Podcast: Biden ends his presidential campaign
It has been a series of politically significant weekends. Nearly two weeks ago, an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump occurred at a rally in Butler County. This past Sunday, President Joe Biden announced he would not seek a second term, becoming the first sitting president since Lyndon B....
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey is resigning from office following his corruption conviction
TRENTON, N.J. — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez is resigning from office Aug. 20 following his conviction for taking bribes for corrupt acts including acting as an agent of the Egyptian government, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Menendez had insisted after the July 16...
Florida’s population passes 23 million for 1st time due to residents moving from other states
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida’s population crossed the 23 million residents mark for the first time this year because of the influx of people moving from other states, according to state demographic estimates. As of April 1 of this year, Florida had 23,002,597 residents, according to estimates released earlier this month...
‘We were built for this moment’: Black women rally around Kamala Harris
CONCORD, N.H. — Four years ago, a Zoom meeting to build support for Kamala Harris as the Democratic vice presidential nominee attracted just 90 participants. On Sunday night, an estimated 90,000 Black women and allies logged on at the same time to support her brand-new presidential campaign. Zoom typically maxes...
U.S. investigating Delta’s flight cancellations and faltering response to global tech outage
U.S. regulators are investigating how Delta Air Lines is treating passengers affected by canceled and delayed flights as the airline struggles to recover from a global technology outage. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the Delta investigation on the X social media platform Tuesday “to ensure the airline is following the...
Biden will address the nation Wednesday on his decision to drop 2024 Democratic reelection bid
REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware — President Joe Biden will address the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening on his decision to drop his 2024 Democratic reelection bid. Biden posted on X that he would speak “on what lies ahead” and how he will “finish the job for the American...
Secret Service director steps down after assassination attempt against ex-President Trump at rally
WASHINGTON — The director of the Secret Service said Tuesday she’s resigning following the assassination attempt against ex-President Donald Trump that unleashed intensifying outcry about how the agency tasked with protecting current and former presidents could fail in its core mission. Kimberly Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director...
Data shows hurricanes and earthquakes grab headlines but inland counties top disaster list
Floyd County keeps flooding and the federal government keeps coming to the rescue. In July 2022, at least 40 people died and 300 homes were damaged when the eastern Kentucky county flooded. It was the 13th time in 12 years that the rural county was declared a federal disaster. These...
Chancellor of State System of Higher Education announces resignation
Daniel Greenstein, chancellor of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, is resigning this fall after a transformative six-year tenure that saw controversial campus mergers, a historic jump in state university funding, and no tuition increases. Greenstein notified the system’s Board of Governors on Monday of his intention to leave, effective...
Kamala Harris is preparing to lead Democrats in 2024. There are lessons from her 2020 bid
ATLANTA — Kamala Harris was greeted by a massive, cheering crowd during the first rally of her newly announced presidential campaign in 2019. Speaking on a late January day outside city hall in her hometown of Oakland, California, she framed her bid as part of something bigger than simply winning...
Death toll in southern Ethiopia mudslides rises to at least 157 as search operations continue
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — At least 157 people were killed in mudslides in a remote part of Ethiopia that has been hit with heavy rainfall, many of them as they tried to rescue survivors of an earlier mudslide, local authorities said Tuesday. Young children and pregnant women were among the...
UN says nearly 40 million people had HIV in 2023; lack of treatment means someone died every minute
UNITED NATIONS — Nearly 40 million people were living with the HIV virus that causes AIDS last year, over 9 million weren’t getting any treatment, and the result was that every minute someone died of AIDS-related causes, the U.N. said in a new report launched Monday. While advances are being...
Nevada has very high levels of covid-19 in wastewater
LAS VEGAS — Tourists who flocked in droves to Las Vegas over the Fourth of July holiday weekend helped spur a rise in covid infections, experts say. “We have a surge in viral illnesses for July 4 in particular. For summer holidays, we’re always prepared for a surge in tourists...
