Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge endorses Joe Biden for president
Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania Republican governor and first secretary of Homeland Security, plans to vote for President Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, he announced Sunday. Ridge, who served in former President George W. Bush’s administration, said it will be his first vote for a Democratic...
How Trump, Biden are preparing for first presidential debate
WASHINGTON — Ahead of the first debate-stage matchup between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, each campaign is promising a stark contrast in policy, personality and preparation. Trump has decided to skip any formal preparation. And while Biden’s team believes the significance of the debate may be...
Biden to Dems: Focus on health care, not court expansion
WILMINGTON, Del. — Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden wants voters to see Republicans’ push for a speedy Supreme Court confirmation as an end-run of Congress and the 2010 health care law. In remarks on Sunday, the former vice president sidestepped any talk of expanding the court to counter conservative gains...
Late night protest in Portland, Oregon, declared unlawful
PORTLAND — Several people in Portland, Oregon, were arrested in anti-police brutality protests that continued into early Sunday, hours after demonstrations ended with few reports of violence. The protests that began Saturday night were declared an unlawful assembly and police began forcing demonstrators out after objects were thrown at officers,...
Lockdowns are fading, but GOP outrage isn’t in campaigns
AUSTIN, Texas — When the coronavirus pandemic slammed the U.S. economy this spring, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther became an overnight symbol of rebellion against lockdown measures, spending two days in a Texas jail for refusing to close her doors. Nearly $500,000 poured into a donation fund set up by...
Military suicides up as much as 20% in covid era
WASHINGTON (AP) — Military suicides have increased by as much as 20% this year compared to the same period in 2019, and some incidents of violent behavior have spiked as service members struggle under covid-19, war-zone deployments, national disasters and civil unrest. While the data is incomplete and causes of...
Breonna Taylor protests continue as Louisville under curfew
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Police maintained barricades and plans for a nighttime curfew as Louisville prepared Saturday for a fourth night of protests after a grand jury declined to charge the officers who shot Breonna Taylor. Early Saturday evening, some protesters were gathering at a downtown park, known as “Injustice Square,”...
‘I didn’t mean to do it,’ suspect charged in 1974 Texas killing says in interviewVideo
FORT WORTH, Texas — The suspect in a 1974 Fort Worth strangling who was arrested this week said in a radio station interview that he did not kidnap the teenage victim more than four decades ago, but rather saved her from a boyfriend’s assault. Glen McCurley, who was arrested Monday...
About 200 people gather in Portland for right-wing rally
PORTLAND, Ore. — Police arrested three people at a right-wing rally Saturday afternoon in Portland, Oregon, and authorities say they’re also investigating an assault after one person who was documenting the event was pushed to the ground and kicked in the face. Several hundred people, dozens of them wearing militarized...
If Barrett joins, Supreme Court would have six Catholics
Roman Catholics account for a bit more than 20% of the U.S. population, yet they are on track to hold six of the Supreme Court’s nine seats now that President Donald Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill its vacancy. It’s a striking development given that the high court,...
How Amy Coney Barrett rose from law professor to high court in 4 years
WASHINGTON — Four years ago, Amy Coney Barrett was a little-known law professor in Indiana. Within weeks, she is likely to be the newest associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Barrett’s fast-track rise, set to drive the nation’s highest court to the right for a generation or longer, is...
Trump picks conservative Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Saturday, capping a dramatic reshaping of the federal judiciary that will resonate for a generation and that he hopes will provide a needed boost to his reelection effort. Republican senators are already lining up for...
Dozens in body armor arrive in Portland for right-wing rally
PORTLAND, Ore. — Dozens of people wearing militarized body armor are arriving early for a right-wing rally Saturday in Portland, Oregon that is expected to attract thousands who support President Donald Trump and his “law and order” reelection campaign as tensions boil over nationwide following the decision not to charge...
Amy Coney Barrett, high court pick, is Scalia’s heir
CHICAGO — Although Amy Coney Barrett is the president’s choice to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she is more aptly described as heir to another departed Supreme Court justice: conservative hero Antonin Scalia. Like Scalia, for whom she once clerked, she is a committed Roman Catholic as well as a...
Pennsylvania posts 1,000-plus new covid-19 cases, third highest this month
Pennsylvania has 1,029 new coronavirus cases Saturday, according to the state Department of Health. In addition, 22 new deaths were reported. The new cases and deaths bring their totals to 155,232 and 8,103, respectively. The positivity rate for new cases is 6.8% from 14,924 tests. Saturday’s new cases represent the...
Tiny airborne particles may pose a big coronavirus problem
NEW YORK — At a University of Maryland lab, people infected with the new coronavirus take turns sitting in a chair and putting their faces into the big end of a large cone. They recite the alphabet and sing or just sit quietly for a half hour. Sometimes they cough....
Trump shifts focus to Pennsylvania to shore up reelection
HARRISBURG — President Donald Trump’s campaign has grown increasingly focused on making inroads in Pennsylvania to offset potential vulnerabilities in other battlegrounds. The president will travel to the state for the second time in a week on Saturday, hoping to attract the same rural and white working-class voters who delivered...
Kentucky lawmaker arrested during protests in Taylor case
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky lawmaker who spent a night in jail after her arrest during protests demanding justice for Breonna Taylor said Friday that she’ll redouble her push for criminal justice reforms. State Rep. Attica Scott was arrested and charged Thursday evening with first-degree rioting, a felony, and two...
NYPD should stop making traffic stops, attorney general says
NEW YORK — New York’s attorney general on Friday recommended the New York Police Department get out of the business of routine traffic enforcement, a radical change she said would prevent encounters like one last year in the Bronx that escalated quickly and ended with an officer fatally shooting a...
Family demands release of evidence in Breonna Taylor’s case
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Breonna Taylor’s family demanded Friday that Kentucky authorities release all body camera footage, police files and the transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that led to no charges being brought against police officers who killed the Black woman during a raid at her apartment. The decision disappointed...
Trooper quietly buried amid scrutiny over Black man’s death
WEST MONROE, La. — A Louisiana state trooper who died in a single-car crash just hours after he was told he would be fired for his role in the death of a Black man was buried with honors Friday at a ceremony that authorities sought to keep secret out of...
Trump hits battleground states to court key voters
ATLANTA, Ga. — With fewer than 40 days left before the election, President Donald Trump unveiled his second policy plan in as many days as he tries to chip away at his Democratic rival’s support among Black and Hispanic voters and in key battleground states. At a “Black Voices for...
Virus cases rise in U.S. heartland, home to anti-mask feelings
MISSION, Kan. — It began with devastation in the New York City area, followed by a summertime crisis in the Sun Belt. Now the coronavirus outbreak is heating up fast in smaller cities in the heartland, often in conservative corners of America where anti-mask sentiment runs high. Elsewhere around the...
Probe into ‘discarded’ ballots in Pa. becomes campaign outrage fuel
HARRISBURG — The news release from a U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania was provocative: Nine mailed-in military ballots had been “discarded” by the local election office in a swing county of one of the most important presidential battleground states. All of them were marked for President Donald Trump, it said. Then...
Gov. Wolf blasts Trump campaign rallies as public health threat
A day ahead of President Trump’s scheduled campaign rally at Harrisburg International Airport, Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday blasted the president for disregarding public health advisories on masking and social distancing at a series of rallies across Pennsylvania over the past month. Trump, who held rallies that attracted thousands of...
