Advocates want light show moved from former mental facility
WALTHAM, Mass. — A battle is underway in a Boston suburb over whether it is appropriate to hold a joyous holiday celebration at the site of a now-closed institution where developmentally disabled children were once abused, neglected and warehoused under deplorable conditions. The Waltham Lions Club drive-thru Greater Boston Holiday...
U.K.’s Boris Johnson stands by minister found to have bullied staff
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to fire or censure his interior minister Friday, despite an investigator’s conclusion that she bullied members of her staff. A report said Home Secretary Priti Patel had not met the standards required of a government minister, and concluded her behavior fit the...
Thousands mourn death of Belarus protester seized by police
KYIV, Ukraine — Thousands of Belarusians streamed to a church in the capital of Minsk on Friday for the funeral of a protester who was allegedly beaten to death after being arrested by police. Raman Bandarenka’s death on Nov. 12 angered opposition supporters who have held near-daily demonstrations against the...
White House paints Trump’s meeting with Michigan legislators as routine
WASHINGTON — The two Michigan state legislators headed to the White House on Friday to meet with President Donald Trump was nothing out of the ordinary, according to the administration. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump’s meeting with the state legislators was “not an advocacy meeting” and insisted...
Pennsylvania nears 300K covid-19 cases, records 108 more deaths
Another 6,808 cases of covid-19 were reported in Pennsylvania on Friday, according to a report from the state’s Department of Health. It’s now likely Pennsylvania will surpass the 300,000 case mark over the weekend. The state’s total number of cases — confirmed and probable — since the pandemic began in...
Mnuchin denies trying to hinder incoming administration
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied that he is attempting to limit the choices President-elect Joe Biden will have to promote an economic recovery by ending several emergency loan programs being run by the Federal Reserve. Mnuchin said his decision was based on the fact that the programs were...
N.J. governor signs order giving counties more time to count votes
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday said he signed an executive order delaying when counties must certify the results from the Nov. 3 election. The state’s 21 counties must certify results by Friday under current law, but Murphy’s order pushes the deadline to Wednesday. Murphy, a...
Georgia officials certify election results showing Biden win
ATLANTA — Georgia’s governor and top elections official on Friday certified results showing Joe Biden won the presidential race over Republican President Donald Trump, bringing the state one step closer to wrapping up an election fraught with unfounded accusations of fraud by Trump and his supporters. Secretary of State Brad...
Police: 4-year-old left on school bus, found 2 hours later
NEWNAN, Ga. — A 4-year-old boy was left on a Georgia school bus Thursday morning and ended up outside of the driver’s home, authorities said. A Jefferson Parkway Elementary pre-kindergarten student had fallen asleep on the bus while students were being dropped off at school, Coweta County School System spokesman...
Pfizer, BioNTech seek emergency use of covid-19 vaccine in U.S.
Pfizer formally asked U.S. regulators Friday to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine, starting the clock on a process that could bring limited first shots as early as next month and eventually an end to the pandemic — but not until after a long, hard winter. The action comes...
Trump, allies make frantic steps to overturn Biden’s victory
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his allies are taking increasingly frantic steps to subvert the results of the 2020 election, including summoning state legislators to the White House as part of a longshot bid to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. Among other last-ditch tactics: personally calling local election officials who...
Biden turns 78, will be oldest U.S. president
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden turned 78 on Friday. In two months, he’ll take the reins of a politically fractured nation facing the worst public health crisis in a century, high unemployment and a reckoning on racial injustice. As he wrestles with those issues, Biden will be attempting to accomplish...
Sanders, Warren under scrutiny as Biden weighs Cabinet picks
WILMINGTON, Del. — Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, leaders of the Democratic Party’s left wing, are at risk of being excluded from the senior ranks of President-elect Joe Biden’s administration as the incoming president balances the demands of his party’s progressive base against the political realities of a narrowly divided...
New York AG probes Trump consulting payments that reduced his taxes
NEW YORK — New York’s attorney general has sent a subpoena to the Trump Organization for records related to consulting fees paid to Ivanka Trump as part of a broad civil investigation into the president’s business dealings, a law enforcement official said Thursday. The New York Times, citing anonymous sources,...
Vatican reportedly launching probe after Pope Francis’ Instagram account ‘likes’ racy photo
“At least I’m going to heaven.” That was the quip from bikini model Natalia Garibotto after the official Instagram account of Pope Francis was one of 100,000 to “like” a racy photo of the half-clothed Brazilian. According to the Catholic News Agency, the photo was quickly “unliked” by the verified...
Kelly Stafford, wife of Detroit Lions QB, recants after calling Michigan a ‘dictatorship’Video
Kelly Stafford apologized Thursday for lashing out over the fact the state she lives in has placed restrictions for trying tamp down covid-19 numbers. Stafford, the wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matt Stafford, ripped Michigan in a social media posting that went viral when she said she was “over living...
Biden wins Georgia, ending long losing streak for Democrats
ATLANTA — Joe Biden has won Georgia, scoring a rare win in a Southern state that hadn’t backed a Democrat for president in nearly 30 years. The Associated Press declared Joe Biden the winner of Georgia and its 16 Electoral College votes on Thursday, after state election officials there said...
Ethics complaints target Georgia Sen. Loeffler after she solicited donations in U.S. CapitolVideo
ATLANTA — U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., is facing a pair of ethics complaints after she solicited campaign contributions for her runoff campaign during an on-camera interview at the U.S. Capitol. The Democratic Party of Georgia and the American Democracy Legal Fund both filed complaints with the Senate ethics committee...
Pa. lawmakers to use remaining $1.3B in coronavirus aid to prop up state budget
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 — Despite the pleas of restaurant owners, service providers and other industries, Republican leaders in the House have put forth...
U.S. adult smoking rate looks unchanged, vaping rate higher
NEW YORK — The U.S. decline in cigarette smoking could be stalling while the adult vaping rate appears to be rising, according to a government report released Thursday. About 14% of U.S adults were cigarette smokers last year, the third year in a row the annual survey found that rate....
Trump’s election lawsuits plagued by elementary errorsVideo
When President Donald Trump sends lawyers to court, it seems he’s not sending his best. Fighting to challenge an election he lost to President-elect Joe Biden, Trump has launched a barrage of lawsuits across the country. Top Republicans have stood behind him and said they will wait for those cases...
President Trump invites Michigan GOP leaders to White House
DETROIT — President Donald Trump summoned Michigan’s Republican legislative leaders to the White House for a meeting Friday amid a longshot GOP push to overturn the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the battleground state. Two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that Trump invited Senate...
Isolated for months, island crew sees pandemic for 1st time
HONOLULU — Just as the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold, in February, four people set sail for one of the most remote places on Earth — a small camp on Kure Atoll, at the edge of the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. There, more than 1,400 miles from Honolulu, they...
Tyson suspends Iowa plant managers amid virus betting claim
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Tyson Foods suspended top officials at its largest pork plant on Thursday and launched an investigation into allegations that they bet on how many workers would get infected during a widespread coronavirus outbreak. The company’s president and CEO, Dean Banks, said he was “extremely upset” about...
Anomalies found in data put census deadline in jeopardy
The director of the Census Bureau said Thursday that irregularities have been found during the numbers-crunching phase of the 2020 census, a development that jeopardizes the statistical agency’s ability to meet a year-end deadline for handing in numbers used for divvying up congressional seats. The Census Bureau already was facing...
