Crematorium owner charged with improper disposal of bodies
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. — A suburban Detroit crematorium owner who had already lost his mortuary science and mortuary science establishment licenses has been charged with improper disposal of bodies. O’Neil Swanson was arraigned Monday in Washtenaw County district court, the Michigan Attorney General’s office said Tuesday. A cease and desist...
French report: 330,000 children victims of church sex abuse
PARIS — Victims of abuse within France’s Catholic Church welcomed a historic turning point Tuesday after a new report estimated that 330,000 children in France were sexually abused over the past 70 years, providing the country’s first accounting of the worldwide phenomenon. The figure includes abuses committed by some 3,000...
Arizona can’t use covid money for anti-mask grants, feds say
The Biden administration on Tuesday ordered Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to stop using the state’s federal pandemic funding on a pair of new education grants that can only be directed to schools without mask mandates. In a letter to Ducey, the Treasury Department said the grant programs are “not a...
Gaetz friend asks for more time to cooperate with feds
Joel Greenberg, the friend of U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz who pleaded guilty earlier this year to sex trafficking, asked a judge on Tuesday to postpone his sentencing until next year so he can continue cooperating with federal authorities. Greenberg asked the federal judge in a court filing to move his...
Vaccines are here. School’s open. Some parents still agonize.
Eight days into the school year, all five of Amber Cessac’s daughters, ages 4 to 10, had tested positive for COVID-19. Having them all sick at once and worrying about long-term repercussions as other parents at their school, and even her own mother, downplayed the virus, “broke something inside of...
Ex-Facebook manager criticizes company, urges more oversightVideo
WASHINGTON — While accusing the giant social network of pursuing profits over safety, a former Facebook data scientist told Congress Tuesday she believes stricter government oversight could alleviate the dangers the company poses, from harming children to inciting political violence to fueling misinformation. Frances Haugen, testifying to the Senate Commerce...
Biden: Senate filibuster change on debt a ‘real possibility’
WASHINGTON — To get around Republican obstruction, President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Democrats are considering a change to the Senate’s filibuster rules in order to quickly approve lifting the nation’s debt limit and avoid what would be a devastating credit default. The president’s surprise remarks come as the Senate...
$699.8M Powerball jackpot won, ticket sold in California
DES MOINES, Iowa — After 40 drawings without a big Powerball winner, a single ticket sold in California matched all six numbers and was the lucky winner of the nearly $700 million jackpot prize, officials said. The winning numbers drawn Monday night were 12, 22, 54, 66 and 69. The...
Biden eager to get out of D.C., push benefits of spending plan
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is shifting strategy to sell his ambitious social spending plans by traveling outside Washington and courting Democrats who have complained they felt left out of the process. With his agenda in jeopardy on Capitol Hill, Biden on Tuesday will visit the Michigan district of a...
J&J seeks U.S. clearance for covid-19 vaccine booster doses
WASHINGTON — Johnson & Johnson asked the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to allow extra shots of its covid-19 vaccine as the U.S. government moves toward expanding its booster campaign to millions more vaccinated Americans. J&J said it filed a request with the FDA to authorize boosters for people...
Police: Head-on crash between SUV, pickup kills 3 in Crawford County
CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS — The Pennsylvania State Police identified three people who died Sunday in a head-on collision in Crawford County. The victims were identified as Kenneth Anderson, 54, of Titusville, who was driving an SUV; Joshua Hanes, 21, of Springboro, who was driving a pickup truck; and Katrina Wiler, 21,...
DEA agent, gunman killed in Amtrak train shooting in Arizona
A Drug Enforcement Administration special agent was killed Monday when a passenger, who also died, opened fire as officers were doing a routine inspection for illegal contraband on an Amtrak train in Tucson, Ariz., authorities said. A second agent and a Tucson police officer were wounded. “It’s very horrific and...
Pennsylvania House OKs bill to make more pandemic data publicly available
HARRISBURG — A proposal to expand public access to reports about covid-19 and other diseases passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Monday after Republicans argued it would help people decide how to react to pandemics and other outbreaks. The House voted on party lines, 113-87, to amend the Disease...
Pa. school pension fund leaders seek to gag board members over leaks to media
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 — Upset at leaks about a federal investigation of the PSERS pension fund, leaders of the beleaguered plan’s board have...
Shots fired on Amtrak train in Arizona; 1 in custody
One person is in custody after someone opened fire Monday aboard an Amtrak train in Tucson, Arizona, causing passengers to flee, police said. The shooting happened just after 8 a.m. on a train parked at the station in the city’s downtown. Authorities said the scene has been secured and there...
Police: Former NASCAR driver killed in dispute involving estranged wife
ATHENS, Ga. — Former NASCAR driver John Wes Townley was shot to death over the weekend during a dispute that involved a hatchet after showing up at a house occupied by his estranged wife and another man, police said Monday. The 31-year-old Townley, who raced eight seasons, had the weapon...
Florida school massacre suspect’s jail brawl trial delayed
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The trial of the suspect in the 2018 Florida high school massacre for fighting a jail guard was delayed Monday because his lead lawyer on the case has been hospitalized. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer ruled that jury selection in Nikolas Cruz’s trial on jail battery charges...
Mich. Gov. Whitmer vetoes election bills, says they perpetuate lies
LANSING, Mich. — Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed several Republican-sponsored election bills, saying they would have perpetuated falsehoods to discredit the 2020 presidential election and made it tougher for people living in large senior facilities and apartment complexes to vote. Two measures would have codified existing practices by limiting access...
UK pledges to hit all-renewable electricity by 2035
All Britain’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2035, the governing Conservatives announced Monday, saying the move would help end the country’s reliance on imported fuel. Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said “the only way to strengthen Britain’s energy security is zero carbon power that is generated in...
Whistleblower: Facebook chose profit over public safety
NEW YORK — A data scientist who was revealed Sunday as the Facebook whistleblower says that whenever there was a conflict between the public good and what benefited the company, the social media giant would choose its own interests. Frances Haugen was identified in a “60 Minutes” interview Sunday as...
Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram suffer worldwide outage
The massive global outage that plunged Facebook, its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms and many people who rely heavily on these services — including Facebook’s own workforce — into chaos Monday is gradually dissipating. Facebook said late Monday that it’s been working to restore access to its services and is “happy...
Biden tells GOP to ‘get out of the way’ on debt limit
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden accused Republican lawmakers on Monday of blocking efforts to increase the government’s borrowing authority, saying they’re playing “Russian roulette with the U.S. economy” by committing to filibuster the measure ahead of an Oct. 18 deadline. Biden called on the Senate to suspend the nation’s debt...
Russia film crew set to blast off to make 1st movie in space
In a historic first, Russia is set to launch an actor and a film director into space to make a feature film in orbit — a project the nation’s space chief has hailed as a chance to raise the prestige of Russia’s space program. Actor Yulia Peresild and director Klim...
Ex-U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, sunk by ‘legitimate rape’ remark, dies
Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican whose comment that women’s bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of “legitimate rape” sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. Akin had cancer for...
Doctors grow frustrated over covid denial, misinformation
The covid-19 patient’s health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctor’s diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didn’t think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside...
