Heat will stay stuck on extra high for July in most of U.S.
The heat is on. And for most of America it’ll stay on through the rest of the month and maybe longer, meteorologists say. Widespread and prolonged extreme heat is baking the contiguous United States and meteorologists see no relief in sight, except for a brief time in a corner of...
New York requires visitors from 3 more states to quarantine
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York is now requiring people from three additional states to quarantine for 14 days as more individuals are testing positive for COVID-19 nationwide. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a Tuesday press release that Delaware, Kansas and Oklahoma now join a total of 19 states that qualify...
GOP worries Trump’s divisive June imperils Senate control
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s June began with his Bible-clutching photo op outside a church after authorities used chemicals and batons to scatter peaceful demonstrators. It never got less jarring or divisive. By month’s end, he was downplaying a coronavirus pandemic upsurge that was forcing Western and Southern states to...
Mexico president heads to Washington for meeting with Trump
MEXICO CITY — For his first foreign trip as president, Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador travels to Washington on Tuesday to meet with President Donald Trump, a leader who has repeatedly used Mexico as a piñata to rally his base. The visit, coming just four months before U.S. elections, has...
Brazil’s President Bolsonaro tests positive for covid-19Video
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday he has tested positive for the new coronavirus after months of downplaying its severity while deaths mounted rapidly inside the country. The 65-year-old right-wing populist who has been known to mingle in crowds without covering his face confirmed the results...
In reversal, Georgia universities to now mandate masks
ATLANTA — Georgia’s 26 public universities and colleges will mandate campus-wide mask wearing after the state university system reversed itself Monday. The University System of Georgia had previously told schools they should “strongly encourage” students and others to wear masks, but said that the system’s 26 universities couldn’t mandate face...
North Korea rejects talks as U.S. envoy arrives in Seoul
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Tuesday said it has no immediate intent to resume a dialogue with the United States as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun arrived in South Korea for discussions on stalled nuclear diplomacy. In a statement released through the North’s official Korean Central...
Lindsey Graham, facing tough reelection, breaks with Trump
WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham has publicly opposed President Donald Trump five times in the past few weeks, an unusual torrent of dissent from one of the president’s top allies in Washington just months before the South Carolina Republican faces a tough reelection challenge. Since June 20, Graham has blocked...
Brazil’s Bolsonaro tested for covid-19, feels well
SAO PAULO — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was tested for covid-19 after having an X-ray of his lungs on Monday. He didn’t say whether he was showing symptoms of the new coronavirus. Brazil’s presidency said in a statement the result of the test will be known on Tuesday. Earlier Bolsonaro,...
Roger Stone appeals denial of prison delay over coronavirus fears
Republican operative Roger Stone asked a federal appeals court to delay the start of his prison term until Sept. 3 from July 14 because of the coronavirus pandemic, after the trial judge denied his earlier request. Stone, sentenced to 40 months behind bars for lying to Congress during the Russia...
China’s Inner Mongolia region reports bubonic plague case
BEIJING — While China appears to have reduced coronavirus cases to near zero, other infectious threats remain, with local health authorities announcing a suspected bubonic plague case in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Authorities in the Bayannur district raised the plague warning on Sunday, ordered residents not to hunt wild...
Florida’s largest county closes restaurants as coronavirus spikesVideo
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida’s largest county is again severely limiting its restaurants and fully closing gyms and other indoor venues weeks after they reopened because a spike in coronavirus cases is creating a shortage of intensive care unit beds at its hospitals. Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said Monday...
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tests positive for covid-19Video
ATLANTA — Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Monday that she had tested positive for covid-19. The 50-year-old Democrat is among the women named as a potential vice-presidential running mate for presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden. “Covid-19 has literally hit home. I have had NO symptoms and have tested positive,”...
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice mandates masks as cases rise
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on Monday instituted a mandatory face mask order for indoor spaces after the state reported record numbers of new coronavirus cases over the weekend. The Republican’s executive order, which goes into effect at midnight, requires everyone over the age of 9 to wear the face...
Authorities identify Conneaut Lake drowning victim
CONNEAUT LAKE — An Erie woman fell into Conneaut Lake from the rear of boat Sunday afternoon and drowned, according to the Crawford County Coroner’s Office. The body of Kourtney Deese, 30, was recovered at 12:05 a.m. today by scuba divers off Oakland Beach/Morning Shores at Conneaut Lake. Deese’s death...
Trump-connected lobbyists reap windfall in federal coronavirus aid
WASHINGTON — Forty lobbyists with ties to President Donald Trump helped clients secure more than $10 billion in federal coronavirus aid, among them five former administration officials whose work potentially violates Trump’s own ethics policy, according to a report. The lobbyists identified Monday by the watchdog group Public Citizen either...
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, exposed to coronavirus, joined Trump on jetVideo
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Shortly after fireworks above Mount Rushmore disappeared into the night sky on Friday, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem accompanied President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One despite having had close contact with Trump’s son’s girlfriend, who had tested positive for coronavirus. Trump has been in a...
White woman charged as a result of racist Central Park confrontation
NEW YORK — A white woman who called the police during a videotaped dispute with a Black man over walking her dog without a leash in Central Park was charged Monday with filing a false police report. In May, Amy Cooper drew widespread condemnation for frantically calling 911 to claim...
White woman charged after racist Central Park confrontation
NEW YORK — A white woman who called the police during a videotaped dispute with a Black man over walking her dog without a leash in Central Park was charged Monday with filing a false police report. In May, Amy Cooper drew widespread condemnation for frantically calling 911 to claim...
Ghislaine Maxwell moved to New York for Epstein-related sex abuse chargesVideo
NEW YORK — Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell was transferred Monday to New York to face charges that she recruited women and girls, one as young as 14, for him to sexually abuse, the Bureau of Prisons said. Prosecutors have asked a judge to schedule a Friday court appearance...
Nearly 100K in Pennsylvania got federal coronavirus loans so far
HARRISBURG — The Treasury Department on Monday released the names of more than 26,000 businesses or organizations based in Pennsylvania that received funds from a federal program intended to support the economy as states shut down to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The Treasury only identified borrowers that got...
State police seize $5.7 million worth of drugs in past 3 months
Pennsylvania State Police seized more crack cocaine in the past three months than they did in the 12 months prior, according to data released Monday. The 13.07 pounds of crack cocaine seized by state troopers from April 1 to June 30 far outweighs the 9.5 pounds picked up by troopers...
World’s longest-surviving conjoined twin brothers die at 68
DAYTON, Ohio — The world’s longest-surviving conjoined twins died July 4 at the age of 68. Ronnie and Donnie Galyon, of Beavercreek, Ohio, were born joined at the abdomen Oct. 28, 1951. In 2014, the brothers earned the distinction of being the world’s oldest set of conjoined twins shortly before...
Chicago’s July 4th weekend ends with 17 dead, 70 wounded
CHICAGO — One of Chicago’s bloodiest holiday weekends in memory ended with 17 people fatally shot, including a 7-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, and 70 more wounded, despite a concerted effort to quell the violence with an additional 1,200 police officers on the streets. The violence was far worse...
Treasury names 650K small businesses receiving govt loans
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department on Monday released the names of more than 650,000 companies that received funds from the government’s small business lending program, a massive effort intended to support the economy as states shut down in April to contain the viral outbreak. Treasury identified just a fraction of...