Census: Texas gains Congress seats; Calif. loses for 1st timeVideo
WASHINGTON — The nation’s political center of gravity shifted further to the Republican-led South and West on Monday, with Texas, Florida and other Sun Belt states gaining congressional seats while chillier climes like New York and Ohio lost them. Altogether, the U.S. population rose to 331,449,281, the Census Bureau said,...
Family of Black man shot by deputy in Virginia seeks release of audio
SPOTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE, Va. — The family of a Black man shot by a Virginia sheriff’s deputy last week demanded the release of additional audio recordings related to the incident Monday and said Isaiah Brown remained in “very critical” condition. Speaking at a news conference outside the Spotsylvania County courthouse, an...
Justice Department to investigate Louisville policing practices after Breonna Taylor death
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is launching a broad inquiry of the police department in Louisville, Kentucky, the second such investigation into a local law enforcement agency in the last week. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the probe, saying it will examine whether the Louisville police force engages “in...
Pennsylvania officials set sights on vaccinating homebound residents
As the pace of covid-19 vaccinations continues to accelerate in Pennsylvania, state officials have turned their attention to people who are unable to leave their homes. “Now we’re at the point where supply is coming close to demand,” Gov. Tom Wolf said Monday during a news conference in Reading. “We...
Biden’s first address to Congress is invite-only
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s first address to Congress is an invite-only affair, no guests allowed. The restrictions for Wednesday’s event are due to covid-19 safety protocols, but will have the added security benefit of a limited number of people inside the Capitol for the president’s first major indoor event...
U.S. will share AstraZeneca vaccines with world
WASHINGTON — The U.S. will begin sharing its entire pipeline of vaccines from AstraZeneca once the covid-19 vaccine clear federal safety reviews, the White House told the Associated Press on Monday, with as many as 60 million doses expected to be available for export in the coming months. The move...
Ga. man busted for meth after neighbor’s dog finds his stash
A man in Thomas County, Ga. got busted for drug possession after his neighbor’s dog found his stash of methamphetamine. The dog had reportedly come home carrying a suspicious brown bag in its mouth, leading to a further investigation as to where the illegal contents may have come from. WSB-TV...
Judge sets hearing on former Penn State president Graham Spanier’s pending jail sentence
HARRISBURG — Graham Spanier’s lawyers are expected to be in a Pennsylvania courtroom next month as a judge considers whether the former Penn State president should have to report to jail to start serving his sentence related to the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal. Dauphin County President Judge John F....
Hundreds show up in Nebraska for fight over name JoshVideo
LINCOLN, Neb. — A fight over the name of Josh drew a crowd from around the country to a Nebraska park Saturday for a heated pool-noodle brawl. It all started a year ago when pandemic boredom set in and Josh Swain, a 22-year-old college student from Tucson, Ariz., messaged others...
Irwin OKs plans for development at Penn-Irwin Motel site
The former Penn-Irwin Motel property along Route 30 in Irwin is a step closer to a transformation after officials approved plans for the site, although much of the hillside will be removed before construction can begin. Irwin Borough approved development plans submitted by Colony Development Co. of North Huntingdon for...
Mother, son killed by bulls in Germany
BERLIN — Police say an 81-year-old woman and her 56-year-old son are believed to have been killed by bulls at their farm in western Germany. Southern Hesse police said officers were alerted Monday morning that two bulls were on the loose in the town of Lorsch, about 30 miles south...
Trump ally Doug Collins won’t run for Senate or Georgia governor
ATLANTA — Georgia Republican Doug Collins, a favorite of former President Donald Trump, says he doesn’t plan to run for governor or U.S. Senate in 2022. The former congressman’s announcement Monday makes it less likely there will be a top-drawer primary challenger to Gov. Brian Kemp, a frequent target of...
Germany debates privileges for those who’ve been vaccinated
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel and the governors of Germany’s 16 states on Monday discussed whether people who have been fully vaccinated against covid-19 should be exempt from certain restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the virus. The issue of special privileges for vaccinated people has been...
Syria rights group urges world to reject presidential vote
BEIRUT — A leading Syrian rights group Monday called on the international community to reject next month’s presidential elections because they will take place under the rule of President Bashar Assad, who is implicated in war crimes. Paris-based Syrian Network for Human Rights, describing the elections as a sham, said...
Supreme Court to take up right to carry gun for self-defense
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an appeal to expand gun rights in the United States in a New York case over the right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. The case marks the court’s first foray into gun rights since Justice Amy Coney...
EU finalizing plans to allow U.S. tourists back this summer
BRUSSELS — The European Union is finalizing plans to allow tourists from the United States to travel to the 27-nation bloc this summer, officials said Monday. More than a year after the EU restricted travel to the region to a bare minimum in a bid to contain the pandemic, the...
Pa. student’s Snapchat profanity leads to high court speech case
WASHINGTON — Fourteen-year-old Brandi Levy was having that kind of day where she just wanted to scream. So she did, in a profanity-laced posting on Snapchat that has, improbably, ended up before the Supreme Court in the most significant case on student speech in more than 50 years. At issue...
Russian authorities suspend operation of Navalny’s offices
MOSCOW — Russian authorities on Monday ordered the offices of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny to suspend all of their activities pending a court ruling on whether to ban them as an extremist group. The injunction by the Moscow prosecutor’s office was posted on social media by Navalny’s allies. The...
Biden expanding summer food program for 34 million schoolchildren
The Biden administration is expanding a program to feed as many as 34 million schoolchildren during the summer months, using funds from the coronavirus relief package approved in March. The Agriculture Department is announcing Monday that it will continue through the summer a payments program that replaced school meals because...
France reopens schools as virus patients numbers peak
PARIS — Nursery and primary schools reopened on Monday across France after a three-week closure in the first step out of the country’s partial lockdown, despite numbers of covid-19 patients in intensive care units reaching their highest level since last spring. Authorities argue that daily numbers of new infections have...
Michigan became hotspot as variants rose and vigilance waned
ROYAL OAK, Mich. — Eric Gala passed up an opportunity to get a coronavirus vaccine when shots became available in Michigan, and he admits not taking the virus seriously enough. Then he got sick with what he thought was the flu. He thought he would sweat it out and then...
Airline bans Alaska state senator for violating mask rules
JUNEAU — Alaska Airlines has banned an Alaska state senator for refusing to follow mask requirements. “We have notified Senator Lora Reinbold that she is not permitted to fly with us for her continued refusal to comply with employee instruction regarding the current mask policy,” spokesman Tim Thompson told the...
EU reportedly set to allow vaccinated U.S. tourists to visit this summer
The European Union plans to open its doors this summer to U.S. tourists who’ve been fully vaccinated against covid-19, The New York Times reported, citing the head of the bloc’s executive body. The change, which would come under certain conditions, would end the bloc’s more than one-year ban of nonessential...
Florida family may spend life in prison after ‘church’ sold bleach as covid-19 cure
MIAMI — A federal grand jury brought charges against members of a Bradenton family nearly a year after they were arrested for selling bleach that they claimed to be a cure for the covid-19 virus. Mark Grenon and his three sons — Jonathan, Jordan and Joseph — face several charges...
Prototype of 1st U.S. dollar coins auctioned for $840,000
A piece of copper that was struck by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1794 and was a prototype for the fledgling nation’s money was auctioned off for $840,000, considerably more than expected, an official said. Heritage auctions spokesman Eric Bradley said the “No Stars Flowing Hair Dollar” opened at...
