U.S. appeals court refuses to end CDC’s eviction moratorium
A federal appeals court on Friday said a pause on evictions designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus can remain in place for now, setting up a battle before the nation’s highest court. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected a...
Pennsylvania jobless rate down, payrolls up 29K in July
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped to a new post-pandemic low and the labor force shrank in July as payrolls jumped by nearly 29,000, according to state figures released Friday. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped three-tenths of a percentage point to 6.6% from June’s adjusted rate, the state Department of Labor...
Naval Academy expels 18 after online exam cheating probe
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The U.S. Naval Academy has expelled 18 midshipmen and sanctioned 82 more after an investigation into cheating on an online physics exam in December, officials announced Friday. When 653 midshipmen took the final exam for General Physics I through a website in December, written and verbal instructions...
New England preps for 1st hurricane in 30 years with Henri
BOSTON — New Englanders bracing for their first direct hit by a hurricane in 30 years began hauling boats out of the water and taking other precautions Friday as Tropical Storm Henri barreled toward the southern New England coast. Henri was expected to intensify into a hurricane by Saturday, the...
Harris’ Asia trip carries new urgency after Afghan collapse
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has given new urgency to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tour of Southeast Asia, where she will attempt to reassure allies of American resolve following the chaotic end of a two-decade war. The trip, which begins Friday and has stops in Singapore and Vietnam, will provide...
Taliban took Afghanistan but face cash squeeze
WASHINGTON — The Taliban face a frontal challenge in cementing control of Afghanistan: Money. Despite their dominant military blitz over the past week, the Taliban lack access to billions of dollars from their central bank and the International Monetary Fund that would keep the country running during a turbulent shakeup....
Biden pledges to Americans in Kabul: ‘We will get you home’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is pledging to Americans still trapped in Afghanistan: “We will get you home.” Biden also said Friday the United States is committed to evacuating all Afghans who assisted the war effort — a potentially vast expansion of the administration’s commitments on the airlift so far,...
Top Pa. GOP senator orders change in election integrity plan
HARRISBURG — The top Republican in Pennsylvania’s state Senate said Friday that he is putting a different senator in charge of an “election integrity” undertaking and removing a senator who had aimed to carry out an Arizona-style “forensic investigation” of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election. Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman...
Imagination, Skittles help boy, 5, conquer Appalachian Trail
Harvey Sutton, or “Little Man,” as he is known on the Appalachian Trail, won’t have long to bask in the glory of hiking its full length. After all, he starts kindergarten Friday. At 5 years old, Harvey is one of the youngest — and the latest of several youngsters in...
Poll: Covid anxiety rising amid delta surge
DENVER — Anxiety in the United States over covid-19 is at its highest level since winter, a new poll shows, as the delta variant rages, more states and school districts adopt mask and vaccination requirements and the nation’s hospitals once again fill to capacity. The poll from The Associated Press-NORC...
U.S. keeps ban on nonessential border crossings to slow covid
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government on Friday extended a ban on nonessential travel along the borders with Canada and Mexico to slow the spread of covid-19 despite increasing pressure to lift the restriction. U.S. border communities that are dependent on shoppers from Mexico and Canada and their political representatives have...
Do I need a booster if I got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?
All the talk about covid-19 booster shots have centered on those who received the two-shot Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. But what about those who got the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine? The short answer is: Probably at some point, but health officials still are collecting the data needed to decide....
Navalny marks year after poisoning with anti-corruption call
MOSCOW — Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny marked the anniversary of a poisoning attack against him by urging global leaders Friday to put more attention on combating corruption and to target tycoons close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an article published in three European newspapers, Navalny chided Western...
52 feared dead, 1 survivor, on migrant boat going to Spain
LISBON, Portugal — A woman who was the only person pulled from a sinking dinghy in the Atlantic Ocean told her rescuers that the boat had left Africa a week earlier carrying 53 migrants, Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said Friday. A merchant ship spotted the inflatable dinghy on Thursday, 158...
Hurricane watch issued as TS Henri tracks toward New England
MIAMI — Forecasters issued a hurricane watch Friday morning for Tropical Storm Henri ahead of its projected track toward the southern New England coast. Henri was expected to intensify into a hurricane by Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in advisory. Impacts could be felt in New England states...
Report: Taliban killed minorities, fueling Afghans’ fears
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters tortured and killed members of an ethnic minority in Afghanistan after recently overrunning their village, Amnesty International said, fueling fears that they will again impose a brutal rule, even as they urged imams to push a message of unity at the first gathering for Friday...
South Carolina county GOP leader who railed against mask requirements dies from covid-19
GREENVILLE, S.C. — A tea party Republican who recently helped turn over the party leadership in South Carolina’s largest county has died from complications of covid-19. Pressley Stutts died Thursday, according to party leaders and his family. The U.S. Navy veteran was 64. Over the summer, Stutts led a group...
Texas Supreme Court declines to hold up mask mandate ban
The Texas Supreme Court declined Thursday to block restraining orders against Gov. Greg Abbott’s mask mandate ban. The justices remanded Attorney General Ken Paxton’s appeal to the 3rd Texas Court of Appeal in Austin for a hearing. The court did not issue an opinion for its decision. The move came...
Judge won’t dismiss suit on Florida school mask mandate ban
FORT LAUDERDALE — A Florida judge on Thursday refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the order by Gov. Ron DeSantis that parents should decide whether their children wear masks at school to combat the coronavirus. The order by Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper clears the way for a...
3 U.S. senators test positive for covid in breakthrough cases
WASHINGTON — Three senators said Thursday they have tested positive for covid-19 despite being vaccinated, a high-profile collection of breakthrough cases that comes as the highly infectious delta variant spreads rapidly across the United States. Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said they have tested...
ICU beds full at most metropolitan Tennessee hospitals
NASHVILLE — Tennessee hospitals warned Thursday that the intensive care units are full in nearly every hospital in the state’s major metropolitan areas, pleading with Tennesseans to get vaccinated and wear masks while not going so far as to criticize Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order allowing parents to opt their...
Casey calls for calm in the wake of the withdrawal from Afghanistan
Calling the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan a painful spectacle, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, is calling on Americans to turn down the blame game and concentrate on assisting those trying to escape the Taliban. Casey said his office alone logged 280 calls about the collapse of Afghanistan as of Wednesday...
Afghanistan war unpopular amid chaotic pullout: AP-NORC poll
WASHINGTON — A significant majority of Americans doubt that the war in Afghanistan was worthwhile, even as the United States is more divided over President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and national security, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Roughly two-thirds said...
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey pitches infrastructure, services for the elderly and children
The bipartisan infrastructure bill pending in the U.S. House likely will become law by mid-October, predicts U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. The Scranton Democrat, on the road in Pennsylvania during the August congressional break, on Thursday told Tribune-Review editors and reporters the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that already passed the...
Man accused of shooting Yardley police chief facing several chargesVideo
YARDLEY — A man accused of shooting a suburban Philadelphia borough police chief during a confrontation at a condominium complex has been charged with attempted murder. Colin Petroziello, 24, also faces aggravated assault and related charges stemming from Wednesday’s incident at the Yardley Commons complex. He was arraigned Wednesday night...
