Firefighter dies battling wildfire sparked by gender reveal
A firefighter died battling a wildfire in California that officials said was sparked by a device used to reveal a baby’s gender. The death happened Thursday in the San Bernardino National Forest as crews battled the El Dorado Fire, the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement. The fire erupted...
Philadelphia puts ban on police chokeholds into law
The Philadelphia City Council formally banned police from using certain modes of restraint on crime suspects Thursday, including kneeling on a suspect’s neck, and voted to open contract negotiations with the police union to the public. The contract bill passed by the council requires a public hearing to be held...
Pennsylvania sees big drop in jobless rate in August
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate took a steep drop in August as the labor force shrank and payrolls shot up again in a continuing rebound from shutdowns and the worst economic effects of the pandemic, according to state figures released Friday. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was 10.3% in August, down 2.2 percentage points...
Wilkes-Barre hospital accused of altering records wants case sealed
A Pennsylvania hospital wants a judge to seal all records and issue a gag order in a long-running wrongful death suit that alleges hospital officials altered the medical records of a 44-year-old man who died after going to the emergency room with chest pain and breathing difficulties. In an unusual...
CDC drops controversial testing advice that caused backlashVideo
NEW YORK — U.S. health officials on Friday dropped a controversial piece of coronavirus guidance and is now advising anyone who has been in close contact with an infected person get tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention essentially returned to its previous testing guidance, getting rid of language...
Trump gives award to Kuwait’s ruling emir
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has bestowed a top U.S. honor on Kuwait’s ruling emir, who has played a central role in resolving a yearslong four-nation boycott of Qatar and is now ill and receiving treatment in the U.S., the White House said Friday. Trump awarded the Legion of Merit...
Flooding affects more than 1 million across East AfricaVideo
JOHANNESBURG — Flooding has affected well over a million people across East Africa, another calamity threatening food security on top of a historic locust outbreak and the coronavirus pandemic. The Nile River has hit its highest levels in a half-century under heavy seasonal rainfall, and large parts of Sudan, Ethiopia...
Pennsylvania reports 760 new coronavirus cases, 21 new deaths
Pennsylvania on Friday reported 760 new coronavirus cases to raise the state’s total to 148,683 since March. There were 11,530 new negative cases reported, making the daily positivity rate 6.18%. The state’s seven-day average of new cases is 828. There were 172,682 tests administered in the past seven days with...
Libya’s east-based commander promises end of oil blockadeVideo
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Libya’s commander who rules the eastern half of the country and who was behind a year-long military attempt to capture the capital, Tripoli, said Friday that oil production would restart soon, ending a months-long blockade of the nation’s vital oil fields. The Tripoli-based National Oil...
Man serving life requests death for Indiana prison slaying
ANDERSON, Ind. — A man serving two life sentences at an Indiana prison asked for the death penalty for a slaying of a fellow inmate, but a prosecutor said he is reluctant to pursue it. Tommy P. Holland, 45, of Indianapolis is charged with murder in the stabbing of Clifford...
Emergency tents back as Madrid struggles to curb virus wave
MADRID — A line of green tents labeled with a red cross stands empty Friday in the garden of a Madrid military hospital as a second wave of the coronavirus takes hold in the Spanish capital. The Gómez Ulla hospital is getting ready just in case emergency wards get crammed...
Murrysville woman, 20, appointed to national Crohn’s advocacy board
For Rachel Stackiewicz, enjoying most meals is a temporary pleasure at best. Stackiewicz, 20, of Murrysville, has been living since age 11 with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Along with ulcerative colitis, it is one of two illnesses classified as inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD. “Every...
Assange lawyer says Trump offered indirect offer of pardon
LONDON — A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has told a London court that her client was indirectly offered a “win-win” deal by President Donald Trump that would see him avoid extradition to the U.S. if he revealed the source of a leak of documents from the Democratic Party...
Judge blocks Michigan’s ban on transporting voters to polls
LANSING, Mich. — A federal judge has blocked Michigan’s longstanding ban on transporting voters to the polls, ruling it conflicts with U.S. election law. District Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis in Detroit issued an injunction Thursday against enforcing the restriction in November’s presidential election. A form of the prohibition has been...
U.S. curbs WeChat transfers, freezes TikTok as deadline loomsVideo
The U.S. will ban some transactions over the Chinese-owned WeChat app while freezing TikTok’s app starting Sunday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said. Ross said Friday that the U.S. will prohibit U.S.-to-U.S. transactions related to WeChat and its parent company Tencent Holdings Ltd. but that will not impact activity in China....
Trump’s vaccine ambitions contradict his own health expertsVideo
President Donald Trump once again promised that a covid-19 vaccine for Americans could be ready within weeks, a timeline faster than has been deemed possible or likely by the scientific agencies overseeing the effort and the companies developing the products. Trump’s optimistic promises have left him in a battle with...
‘It will destroy our country’: Trump targets school curriculums that aim to teach truth about slaveryVideo
President Donald Trump painted a grim and divisive portrait of the state of American education on Thursday, claiming that anything from elementary schools to colleges are being overrun by “radical” teachers bent on destroying “our children” with “Marxist doctrines.” The president was talking about an educational framework known as critical...
Why the ruling against Wolf’s covid-19 restrictions faces long odds on appeal, explained
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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 weekly newsletter. HARRISBURG — A federal judge sent a shockwave through Pennsylvania politics this week when he ruled that several actions taken...
Ex-Pence adviser says Trump bungled virus; she’s voting for BidenVideo
WASHINGTON — A former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence who also served on the White House coronavirus task force says President Donald Trump once suggested that covid-19 might be a good thing because it would stop him from having to shake hands with “disgusting people.” Olivia Troye is the...
U.S. judge blocks Postal Service changes that slowed mailVideo
SEATTLE — A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked controversial Postal Service changes that have slowed mail nationwide, calling them “a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service” before the November election. Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Wash., said he was issuing a nationwide preliminary injunction sought by...
Rescuers reach people cut off by Gulf Coast hurricaneVideo
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Rescuers on the Gulf Coast used high-water vehicles Thursday to reach people cut off by floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Sally, even as a second round of flooding began taking shape along rivers and creeks swollen by the storm’s heavy rains. Across southern Alabama and the...
Philadelphia puts ban on police chokeholds into law
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia City Council formally banned police from using certain modes of restraint on crime suspects Thursday, including kneeling on a suspect’s neck, and voted to open contract negotiations with the police union to the public. The contract bill passed by the council requires a public hearing to...
Attorney General Bill Barr under fire over comparison of virus lock-in to slaveryVideo
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr drew sharp condemnation Thursday for comparing lockdown orders during the coronavirus pandemic to slavery. In remarks Wednesday night at an event hosted by Hillsdale College, Barr had called the lockdown orders the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history” since slavery. His comments,...
ICE detainees complained about ‘rough’ treatment from Georgia doctor
ATLANTA — For years, women at a South Georgia immigration jail talked about Dr. Mahendra Amin. The gynecologist was “rough,” they said. His examinations could leave a bruise. And he had a way of turning a routine visit into surgical procedures that the women weren’t sure they needed. “They didn’t...
Report: Feds considered using ‘heat ray’ on D.C. protesters in Lafayette ParkVideo
WASHINGTON — A military whistleblower says federal officials sought some unusual crowd control devices — including one that’s been called a “heat ray” — to deal with protesters outside the White House on the June day that law enforcement forcibly cleared Lafayette Square. In written responses to questions from a...
