11 indicted in fraternity pledge’s alcohol poisoning death
RICHMOND, Va. — Eight Virginia Commonwealth University students have been charged with hazing in a fraternity pledge’s death from alcohol poisoning after a party earlier this year, officials said Friday. The eight men arrested Friday range in age from 19 to 22, police said. All are charged with unlawful hazing...
Colorado girl killed on theme park ride was not strapped in, report says
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A Colorado Springs 6-year-old girl on a mine shaft ride wasn’t strapped in before she was thrown and plummeted 110 feet, and operators ignored a system to warn them of the danger, state investigators said in a report. Wongel Estifanos, who died at Glenwood Caverns Adventure...
Unemployment refunds going out to those Pa. overcharged 5 years after issue discovered
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan 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 newsletters. HARRISBURG — Five years after discovering it had overcharged thousands of Pennsylvanians millions of dollars in interest, the state Department of...
GOP review finds no proof Arizona election stolen from Trump
PHOENIX — A Republican-backed review of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona’s largest county ended Friday without producing proof to support former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. After six months of searching for evidence of fraud, the firm hired by Republican lawmakers issued a report that...
What you need to know about Pfizer booster shots and eligibility for them
Millions of Americans are now eligible to receive a Pfizer booster shot to help increase their protection against the worst effects of the coronavirus. A look at the nuts and bolts of this new phase of the vaccination campaign: Who should get the Pfizer booster? People who got two Pfizer...
New head of Time’s Up pledges openness after Cuomo scandal
Almost four years ago, a group of high-profile Hollywood women — producers, agents, movie stars — formed Time’s Up, an ambitious initiative to fight sexual harassment in their own industry and beyond, as the #MeToo reckoning was taking hold. “It’s very hard for us to speak righteously about the rest...
Florida seeks death penalty for ex-Marine in family’s deaths
Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a 33-year-old former Marine accused of massacring a Florida family under the delusion that they were child sex traffickers. In a news release sent Friday, the state attorney’s office said the killings of a Lakeland man, his girlfriend, their baby and the child’s...
Trump Organization faces deadline to comply with N.Y. attorney general subpoenas
NEW YORK — The Trump Organization faces an imminent court deadline to comply with subpoenas issued by New York Attorney General Letitia James nearly two years ago, a newly unsealed order reveals. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron wrote that President Donald Trump’s company must provide a report on Sept....
PG&E charged in California wildfire last year that killed 4
REDDING, Calif. — Pacific Gas and Electric was charged Friday with manslaughter and other crimes after its equipment sparked a Northern California wildfire last year that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes, prosecutors said. It is the latest action against the nation’s largest utility, which pleaded guilty last...
House votes to protect abortion rights amid state challenges
The House passed legislation Friday that would guarantee a woman’s right to an abortion, an effort by Democrats to circumvent a new Texas law that has placed that access under threat. The bill’s 218-211 approval is mostly symbolic, as Republican opposition will doom it in the Senate. Still, Democrats say...
CDC: Studies show masks lessen school outbreaks
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention data from the new K-12 school year bolster the agency’s recommendation for masks in schools and in-person classes. One study in two Arizona counties found coronavirus outbreaks were almost four times more common at public schools without mask mandates on the first day...
Biden hosts Indo-Pacific leaders as China concerns grow
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday is meeting with leaders of an Indo-Pacific alliance known as “the Quad” as he wraps up a difficult week of diplomacy in which he faced criticism from both allies and adversaries. The White House meeting with leaders from India, Japan and Australia gives...
Officials: All migrants are gone from Texas border camp
DEL RIO, Texas — No migrants remained Friday at the Texas border encampment where almost 15,000 people — most of them Haitians — had converged just days earlier seeking asylum, local and federal officials said. It’s a dramatic change from last Saturday, when the number peaked as migrants driven by...
N.Y. hospitals fear staff shortage as vaccine deadline looms
NEW YORK — Hospitals and nursing homes in New York are bracing for the possibility that a statewide covid-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers could lead to staff shortages when it takes effect Monday. Doctors and nurses — and also support staff, like food service workers and cleaners —...
U.S. special envoy to Haiti resigns over migrant expulsions
The Biden administration’s special envoy to Haiti resigned in protest of “inhumane” large-scale expulsions of Haitian migrants to their homeland as it is wracked by civil strife and natural disaster, U.S. officials said Thursday. Daniel Foote was appointed to the position only in July, following the assassination of Haiti’s President...
CDC director expands group eligible for covid-19 booster shot
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday endorsed booster shots for millions of older or otherwise vulnerable Americans, opening a major new phase in the U.S vaccination drive against covid-19. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on a series of recommendations from a panel of advisers late...
Vatican Museums, Uffizi team up to confirm a Raphael is real
VATICAN CITY — Two of the world’s most important art museums, the Vatican Museums and the Uffizi Galleries, joined forces for the first time on Friday to inaugurate a small exhibit of rarely seen works by two Renaissance masters that confirmed a painting long suspected of being by Raphael was...
Alaska reports a daily record 1,330 coronavirus infections
Alaska’s unprecedented covid-19 crisis escalated Thursday with the state reporting seven new deaths, a record 1,330 new cases and a near-record 209 hospitalizations. It’s the third time in two weeks that the daily record has been broken: The previous highs were recorded Wednesday, with 1,251 cases, and Sept. 15, with...
South Korea reports biggest daily virus jump
South Korea has reported its biggest daily jump in coronavirus since the start of the pandemic as people returned from the country’s biggest holiday of the year. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said more than 1,750 of the 2,434 new cases reported Friday were from the greater capital...
Oldest human footprints in North America found in New Mexico
Fossilized footprints discovered in New Mexico indicate that early humans were walking across North America around 23,000 years ago, researchers reported Thursday. The first footprints were found in a dry lake bed in White Sands National Park in 2009. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey recently analyzed seeds stuck in...
Boyfriend of slain Gabby Petito charged with bank card fraud
The boyfriend of Gabby Petito, whose body was found at a national park in Wyoming after a cross country trip with him, has been charged with unauthorized use of a debit card as searchers continue looking for him in Florida swampland, federal authorities announced Thursday. A federal grand jury indictment...
Pennsylvania Democrats ramp up effort to derail GOP election subpoenas
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Thursday stepped into the legal fray over the a Republican-controlled Senate committee’s attempt to subpoena voter and personal data for nearly 9 million Pennsylvanians. Republicans say they need the data so they can hire a yet to be named private company to conduct what...
Leaders to UN: A warmer world is a more violent one, too
UNITED NATIONS — Using apocalyptic images, three presidents and seven foreign ministers warned Thursday that a warmer world is also a more violent one. At a ministerial meeting of the Security Council, the officials urged the U.N.’s most powerful body to do more to address the security implications of climate...
Boppy, ‘devastated’ by infant deaths, recalls 3 million popular lounge pillows
The Boppy Company and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of 3.3 million loungers that have been attributed in the deaths of eight infants who “reportedly suffocated.” Recalled are the Boppy Original Newborn Loungers, Boppy Preferred Newborn Loungers and Pottery Barn Kids Boppy Newborn Loungers. According to...
Tennessee grocery store attack: ‘He kept on shooting’
COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. — A gunman attacked a grocery store in an upscale Tennessee suburb on Thursday afternoon, killing one person and wounding 12 others before he was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at the store, authorities said. Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane said the shooting broke out...
