For nation’s birthday, Trump lashes out at ‘radical left’
WASHINGTON — On a day meant for unity and celebration, President Trump vowed to “safeguard our values” from enemies within — leftists, looters, agitators, he said — in a Fourth of July speech packed with all the grievances and combativeness of his political rallies. Trump watched paratroopers float to the...
U.S. nuclear envoy to visit South Korea, Japan
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, the Trump administration’s main representative for North Korea, will visit South Korea on Tuesday before heading to Japan, Yonhap reported Saturday, citing unidentified diplomatic sources. Biegun will visit Seoul on Tuesday, where he is likely to meet South Korean counterpart Lee Do-hoon along...
Woman falls to death in Grand Canyon while hiking, park says
An Arizona woman hiking in the Grand Canyon fell to her death Friday afternoon, park officials said. Maria Salgado Lopez, 59, was hiking off-trail and taking photographs along the canyon’s south rim when she accidentally stepped off the edge, according to a news release from the park. Lopez fell about...
Another fired Minneapolis officer charged in Floyd death out of jail
MINNEAPOLIS — A third fired Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s Memorial Day death has been released from jail, according to Hennepin County jail records Tao Thao, 34, posted $750,000 bail and was released from the downtown Minneapolis jail Saturday morning. He had been held on $1 million bail...
Kansas newspaper’s post equates mask mandate with Holocaust
TOPEKA, Kan. — A weekly Kansas newspaper whose publisher is a county Republican Party chairman posted a cartoon on its Facebook page likening the Democratic governor’s order requiring people to wear masks in public to the roundup and murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. The cartoon on the...
Christopher Columbus statue in Waterbury, Conn., beheaded
HARTFORD, Conn. — Someone smashed the head off of the Christopher Columbus statue that has stood in front of Waterbury’s city hall for many years. The decapitated statue was discovered Saturday morning. The Waterbury chapter of UNICO, an Italian American service organization, said on its Facebook page Saturday it would...
Scientists say WHO ignores risk that coronavirus floats in air as aerosol
SEATTLE — Six months into a pandemic that has killed more than half a million people, more than 200 scientists from around the world are challenging the official view of how the coronavirus spreads. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintain you have...
2 killed, 16 wounded in overnight shootings as Fourth of July weekend gets underway in Chicago
CHICAGO — A 34-year-old woman was shot and killed and two others were injured Saturday morning on the 31st Street bridge over Lake Shore Drive, according to Chicago police. The killing was the second to occur on July 4, a notoriously violent holiday in Chicago. From 3 p.m. Friday to...
Toledo officer shot and killed, suspect found dead
TOLEDO, Ohio — An officer who was responding to a call in a store parking lot was shot and killed early Saturday morning by an intoxicated man holding a beer, police said. Toledo Officer Anthony Dia was shot in the chest just after midnight in the parking lot of a...
American Diary: July 4 hurts, until I remember my WWII uncle
RIO RANCHO, N.M. — The July Fourth holiday hurts me every year. Waving flags seems out of place, and wearing anything stars and stripes makes me feel like Apollo Creed in “Rocky.” Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless The U.S.A.” doesn’t invoke patriotism inside of me, and I never take advantage...
U.S. population growth has been driven exclusively by minorities
U.S. racial and ethnic minorities accounted for all of the nation’s population growth during the last decade, according to new Census Bureau estimates. The data underscore the nation’s growing diversity and suggest that the trend will continue as the white population ages and low birth rates translate to a declining...
U.S. holiday weekend adds to virus worries as case counts grow
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida reported a record number of coronavirus cases on Saturday, the latest sign that the virus is surging in many parts of the United States, casting a pall over Fourth of July celebrations. Officials and health authorities warned people to take precautions or simply stay home...
Pennsylvania moving closer to 90,000 coronavirus cases; adds 3 deaths
There were three new covid-19 deaths and 634 new cases reported in the state Saturday by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The statewide total is now 89,375 cases and 6,749 deaths, with 634 patients considered probable cases. Out of the new cases, 150 — or nearly 24% — are from...
As monuments fall, Confederate carving has size on its side
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — Some statues of figures from America’s slave-owning past have been yanked down by protesters, others dismantled by order of governors or city leaders. But the largest Confederate monument ever crafted — colossal figures carved into the solid rock of a Georgia mountainside — may outlast them...
Governors stress ‘personal responsibility’ over virus orders
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Earlier this week, as Tennessee registered what then was its highest single-day coronavirus case increase, Gov. Bill Lee held a news conference and issued a stern response. It wasn’t a mandate to wear masks in public or clamp down on businesses or social gatherings. Instead, it was...
Mississippi could drop Jim Crow-era statewide voting process
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi just ditched its Confederate-themed state flag. Later this year, the state’s voters will decide whether to dump a statewide election process that dates to the Jim Crow era. Facing pressure from a lawsuit and the possibility of action from a federal judge, legislators are putting a...
2 women hit by car on Seattle highway closed amid protests
SEATTLE — A 27-year-old man drove a white Jaguar onto a closed freeway in Seattle early Saturday and barreled through a panicked crowd of protesters, critically injuring two women, officials said. Dawit Kelete of Seattle drove the car around vehicles that were blocking Interstate 5 and sped into the crowd...
Violence mars Portland protests, frustrates Black community
PORTLAND, Ore. — Protesters in this liberal, predominantly white city have taken to the streets peacefully every day for more than five weeks to decry police brutality. But violence by smaller groups is dividing the movement and drawing complaints that some white demonstrators are co-opting the moment. As the Portland...
Protesters return to St. Louis area where couple drew guns
ST. LOUIS — Several hundred protesters made a peaceful return trip Friday to the St. Louis mansion owned by a white couple whose armed defense of their home during an earlier demonstration earned them both scorn and support. Protesters marched along the busy public boulevard called Kingshighway, which intersects with...
8-year-old killed, 3 injured in shooting at Alabama mall
HOOVER, Ala. — An 8-year-old boy was killed Friday in a shooting at an Alabama shopping mall that left three other people injured, police said. Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said the child was killed in the afternoon shooting at the Riverchase Galleria. The police chief said a girl and...
Truck driver posts regrets about party a day before dying of coronavirus
LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. — After months of diligently isolating, truck driver Tommy Macias, 51, made one error that cost him his life. He went to a barbecue party with some friends. He didn’t know that someone who had tested positive for COVID-19, but showed no symptoms, also was there. “It...
Union: Colorado officer fired in Elijah McClain photo probe
AURORA, Colo. — A suburban Denver officer has been fired amid an internal investigation into photos showing police near where Elijah McClain was put in a chokehold and later died, a police union said Friday. The Aurora Police Association published the Facebook post shortly before the Police Department is set...
White Michigan couple charged after gun pulled on Black family
A white couple face criminal charges after one of them was captured on video pulling a handgun on a Black woman and her daughters in a restaurant parking lot in Michigan. Jillian Wuestenberg, 32, and Eric Wuestenberg, 42, were arrested after Wednesday night’s confrontation and charged Thursday with felonious assault,...
Wolf’s mask order inflames partisan fight over coronavirus
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf’s more expansive mask order issued this week as the coronavirus shows new signs of life in Pennsylvania and the July Fourth holiday starts has been met with hostility from Republicans objecting to the Democrat’s use of power or even to wearing a mask itself. It...
Amid virus fight, campaign season brings ethical quandaries
BILLINGS, Mont. — Candidates in the November election who already hold office are grappling with a thorny question: where does the coronavirus stop and the campaign begin? In Montana, Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s actions helped keep the state’s infection rate from the COVID-19 pandemic among the lowest in the nation....
