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Police said a 57-year-old man, a 50-year-old man and a 47-year-old man were killed in shootings between 8 p.m....
Pennsylvania counts 479 new covid-19 cases Sunday
The Pennsylvania Department of Health Sunday confirmed an additional 479 positive cases of covid-19, bringing the statewide total to 89,854. Officials said they recorded an increase of four new deaths due to the virus, bringing the total number of deaths statewide to 6,753. Meanwhile, 734,846 Pennsylvanians across the state now...
Kanye West says he’s running for president in 2020
The debate stage could be a little more crowded as President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden may have to make room for musician Kanye West. The rapper posted a message on Twitter Saturday night saying he is joining the race. “We must now realize the...
Trump Cabinet members look to reassure battleground voters
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue tromped through a strawberry festival in central Florida, detailing the government’s new trade pact. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talked about foreign policy at a roundtable in south Florida. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler toured parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, where...
Facebook groups pivot to attacks on Black Lives Matter
CHICAGO — A loose network of Facebook groups that took root across the country in April to organize protests over coronavirus stay-at-home orders has become a hub of misinformation and conspiracies theories that have pivoted to a variety of new targets. Their latest: Black Lives Matter and the nationwide protests...
Sheriff: 2 dead, 8 hurt in South Carolina nightclub shootingVideo
GREENVILLE, S.C. — A shooting at a nightclub early Sunday left two people dead and eight wounded in South Carolina, a sheriff’s official said. Two Greenville County sheriff’s deputies noticed a disturbance at Lavish Lounge just before 2 a.m., and saw a large crowd running out of the building, Sheriff...
1 of 2 protesters hit by car on closed Seattle highway dies
SEATTLE — A car drove onto a closed freeway early Saturday and struck two people in a crowd protesting against police brutality, killing one and critically injuring the other, authorities said. Summer Taylor, 24, of Seattle died in the evening at Harborview Medical Center, spokesperson Susan Gregg said. Taylor and...
For nation’s birthday, Trump lashes out at ‘radical left’
WASHINGTON — On a day meant for unity and celebration, President Trump vowed to “safeguard our values” from enemies within — leftists, looters, agitators, he said — in a Fourth of July speech packed with all the grievances and combativeness of his political rallies. Trump watched paratroopers float to the...
U.S. nuclear envoy to visit South Korea, Japan
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, the Trump administration’s main representative for North Korea, will visit South Korea on Tuesday before heading to Japan, Yonhap reported Saturday, citing unidentified diplomatic sources. Biegun will visit Seoul on Tuesday, where he is likely to meet South Korean counterpart Lee Do-hoon along...
Woman falls to death in Grand Canyon while hiking, park says
An Arizona woman hiking in the Grand Canyon fell to her death Friday afternoon, park officials said. Maria Salgado Lopez, 59, was hiking off-trail and taking photographs along the canyon’s south rim when she accidentally stepped off the edge, according to a news release from the park. Lopez fell about...
Another fired Minneapolis officer charged in Floyd death out of jail
MINNEAPOLIS — A third fired Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s Memorial Day death has been released from jail, according to Hennepin County jail records Tao Thao, 34, posted $750,000 bail and was released from the downtown Minneapolis jail Saturday morning. He had been held on $1 million bail...
Kansas newspaper’s post equates mask mandate with Holocaust
TOPEKA, Kan. — A weekly Kansas newspaper whose publisher is a county Republican Party chairman posted a cartoon on its Facebook page likening the Democratic governor’s order requiring people to wear masks in public to the roundup and murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. The cartoon on the...
Christopher Columbus statue in Waterbury, Conn., beheaded
HARTFORD, Conn. — Someone smashed the head off of the Christopher Columbus statue that has stood in front of Waterbury’s city hall for many years. The decapitated statue was discovered Saturday morning. The Waterbury chapter of UNICO, an Italian American service organization, said on its Facebook page Saturday it would...
Scientists say WHO ignores risk that coronavirus floats in air as aerosol
SEATTLE — Six months into a pandemic that has killed more than half a million people, more than 200 scientists from around the world are challenging the official view of how the coronavirus spreads. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintain you have...
2 killed, 16 wounded in overnight shootings as Fourth of July weekend gets underway in Chicago
CHICAGO — A 34-year-old woman was shot and killed and two others were injured Saturday morning on the 31st Street bridge over Lake Shore Drive, according to Chicago police. The killing was the second to occur on July 4, a notoriously violent holiday in Chicago. From 3 p.m. Friday to...
Toledo officer shot and killed, suspect found dead
TOLEDO, Ohio — An officer who was responding to a call in a store parking lot was shot and killed early Saturday morning by an intoxicated man holding a beer, police said. Toledo Officer Anthony Dia was shot in the chest just after midnight in the parking lot of a...
American Diary: July 4 hurts, until I remember my WWII uncle
RIO RANCHO, N.M. — The July Fourth holiday hurts me every year. Waving flags seems out of place, and wearing anything stars and stripes makes me feel like Apollo Creed in “Rocky.” Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless The U.S.A.” doesn’t invoke patriotism inside of me, and I never take advantage...
U.S. population growth has been driven exclusively by minorities
U.S. racial and ethnic minorities accounted for all of the nation’s population growth during the last decade, according to new Census Bureau estimates. The data underscore the nation’s growing diversity and suggest that the trend will continue as the white population ages and low birth rates translate to a declining...
U.S. holiday weekend adds to virus worries as case counts grow
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida reported a record number of coronavirus cases on Saturday, the latest sign that the virus is surging in many parts of the United States, casting a pall over Fourth of July celebrations. Officials and health authorities warned people to take precautions or simply stay home...
Pennsylvania moving closer to 90,000 coronavirus cases; adds 3 deaths
There were three new covid-19 deaths and 634 new cases reported in the state Saturday by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The statewide total is now 89,375 cases and 6,749 deaths, with 634 patients considered probable cases. Out of the new cases, 150 — or nearly 24% — are from...
As monuments fall, Confederate carving has size on its side
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — Some statues of figures from America’s slave-owning past have been yanked down by protesters, others dismantled by order of governors or city leaders. But the largest Confederate monument ever crafted — colossal figures carved into the solid rock of a Georgia mountainside — may outlast them...
