Boy thrown from carnival ride at Illinois community festival
ANTIOCH, Ill. — Carnival rides were shut down at an Illinois community festival after a 10-year-old boy was thrown from his seat and seriously injured, authorities said. The boy was riding Moby Dick, which locks people in at the shoulders and then goes up and down as speed increases. The...
New drug to protect babies and toddlers from RSV gets FDA approval ahead of cold season
WASHINGTON — U.S. officials on Monday approved the first long-acting drug to protect babies and toddlers against a respiratory virus that sends tens of thousands of American children to the hospital each year. RSV is a cold-like nuisance for most healthy people, but it can be life-threatening in the very...
Watchdog calls for House committee to uninvite RFK Jr. after his comments are blasted as antisemiticVideo
NEW YORK — A Democratic watchdog group has called for a U.S. House committee to rescind an invitation to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after the Democratic presidential candidate was filmed falsely suggesting covid-19 could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people. Kyle Herrig, executive director of...
Children lost in flooding as U.S. endures extreme weather, from smoke up north to heat in the West
WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pa. — Pennsylvania authorities drew on 100 people, drones and cadaver dogs Monday in their search for two missing children whose family’s car was swept away in flash flooding that ravaged the East Coast over the weekend. Other parts of the country endured threateningly high temperatures and severe...
2nd Alzheimer’s drug in pipeline can slow the disease by a few months but with safety risk
WASHINGTON — Another experimental Alzheimer’s drug can modestly slow patients’ inevitable worsening — by about four to seven months, researchers reported Monday. Eli Lilly and Co. is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval of donanemab. If cleared, it would be only the second Alzheimer’s treatment convincingly shown to delay the...
Sen. Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court? GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy lists his would-be picks
Biotech entrepreneur and Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy on Monday released a list of 16 people he’d nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court or federal appellate courts if he becomes president, making him the first in the party’s field to itemize his possible top judicial appointments. Ramaswamy’s list includes Sens....
Freight train derails in southeast Pennsylvania, but no known injuries or hazards
WHITEMARSH TOWNSHIP — A freight train derailment in southeast Pennsylvania early Monday spurred precautionary evacuations, but officials said no injuries were reported and there was no known hazard to the public. The 40-car CSX train, which was operating on tracks owned by Norfolk Southern, derailed around 4:50 a.m. in a...
Pope’s Ukraine peace envoy heads to Washington with plight of children atop his agenda
ROME — Pope Francis’ peace envoy was traveling to Washington on Monday as part of the Holy See’s peace initiatives for Ukraine, hoping to support humanitarian operations especially concerning children, the Vatican said Monday. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi’s visit, which lasts through Wednesday, follows his recent mission to Moscow and an...
5-story apartment building collapses in Cairo killing at least 9
CAIRO — A five-story apartment building collapsed Monday in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, leaving at least nine people dead, authorities said, as rescuers searched through the rubble. Building collapses are common in Egypt, where shoddy construction and a lack of maintenance are widespread in shantytowns, poor city neighborhoods and...
Russia halts wartime deal allowing Ukraine to ship grain in a blow to global food security
LONDON — Russia halted a breakthrough wartime deal on Monday that allows grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would suspend...
Georgia suspect in 4 killings shot and killed, 2 officers hurt during encounter, official says
HAMPTON, Ga. — Officers shot and killed a man wanted in four weekend killings near Atlanta during an exchange of gunfire, and a sheriff’s deputy and a police officer were injured trying to take the suspect into custody, authorities said. Henry County Sheriff’s spokesperson Syntonnia Moore said Andre Longmore was...
Couple checking out barking dog leads to encounter with escapee, his recapture
YOUNGSVILLE — A couple checking out a barking dog on their northwestern Pennsylvania property led to the capture of a homicide suspect who had used bed sheets to escape from jail, authorities said. Michael Burham, 34, was captured nine days after he fled the Warren County jail in the late...
DeSantis presidential campaign is cutting staff as new financial pressure emerges
NEW YORK — Republican presidential contender Ron DeSantis is cutting campaign staff as he struggles to catch former President Donald Trump in the GOP’s crowded primary contest while facing unexpected financial pressure. DeSantis, the Florida governor, let go fewer than 10 paid staffers late last week to help reduce operating...
