DOJ won’t investigate how Pennsylvania handled nursing homes
HARRISBURG — The Justice Department told Gov. Tom Wolf’s office on Thursday that it has decided not to open an investigation into whether Pennsylvania violated federal law by ordering nursing homes to accept residents who had been treated for covid-19 in a hospital. The letter comes 11 months after the...
China rebuffs WHO’s terms for further covid-19 origins studyVideo
BEIJING — China cannot accept the World Health Organization’s plan for the second phase of a study into the origins of covid-19, a senior Chinese health official said Thursday. Zeng Yixin, the vice minister of the National Health Commission, said he was “rather taken aback” that the plan includes further...
Gov. Tom Wolf says his position on voter ID has not changed
LOGANVILLE — With talks on wider election-related legislation at a standstill, Gov. Tom Wolf said Thursday that his position on expanding Pennsylvania’s voter identification requirements has not changed, and that he is against anything that would “suppress the vote.” An expansion of Pennsylvania’s voter ID requirements became one of the...
Pennsylvania Supreme Court says leaving scene of triple fatal is 1 charge, not 3
HARRISBURG — A truck driver who killed three people on an interstate outside Harrisburg can’t be sentenced to three consecutive prison terms for leaving the scene of the crash he caused while driving drunk, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The high court unanimously overturned a county judge’s decision to...
Senate bill would require women to register for the draft
WASHINGTON — The Senate Armed Services Committee included language in its version of the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act to require women, for the first time, to register for the draft. Congress has debated for several years whether to require women to sign up with the Selective Service, as...
Dems renew questions about FBI background check of Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are raising new concerns about the thoroughness of the FBI’s background investigation into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after the FBI revealed that it had received thousands of tips and had provided “all relevant” ones to the White House counsel’s office. FBI Director Christopher Wray, responding...
Tennessee governor defends agency’s vaccine chief firing, outreach rollbackVideo
NASHVILLE — Republican Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday came out in full defense of his administration’s firing of the state’s vaccination chief and rollback of outreach for childhood vaccines, both of which have sparked national scrutiny over Tennessee’s inoculation efforts against covid-19. “Government needs to provide information and education, provide...
Pennsylvania House Democrat Rep. Margo Davidson charged with theft, is resigning seat
HARRISBURG — A Democratic state representative from just outside Philadelphia issued a statement saying she’s resigning after being charged Thursday with theft and other offenses over her expense reimbursements. Delaware County state Rep. Margo Davidson, 58, was released on her own recognizance after appearing in a Harrisburg district court courtroom....
Pelosi says Jan. 6 panel to move ahead without GOP’s choices
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says a committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection “will do the job it set out to do” despite Republicans’ vow to boycott the probe. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Wednesday that Republicans won’t participate after Pelosi rejected two of the Republicans he chose...
Police: Man defrauded Chinese pop singer in sex scandal
BEIJING — A man has confessed to defrauding a Chinese-Canadian pop singer, Kris Wu, over a teenager’s accusation he had sex with her when she was drunk, Beijing police said Thursday. The announcement added a bizarre twist to a scandal that cost Wu endorsement contracts with brands including Porsche and...
Death rates soar in Southeast Asia as virus wave spreads
Indonesia has converted nearly its entire oxygen production to medical use just to meet the demand from covid-19 patients struggling to breathe. Overflowing hospitals in Malaysia had to resort to treating patients on the floor. And in Myanmar’s largest city, graveyard workers have been laboring day and night to keep...
Indictment: Ohio man who hates women planned shooting at sorority
CLEVELAND — A man who identifies with a group that despises women appeared in federal court Wednesday in Cincinnati on charges related to his plans to kill sorority members at an unidentified university in Ohio, authorities said. Tres Genco, 21, of Hillsboro, Ohio, is charged with an attempted hated crime...
Nursing homes would provide more direct care to residents under proposed Pa. rule
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 — The Wolf administration on Wednesday released a long-awaited update to Pennsylvania’s decades-old nursing home regulations, acknowledging it must raise...
Cocaine disguised as cake seized from vehicle in Maine
A New York man and a Maine woman are facing charges over cocaine disguised as a cake that was seized from their vehicle, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency said Wednesday. Acting on a tip, police stopped the car on Interstate 295 in Gardiner on Tuesday, and a drug-sniffing dog found...
Opioid settlement could funnel $1 billion to Pennsylvania drug prevention, treatment
Pennsylvania could be in line to collect up to $1 billion in two massive multi-state lawsuit settlements with four companies that distributed and/or manufactured prescription opioids. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, one of the lead negotiators in the case, said the settlements call for three of the nation’s leading pharmaceutical...
Infrastructure bill fails first vote; Senate to try again
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans rejected an effort Wednesday to begin debate on the big infrastructure deal that a bipartisan group of senators brokered with President Joe Biden. But supporters in both parties remained hopeful of a better chance soon. Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York had scheduled the...
Covid-19 cases in U.S. triple over 2 weeks amid misinformationVideo
MISSION, Kan. — Covid-19 cases tripled in the United States over two weeks amid an onslaught of vaccine misinformation that is straining hospitals, exhausting doctors and pushing clergy into the fray. “Our staff, they are frustrated,” said Chad Neilsen, director of infection prevention at UF Health Jacksonville, a Florida hospital...
Judge: $150M initially for victims in Florida condo collapse
Victims and families who suffered losses in the collapse of a 12-story oceanfront Florida condominium will get a minimum of $150 million in compensation initially, a judge said Wednesday. That sum includes about $50 million in insurance on the Champlain Towers South building and at least $100 million in proceeds...
Pennsylvania defends new, no-bid deal for contact tracing
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania health officials on Wednesday defended their decision to award another no-bid deal for covid-19 contact tracing after a serious data breach involving the state’s previous vendor, calling it an urgent priority with cases rising and schools preparing to reopen for fall. The Department of Health awarded a...
Pa. Republicans will reintroduce vetoed election bill now that Gov. Tom Wolf says he’s open to voter ID changes
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Republicans plan to reintroduce their election overhaul legislation — which Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed last month — now that Wolf has changed his public position to say he’s open to new voter ID requirements. Wolf had said that changes to the state’s voter ID rules were...
Federal judge blocks Arkansas trans youth treatment ban
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked enforcement of Arkansas’ ban on gender confirming treatments for transgender youth while a lawsuit challenging the prohibition proceeds. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in May asking U.S. District Judge Jay Moody in Little Rock to strike...
GOP may boycott Jan. 6 probe after Pelosi blocks members
WASHINGTON — House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy says the GOP won’t participate in a House investigation of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol if Democrats won’t accept the members he appointed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday rejected two of McCarthy’s five picks to the panel, Indiana Rep. Jim...
U.K. man arrested in Spain, charged in U.S. with Twitter hack
WASHINGTON — A British man has been charged in the United States in connection with a Twitter hack last summer that compromised the accounts of prominent politicians, celebrities and technology moguls, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Joseph O’Connor, 22, was arrested in the coastal resort town of Estepona, Spain, on...
Pelosi moves to block Trump allies from Jan. 6 committee
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is rejecting two Republicans tapped by House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy to sit on a committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, citing the “integrity” of the probe. Pelosi said in a statement Wednesday that she would not accept the appointments of Indiana Rep....
Pennsylvania decertifies Fulton County’s voting system after ‘audit’
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s top election official has decertified the voting machines of a small southern county that disclosed that it had agreed to requests by local Republican lawmakers and allowed a software firm to inspect the machines as part of an “audit” after the 2020 election. The action by Acting...
