‘A pressure cooker’: Gov. Wolf aims to contain GOP revolt in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — By many accounts, Gov. Tom Wolf has helped mitigate Pennsylvania’s coronavirus outbreak and avoided the full-blown disasters seen elsewhere. His success in the next challenge — containing the growing resistance to his efforts — is to be determined. The Democrat at the helm in one of the premier...
Trump, GOP launch broad attack on Russia probe foundations
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Republicans are launching a broad election-year attack on the foundation of the Russia investigation, including declassifying intelligence information to try to place senior Obama administration officials under scrutiny for routine actions. The effort has been aided by a Justice Department decision to dismiss its...
FBI serves warrant on North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr in stock investigation
WASHINGTON — Federal agents seized a cellphone belonging to a prominent Republican senator on Wednesday night as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into controversial stock trades he made as the coronavirus first struck the United States, a law enforcement official said. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, chairman of...
911 call, text hint at confrontation days before Ahmaud Arbery shot
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Days before Ahmaud Arbery was pursued by two white men and fatally shot after being spotted inside a home under construction, neighbors — including one of the suspects — reported an earlier encounter with a person wandering through the open-framed structure. Owner Larry English found nothing stolen...
Ex-judge asked to evaluate whether to hold Michael Flynn in contempt
WASHINGTON — The judge presiding over Michael Flynn’s criminal case appointed a retired jurist on Wednesday to evaluate whether the former Trump administration national security adviser should be held in criminal contempt. The judge’s order is the second signal in as many days registering his resistance to swiftly accepting the...
Milwaukee officer charged with homicide in off-duty fight
MILWAUKEE — Prosecutors charged a Milwaukee police officer Wednesday with first-degree reckless homicide, accusing him of fatally choking a man during a fight at the off-duty officer’s home. Michael Mattioli, 32, was charged Wednesday, more than two weeks after 25-year-old Joel Acevedo died of asphyxiation. Police were called April 19...
Wisconsin high court tosses out governor’s stay-home order
MADISON — The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers’ coronavirus stay-at-home order Wednesday, ruling that his administration overstepped its authority when it extended the mandate for another month without consulting legislators. The 4-3 ruling essentially reopens the state, lifting caps on the size of gatherings, allowing people to...
Trump presses for schools to reopen, makes dig at Dr. FauciVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump called on governors across the nation Wednesday to work to reopen schools in their states, pointedly taking issue with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s caution against moving too quickly in sending students back to class. The president accused Fauci of wanting “to play all sides of the...
Test used by White House still misses many covid-19 cases, NYU study says
The coronavirus test from Abbott Laboratories used at the White House to get rapid answers to whether someone is infected may miss as many as half of positive cases, according to a report from New York University. The analysis, which has yet to be confirmed, found that Abbott’s ID NOW...
Online group plans Harrisburg protest over continued covid closures
A private Facebook group that has gained more than 90,000 members in the past month is planning a protest Friday in Harrisburg against Pennsylvania’s quarantine measures to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. ReOpen PA, described as a non-partisan group “for residents of Pennsylvania to organize and work towards...
Republican Mike Garcia claims victory in special California House vote
LOS ANGELES — A former Navy combat pilot claimed victory Wednesday in the fight for an open U.S. House seat north of Los Angeles, a win that would mark the first time in over two decades that a Republican captured a Democratic-held congressional district in California. “I’m ready to go...
Michigan strikes back by suspending elderly barber’s license
DETROIT — State regulators on Wednesday suspended the license of a 77-year-old Michigan barber who insisted on cutting hair despite an order to stay closed during the coronavirus pandemic. Karl Manke has pledged to keep his shop open “until Jesus comes.” A judge declined the state’s request to shut down...
McKeesport woman remembered as extraordinary teacher, friend of community
No one was surprised when Jamie Brewster Filotei came back to McKeesport after college, first earning a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s. Friends say the woman who attended Mansfield University of Pennsylvania on a basketball scholarship could have gone anywhere, but her roots were in McKeesport. And the city...
Los Angeles County reopens beaches closed by coronavirus concerns
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County reopened its beaches Wednesday in the latest cautious easing of coronavirus restrictions that have closed most California public spaces and businesses for nearly two months. County beaches and many city-owned beaches along the 75 miles of coastline are open only for “active recreation” such...
Native American tribe says sovereignty allows checkpoints in South DakotaVideo
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The head of a Native American tribe said Wednesday it won’t comply with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s demand to remove coronavirus checkpoints it set up on federal and state highways that run through its reservation. Harold Frazier, the chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe,...
Judge sets deadline for abuse claims vs. Harrisburg diocese
HARRISBURG — A federal judge is giving most claimants until Nov. 13 to seek compensation over child sexual abuse from the Harrisburg Roman Catholic Diocese, which sought bankruptcy protection earlier this year. The order signed last week by Chief Bankruptcy Judge Henry Van Eck also gave governmental entities until Dec....
Louisville mayor calls for thorough probe of police shooting of Breonna TaylorVideo
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Calls for an outside investigation into the fatal police shooting of a Kentucky emergency medical technician are growing, two months after the 26-year-old black woman was killed in her home. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday evening that the state’s attorney general and U.S. attorney should review...
Trump ramps up expulsions of migrant youth, citing coronavirus
HOUSTON — The young migrants and asylum seekers swim across the Rio Grande and clamber into the dense brush of Texas. Many are teens who left Central America on their own; others were sent along by parents from refugee camps in Mexico. They are as young as 10. Under U.S....
Whistleblower: U.S. could face coronavirus rebound ‘darkest winter’
WASHINGTON — America faces the “darkest winter in modern history” unless leaders act decisively to prevent a rebound of the coronavirus, says a government whistleblower who alleges he was ousted from his job for warning the Trump administration to prepare for the pandemic. Immunologist Dr. Rick Bright makes his sobering...
Many Florida residents dying at home because they are afraid to go to a hospital, reports showVideo
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — New numbers from Fort Lauderdale Fire and Rescue and Broward County Fire and Rescue confirm what many have suspected: More people are afraid to go to the hospital and, as a result, are dying at home. Reports released this week from the two fire and rescue...
Florida teen learning to park truck runs over dad, killing him
TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. — A Florida teenager accidentally drove a pickup truck over her father while learning how to park the vehicle on Tuesday evening, police said. The 46-year-old man died at the scene. He was teaching his 15-year-old daughter to park the truck at a park in Tarpon Springs,...
Coronavirus restrictions fuel anti-government ‘boogaloo’ movement
SILVER SPRING, Md. — They carry high-powered rifles and wear tactical gear, but their Hawaiian shirts and leis are what stand out in the crowds that have formed at state capital buildings to protest covid-19 lockdown orders. The signature look for the “boogaloo” anti-government movement is designed to get attention....
State Department told to revisit sexual listing on passports
DENVER — Under a ruling from a federal appeals court, the U.S. State Department is once again being ordered to consider whether to grant an intersex person a passport if they do not specify a gender. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver...
Iowa to reopen restaurants, salons, barber shops and gyms
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Restaurants, salons, barber shops and gyms in Iowa can reopen this week, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday, even as she remained in “modified quarantine” and the state’s coronavirus deaths continued to rise. Reynolds said she would allow restaurants, libraries and fitness centers in 22 counties, including...
Penn State Extension extends discounts for online courses due to high demand
When Penn State Extension officials made online courses free during April, public interest was overwhelming. “We would’ve filled Beaver Stadium with students,” said Extension Director Brent Hales. “We had over 109,000 people sign up.” There was so much demand — it initially crashed extension servers, Hales said — that officials...
