U.S./World category, Page 670

MIAMI — Florida’s surgeon general said conversations while wearing masks aren’t productive and argued that he offered to meet elsewhere when a state senator didn’t let him in her office without a mask, citing a serious health condition. Dr. Joseph Ladapo said in a statement released Tuesday that he offered...

WASHINGTON — The Democrats’ idea for a new billionaires’ tax to help pay for President Joe Biden’s social services and climate change plan has quickly run into criticism as too cumbersome, with some lawmakers preferring the original plan of simply raising the top tax rates on corporations and the wealthy....

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida fishing guide and environmental activist Paul Fafeita says a highlight for his charter customers is spotting the manatees that forage for seagrass in shallow waters. It’s not so thrilling when they come across the emaciated carcass of a manatee that starved to death. “It’s not...

Just two reporters were allowed inside a Georgia courtroom to serve as the eyes and ears of the public when jury selection began for the men charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery. Pandemic restrictions also kept reporters and the public out of the courtroom during the sex-trafficking trial of music star...

WASHINGTON — Law enforcement officials in the U.S. and Europe have arrested 150 people and seized more than $31 million in an international drug trafficking investigation stemming from sales on the darknet, the Justice Department said Tuesday. The arrests are connected to a 10-month investigation between federal law enforcement officials...

Congress is set to force America’s armed services to keep better track of their guns and explosives, imposing new rules in response to an Associated Press investigation that showed firearms stolen from U.S. bases have resurfaced in violent crimes. Under the proposals, the Department of Defense would tell both lawmakers...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX is taming some toilet troubles in its capsules before it launches four more astronauts. The company and NASA want to make sure the toilet leaks won’t compromise the capsule launching early Sunday from Kennedy Space Center or another one that’s been parked at the International...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A cyberattack targeted gas stations Tuesday across Iran, shutting down a government system managing fuel subsidies and leaving angry motorists stranded in long lines at shuttered stations. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, though it bore similarities to another months earlier that seemed...

Sheriff’s deputies making a routine traffic stop in north Florida found a grenade inside a pickup truck. The 65-year-old driver was initially pulled over for having expired tags, but Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies also found that his driver’s license had expired in 2019, the agency said in a Facebook post....

BOISE, Idaho — Police in Boise said Monday two people were killed and six injured — including a police officer — in a shooting at a shopping mall. A suspect has been taken into custody. At a news conference authorities said they were working their way through each business at...

HOUSTON — The skeletal remains of a child were found inside an apartment in the Houston area along with three surviving siblings who appear to have been abandoned, a sheriff said. One of the children, a 15-year-old, called the Harris County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday afternoon and told authorities that...

Two Border Patrol agents were fired from among 60 found to have committed misconduct for participating in a private Facebook group that mocked migrants and lawmakers, investigators said Monday in the most detailed public account yet of an episode that tarnished the agency’s reputation. Most agents’ penalties were significantly reduced...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the first time in state history, Ohio recorded more deaths than births last year, a development experts say was expedited by covid-19. The Columbus Dispatch reported Monday that roughly 143,661 Ohioans died last year while 129,313 were born, according to data from the Ohio Department of...

Moderna said Monday that a low dose of its covid-19 vaccine is safe and appears to work in 6- to 11-year-olds, as the manufacturer joins its rival Pfizer in moving toward expanding shots to children. Pfizer’s kid-size vaccine doses are closer to widespread use. They are undergoing evaluation by the...

GENEVA — Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a new record high last year and increased at a faster rate than the annual average for the last decade despite a temporary reduction during pandemic lockdowns, the World Meteorological Organization said in a report published Monday. The news came as the United Nations...

CAIRO — Sudan’s military seized power Monday, dissolving the transitional government hours after troops arrested the prime minister. Thousands of people flooded into the streets to protest the coup that threatens the country’s shaky progress toward democracy. Security forces opened fire on some of the crowds, and two protesters were...

LONDON — Environmental protesters pressuring the British government to insulate all homes within a decade resumed a road-blocking campaign in London on Monday ahead of the United Nations’ annual climate conference. As commuters headed to work, demonstrators from the Insulate Britain campaign obstructed a major artery into Canary Wharf, a...

SAN FRANCISCO — A powerful storm barreled toward Southern California after flooding highways, toppling trees and causing mud flows in areas burned bare by recent fires across the northern part of the state. Drenching showers and strong winds accompanied the weekend’s arrival of an atmospheric river — a long and...

GUILFORD, Conn. — A racial reckoning began years ago for the Guilford school system, first with an episode in which a student wore blackface makeup to a home football game and then a fraught debate over the elimination of its mascot, the Indians. After the killing of George Floyd, district...

The shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a New Mexico film set could have far-reaching legal ramifications, experts said — not only for the companies involved but also for individuals, including star and producer Alec Baldwin. Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza injured Thursday by a gun that...