U.S. coronavirus death toll approaches milestone of 500,000Video
The U.S. stood Sunday at the brink of a once-unthinkable tally: 500,000 people lost to the coronavirus. A year into the pandemic, the running total of lives lost was about 498,000 — roughly the population of Kansas City, Missouri, and just shy of the size of Atlanta. The figure compiled...
Oklahoma City bombing provides insights into how Merrick Garland would run Justice DepartmentVideo
WASHINGTON — Arriving in Oklahoma City the night after the worst domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history, Merrick Garland grasped the enormity of the task ahead of him. Downtown resembled a war zone. Military vehicles blocked streets. For blocks, federal agents and police were busy collecting evidence. At the federal...
Officer shot at Arkansas McDonald’s; Pennsylvania kidnapping suspect dies
LONOKE, Ark. — An Arkansas police officer was hospitalized in stable condition Sunday after being shot during a confrontation at a McDonald’s restaurant with a Pennsylvania man who was kidnapping a 14-year-old North Carolina girl, authorities said. The suspect died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after fleeing from authorities,...
Tens of thousands still without power across Kentucky, West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Some residents in Kentucky and West Virginia could be spending several more days without power as crews work to fix broken utility poles and downed lines from an ice storm. Appalachian Power said about 39,000 customers in southern West Virginia were without electricity Sunday. Some homes have...
Teen sought in Montgomery County bowling alley shooting that killed 1, hurt 4Video
EAST NORRITON — Authorities say a 17-year-old youth is being sought in a shooting at a bowling alley near Philadelphia that left one person dead and four others injured. Officers in East Norriton, about 23 miles northwest of Philadelphia, responded shortly after 6:30 p.m. Saturday to Our Town Alley, formerly...
Oath Keeper claims she met with Secret Service before Capitol riots
A member of the far-right Oath Keepers charged with rioting at the U.S. Capitol met with Secret Service agents before the siege and received a VIP pass to the rally where then-President Donald Trump spoke, according to a court filing. A defense attorney for Jessica Watkins said in Saturday’s filing...
1 dead, 4 injured in shooting at American Legion in Missouri
KENNETT, Mo. — One person died and four others were wounded in an overnight shooting at an American Legion club in southeast Missouri, police said Sunday. KAIT-TV reported that officers found the five victims at the American Legion building in Kennett following the report of the shooting before 12:30 a.m....
Snubbed as Obama high court pick, Garland in line to be AG
WASHINGTON — The last time Merrick Garland was nominated by the White House for a job, Republicans wouldn’t even meet with him. Now, the once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden’s choice for attorney general. Garland, an appeals court judge, is...
Power failure: How a winter storm pushed Texas into crisis
HOUSTON — Two days before the storm began, Houston’s chief elected official warned her constituents to prepare as they would for a major hurricane. Many took heed: Texans who could stocked up on food and water, while nonprofits and government agencies set out to help those who couldn’t. But few...
Pennsylvania police officer facing charges in Capitol riot
LEBANON — A Pennsylvania police officer is facing federal charges stemming from the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former president Donald Trump over the results of the 2020 election. North Cornwall Township officer Joseph Fischer, listed as a patrolman on the department’s site, is charged...
Biden pays a visit to ailing former GOP Sen. Bob Dole
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden paid a visit Saturday to former Sen. Bob Dole, days after the World War II veteran and 1996 Republican presidential nominee announced he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Biden, who served in the Senate with Dole for more than two decades, arrived Saturday...
Trump to speak at CPAC in first post-White House appearance
WASHINTON — Donald Trump will be making his first post-presidential appearance at a conservative gathering in Florida next weekend. Ian Walters, spokesman for the American Conservative Union, confirmed that Trump will be speaking at the group’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 28. Trump is expected to use the...
Sheriff: 3 dead in gun store shooting in New Orleans suburb
METAIRIE, La. — A person went into a gun store and shooting range in a New Orleans suburb and fatally shot two people Saturday, causing customers and staff to open fire on the shooter, said a sheriff. The shooter also died. The shooting happened at the Jefferson Gun Outlet in...
Arturo Di Modica, sculptor of Wall Street bull, dies at 80
ROME — The artist who sculpted Charging Bull, the bronze statue in New York which became an iconic symbol of Wall Street, has died in his hometown in Sicily at age 80. Arturo Di Modica died at his home in Vittoria on Friday evening, the town said in a statement...
Moscow court rejects opposition leader Navalny’s appeal
MOSCOW — A Moscow court on Saturday rejected Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s appeal of his prison sentence, even as the country faced an order from a top European rights court to free the Kremlin’s most prominent foe. A few hours later, a judge in a separate case ordered Navalny...
Spain: Peaceful protests for jailed rapper see more looting
BARCELONA, Spain — A fifth night of peaceful protests to denounce the imprisonment of a Spanish rap artist once more devolved into clashes between police and the members of fringe groups who set up street barricades and smashed storefront windows Saturday night in downtown Barcelona. Small groups made up mostly...
The $1B plan to close the gap between growing and shrinking Pa. school districts
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 — When Pennsylvania passed a new formula to distribute money for public schools in 2016, it was hailed as a...
Pennsylvania reports 2,800 more covid cases, 90 deaths
Pennsylvania health officials on Saturday reported 2,818 new coronavirus cases, as hospitalizations and case counts continue to decrease in the Keystone State. The new data bring the total cases to 911,591. That’s a jump of almost 19,300 additional cases from this time last week. Two weeks ago, the increase was...
Pitt students, volunteers create VaccinatePA to connect residents with vaccination infoVideo
The coronavirus vaccine rollout in Pennsylvania has created frustration for state officials and residents alike, with counties creating online registries to help get constituents the information they need and hospitals struggling to minimize wasted vaccine doses. But a group of University of Pittsburgh students, with the help of a couple...
Warmer temps bring relief as cold-weary South starts cleanup
DALLAS — Warmer temperatures spread across the southern United States on Saturday, bringing some relief to a winter weary region that faces a challenging clean-up and expensive repairs from days of extreme cold and widespread power outages. In hard-hit Texas, where millions were warned to boil tap water before drinking...
Debris falls from plane during emergency landing near Denver
Debris from a United Airlines plane fell onto Denver suburbs during an emergency landing Saturday after one of its engines suffered a catastrophic failure and rained pieces of the engine casing on a neighborhood where it narrowly missed a home. The plane landed safely, and nobody aboard or on the...
Weather experts: Lack of planning caused cold catastrophe
This week’s killer freeze in the U.S. was no surprise. Government and private meteorologists saw it coming, some nearly three weeks in advance. They started sounding warnings two weeks ahead of time. They talked to officials. They issued blunt warnings through social media. And yet catastrophe happened. At least 20...
Pennsylvania State Police will escape legislative scrutiny in 2021 budget process
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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 — One of the nation’s largest statewide police forces, the Pennsylvania State Police, will not be subject to annual budget...
Unchanged since 1947, Pennsylvania’s 814 area will switch over to 10-digit dialing
Most of Western Pennsylvania has had to dial 10 digits to make a phone call for quite some time now. In the greater Pittsburgh area, the 724 area code wasn’t sufficient to keep pace by 2013, and a third code, 878, was added. But for multiple generations living in the...
G-7 vows ‘equitable’ world vaccine access, but details scant
LONDON — Leaders of the Group of Seven economic powers promised Friday to immunize the world’s neediest people against the coronavirus by giving money, and precious vaccine doses, to a U.N.-backed vaccine distribution effort. But the leaders, under pressure over their vaccination campaigns at home, were unwilling to say exactly...
