Disney reaches vaccination agreement with union workers
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida’s Walt Disney World will now require union employees as well as non-union and salaried workers to be fully vaccinated against covid-19 to keep their jobs at the theme park. The company also said Wednesday it would soon require vaccines for its cruise passengers ages 12...
Pa. redistricting panel to count inmates in hometowns
HARRISBURG — Inmates in Pennsylvania state prisons will be counted in their home districts and not where their prisons are located after a divided vote Tuesday by the five-member panel redrawing legislative district maps this year. The Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission voted 3-2 for the policy change that was introduced...
CIA head meets Taliban leader as fears for Afghanistan grow
The director of the CIA met with the Taliban’s top political leader in Kabul, an official said Tuesday, as more reports emerged of abuses in areas held by the fighters, fueling concerns about Afghanistan’s future and the fate of those racing to leave the country before the looming U.S. withdrawal....
Biden tells G-7 allies he aims to stick to Afghanistan withdrawal deadlineVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden appeared unwilling to bend to pressure, including from European allies, to continue a massive evacuation effort from Afghanistan, planning — for now — to stick to his Aug. 31 deadline for troop withdrawal. On a chaotic day at the White House, Biden delayed scheduled remarks...
Fossil leaves may reveal climate in last era of dinosaurs
WASHINGTON — Richard Barclay opens a metal drawer in archives of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum containing fossils that are nearly 100 million years old. Despite their age, these rocks aren’t fragile. The geologist and botanist handles them with casual ease, placing one in his palm for closer examination. Embedded...
9 women now serving as governors in U.S., tying recordVideo
Taking over on short notice for a scandal-plagued predecessor in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul began her tenure Tuesday with more than enough challenges for a new administration. She also began with an historic opportunity: Hochul is the first woman to hold one of...
Giuliani associate Igor Fruman to change plea in campaign finance case
NEW YORK — A man who helped Rudy Giuliani try to unearth damaging information about President Joe Biden in Ukraine is expected to plead guilty in a case alleging illegal campaign contributions to U.S. politicians, according to a court filing. Igor Fruman was charged in 2019 with arranging hundreds of...
Taliban warn of ‘consequences’ if U.S. extends evacuation past AugustVideo
KABUL — In the eight days since tens of thousands converged on Kabul’s airport to flee an Afghanistan under Taliban rule, critics and allies alike have blasted President Joe Biden’s insistence on the Aug. 31 deadline for U.S. and NATO troop withdrawal, urging him to delay so as to complete...
Cyber Ninjas staff reportedly have covid, Arizona election report delayed again
PHOENIX — The delivery of a report on the 2020 vote count to Arizona state Senate Republicans was delayed yet again Monday after the Donald Trump supporter hired to lead the effort and several others involved contracted covid-19 “and are quite sick,” the Senate GOP leader said. Republican Senate President...
Crews search for missing in Tennessee deluge that killed 22Video
WAVERLY, Tenn. — Search crews worked through shattered homes and tangled debris on Monday, looking for about a dozen people still missing after record-breaking rain sent floodwaters surging through rural Tennessee, killing at least 22 people. Saturday’s flooding took out roads, cellphone towers and telephone lines, leaving people uncertain about...
Enrique Tarrio, Proud Boys leader who burned BLM flag, gets 5 months in jail
The leader of the Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced to more than five months in jail on Monday for burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn down from a historic Black church in downtown Washington and bringing two high-capacity firearm magazines into the nation’s capital days shortly...
Hearings in Pennsylvania election ‘investigation’ to begin, senator says
HARRISBURG — The top Republican in Pennsylvania’s Senate said Monday that hearings will begin this week as he committed to carrying out a “full forensic investigation” of the state’s 2020 presidential election. Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre, said he has communicated with former President Donald Trump, whose baseless...
West Virginia’s largest private employer issues worker vaccine mandate
CHARLESTON — The West Virginia University Health System, the state’s largest private employer, announced Monday that it will require all employees to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Oct. 31 as covid-19 cases continue to grow exponentially statewide. The mandate applies to workers at all of the WVU Health...
Rev. Jesse Jackson and wife remain hospitalized for covid-19
CHICAGO — Civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his wife, Jacqueline, remained hospitalized Monday after testing positive for covid-19, family members said. Both were admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Saturday, with their age as a factor, according to their son Jonathan Jackson. Jesse Jackson is 79 and...
Igor Vovkovinskiy, tallest man in U.S., dies in Minnesota
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Igor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in the United States, has died in Minnesota. He was 38. His family said the Ukrainian-born Vovkovinskiy died of heart disease on Friday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. His mother, Svetlana Vovkovinska, an ICU nurse at Mayo, initially posted about his...
Internal probe clears officer in Capitol riot shooting
WASHINGTON — An officer who shot and killed a woman during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as she began to climb through the broken part of a door leading into an area known as the Speaker’s Lobby acted lawfully and in line with police department policy, the...
Diner leaves $10,000 tip for workers at Florida restaurant
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A diner at a north Florida restaurant gathered the staff of 10 together to thank them for their hard work before leaving them a $10,000 tip to share. It happened last Tuesday night as the man, his wife and son finished their dinner at the Wahoo Seafood...
Pentagon to mandate covid-19 vaccine, as Pfizer is approved
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says it will require service members to receive the covid-19 vaccine now that the Pfizer vaccine has received full approval. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is making good on his vow earlier this month to require the shots once the...
WHO head calls for 2-month vaccine booster moratorium
BUDAPEST, Hungary — The head of the World Health Organization on Monday called for a two-month moratorium on administering booster shots of covid-19 vaccines as a means of reducing global vaccine inequality and preventing the emergence of new coronavirus variants. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Hungary’s capital,...
U.S. regulators give full approval to Pfizer covid-19 vaccine
WASHINGTON — The U.S. gave full approval to Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine on Monday, a milestone that may help lift public confidence in the shots as the nation battles the most contagious coronavirus mutant yet. The vaccine made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech now carries the strongest endorsement from the...
Gunfire at Kabul airport kills 1 amid chaotic evacuations
KABUL, Afghanistan — A firefight just outside Kabul’s international airport killed at least one Afghan soldier early Monday, German officials said, the latest chaos to engulf Western efforts to evacuate those fleeing the Taliban takeover of the country. The airport shooting came as the Taliban sent fighters north of the...
Henri’s lazy remnants hinder cleanup, threaten inland floods
The slow and sprawling storm system named Henri drenched much of the inland Northeast with rain Monday, hampering cleanup efforts and threatening further flooding in areas with ground already saturated from a wet summer. Rains from the storm, which spared coastal areas of New York and New England major damage...
As Cuomo exits, Hochul to take office minus ‘distractions’
ALBANY, N.Y. — Andrew Cuomo neared the end of his decade as New York’s governor Monday, as he prepared to relinquish his tight grip on government to Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul in a midnight power transfer that will break another glass ceiling for women in state politics. Cuomo, a Democrat,...
Missing 2-year-old girl’s body recovered in Allegheny River in Warren County
WARREN — Pennsylvania State Police troopers are continuing their investigation into the death of a 2-year-old girl whose body was recovered from the Allegheny River on Sunday after she had wandered away from her Warren County home on Saturday morning. The child, whose name was not released, was reported missing...
Poll: School mask, vaccine mandates supported in U.S.
As covid-19 cases surge around the country, a majority of Americans say they support mask mandates for students and teachers in K-12 schools, according to a new poll, but their views are sharply divided along political lines. About 6 in 10 Americans say students and teachers should be required to...
