Find covid origin or face another pandemic, U.S. experts warnVideo
WASHINGTON — The world needs the cooperation of the Chinese government to trace the origins of covid-19 and prevent future pandemic threats, two leading U.S. disease experts said Sunday. Information to support the theory that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, has increased, said...
Texas Senate passes elections bill after more than 7 hours of debate
AUSTIN — The Texas Senate advanced a massive elections bill Sunday morning, after an hourslong, overnight debate in which Democrats blasted the GOP majority for releasing just hours earlier a new version of the legislation that expanded its restrictions and penalties. Discussion on the sweeping voting legislation kicked off just...
Netanyahu could lose PM job as rivals attempt to join forcesVideo
JERUSALEM — A former ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he would seek to form a coalition government with the Israeli leader’s opponents, taking a major step toward ending the rule of the longtime premier. The dramatic announcement by Naftali Bennett, leader of the small hardline Yamina...
Tulsa Race Massacre centennial events proceed amid hiccups
TULSA, Okla. — Joi McCondichie is a native of this city, but her life and career in public education kept her away from home for decades. When she returned to Tulsa from Los Angeles with her then-teenage son, she moved into a home just off of the Osage Prairie Trail...
More states ease lingering virus rules as vaccine rates rise
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, more U.S. cities and states are shrugging off lingering covid-19 restrictions as vaccination rates rise and the number of infections falls. Massachusetts lifted a mask requirement Saturday, a day after New Jersey dropped its mandate. In New York City and...
In South Florida, shootings usher in bloody holiday weekend
HIALEAH, Fla. — Violence ushered in the Memorial Day weekend in South Florida, when gunmen indiscriminately sprayed bullets into crowds at two Miami venues. Two people died and at least 20 others were injured early Sunday morning during a shooting outside a banquet hall, about a day after a drive-by...
Small plane crashes into Tennessee lake; 7 believed dead
SMYRNA, Tenn. — A small jet carrying seven people crashed into a Tennessee lake on Saturday, and authorities indicated that no one on board survived. The Cessna C501 crashed into Percy Priest Lake near Smyrna after taking off from a nearby airport about 11 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said...
Chinese cargo spacecraft docks with orbital station
BEIJING — An automated spacecraft docked with China’s new space station Sunday carrying fuel and supplies for its future crew, the Chinese space agency announced. Tianzhou-2 spacecraft reached the Tianhe station eight hours after blasting off from Hainan, an island in the South China Sea, China Manned Space said. It...
CDC data indicate U.S. is on track for July 4 vaccination target
The United States is on track to reach a goal calling for 70% of adults to have received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine by July 4, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New data released Saturday indicates that more that half of all adults...
Postal Service looks to raise first-class stamp to 58 cents
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service wants to raise rates on first-class stamps from 55 cents to 58 cents as part of a host of price hikes and service changes designed to reduce debt for the beleaguered agency. The request for the changes, which would take effect Aug. 29, was...
Black fear of Tulsa police lingers 100 years after massacre
TULSA, Okla. — There’s been undeniable progress in the relationship between the Tulsa police and the city’s Black community in the past 100 years. Then again, it’s hard to imagine it could have gotten worse. Complaints about police bias and a lack of enough minority officers remain. But the police...
Trump looms large in Pennsylvania’s GOP primaries in 2022
HARRISBURG — With Pennsylvania’s wide-open races for governor and U.S. Senate taking shape, Republican candidates with strong ties to Donald Trump are running and considered strong contenders for the party’s nominations — a powerful sign of the former president’s enduring popularity within the GOP. Within a few days of each...
More than 200 bodies found at Indigenous school in Canada
KAMLOOPS, British Colombia — The remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, have been found buried on the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school — one of the institutions that held children taken from families across the nation. Chief Rosanne Casimir of...
DA won’t seek new death sentence against Scott Peterson
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California district attorney said in a court filing Friday that she won’t seek a new death sentence against Scott Peterson, convicted in 2005 of murdering his pregnant wife. The Stanislaus County district attorney’s office said it would drop efforts to restore the penalty thrown out last...
NASA releases stunning new pic of Milky Way’s ‘downtown’
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has released a stunning new picture of our galaxy’s violent, super-energized “downtown.” It’s a composite of 370 observations over the past two decades by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, depicting billions of stars and countless black holes in the center, or heart, of the Milky...
3 officers plead not guilty in Black man’s restraint death
SEATTLE — Five weeks after ex-Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, three Washington state police officers pleaded not guilty Friday in the death of Manuel Ellis, another Black man who pleaded for breath under an officer’s knee. Tacoma police officers Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins and Timothy...
Pressure for Senate rules change after GOP blocks Jan. 6 probe
WASHINGTON — As Republicans blocked a bill Friday to establish a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, pressure mounted on Democrats to end the practice of requiring 60 votes to move legislation through the Senate if they have any hope of advancing their priorities and President Joe Biden’s...
After transition, Pa.’s unemployment system will be faster, easier to use, state officials say
Pennsylvania’s 40-year-old unemployment filing system will go offline next week and a new system that officials say will be faster and easier to use will take its place. The transition means the state will not take new applications for unemployment benefits from Monday to June 7, and people already receiving...
Pennsylvania using insecticide on invasive spotted lanternflies
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania has started spraying insecticide on spotted lanternflies, a new strategy that state officials are using in an attempt to slow the spread of the invasive pest. Crews using backpack sprayers and truck-mounted spray equipment are spraying the bugs along railways, interstates and other transportation rights-of-way, the state...
Sheriff: California rail yard shooter had gun, ammo stockpile at house
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Authorities say the gunman who killed nine co-workers at a California rail yard had 12 guns and 22,000 rounds of ammunition at his home that he set on fire. Officials said Friday that the shooter, Samuel James Cassidy, had coordinated a fire at his house to...
Bill Cosby refuses sex offender program, so parole is denied
PHILADELPHIA — Actor Bill Cosby won’t be paroled this year after refusing to participate in sex offender programs during his nearly three years in state prison in Pennsylvania. The 83-year-old Cosby has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing even if it means serving...
Biden’s $6T budget: Social spending, taxes on business
President Joe Biden on Friday unveiled a $6 trillion budget for next year that’s piled high with new safety net programs for the poor and middle class, but his generosity depends on taxing corporations and the wealthy to keep the nation’s spiking debt from spiraling totally out of control. Biden...
Microsoft: SolarWinds hackers target 150 organizations with phishing
The state-backed Russian cyber spies behind the SolarWinds hacking campaign launched a targeted spear-phishing assault on U.S. and foreign government agencies and think tanks this week using an email marketing account of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Microsoft says. The effort targeted about 3,000 email accounts at more than...
Plague of ravenous, destructive mice tormenting Australians
BOGAN GATE, Australia — At night, the floors of sheds vanish beneath carpets of scampering mice. Ceilings come alive with the sounds of scratching. One family blamed mice chewing electrical wires for their house burning down. Vast tracts of land in Australia’s New South Wales state are being threatened by...
European regulator recommends Pfizer vaccine for children 12-15
The European Medicines Agency on Friday recommended that the use of the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech be expanded to children ages 12 to 15, a decision that offers younger and less at-risk populations across the continent access to a covid-19 shot for the first time. The Pfizer-BioNTech...
