NYC declares a drought watch and asks residents to conserve water
NEW YORK — New York’s mayor urged residents to take shorter showers, fix dripping faucets and otherwise conserve water, issuing a drought watch Saturday after a parched October here and in much of the United States. A drought watch is the first of three potential levels of water-saving directives, and...
2 Ohio officers charged with reckless homicide in death of man in custody after crash arrest
CANTON, Ohio — Prosecutors in Ohio have announced reckless homicide charges against two police officers in the death of a man who was handcuffed and left face down on the floor of a social club in Canton while telling officers he couldn’t breathe. Stark County prosecutor Kyle Stone told reporters...
Israeli military official says Israeli forces capture senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon
BATROUN, Lebanon — An Israeli military official said Saturday that Israeli naval forces captured a senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon. The operation took place in the northern Lebanese town of Batroun, the official said without providing the name of the person they detained. Earlier on Saturday, Lebanese authorities said...
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy urges allies to act before North Korean troops reach the front
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged its allies to stop “watching” and take steps before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield, and the country’s army chief warned that his troops are facing “one of the most powerful offensives” by Moscow since the all-out war started...
At U.N. summit, historic agreement to give Indigenous groups voice on nature conservation decisions
CALI, Colombia — After two weeks of negotiations, delegates on Saturday agreed at the United Nations conference on biodiversity to establish a subsidiary body that will include Indigenous peoples in future decisions on nature conservation, an important development that builds on a growing movement to recognize the role of Indigenous...
New State Board of Higher Education names its executive director
The newly created State Board of Higher Education, tasked with re-imaging oversight of Pennsylvania’s colleges and universities, has named Kate Shaw as executive director. Shaw is deputy secretary for Higher Education within the Pennsylvania Department of Education. She has a decades-long career in government, the private sector and in academia...
Western Pennsylvania’s importance in presidential election evident in both Harris, Trump coming Monday
Pittsburgh will be the center of the American political universe the night before Election Day, when both candidates for president hold Downtown rallies less than 2 miles from one another. And you thought Steelers traffic was bad. Former President Donald Trump will be at PPG Paints Arena. But just a...
Israel pummels Lebanon and Gaza, killing dozens in fresh waves of airstrikes
BEIRUT (AP) — Israel launched dozens of intense airstrikes across Lebanon’s northeastern farming villages on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding scores more, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported. In central Gaza, Palestinians recovered the bodies of 25 people killed in a barrage of Israeli aerial attacks that began...
Creative ‘I Voted’ stickers branch out beyond the familiar flag design
CONCORD, N.H. — Whether scenic or slightly sinister — angry werewolf, anyone? — the designs on the front of “I Voted” stickers are attracting a lot of attention this year. But have you ever considered the back of your Election Day souvenir? “Garment-safe adhesive, it’s incredibly important,” said Janet Boudreau,...
Early voting reaches such heights that some Georgia polls may be Election Day ‘ghost town’
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — Flags telling people to “Vote Here” fluttered in not only English, but Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese at the Mountain Park Activity Building as a steady stream passed through its doors to cast their ballots in the 2024 election. One by one, the voters who turned...
Voters view one another across partisan divide with increasing animosity
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden tried to explain this week that he doesn’t really think Donald Trump’s supporters are “garbage,” but that doesn’t mean that other people don’t believe the label occasionally fits. “I would say that some of them are garbage,” said Samantha Leister, 32, who went to see...
Harris team warns CEOs that Trump is a threat to economy, while Trump says tariffs can drive growth
WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris ’ campaign is actively warning business leaders that Donald Trump has a pattern of disregard for democracy and the rule of law that would threaten U.S. economic growth — a closing argument designed to show the possible consequences for companies and workers if he returns to...
AP-NORC poll finds skepticism of nationwide election tallies, especially among Republicans
WASHINGTON — The nation’s deep partisan divisions extend to trust in the vote tallies for this year’s election, as a new poll finds that Republicans are much more skeptical than Democrats that ballots will be counted accurately. Voters generally show more distrust toward nationwide voting results compared to the tallies...
Pennsylvania challenge of Elon Musk’s $1M-a-day voter sweepstakes moves back to state court
PHILADELPHIA — A legal fight over Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes is back in state court in Pennsylvania, a loss for the billionaire, after a federal judge said Friday that he doesn’t have jurisdiction. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner wants to keep his fight to shut down the giveaways...
Supreme Court allows Pennsylvania to count contested provisional ballots, rejecting Republican plea
DOYLESTOWN— The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans that could have led to thousands of provisional ballots not being counted in Pennsylvania as the presidential campaigns vie in the final days before the election in the nation’s biggest battleground state. The justices left in place a...
Japan’s Mount Fuji snowless for longest time ever
For the longest time on record, Japan’s Mount Fuji has been without snow. As of Halloween, the country’s tallest mountain was still without snow. This marks the longest period on record, The Weather Channel reported. The volcano’s snowcap begins forming on Oct. 2 on average, The Guardian said. Last year,...
Roof collapse at Serbian railway station kills at least 13
NOVI SAD, Serbia — A concrete roof above the entrance of a railway station in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad collapsed Friday, killing at least 13 people, with more feared buried under the rubble. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said that three people were rescued and hospitalized with serious...
Georgia county says more than 3,000 absentee ballots being mailed late just days before election
MARIETTA, Ga. — Election officials in Georgia’s third-largest county said they’re late in mailing more than 3,000 absentee ballots to voters just a few days before the election. Election officials in Cobb County north of Atlanta were using U.S. Postal Service express mail and UPS overnight delivery in an effort...
Donald Trump will again hold his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Mich.
DETROIT — For the third straight presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump will hold his final rally before polls open on Election Day in Grand Rapids, according to a spokesperson for his campaign. The revelation points to the former president’s continued emphasis on the battleground state of Michigan. In both...
North Korea boasts of ‘the world’s strongest’ missile, but experts say it’s too big to use in war
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea boasted Friday that the new intercontinental ballistic missile it just test-launched is “the world’s strongest,” a claim seen as pure propaganda after experts assessed it as being too big to be useful in a war situation. The ICBM launched Thursday flew higher and for...
Pennsylvania colleges restrict student voter outreach, free speech groups say
Setting up a table on a college campus to encourage voter turnout or promote a political candidate are time-honored student expressions of free speech, as is canvassing door-to-door before an election. But in Pennsylvania, those campus activities have received pushback from a number of school administrators this fall, free speech...
AP sources: White House altered record of Biden’s ‘garbage’ remarks despite stenographer concerns
WASHINGTON — White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to take a swipe at supporters of Donald Trump, drawing objections from the federal workers who document such remarks for posterity, according to two U.S. government officials and an internal email...
Trump says Liz Cheney might not be such a ‘war hawk’ if she had guns pointed at her
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Donald Trump is calling former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of his most prominent Republican critics, a “war hawk” and suggesting she might not be as willing to send troops to fight if she had guns pointed at her. Cheney responded by branding the GOP presidential nominee a...
Shootings kill 2 and wound 6 during Halloween celebrations in Orlando
ORLANDO, Fla. — Two people were killed and six others were wounded in two shootings that took place among crowds during Halloween celebrations in Orlando early Friday, authorities said. Officers responded to a report of shots fired in the city’s downtown shortly after 1 a.m. A second shooting minutes later...
Texas hospitals must now ask patients whether they’re in the U.S. legally. Here’s how it works
Texas hospitals must ask patients starting Friday whether they are in the U.S. legally and track the cost of treating people without legal status following an order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that expands the state’s clash with the Biden administration over immigration. Critics fear the change could scare people...
