Marathon U.S. hearings to decide fate of covid shots for young children
Parents anxious to finally vaccinate their youngest children against covid-19, strap in: A lot is set to happen over the next week. On Wednesday, both Moderna and Pfizer will have to convince what’s essentially a science court — advisers to the Food and Drug Administration — that their shots work...
Patriot Front leader among those arrested near Idaho PrideVideo
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — After the arrest of more than two dozen members of a white supremacist group near a northern Idaho pride event, including one identified as its founder, LGBTQ advocates said Sunday that polarization and a fraught political climate are putting their community increasingly at risk. The 31...
Amid abortion debate, clinic asks: Who’s caring for moms?
JACKSON, Miss. — Miracle Allen used her last tank of gas to drive an hour and 15 minutes to the closest clinic that would care for her and her unborn baby. Allen, 29, was four months pregnant when Hurricane Ida ripped through her Houma, Louisiana, community. She spent three nights...
Pa. lawmaker wants more state control over millions in outside spending on federal elections
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Over the past few years, megadonors and special interest groups have flooded Pennsylvania campaigns with millions of dollars in...
‘Only God can help’: Hundreds die as Somalia faces famineVideo
MOGADISHU, Somalia — No mother should have to lose her child. Owliyo Hassan Salaad has watched four die this year. A drought in the Horn of Africa has taken them, one by one. Now she cradles her frail and squalling 3-year-old, Ali Osman, whom she carried on a 55-mile walk...
Interior phasing out plastic water bottles at national parks
WASHINGTON — The Interior Department said this week it will phase out sales of plastic water bottles and other single-use products at national parks and on other public lands over the next decade, targeting a major source of U.S. pollution. An order issued by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland calls for...
Climate-driven flooding poses well water contamination risks
ST. LOUIS — After a record- setting Midwestern rainstorm that damaged thousands of homes and businesses, Stefanie Johnson’s farmhouse in Blandinsville, Ill., didn’t have safe drinking water for nearly two months. Flood water poured into her well, turning the water a muddy brown and forcing Johnson, her husband and their...
Big Tech attacks become rallying cry for GOP candidatesVideo
RENO, Nev. — Shortly after launching his campaign last year for the Republican nomination in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race, Sam Brown got into a scrape with Twitter. A Purple Heart recipient who was burned severely by an IED blast in Afghanistan, Brown posted a picture of himself saluting while in...
Ukraine: Russia said to be using more deadly weapons in war
Ukrainian and British officials warned Saturday that Russian forces are relying on weapons able to cause mass casualties as they try to make headway in capturing eastern Ukraine and fierce, prolonged fighting depletes resources on both sides. Russian bombers have likely been launching heavy 1960s-era anti-ship missiles in Ukraine, the...
Several factors are converging to push gas prices higher
There is little evidence that gasoline prices, which hit a record $5 a gallon on Saturday, will drop anytime soon. Rising prices at the pump are a key driver in the highest inflation that Americans have seen in 40 years. Everyone seems to have a favorite villain for the high...
Thousands take to U.S. streets demanding action on gun laws
Thousands of people rallied on the National Mall and across the United States on Saturday in a renewed push for gun control measures after recent deadly mass shootings from Uvalde, Texas, to Buffalo, New York, that activists say should compel Congress to act. “Enough is enough,” District of Columbia Mayor...
Candidates of color say they need more party support, financial backing to be successful in Pa.
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Neither Omy Maldonado nor Yamelisa Taveras had run for office before May of this year. Maldonado is a U.S....
Geico facing payout to woman who got HPV after sex in car
Geico could be required to pay a Missouri woman $5.2 million because she said she contracted a sexually transmitted disease while having sex in the car of a man who is insured by the company. A three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a Jackson County...
What’s next for the Jan. 6 panel? More hearings, more Trump
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has laid out a roadmap for the hearings this month as it examines President Donald Trump’s responsibility for the melee and the damage that resulted for law enforcement officers, members of Congress and others in attendance...
Biden, leaders reach migration pact despite attendance flap
LOS ANGELES — President Joe Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders on Friday announced what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees. “The Los Angeles Declaration” is perhaps the biggest achievement of the Summit of the Americas, which was undercut by...
March for Our Lives returns with a renewed gun control push
WASHINGTON — Angered by the unrelenting toll from gun violence, tens of thousands of people are expected at rallies this weekend in the nation’s capital and around the United States demanding that Congress pass meaningful changes to gun laws. The second March For Our Lives rally will take place Saturday...
U.S. lifts covid-19 test requirement for international travelVideo
The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international travelers test negative for covid-19 within a day before boarding a flight to the United States, ending one of the last remaining government mandates designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus. A senior administration official said Friday that the mandate...
Jack Del Rio fined $100K for comments about Capitol riot
Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio has been fined $100,000 by the team for his comments about protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Coach Ron Rivera announced the fine in a statement Friday after meeting...
House approves ‘red flag’ gun bill unlikely to pass Senate
The House approved a “red flag” bill Thursday that would allow families, police and others to ask federal courts to order the removal of firearms from people at extreme risk of harming themselves or others. It’s the Democratic-controlled chamber’s latest response to U.S. mass shootings and likely stands little chance...
Ukraine fears a long war might cause West to lose interest
KYIV, Ukraine — As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grinds into its fourth month, officials in Kyiv have expressed fears that the specter of “war fatigue” could erode the West’s resolve to help the country push back Moscow’s aggression. The U.S. and its allies have given billions of dollars in weaponry...
Plant giveaway promotes Thailand’s medical marijuana sector
BANGKOK — Thailand’s health minister kicked off a marijuana giveaway Friday, handing out the first 100 seedlings of a planned distribution of 1 million plants a day after the country legalized cultivation and possession of the drug. Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who has been the driving force behind legalization, presided...
Pa. bills limiting discussion, materials on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools poised for introduction
An elementary school with gender-neutral bathrooms labelled as “they/them.” School volunteers being permitted to talk to elementary students about LGBTQ issues without parental knowledge. A school district telling elementary school teachers to withhold information from parents about children questioning their gender. Two state lawmakers say they have been bombarded with...
U.S. Rep. Scott Perry asked about presidential pardon after attacks on Capitol, Select Committee leader asserts
It didn’t take long for a Pennsylvania politician to get outed in the opening public hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Less than 30 minutes in, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, stated that midstate Congressman Scott Perry,...
Police say man who died in lake with gators missing 3 limbs
LARGO, Fla. — A man found dead in a Florida lake while searching for Frisbees and other flying discs was missing three limbs after a likely encounter with alligators, police said Friday. Largo Police Department spokeswoman Megan Santo said in an email that the medical examiner’s final report on the...
Pakistan probes Hindu temple’s desecration as India protests
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s foreign ministry on Friday said authorities were trying to trace and arrest suspects who this week desecrated a Hindu temple located at a home in the country’s port city of Karachi, drawing condemnation from India. In a statement, the ministry said that investigations were still underway, and...