New PennWest president reveals ‘secret sauce’ of W.Pa.’s second largest public university
Pennsylvania Western University’s new president had this to say Monday about the struggles preceding him to merge three century-and-a-half-old institutions with proud histories into one: “Integration is really tough,” Jon Anderson said. But the 50-year-old educator from Utah, who became PennWest’s chief executive on July 1, nonetheless is bullish on...
Father, 2 of his children killed in Pennsylvania Turnpike crash
A father and his two children died in a fatal crash after they were struck by a tractor-trailer on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, according to the Lancaster County Coroner’s Office. Donnell Hickson, 43, and an 11-year-old girl, both of Baldwin, New York, and Decir Hickson, 18, of Pittsburgh, died at the...
Donald Trump’s lawyers urge New York appeals court to overturn ‘egregious’ civil fraud verdict
NEW YORK — Fresh off victories in other legal cases, Donald Trump on Monday pressed a New York appeals court to overturn the nearly $500 million New York civil fraud judgment that threatens to drain his personal cash reserves as he campaigns to retake the White House. In paperwork filed...
Safety regulators are investigating another low flight by a Southwest jet, this time in Florida
WASHINGTON — Federal officials are investigating an incident in which a Southwest Airlines jet flew as low as 150 feet over water while it was still about 5 miles from its intended landing spot at the airport in Tampa, Fla. The pilots skipped over the Tampa airport and landed instead...
Despite Musk’s Trump endorsement, X remains a go-to platform for Democrats
A week after Elon Musk endorsed Donald Trump for president, President Joe Biden’s team used Musk’s social media platform X — in addition to more neutral spaces such as Facebook and Instagram — to announce he is ending his reelection campaign. It’s a testament to how ingrained the platform has...
Man facing execution for 1998 murder addresses Utah parole board, asks for life sentence instead
A man facing execution next month for the murder his girlfriend’s mother asked state officials Monday to spare his life, saying he is not the same person he was when he killed the woman after a day of drinking and using drugs. Taberon Dave Honie told the Utah parole board...
Missouri judge overturns murder conviction of man imprisoned for more than 30 years
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri judge on Monday overturned the conviction of Christopher Dunn, who has spent more than 30 years in prison for a killing he has long contended he didn’t commit. The ruling is likely to free Dunn from prison, but it wasn’t immediately clear when that would...
JD Vance slams Kamala Harris during his solo campaign debut as the GOP vice presidential nominee
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance made his first solo campaign appearance a day after the White House race was thrown into upheaval when President Joe Biden dropped out. The Ohio senator held a rally Monday at his former high school in Middletown, his hometown, where he...
Ex-Philadelphia police officer sentenced to at least 8 years in shooting death of 12-year-old boy
PHILADELPHIA — A fired Philadelphia police officer who pleaded guilty to murder in the shooting of a fleeing 12-year-old boy was sentenced Monday to at least eight years in prison. Edsaul Mendoza, a five-year veteran of the force who was fired a week after the shooting in 2022, pleaded guilty...
Bernice Johnson Reagon, whose powerful voice helped propel the Civil Rights Movement, has died
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Bernice Johnson Reagon, a musician and scholar who used her rich, powerful contralto voice in the service of the American Civil Rights Movement and human rights struggles around the world, died on July 16, according to her daughter’s social media post. She was 81. Reagon was probably...
A Harris-Shapiro ticket? Pa. governor plays it close to the vest during Neville Island stopVideo
A day after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro deflected questions about whether he would want to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate were she to become the Democrats’ presidential nominee. In an appearance Monday on Neville Island, Shapiro wouldn’t say whether he is...
Hunter Biden drops lawsuit against Fox News over explicit images featured in streaming series
NEW YORK — Hunter Biden has dropped a lawsuit accusing Fox News of illegally publishing explicit images of him as part of a streaming series. An attorney for the president’s son filed a voluntary dismissal notice on Sunday in federal court in New York City, three weeks after the lawsuit...
