Mexican leader says Biden offers to give $4B to Central America
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s first calls to foreign leaders went to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at a strained moment for the U.S. relationship with its North American neighbors. Mexico’s president said Saturday that Biden told him the U.S. would send $4...
Arizona sheriff’s office investigating fatal crash of tour bus headed to Grand Canyon
KINGMAN, Ariz. — An Arizona sheriff’s office was investigating a tour bus crash that killed one person and injured dozens of others, including five seriously, officials said Saturday. The Las Vegas-based bus crashed Friday and rolled over in northwestern Arizona while headed to a Grand Canyon viewpoint on the Hualapai...
An airport named after Donald Trump? Palm Beach County says ‘no’ to that
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump won’t see his name on the airport in his home turf of Palm Beach County — and it also might be difficult to engrave it anywhere else in South Florida. A majority of Palm Beach County commissioners told the South Florida Sun...
Judge: Kenosha shooter can’t associate with supremacists
KENOSHA, Wis. — An 18-year-old Illinois teen charged with fatally shooting two people during a protest in southeastern Wisconsin last year is prohibited from associating with known white supremacists under a judge’s recently modified bail conditions. Kyle Rittenhouse was 17 during the Aug. 25 demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as hundreds...
3,400 arrested at protests demanding Navalny’s release
MOSCOW — Russian police arrested more than 3,400 people Saturday in nationwide protests demanding the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s most prominent foe, according to a group that counts political detentions. The protests in scores of cities in temperatures as low as minus-58 F highlighted how Navalny...
Pa. legislator mocks trans state health secretary who is a Biden nominee
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania legislator from Armstrong and Indiana counties shared on Facebook an image mocking the appearance of the state’s recently departed health secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman who has been nominated to serve in the Biden administration, and then offered a general apology Saturday. State Rep....
Democrats make federal election standards a top priority
Democrats plan to move quickly on one of the first bills of the new Congress, citing the need for federal election standards and other reforms to shore up the foundations of American democracy after a tumultuous post-election period and deadly riot at the Capitol. States have long had disparate and...
Aloha shirts on ‘boogaloos’ link symbol of peace to violence
HONOLULU — People following a violent movement that promotes a second U.S. civil war or the breakdown of modern society have been showing up at recent protests across the nation armed and wearing tactical gear. But the anti-government “boogaloo” movement has adopted an unlikely public and online symbol: the so-called...
Capitol attack reflects U.S. extremist evolution over decades
The takeover in 2016 by right-wing extremists of a federal bird sanctuary in Oregon. A standoff in 1992 between white separatists and federal agents in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. Right-wing extremism has previously played out for the...
Hospitalizations related to covid continue to fall in Pa.
For the third consecutive day, Pennsylvania on Saturday reported a significant drop in the number of patients who are hospitalized with covid-19, according to the state Department of Health. The state reported that 3,997 patients are hospitalized with the virus. That’s down from 4,882 on Wednesday. The number of newly...
Larry King, broadcasting giant for half-century, dies at 87
LOS ANGELES — Larry King, the suspenders-sporting everyman whose broadcast interviews with world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes helped define American conversation for a half-century, died Saturday. He was 87. King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his production company, Ora Media, tweeted. No cause of death...
Michigan Mega Millions ticket wins $1.05 billion jackpot
DETROIT — Someone in Michigan bought the winning ticket for the $1.05 billion Mega Millions jackpot, which is the third-largest lottery prize in U.S. history. The winning numbers for Friday night’s drawing were 4, 26, 42, 50 and 60, with a Mega Ball of 24. The winning ticket was purchased...
Italy takes action against TikTok following girl’s death
Italy’s data protection authority said Friday it was imposing an immediate block on TikTok’s access to data for any user whose age has not been verified. The authority said it was acting with “urgency” following the death of a 10-year-old girl in Sicily, who died while participating in a so-called...
Bus heading to Grand Canyon rolls over; 1 dead, 2 critical
A Las Vegas-based tour bus heading to the Grand Canyon rolled over in northwestern Arizona on Friday, killing one person and critically injuring two others, authorities said. The cause of the wreck around noon Friday was not yet known, said Anita Mortensen, a spokeswoman for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office....
Arizona, 15th state with legal pot, sees recreational sales
Legal sales of recreational marijuana in Arizona started on Friday, a once-unthinkable step in the former conservative stronghold that joins 14 other states that have broadly legalized pot. The state Health Services Department on Friday announced it had approved 86 licenses in nine of the state’s 15 counties under provisions...
Florida governor walks back claim over 1 millionth shot
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a made-for-TV moment: A 100-year-old World War II veteran getting a vaccine against the coronavirus. “An American hero,” the governor proclaimed Friday, would be the 1 millionth senior in his state to get a lifesaving shot in the arm. As it turned...
Key West wants to ban people from feeding roaming chickens
Feral chickens run free in Key West, just one of those things that keep the Southernmost City charmingly weird. But what’s delightful here and there becomes a nuisance when they’re everywhere. With the population getting out of hand, city commissioners are taking action — not by hunting down the fixings...
UK chief scientist says new virus variant may be more deadly
LONDON — There is some evidence that a new coronavirus variant first identified in southeast England carries a higher risk of death than the original strain, the British government’s chief scientific adviser said Friday — though he stressed that the data is uncertain. Patrick Vallance told a news conference that...
Pennsylvania income tax returns can be filed online with new state system
The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue has rolled out a new online income tax returns filing system. According to the state Department of Revenue, those wishing to file their state tax returns or make income tax payments can do so on mypath.pa.gov. “We’re excited to offer a new online filing system...
Biden orders review of domestic violent extremism threat
President Joe Biden has directed law enforcement and intelligence officials in his administration to study the threat of domestic violent extremism in the United States, an undertaking being launched weeks after a mob of insurgents loyal to Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. The disclosure Friday by White House press...
Twitter bans suspect Iran account after post threatens Trump
Twitter said Friday it has permanently banned an account that some in Iran believe is linked to the office of the country’s supreme leader after a posting that seemed to threaten former President Donald Trump. In the image posted by the suspect account late Thursday, Trump is shown playing golf...
Lucky few hit covid-19 vaccine jackpot for rare extra doses
Fortune struck one man in the bakery aisle at the supermarket. Two others were working the night shift at a Subway sandwich shop. Yet another was plucked from a list of 15,000 hopefuls. With millions of Americans waiting for their chance to get the coronavirus vaccine, a lucky few are...
Dry January is moist for some at the rocky start of 2021
NEW YORK — A raging pandemic, tumultuous presidential election and deadly Capitol insurrection have combined to make the annual tradition of Dry January more moist than air-tight for some. Not Sarah Arvizo. She considers it her easiest yet. As much as the 32-year-old Manhattanite would love to partake in a...
Man pleads guilty to deaths of 36 people in California warehouse fire
OAKLAND, Calif. — The master tenant of a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse where 36 people perished when a fire ignited during a dance party in 2016 pleaded guilty Friday to the deaths, avoiding a second trial after the first ended in a hung jury. Derick Almena, 50, pleaded guilty...
Oklahoma lawmaker proposes ‘Bigfoot’ hunting season
OKLAHOMA CITY — A mythical, ape-like creature that has captured the imagination of adventurers for decades has now become the target of a state lawmaker in Oklahoma. A Republican House member has introduced a bill that would create a Bigfoot hunting season. Rep. Justin Humphrey’s district includes the heavily forested...
