Huge Oregon blaze grows as wildfires burn across western U.S.
BLY, Ore. — The largest wildfire in the U.S. torched more dry forest landscape in Oregon on Sunday, one of dozens of major blazes burning across the West as critically dangerous fire weather loomed in the coming days. The destructive Bootleg Fire just north of the California border grew to...
With pandemic worsening in U.S., Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is worriedVideo
The U.S. surgeon general said Sunday that he’s concerned about what lies ahead with cases of covid-19 increasing in every state, millions still unvaccinated and a highly contagious virus variant spreading rapidly. Noting that nearly all coronavirus deaths now are among the tens of millions of people who haven’t received...
Appeals court blocks order lifting CDC virus rules on cruise ships
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Pandemic restrictions on Florida-based cruise ships will remain in place after a federal appeals court temporarily blocked a previous ruling that sided with a Florida lawsuit challenging the regulations. The one-paragraph decision by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was filed...
Huge Oregon blaze grows as wildfires burn across western U.S.Video
BLY, Ore. — The largest wildfire in the U.S. torched more dry forest landscape in Oregon on Sunday, one of dozens of major blazes burning across the West as critically dangerous fire weather loomed in the coming days. The destructive Bootleg Fire just north of the California border grew to...
Merkel tours ‘surreal’ flood scene, vows aid, climate action
BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel surveyed what she called a “surreal, ghostly” scene in a devastated village on Sunday, pledging quick financial aid and a redoubled political focus on curbing climate change as the death toll from floods in Western Europe climbed above 180. Merkel toured Schuld, a village...
In Trump’s Jan. 6 recast, attackers become martyrs, heroes
WASHINGTON — A cocktail of propaganda, conspiracy theory and disinformation — of the kind intoxicating to the masses in the darkest turns of history — is fueling delusion over the agonies of Jan. 6. Hate is “love.” Violence is “peace.” The pro-Donald Trump attackers are patriots. Months after the then-president’s...
Pennsylvania election audit gets GOP campaign trail embrace
HARRISBURG — Former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election have been debunked by the courts, his own Justice Department and scores of recounts. But in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where Trump lost by 80,000 votes eight months ago, they’re finding new signs of life. A Republican...
Tribe claims remains of kids who died at assimilation school in Pennsylvania
The remains of nine Native American children who died more than a century ago while attending a government-run school in Pennsylvania meant to assimilate them into white culture have been returned to their South Dakota tribe for burial on its reservation. The Rosebud Sioux planned to rebury the remains during...
California fire prompts evacuations; Oregon blaze balloons
A rapidly growing wildfire south of Lake Tahoe forced the evacuation of a mountain town and the cancellation of an extreme bike ride through the Sierra Nevada, leaving thousands of riders and spectators stranded Saturday and rushing to flee the area. The Tamarack Fire, which was sparked by lightning on...
Philadelphia backyard chickens are surging despite city law
A cooped-up flock of law-breaking Philadelphians continued to grow in number and prosper during the pandemic. Thousands of chickens are being raised citywide, according to one estimate, despite a 2004 ordinance designed to eliminate the practice. This particular urban farming trend is becoming more popular, as penned-up residents look to...
Europe flood death toll tops 160, costly rebuilding ahead
Rescue workers labored to clear up damage laid bare by receding water Saturday as the death toll from disastrous flooding in Western Europe rose above 160 and thoughts turned to the lengthy job of rebuilding communities devastated in minutes. The death toll in western Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate state, home to the...
‘A blaring siren’ for Democrats after ruling halts DACA
Immigrants and advocates are urging Democrats and President Joe Biden to quickly act on legislation to protect young immigrants after a federal judge in Texas on Friday ruled illegal an Obama-era program that prevents the deportation of thousands of them brought into the U.S. as children. Plaintiffs have vowed to...
Air cargo company that ditched plane off Hawaii is grounded
A cargo airline whose plane ditched into the ocean off Hawaii has been grounded after investigators looked into the company’s safety practices before the accident. The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that it will bar Rhoades Aviation of Honolulu from flying or doing maintenance inspections until it meets FAA regulations....
Indictment: White supremacists were rewarded for violence
TAMPA, Fla. — A white supremacist group rewarded members with tattoo “patches” for committing acts of violence, including assaulting peaceful demonstrators at a racial justice protest last summer, according to a federal racketeering indictment of 16 members in Florida. Members of the group, Unforgiven, also attempted to use corrupt law...
3 men charged over 2018 fatal Missouri duck boat accident
A local prosecutor on Friday filed a total of 63 felony criminal charges against three employees over a July 2018 tourist boat accident on a Missouri lake that killed 17 people. The charges were filed in Stone County against the captain, the general manager and the manager on duty the...
Recovery effort at collapsed Miami building could end soon
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Efforts to recover human remains from the debris of a South Florida condo building are nearing an end. Miami-Dade police identified six more victims of last month’s Surfside condo collapse on Thursday, meaning that 92 of the 97 confirmed dead have been identified. County officials have accounted...
Pennsylvania jobless rate down slightly, payrolls up in June
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate and labor force shrank slightly in June as payrolls crept up, according to state figures released Friday. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.9% from May’s adjusted rate, the state Department of Labor and Industry said. May’s initial rate had been...
Wolf admin sat on 2017 probe of unemployment error but denies ‘cover-up’
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 — Pennsylvania’s top labor official said Thursday there was never an attempt within her department to deliberately conceal an error...
Tennessee inmate found dead after execution date request
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee death row inmate Stephen Hugueley has died three days after the state filed a motion to set his execution date. Attorney Amy Harwell said she received a call just before 6 a.m. Friday from a Tennessee Department of Correction chaplain notifying her of Hugueley’s death. “He...
Pope reverses Benedict, reimposes restrictions on Latin Mass
ROME — Pope Francis cracked down Friday on the spread of the old Latin Mass, reversing one of Pope Benedict XVI’s signature decisions in a major challenge to traditionalist Catholics who immediately decried it as an attack on them and the ancient liturgy. Francis reimposed restrictions on celebrating the Latin...
Officials now say no ban on animal sacrifice in Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India — Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday said there is no ban on the sacrifice of animals during the upcoming Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday, a day after the government asked law enforcers to stop the sacrifice of cows, calves, camels and other animals. G.L. Sharma, a senior government...
Trump showerhead rule to increase water flow being dropped
WASHINGTON — So much for Donald Trump’s quest for “perfect” hair. President Joe Biden’s administration is reversing a Trump-era rule approved after the former president complained he wasn’t getting wet enough because of limits on water flow from showerheads. Now, with a new president in office, the Energy Department is...
Russia: Afghan instability heightens with hasty U.S. retreat
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — America’s hasty retreat from Afghanistan has destabilized the region and worsened the terrorist threat, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a conference of world powers and Afghanistan’s neighbors Friday as they sought a common path toward resolving the country’s escalating violence. Participants gathering in the Uzbek capital...
Fully vaccinated Americans may enter Canada as of mid-August
TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday that Canada could start allowing fully vaccinated Americans into Canada as of mid-August for non-essential travel and should be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travelers from all countries by early September. Trudeau spoke with leaders of Canada’s provinces and...
Arizona election auditors seek more records, voter canvassVideo
PHOENIX — Contractors hired by Arizona Senate Republicans to oversee a partisan review of the 2020 election said Thursday that they don’t have enough information to complete their report, and urged legislators to subpoena more records and survey voters at home. Leaders of the GOP audit described a wide variety...
