Acclaim, fundraising spread unevenly among Black colleges
ATLANTA — Two recent high-profile faculty appointments could be a fundraising and enrollment bonanza for Howard University, one of the nation’s most prestigious Black colleges. Many other Black schools are not so fortunate; in fact, many are struggling. Some, especially smaller private colleges, have been fighting for their survival for...
Chinese parents, abducted son reunited after 24 years
BANGKOK — After 24 years of heartache and searching, a Chinese couple was reunited with their son who was abducted as a toddler outside their front gate. Guo Gangtang and his wife, Zhang Wenge, hugged their 26-year-old son with tears in their eyes Sunday at a reunion organized by police...
Senate Democrats announce $3.5 trillion budget agreement
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats announced Tuesday that they have reached a budget agreement among themselves that envisions spending an enormous $3.5 trillion over the coming decade. The fiscal plan would pave the way for Democrats’ drive to direct a huge pool of federal resources at climate change, health care and...
Ex-Tennessee vaccine leader: Firing put politics over healthVideo
NASHVILLE — Tennessee’s former top vaccinations official said Tuesday that she couldn’t stay silent after she was fired this week amid scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers over her department’s outreach efforts to vaccinate teenagers against covid-19. Dr. Michelle Fiscus, who was the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs...
Gov. Wolf’s power-plant carbon-pricing plan nears finish line
HARRISBURG — The centerpiece of Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to fight climate change took another step Tuesday toward the final regulatory threshold to impose a price on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants in Pennsylvania. The Environmental Quality Board, composed primarily of Wolf appointees, approved the plan 15-4...
Appeals court: Dealers can sell handguns to 18-year-olds
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — A federal law that for more than 50 years has banned licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to young adults between age 18 and 21 is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. In a 2-1 opinion, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond...
Governor hopeful told Trump he was waved off Pa. election investigations. Bill Barr says that’s not true
PHILADELPHIA — Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Tuesday sharply denied that he ordered the top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia at the time not to investigate allegations of 2020 election fraud, and said Bill McSwain is only leveling that accusation to curry favor with former President Donald Trump in his...
Biden picks ex-West Virginia health official as drug czar
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is nominating West Virginia’s former health commissioner as the nation’s top anti-drug official, tapping a doctor who served on the front lines of the nation’s opioid epidemic. The White House said Tuesday that Dr. Rahul Gupta will be the first physician to lead the Office...
Ohio hospital: Patient gets kidney meant for someone else
CLEVELAND — An Ohio hospital has acknowledged that a patient received a new kidney meant for someone else. Officials at University Hospitals in Cleveland on Monday apologized for the mistake and said two employees have been placed on administrative leave. The kidney given to the wrong patient is compatible and...
National covid-19 cases rising again, doubling over 3 weeks
The covid-19 curve in the United States is rising again after months of decline, with the number of new cases per day doubling over the past three weeks, driven by the fast-spreading delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings. Confirmed infections climbed to an average of about...
2 Baltimore officers on U.S. task force shot, suspect killedVideo
WOODLAWN, Md. — Two Baltimore city police detectives were shot and a homicide suspect was killed as a U.S. Marshals’ task force attempted to serve a warrant Tuesday morning outside a shopping mall, authorities said. Members of the warrant apprehension task force were looking for a vehicle and suspect wanted...
Unwanted pets: Giant goldfish turn up in Minnesota waterwaysVideo
BURNSVILLE, Minn. — Officials in Minnesota said they’re finding more giant goldfish in waterways, prompting a plea to citizens to stop illegally dumping their unwanted fish into ponds and lakes. The goldfish, which can grow to the size of a football, compete with native species for food and increase algae...
Chicago banker Stephen Calk convicted in loans-for-Trump job scheme
NEW YORK — A Manhattan jury on Tuesday convicted a Chicago banker of criminal charges for enabling Paul Manafort to get $16 million in loans before the former campaign manager for ex-President Donald Trump helped him get an interview for a job in the Trump administration. The jury returned its...
‘This is a test of our time,’ Biden says in Philly speech on voting rightsVideo
PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden called the right to vote “a test of our time” and called on Americans to protect it amid GOP-led changes to election laws and threats to voting rights in a speech Tuesday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. “Some things in America should be...
Death toll in Florida condo building collapse rises to 95
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Exhausted crews neared the end of their search for victims of a Miami-area condominium tower collapse Tuesday as the death toll reached 95 with just a handful of people still unaccounted for. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference that the number of...
Wolf administration refuses to release details on multimillion-dollar unemployment mistake
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 — Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is refusing to provide details on the scope and timeline of an internal investigation...
Death toll rises to 92 in fire at Iraqi coronavirus ward
BAGHDAD — The death toll from a fire that swept through a hospital coronavirus ward in Iraq has climbed to at least 92, the Iraqi state news agency reported Tuesday. The announcement came as anguished family members buried their loved ones and lashed out at the government over the tragedy....
Experts: Don’t use Magic Eraser to whiten your teeth
Some trends can be harmless fun — pet rocks, Beanie Babies and the Ice Bucket Challenge, for example. But some trends can be downright harmful — ingesting TidePods, swallowing a spoonful of cinnamon, and the latest: Using Mr. Clean Magic Erasers to whiten your teeth. The trend has been making...
Biden pressed to do more to protect voting rights, democracy
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will lay out the “moral case” for voting rights as he faces growing pressure from civil rights activists and other Democrats to combat efforts by Republican-led state legislatures to restrict access to the ballot. Biden has declared that protecting voting rights was the central cause...
Russia warns U.S. against putting troops in Central Asia near Afghanistan
MOSCOW — Russia has strongly warned the United States against deploying its troops in the former Soviet Central Asian nations following their withdrawal from Afghanistan, a senior diplomat said in remarks published on Tuesday. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow conveyed the message to Washington last month...
Germany launches ‘space command’ to protect infrastructure
BERLIN — The German military on Tuesday launched a “space command” tasked with overseeing satellites, watching for dangerous space junk and analyzing other countries’ activities. Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer launched the new operation during a visit to its base at Uedem in western Germany. The military is “responding to the...
Summer camps hit with covid outbreaks — are schools next?
The United States has seen a string of covid-19 outbreaks tied to summer camps in recent weeks in places such as Texas, Illinois, Florida, Missouri and Kansas, in what some fear could be a preview of the upcoming school year. In some cases the outbreaks have spread from the camp...
Indicted Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg stripped of several company positions
NEW YORK — The finance chief of former President Donald Trump’s business empire has been removed as an officer at some of the company’s subsidiaries amid charges accusing him and the corporation of a long-running tax fraud scheme. Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg was indicted last week by...
Tennessee fires top vaccination official amid pandemic
NASHVILLE — Tennessee officials have fired the state’s top vaccination official, who had been facing scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers over her department’s outreach efforts to vaccinate teenagers against covid-19. Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health, told The...
Top Pa. judge called charging Bill Cosby ‘reprehensible.’ Now the prosecutor is firing back
PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s controversial decision to overturn Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction has sparked a rare public war of words between the court’s chief justice and Montgomery County prosecutors. In an interview Sunday with Harrisburg’s WHTM-TV, Chief Justice Max Baer justified the ruling that freed Cosby earlier...
