‘No way out’: Facing Taliban rule, at-risk Afghan women feel trapped
KABUL, Afghanistan — Her voice is steady and calm, but at times, talking of days just passed, she has the look of a person in the grip of vertigo. Or simple disbelief. “This is a very horrible moment,” she said. “All of a sudden you feel trapped. And there’s no...
Drop the chalk: Michigan motorist wins appeal over tickets
DETROIT — Parking scofflaws unite! A woman with 14 tickets has won a major decision in a dispute over whether a Michigan city violated the U.S. Constitution by chalking her car tires without a search warrant. It’s a novel argument. Alison Taylor’s lawyer said the Fourth Amendment’s ban against unreasonable...
WWII pilot’s remains found in Europe, to be buried in Maine
MILLINOCKET, Maine — The remains of a World War II pilot whose body was lost in Europe’s Adriatic Sea have been recovered and will be buried in his home state of Maine, the U.S. Department of Defense said Thursday. The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Ernest N....
Kabul airport attack kills 60 Afghans, 13 U.S. troops
Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. The attacks killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops, Afghan and U.S....
Half of U.S. workers favor employee shot mandate: AP-NORC poll
NEW YORK — Half of American workers are in favor of vaccine requirements at their workplaces, according to a new poll, at a time when such mandates gain traction following the federal government’s full approval of Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine. The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research...
Report: Evidence of extensive corrosion in collapsed Miami-area condo
MIAMI — Video released by a team of federal investigators shows more evidence of extensive corrosion and overcrowded concrete reinforcement in a Miami-area condominium that collapsed in June, killing 98 people. The National Institute of Standards and Technology also announced Wednesday it will conduct a five-pronged investigation into the Champlain...
Migrant children spend weeks at U.S. shelters as more arrive
Five months after the Biden administration declared an emergency and raced to set up shelters to house a record number of children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border alone, kids continue to languish at the sites, while more keep coming, child welfare advocates say. More than 700 children spent three weeks or...
California looking to pay drug addicts to stay sober
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Frustrated by out-of-control increases in drug overdose deaths, California’s leaders are trying something radical: They want the state to be the first to pay people to stay sober. The federal government has been doing it for years with military veterans and research shows it is one of...
Kamala Harris says she urged Vietnam to free political dissidents
HANOI, Vietnam — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday she raised issues of human rights abuses and restrictions on political activism in her conversations with Vietnamese leaders this week, but offered no indication those talks bore fruit. “We’re not going to shy away from difficult conversations. Difficult conversations often...
Biden vows to finish Kabul evacuation, avenge U.S. deaths
President Joe Biden vowed Thursday to complete the evacuation of American citizens and others from Afghanistan despite the day’s deadly suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport. He promised to avenge the deaths of 13 U.S. service members killed in the attack, declaring to the extremists responsible: “We will hunt...
RFK assassin Sirhan seeks parole; DA won’t challenge release
Sirhan Sirhan faces his 16th parole hearing Friday for fatally shooting U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, and for the first time no prosecutor will be there to argue he should be kept behind bars. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, a former police officer who took office...
Report: Brother of Betsy DeVos, Erik Prince, offers $6,500-a-seat flights from Afghanistan
DETROIT — Michigan-born military contractor and former Navy SEAL Erik Prince is offering chartered flights out of Afghanistan at $6,500 a seat, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Prince, who is the brother of former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and grew up in west Michigan, told the Journal it...
Lawyers allied with Trump penalized over Michigan lawsuit
DETROIT — Nine lawyers allied with former President Donald Trump face financial penalties and other sanctions after a judge Wednesday said they had abused the court system with a lawsuit that challenged Michigan’s election results that certified Joe Biden as the winner. U.S. District Judge Linda Parker said the lawsuit...
Texas Gov. Abbott continues ban on vaccine mandates, wants Legislature to make it law
AUSTIN — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is continuing to prohibit local governments, state universities and public hospitals from requiring anyone to get a covid-19 shot, despite this week’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration of Pfizer’s vaccine. On Wednesday, Abbott, who is still isolating after testing positive for the...
Despite health warnings, anti-parasite drug used on Arkansas jail’s inmates for covid
LITTLE ROCK — Inmates at a northwest Arkansas jail have been prescribed ivermectin to combat covid-19, despite warnings from federal health officials that the antiparasitic drug should not be used to treat the coronavirus. Washington County’s sheriff confirmed Tuesday night that the jail’s health provider had been prescribing the drug....
Man gets 6 years in prison in Michigan governor kidnap plot
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A man upset over state-ordered coronavirus restrictions was sentenced to just over six years in prison Wednesday for planning to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a significant break that reflected his quick decision to cooperate and help agents build cases against others. Ty Garbin admitted his...
Experts on WHO team say search for covid origins has stalled
LONDON — The international scientists dispatched to China by the World Health Organization to find out where the coronavirus came from said Wednesday the search has stalled and warned that the window of opportunity for solving the mystery is “closing fast.” Meanwhile, a U.S. intelligence review ordered up by President...
Prosecutor: South Dakota attorney general to take plea deal in fatal crash
PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will avoid a trial and take a plea deal on misdemeanor traffic charges in a crash last year in which he hit and killed a man who was walking along a rural highway, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Beadle County State’s Attorney...
U.S. says 1,500 Americans may still await Kabul evacuation
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans may be awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan, a figure that suggests the U.S. may accomplish its highest priority for the Kabul airlift — rescuing U.S. citizens — ahead of President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline. Untold thousands...
OnlyFans reverses explicit content ban after outcry
OnlyFans says it has suspended a plan to ban sexually explicit content following an outcry from its creators and advocates for sex workers. The subscription site said in a prepared statement Wednesday that the planned ban was “no longer required due to banking partners’ assurances that OnlyFans can support all...
Covid cases, hospitalizations continue to rise in Allegheny, Westmoreland
The latest reports of coronavirus cases show new cases are being found at increasingly higher numbers. Hospitalizations are also rising, although not as rapidly. Over the past week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has reported 24,875 new covid cases. Of that number, 21% (5,227) are old test results dating back...
Wolf asks Republican leaders to return to Harrisburg and pass school mask mandate
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 — Gov. Tom Wolf is calling on the Republican-led legislature to return to the Capitol immediately to pass legislation mandating...
House panel probing 1/6 riot seeks host of Trump-era records
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the January insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is demanding a trove of records from federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies, showing the sweep of the lawmakers’ review of the deadly attack by a mob of Donald Trump supporters. The request Wednesday seeks information about...
Charleston church shooter’s death sentence upheld
RICHMOND, Va. — A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld the conviction and sentence of a man on federal death row for the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond affirmed Dylann...
Pa. opioid disaster declaration is coming to an end
Pennsylvania’s opioid disaster declaration, which was first put in place more than three years ago, is now coming to an end. Gov. Tom Wolf issued the disaster declaration for the opioid crisis in January 2018 and renewed it 15 times. The Democratic governor sought to renew it again this month....
