Governors stress ‘personal responsibility’ over virus orders
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Earlier this week, as Tennessee registered what then was its highest single-day coronavirus case increase, Gov. Bill Lee held a news conference and issued a stern response. It wasn’t a mandate to wear masks in public or clamp down on businesses or social gatherings. Instead, it was...
Mississippi could drop Jim Crow-era statewide voting process
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi just ditched its Confederate-themed state flag. Later this year, the state’s voters will decide whether to dump a statewide election process that dates to the Jim Crow era. Facing pressure from a lawsuit and the possibility of action from a federal judge, legislators are putting a...
2 women hit by car on Seattle highway closed amid protests
SEATTLE — A 27-year-old man drove a white Jaguar onto a closed freeway in Seattle early Saturday and barreled through a panicked crowd of protesters, critically injuring two women, officials said. Dawit Kelete of Seattle drove the car around vehicles that were blocking Interstate 5 and sped into the crowd...
Violence mars Portland protests, frustrates Black community
PORTLAND, Ore. — Protesters in this liberal, predominantly white city have taken to the streets peacefully every day for more than five weeks to decry police brutality. But violence by smaller groups is dividing the movement and drawing complaints that some white demonstrators are co-opting the moment. As the Portland...
Protesters return to St. Louis area where couple drew guns
ST. LOUIS — Several hundred protesters made a peaceful return trip Friday to the St. Louis mansion owned by a white couple whose armed defense of their home during an earlier demonstration earned them both scorn and support. Protesters marched along the busy public boulevard called Kingshighway, which intersects with...
8-year-old killed, 3 injured in shooting at Alabama mall
HOOVER, Ala. — An 8-year-old boy was killed Friday in a shooting at an Alabama shopping mall that left three other people injured, police said. Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said the child was killed in the afternoon shooting at the Riverchase Galleria. The police chief said a girl and...
Truck driver posts regrets about party a day before dying of coronavirus
LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. — After months of diligently isolating, truck driver Tommy Macias, 51, made one error that cost him his life. He went to a barbecue party with some friends. He didn’t know that someone who had tested positive for COVID-19, but showed no symptoms, also was there. “It...
Union: Colorado officer fired in Elijah McClain photo probe
AURORA, Colo. — A suburban Denver officer has been fired amid an internal investigation into photos showing police near where Elijah McClain was put in a chokehold and later died, a police union said Friday. The Aurora Police Association published the Facebook post shortly before the Police Department is set...
White Michigan couple charged after gun pulled on Black family
A white couple face criminal charges after one of them was captured on video pulling a handgun on a Black woman and her daughters in a restaurant parking lot in Michigan. Jillian Wuestenberg, 32, and Eric Wuestenberg, 42, were arrested after Wednesday night’s confrontation and charged Thursday with felonious assault,...
Wolf’s mask order inflames partisan fight over coronavirus
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf’s more expansive mask order issued this week as the coronavirus shows new signs of life in Pennsylvania and the July Fourth holiday starts has been met with hostility from Republicans objecting to the Democrat’s use of power or even to wearing a mask itself. It...
Amid virus fight, campaign season brings ethical quandaries
BILLINGS, Mont. — Candidates in the November election who already hold office are grappling with a thorny question: where does the coronavirus stop and the campaign begin? In Montana, Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s actions helped keep the state’s infection rate from the COVID-19 pandemic among the lowest in the nation....
New outbreaks push inmate coronavirus cases past 50,000
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The number of prison inmates testing positive for the coronavirus soared well past the 50,000 mark last month, as recent outbreaks threatened to undo control measures put in place earlier in the pandemic. At the end of June, the total number of coronavirus cases among prisoners had...
Iran will not disclose cause of mysterious nuclear site fire
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An online video and messages purportedly claiming responsibility for a fire that analysts say damaged a centrifuge assembly plant at Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear site deepened the mystery Friday around the incident — even as Tehran insisted it knew the cause but would not make...
Pa. reports 34 new covid-19 deaths, 667 new cases
There were 34 new covid-19 deaths and 667 new cases reported in the state by the Pennsylvania Department of Health on Friday. Out of the 667 cases, 177 are from Allegheny County. The statewide total is now 88,741 cases and 6,746 deaths, with 634 patients considered probable cases. Pa. coronavirus...
5 things you might not know about Independence Day
1. July 4th might be the wrong date. According to History.com, the Continental Congress actually voted to declare independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776. And many historians believe none of the Founding Fathers signed the document on July 4. Most didn’t sign until Aug. 2, 1776. July 4...
Complaint: Missing Texas soldier was killed at Fort Hood
AUSTIN, Texas — Federal and military investigators say a soldier missing since April was killed and dismembered by a fellow soldier stationed at the same Texas base. The revelation followed demands for the Army to release details about its investigation of the disappearance. A criminal complaint released Thursday by the...
4th of July weekend will test Americans’ discipline
The U.S. headed into the Fourth of July weekend with many parades and fireworks displays canceled, beaches and bars closed, and health authorities warning that this will be a crucial test of Americans’ self-control that could determine the trajectory of the surging coronavirus outbreak. With confirmed cases climbing in 40...
Putin orders amendments extending his rule, outlawing same-sex marriage into constitution
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered amendments that would allow him to remain in power until 2036 to be put into the Russian Constitution after voters approved the changes during a week-long plebiscite. “The amendments come into force. They come into force, without overstating it, at the people’s...
Trump’s Mount Rushmore trip draws real and figurative fireworks
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — President Donald Trump will begin his Independence Day weekend on Friday with a patriotic display of fireworks at Mount Rushmore, an event expected to draw thousands where masks and social distancing aren’t required as coronavirus cases spike across the country. Trump is expected to speak at...
English pubs are reopening — and they won’t be the same
LONDON — Asking people in English pubs to keep their distance is going to be tough after they’ve had a few of their favorite tipples. Pub managers will have to be resourceful come Saturday when they and other parts of the hospitality industry in England open their doors to customers...
In shake-up, U.K. government plans televised media briefings
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says his government will introduce White House-style televised media briefings, in a shake-up to the traditional system of political communication. For years, political journalists have been briefed off-camera but on the record by the prime minister’s official spokespeople, who are civil servants rather...
4 dead, 97 injured in blast at Turkish fireworks factoryVideo
ANKARA, Turkey — An explosion at a fireworks factory in northwestern Turkey on Friday killed four people and injured 97 others, officials said. At least three people were reported missing. There were 186 workers at the factory outside the town of Hendek, in Sakarya province, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told...
19 dead as train hits bus carrying Sikh pilgrims in Pakistan
LAHORE, Pakistan — A passenger train crashed into a bus carrying Sikh pilgrims at an unmanned railway crossing in eastern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 19 people and injuring several others, officials said. The accident happened in the district of Sheikhupura in Punjab province, Raja Ijaz, an official at...
San Francisco cracks down on archdiocese for violating coronavirus rules
The Archdiocese of San Francisco has agreed to stop celebrating public Mass indoors and to restrict outdoor services after city officials threatened to close churches that were operating in defiance of the city’s public health orders amid the coronavirus outbreak. “The Archdiocese remains steadfast in protecting the health of its...
Richard King Mellon Foundation adds $10 million to its earlier $15 million commitment for covid-19 issues
The Richard King Mellon Foundation plans to add another $10 million to its earlier $15 million covid-19 response grant package, officials announced Thursday. The $25 million total commitment includes a new $2.5 million higher-education initiative, aimed at helping area colleges and universities safely reopen in the fall. “Education always is...