Heavy rain swamps Northeast again as flash flooding claims at least 5 lives in Pennsylvania
WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pa. — Heavy rain pounded an already saturated Northeast on Sunday for the second time in a week, spurring another round of flash flooding, cancelled airline flights and power outages. In Pennsylvania, a sudden flash flood late Saturday afternoon claimed at least five lives. Officials in Bucks County’s...
The Iowa caucuses are six months away. Some Republicans worry Trump may be unstoppable
NEW YORK — He’s been indicted twice. Found liable for sexual abuse. And he’s viewed unfavorably by about a third of his party. But six months before Republicans begin to choose their next presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump remains the race’s dominant front-runner. Early leaders don’t always go on...
Diversify or die: San Francisco’s downtown is a wake-up call for other cities
SAN FRANCISCO — Jack Mogannam, manager of Sam’s Cable Car Lounge in downtown San Francisco, relishes the days when his bar stayed open past midnight every night, welcoming crowds that jostled on the streets, bar hopped, window browsed or just took in the night air. He’s had to drastically curtail...
Arrest of suspect in Long Island serial killings brings both pain and relief to victims’ families
NEW YORK — The trail had gone cold as clues suddenly dwindled. For a time, doubts swirled about whether a killer who dumped the remains of his female victims along remote stretches of coastline on New York’s Long Island would ever be caught. Then finally, after more than a dozen...
Powerball prize grows to $900 million after no jackpot winner drawn
Another Powerball drawing ended with no winner Saturday night, sending the jackpot soaring to an estimated $900 million. No ticket for Saturday’s drawing matched the winning combination: white balls 2, 9, 43, 55, 57 and red Powerball 18. The jackpot was estimated at $875 million. Ticket buyers for Monday’s drawing...
Children, relatives of alumni no longer have admissions edge at Carnegie Mellon, Pitt
For decades, Carnegie Mellon University viewed whether a student applicant was related to alumni as an “important” or “considered” factor in admissions decisions. But it appears that legacies, as children or relatives of alumni are called, no longer have an edge in admissions decisions at the highly selective university. In...
Pennsylvania jail escapee Michael Burham captured
YOUNGSVILLE — Looking dirty, wet and “worn out” from living in the wilderness to evade arrest, a homicide suspect who used bedsheets to escape a northern Pennsylvania jail has been captured, authorities said. Michael Burham, 34, fled the Warren County jail in the late evening hours of July 6 by...
U.S. Rep. George Santos repays himself $85K raised from lackluster reelection fundraising
NEW YORK — Embattled freshman U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York charged with a host of financial crimes, including embezzling money from his campaign, withdrew $85,000 from his campaign to help repay hundreds of thousands of dollars he loaned himself to get elected in 2022. Congressional campaign...
U.S. Southwest swelters under dangerous heat wave, with new records on track
PHOENIX — A dangerous heat wave threatened a wide swath of the Southwest with potentially deadly temperatures in the triple digits on Saturday as some cooling centers extended their hours and emergency rooms prepared to treat more people with heat-related illnesses. “Near record temperatures are expected this weekend!” the National...
NASA’s 1st new wind tunnel in 40 years will turn science fiction to fact
NORFOLK, Va. — Flying cars. Space tourism. Safe reentry for astronauts coming back from Mars. These technologies are still science fiction, but some won’t be for much longer, according to Charles “Mike” Fremaux, NASA Langley Research Center’s chief engineer for intelligent flight systems. To test these concepts, particularly in regard...
Alaska volcano spews ash cloud high enough to draw weather service warning for pilots
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An erupting volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands sent a towering cloud of ash into the air Friday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue an inflight warning to pilots. The Shishaldin Volcano began erupting July 11, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. A U.S. Coast Guard overflight...
In quiet Georgia subdivision, neighbor says he saw man accused of killing 4 shoot man in street
HAMPTON, Ga. — A neighborhood south of Atlanta crawled with police on Sunday as Georgia authorities hunted for a man suspected of gunning down three men and a woman in the subdivision before fleeing. Andre Longmore, 40, is accused of fatally shooting the victims Saturday morning before driving away from...