Justices reject Johnson & Johnson appeal of $2B talc verdict
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is leaving in place a $2 billion verdict in favor of women who claim they developed ovarian cancer from using Johnson & Johnson talc products. The justices did not comment Tuesday in rejecting Johnson & Johnson’s appeal. The company argued that it was not treated...
Pa. chooses ‘responsibility’ over $1 million lotteries to encourage covid-19 vaccination
Pennsylvania officials considered tactics such as a lottery to motivate people to get vaccinated against covid-19, and they remain a possibility, Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said. Some states are touting prizes worth $1 million or more to spur people to get the covid-19 vaccines. But Beam expressed confidence...
Officer who tackled Boston Marathon bomber retires
WATERTOWN, Mass. — A suburban Boston police officer who became a national hero in 2013 when he tackled one of the Boston Marathon bombers retired from the only job he says he ever wanted. Watertown police Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese retired on Monday after more than 41 years on the force....
Moderna seeks full FDA approval for its covid-19 vaccine
Moderna Inc. said it is seeking a full approval for its covid-19 vaccine, a move that could make a shot cleared on an emergency basis during the pandemic into a stable source of revenue for years to come. The company said in a statement Tuesday that it will submit data...
Russian authorities increase pressure on opposition
MOSCOW — Russian authorities have ramped up their pressure on dissent ahead of a parliamentary election, arresting one opposition activist and raiding several others’ homes. Andrei Pivovarov, the head of the Open Russia movement that dissolved itself last week, was pulled off a Warsaw-bound plane at St. Petersburg’s airport just...
Biden marks Tulsa race massacre in emotional, graphic speechVideo
WASHINGTON — An emotional President Joe Biden marked the 100th anniversary of the massacre that destroyed a thriving Black community in Tulsa, declaring Tuesday that he had “come to fill the silence” about one of the nation’s darkest — and long suppressed — moments of racial violence. “Some injustices are...
Vatican law criminalizes abuse of adults by priests, laity
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has changed church law to explicitly criminalize the sexual abuse of adults by priests who abuse their authority and to say that laypeople who hold church office can be sanctioned for similar sex crimes. The new provisions, released Tuesday after 14 years of study, were...
Covid-19 variants to be labeled as Greek letters
GENEVA — The World Health Organization is announcing a new nomenclature for the covid-19 variants that were previously — and somewhat uncomfortably — known either by their technical letter-number codes or by the countries in which they first appeared. Hoping to strike a fair and more comprehensible balance, WHO said...
Kentucky man who received controversial pardon from Gov. Bevin rearrested
LONDON, Ky. — A Kentucky man who received a controversial pardon from then-Gov. Matt Bevin was rearrested Sunday, The Courier-Journal reported. Patrick Baker was convicted of killing Donald Mills. Mills’ sister told the paper an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives contacted her Monday to...
West Virginia urban deer hunt is lifeline for food programs
A bowhunt for deer in one West Virginia city that began several years ago has become a lifeline for local food pantries and community kitchens. When hunters first proposed an urban deer hunt in Morgantown about a decade ago, the idea was to control the population. Collisions with cars were...
Nevada OKs bill in try for 1st presidential nominating state
CARSON CITY — Nevada lawmakers passed a bill on Monday that aims to make the state the first to weigh in on the 2024 presidential primary contests. The move upends decades of political tradition and is likely to prompt pushback from other early states that want to retain their places...
Meat is latest cyber victim as hackers hit top supplier JBS
JBS SA, the world’s biggest meat supplier, has been targeted in a cybersecurity attack that shut down its North American and Australian computer networks in the latest threat to pandemic-rattled global food supply chains. JBS USA said it was the target of an organized cybersecurity attack on Sunday, affecting some...
Milkweed planted in California to help monarch butterflies
SAN FRANCISCO — A conservation group is planting more than 30,000 milkweed plants in California in the hope of giving Western monarch butterflies new places to breed. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday that the River Partners group has joined with others and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife...
Man accused of plotting Walmart attack arrested in Texas
KERRVILLE, Texas — Authorities in Texas arrested a man accused of plotting to carry out a mass shooting at a Walmart, and a search of the suspect’s home turned up firearms, ammunition and materials officials described as “radical ideology paraphernalia.” Coleman Thomas Blevins, 28, was arrested Friday in Kerrville and...
Iran enriched record uranium stockpile amid Vienna talks
Iran produced a record volume of highly enriched uranium that could quickly be turned into fuel for a nuclear weapon, underscoring the urgency with which diplomats are moving to restore an agreement that would reign in the Persian Gulf nation’s program. International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors circulated a confidential assessment...
Johnson & Johnson asks high court to void $2B talc verdict
WASHINGTON — Johnson & Johnson is asking for Supreme Court review of a $2 billion verdict in favor of women who claim they developed ovarian cancer from using the company’s talc products. The case features an array of high-profile attorneys, some in unusual alliances, including former independent counsel Kenneth Starr,...
Pentagon chief slams Ted Cruz for abetting Russia, China with claim that ‘woke’ policies are turning Army into ‘pansies’
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin slammed Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday for accusing the Army of projecting an image of “pansies” because of its inclusive recruiting policies, asserting that the Texas Republican’s rhetoric only emboldens adversaries. China and Russia “would like to capitalize on talking points like that,” the...
Internal PSERS documents show how Pa’s biggest pension fund got key financial calculation wrong
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. After Pennsylvania’s biggest pension plan botched a crucial financial calculation, the FBI launched an investigation, the fund’s board began its own...
Mark Zuckerberg helped some Pa. counties survive 2020 election; GOP lawmakers say that was unfair
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 — As coronavirus cases rose and Pennsylvania counties were flooded with millions of mail ballot applications last fall, election directors...
Mobile vaccination units hit tiny U.S. towns to boost immunity
FALLON, Nev. — Pick-up truck drivers motor up to a white trailer in a parking lot on Fallon Paiute-Shoshone land in Nevada’s high desert and within a few moments they’re handed forms to sign, jabbed with coronavirus vaccine and sent on their way. The pop-up clinic 60 miles (96 kilometers)...
Study blames climate change for 37% of global heat deaths
More than one-third of the world’s heat deaths each year are due directly to global warming, according to the latest study to calculate the human cost of climate change. But scientists say that’s only a sliver of climate’s overall toll — even more people die from other extreme weather amplified...
Biden commemorates fallen veterans at Arlington Cemetery
ARLINGTON, Va. — President Joe Biden honored America’s war dead at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day by laying a wreath at the hallowed burial ground and extolling the sacrifices of the fallen for the pursuit of democracy. The president was joined on Monday by first lady Jill Biden, Vice...
China easing birth limits further to cope with aging society
BEIJING — China’s ruling Communist Party said Monday it will ease birth limits to allow all couples to have three children instead of two in hopes of slowing the rapid aging of its population, which is adding to strains on the economy and society. The ruling party has enforced birth...
Dems walk, stop Texas GOP’s sweeping voting restrictions
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Democrats pulled off a dramatic, last-ditch walkout in the state House of Representatives on Sunday night to block passage of one of the most restrictive voting bills in the U.S., leaving Republicans with no choice but to abandon a midnight deadline and declare the legislative session...
South Africa returns to stricter lockdown, coronavirus ‘surging’
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday that his country will return to stricter lockdown measures in the face of a sharp rise in covid-19 cases that indicate the virus is “surging again” in Africa’s worst-affected nation. Positive cases in South Africa in the past...
