Biden moves to require vaccines for 100 million AmericansVideo
WASHINGTON — In his most forceful pandemic actions and words, President Joe Biden on Thursday announced sweeping new federal vaccine requirements affecting as many as 100 million Americans in an all-out effort to increase covid-19 vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant. Speaking at the White House, Biden sharply criticized...
Loophole allows some Pennsylvania students to avoid masking
HARRISBURG — An apparent loophole in Pennsylvania’s mask mandate for schools is making it easier for some students to go to class without having to cover their faces, even as state education regulators sought to make an example of one openly defiant school board. The state health secretary’s order requiring...
Justice Department sues Texas over state’s new abortion lawVideo
AUSTIN, Texas — The Justice Department on Thursday sued Texas over a new state law that bans most abortions, arguing that it was enacted “in open defiance of the Constitution.” The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Texas, asks a federal judge to declare that the law is invalid, “to...
Republicans start election ‘investigation’ in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — Republicans in Pennsylvania’s state Senate held their first hearing Thursday in what they call a “forensic investigation” into last year’s presidential election, an underwhelming affair that Democrats nevertheless say is an extension of a national campaign to attack voting rights following former President Donald Trump’s loss. Republicans maintain...
Florida man wins $1 million the day he opened his auto shop
CALLAHAN, Fla. — A Florida man won $1 million in a lottery game the same day he and his wife opened an auto repair shop. Brian Woodle, 46, bought the $5 Gold Rush Supreme scratch-off ticket from a Circle K in Callahan. “I love working on vehicles and it has...
50 years after Attica uprising, families want apology
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Fifty years after the revolt at the Attica Correctional Facility, unanswered questions still bother those touched by what remains the nation’s deadliest prison uprising. What unknown details are buried inside hundreds of pages of records that remain sealed? And will New York state ever apologize for the...
About 200 foreigners, including Americans, fly out of KabulVideo
KABUL, Afghanistan — An estimated 200 foreigners, including Americans, left Afghanistan on a commercial flight out of Kabul on Thursday with the cooperation of the Taliban — the first such large-scale departure since U.S. forces completed their frantic withdrawal over a week ago. The Qatar Airways flight to Doha marked...
Ground zero rebuilding still unfinished, 20 years later
NEW YORK — Two decades after its destruction in the Sept. 11 attacks, the work to rebuild the World Trade Center complex remains incomplete. Two planned skyscrapers, a performing arts center and a church are still unfinished at the site, which plays host Saturday to the annual ceremony honoring nearly...
South Carolina abortion law challenge backed by 20 states
Twenty Democratic attorneys general have voiced their support for a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s new abortion law, arguing that the restrictive measure could harm their states by taxing resources if women cross borders to seek care. “The effects of the law are not confined to limits on particular procedures in...
Can kids get ‘long covid’ after coronavirus infections?
Can kids get “long covid” after coronavirus infections? Yes, but studies indicate they’re less likely than adults to be affected by symptoms that persist, recur or begin a month or more after infection. Estimates vary on how often the symptoms known as long covid-19 occur in kids. A recently published...
AP source: White House planning to withdraw ATF nomination
WASHINGTON — The White House will withdraw the nomination of a gun-control advocate to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after David Chipman ran into bipartisan opposition in the Senate, a person familiar with the decision said Thursday. Chipman is a former federal agent and adviser at...
AP source: Biden requiring federal workers to get covid shot
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday is toughening covid-19 vaccine requirements for federal workers and contractors, according to a person familiar with the plans, as he aims to boost vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant that is killing thousands each week and jeopardizing the nation’s economic recovery. Just...
Work stalls in search for Confederate statue’s time capsule
Work crews searching for a time capsule they believed was buried inside the pedestal under a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that had towered over Richmond, Virginia, hit a snag Thursday. Crews were having difficulty finding the capsule’s precise location. Then late Thursday morning, a crane they were...
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar says she had breast cancer, doing well
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced Thursday that she has been treated for breast cancer and the treatment “went well.” Klobuchar, 61, tweeted that the cancer was found in February during a routine mammogram, and eventually she had a lumpectomy to remove the cancer. She said she completed radiation...
N. Korea, slimmed down Kim Jong Un, enjoy toned-down parade
SEOUL, South Korea — Military search dogs and goose-stepping trainers. Health workers wearing gas masks and red hazmat suits. And a slimmed down, beaming Kim Jong Un in a cream-colored business suit. The parade marking North Korea’s celebration of its 73rd anniversary was a marked departure from past militaristic displays,...
France to offer free birth control to all women up to 25
PARIS — France will offer free birth control to all women up to age 25 starting next year, the health minister announced Thursday. The measure will also include free medical visits about contraception, and will start Jan. 1, Health Minister Olivier Veran announced on France-2 television. All contraceptive methods were...
From election to covid, 9/11 conspiracies cast a long shadow
Korey Rowe served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and returned to the U.S. in 2004 traumatized and disillusioned. His experiences overseas and nagging questions about Sept. 11, 2001 convinced him America’s leaders were lying about what happened that day and the wars that followed. The result was “Loose Change,” a...
Gen. Lee statue taken down in former Confederate capitalVideo
RICHMOND, Va. — A statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that towered over Richmond for generations was taken down, cut into pieces and hauled away Wednesday, as the former capital of the Confederacy erased the last of the Civil War figures that once defined its most prominent thoroughfare. Hundreds of...
‘Magical thinking’: Gov. Abbott says he will ‘eliminate all rapists,’ defends Texas abortion lawVideo
AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott, responding to a question about how Texas’ new abortion law would impact victims of rape and incest, said the state would employ aggressive tactics to “eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas.” The law, which took effect last week, bans most abortions after about...
Gov. Wolf, teachers say kids are cool with masks: ‘It feels like an adult problem’Video
PHILADELPHIA — Wearing masks all day isn’t a big deal for Brooke Vaught’s 375 students. They compliment each other on their cool choices — bright colors, Batman, funky designs — they put them on, and get down to the business of learning. “We haven’t had any issues,” said Vaught, principal...
Tropical Storm Mindy makes landfall on Florida PanhandleVideo
MIAMI — A swath of the Florida Panhandle was under a tropical storm warning after Tropical Storm Mindy made landfall Wednesday night. The storm touched down over St. Vincent Island, about 10 miles west southwest of Apalachicola, according to the National Hurricane Center. BREAKING: #Mindy has formed and tropical storm...
Biden moves to oust Trump military academy board appointees
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration moved Wednesday to oust 18 allies of Donald Trump who were named to U.S. military academy boards in the final months of the Republican president’s term in office. Cathy Russell, director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, sent letters to 18 people named to...
Police planning to reinstall Capitol fence ahead of rallyVideo
WASHINGTON — Law enforcement concerned by the prospect for violence at a rally in the nation’s capital next week are planning to reinstall protective fencing that surrounded the U.S. Capitol for months after the Jan. 6 insurrection there, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Though no specific measures...
Vermont governor saddened by claim troopers made fake vaccine cardsVideo
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said Wednesday he was “incredibly disappointed” by the allegations that three Vermont State Police troopers who have since resigned were involved in a scheme to create fraudulent covid-19 vaccination cards. Scott said he didn’t think the resignations, which were announced late Tuesday, were...
Some rural hospitals in West Virginia hit bed capacity as covid surgesVideo
CHARLESTON — Some hospitals in rural parts of West Virginia have reached their critical bed capacities as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to surge statewide, health officials said Wednesday. Health officials are pleading with the public to avoid unnecessary emergency room visits to allow hospitals to focus their resources on...
