Mike Pence says lack of religious services has been ‘burden’
URBANDALE, Iowa — Vice President Mike Pence spoke Friday to a group of faith leaders in Iowa about the importance of resuming religious services, saying the cancellations in the name of slowing the spread of the coronavirus have “been a burden” for congregants. Pence spoke with the religious leaders and...
House, Trump agree: Supreme Court should settle financial records subpoena dispute
WASHINGTON — All sides told the Supreme Court on Friday that the justices should go ahead and settle the blockbuster dispute over congressional subpoenas for President Donald Trump’s financial records from an accounting firm and two banks. Attorneys for the House, the Justice Department and Trump filed extra briefs that...
Donald Trump knocks Joe Biden for campaigning from basement amid coronavirus
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump needled his Democratic rival Joe Biden on Friday for limiting his campaign appearances to virtual events from the basement of his home in Delaware. “I’d love to see him get out of the basement so he can speak,” Trump said in a telephone interview with...
Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. kids are obese, according to latest data
NEW YORK — Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. children are obese, according to the latest national data. The news is disappointing, given that programs across the country have for years been trying to reduce childhood obesity, one expert said. “We really were expecting and hoping to see the trends decrease,”...
Crossings rise on US northern border; many are Mexicans
SWANTON, Vt. — The number of people apprehended for illegally crossing from Canada into the United States along its northern border has nearly tripled over the past three years, and a growing portion are Mexican citizens, according to federal data. One Mexican man who crossed illegally to work on a...
Lawyers: Investigators recommend that whistleblower at HHS be reinstated
WASHINGTON — Federal investigators have found “reasonable grounds” that a government whistleblower was punished for opposing widespread use of an unproven drug that President Donald Trump touted as a remedy for covid-19, his lawyers said Friday. Dr. Rick Bright headed the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. He had received...
Trump administration asks court to toss lawsuit over ERA
RICHMOND, Va. — The Trump administration has asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by three Democratic state attorneys general seeking to force the U.S. archivist to recognize Virginia’s vote to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and adopt it in the U.S. Constitution. Virginia became the 38th and...
Judge denies bid to dismiss charges against Lori Loughlin
A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss charges against actress Lori Loughlin; her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli; and other prominent parents accused of cheating the college admissions process, siding with prosecutors who denied that investigators had fabricated evidence. U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton rejected a bid by the defense...
Jetliner hits and kills man on Texas airport runway
AUSTIN, Texas — A man was struck and killed by a commercial jet landing on a runaway at an Austin, Texas, airport, authorities said. The pilot of Southwest Airlines Flight 1392, a Boeing 737 arriving from Dallas, reported seeing a person on Runway 17R at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport shortly after...
Space agency: Human urine could help make concrete on moon
BERLIN — The European Space Agency said Friday that human urine could one day become a useful ingredient in making concrete to build on the moon. The agency said researchers in a recent study it sponsored found that urea, the main organic compound in urine, would make the mixture for...
President Donald Trump says in his mother’s eyes, he ‘could do no wrong’
WASHINGTON — Reflecting on Mother’s Day this weekend, President Donald Trump said Friday that he could do no wrong in his mother’s eyes and perhaps that’s what framed his personality today. “I had a great mom. I loved my mom and she loved me, which … is probably not easy...
Aide to Vice President Mike Pence tests positive for coronavirus
WASHINGTON — An aide to Vice President Mike Pence has the coronavirus, marking the second person in the White House complex known to test positive this week. The latest positive test was confirmed by a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters....
New York City stepping up distancing enforcement in parks
NEW YORK — Police officers will start limiting access to a handful of New York City parks whose scofflaw visitors have become poster children for bad social distancing, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday. Users of the parks, two built on piers that jut into the Hudson River and one...
Grit and red wine: Famous war photographer beats virus at 97
NEW YORK — Tony Vaccaro’s mother died in childbirth, and at a tender age he also lost his father to tuberculosis. By age 5, he was an orphan in Italy, enduring beatings from an uncle. As an American GI during World War II, he survived the Battle of Normandy. Now,...
World Health Organization says it has $1.3 billion funding shortfall
LONDON — The head of the World Health Organization says the agency needs $1.7 billion to fund its response efforts for covid-19 for the rest of the year — and that it’s about $1.3 billion short. Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was suspending funding to the U.N....
Georgia promises thorough probe in killing of Ahmaud Arbery
SAVANNAH, Ga. — More than two months after a black man was shot to death while jogging on a Sunday afternoon, Georgia investigators conceded that the facts show enough evidence to jail a white father and son on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault. The investigation appeared stalled by...
Lost your job? Here’s an updated list of things you need to know
Nearly 33.5 million Americans have lost their jobs and applied for unemployment benefits in the past 7 weeks — a stunning record high that reflects the near-complete shutdown of the U.S. economy. On Friday, the government said the U.S. unemployment rate hit 14.7% in April, the highest rate since the...
World War II veterans to join Trump at V-E Day ceremony
WASHINGTON — Seven World War II veterans, ages 96 to 100, planned to join President Donald Trump at a wreath-laying ceremony Friday to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. The veterans had hoped to mark the day in Moscow, but that idea was dashed...
Locked-down stores, shoppers emerge in parts of Pennsylvania
People across a swath of Pennsylvania began opening stores Friday that had been shut down since March as some coronavirus restrictions were lifted, while residents began leaving their homes unfettered by a just-expired stay-at-home order that had been in place since April 1. Located in a primarily rural swath of...
U.S. jobless rate spikes to 14.7%, highest since Great Depression
WASHINGTON — The U.S. unemployment rate hit 14.7% in April, the highest rate since the Great Depression, as 20.5 million jobs vanished in the worst monthly loss on record. The figures are stark evidence of the damage the coronavirus has done to a now-shattered economy. The losses reflect what has...
Gov. Pete Ricketts: Nearly 1 in 6 Nebraska cases linked to meat plants
LINCOLN, Neb. — Nearly one out of six coronavirus cases in Nebraska have been linked to the state’s meatpacking plants, Gov. Pete Ricketts said Thursday amid criticism that not enough is being done to protect the health of their workers. Ricketts said public health officials have linked about 1,005 of...
Arizona reverses decision to halt coronavirus modeling team
TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona health officials on Thursday backed down from their decision to abruptly end covid-19 modeling by a group of university researchers following a backlash that received national attention. The researchers will maintain access to health data, which the department had asked the researchers to return, Department of...
2 men arrested in killing of unarmed black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia after outrage
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Georgia authorities arrested a white father and son Thursday and charged them with murder in the February shooting death of a black man they had pursued in a truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood. The charges came more than two months after Ahmaud Arbery, 25,...
Proposal to test all inmates at Allegheny County Jail for coronavirus fails
The Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board voted down a proposal Thursday to test all inmates for coronavirus, including those who show no symptoms. The proposal was modeled after testing conducted in late April in Montgomery County, where officials tested all inmates at the county jail regardless of whether they were...
Biden accuser Tara Reade gives first on-camera interview, to Megyn KellyVideo
WASHINGTON — The woman who has accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her decades ago repeated her allegation Thursday, in her first on-camera interview since the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee unequivocally denied her claim last week. “I want to say, ‘You and I were there, Joe Biden,’” Reade said in...
