With STDs on the rise, this morning-after-style pill may help
NEW YORK — U.S. health officials released data Tuesday showing how chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis cases have been accelerating, but doctors are hoping an old drug will help fight the sexually transmitted infections. Experts believe STDs have been rising because of declining condom use, inadequate sex education and reduced testing...
Free covid testing will fade with U.S. health emergency in May
WASHINGTON — When the covid-19 public health emergency ends in the U.S. next month, you’ll still have access to a multitude of tests but with one big difference: Who pays for them. For the first time, you may have to pick up some or all of the costs, depending on...
Israeli Holocaust memorial criticizes deal with Poland
JERUSALEM — Israel’s national Holocaust memorial has criticized a new agreement renewing Israeli school trips to Poland, saying it recommends a number of “problematic sites” that distort history. Yad Vashem issued its statement weeks after Israel and Poland announced a breakthrough agreement meant to repair ties that had been badly...
Ohio train derailment highlights waste disposal predicament
When word surfaced that soils and liquids laced with chemicals from the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment were being sent to southeastern Michigan for storage, local residents and politicians were livid. “People were seeing pictures of what happened in Ohio — the smoke plumes, wildlife dying,” said Jordyn Sellek, director...
Attorneys outline complex plot in trial of slain kids’ mom
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho prosecutors have suggested motives, showed graphic photos and described a complicated plot involving efforts to cast out evil spirits in the triple murder trial of a woman accused in the deaths of her two kids and a romantic rival. On Tuesday, a detective who helped unearth...
What we know about victims of the Louisville bank shooting
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Tributes were growing Monday for the five people slain in a shooting at a Louisville bank, with friends sharing details of their lives and mourners gathering at vigils. Details were also emerging about some of the wounded, including a rookie officer who was just recently sworn in....
FBI issues warning about ‘juice jacking’ when using public charging stations
Travelers using public cellphone charging stations at airports - and other places - have been warned by the FBI to be wary of using them. Your information could be a victim of “juice jacking” by those stations available to the public in places including airports, hotels and shopping centers. Earlier...
Florida fight over baby boxes part of bigger culture war
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Safe Haven Baby Boxes and A Safe Haven for Newborns are two charities with similar names and the same goal: providing distressed mothers with a safe place to surrender their unwanted newborns instead of dumping them in trash cans or along roadsides. But a fight between...
Dalai Lama apologizes after video shows him kissing boy
DHARAMSALA, India — Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama apologized Monday after a video showing him kissing a child on the lips triggered criticism. A statement posted on his official website said the 87-year-old leader regretted the incident and wished to “apologize to the boy and his family, as well...
Some U.S. states stock abortion medications after court ruling
BOSTON — A growing number of states led by Democratic governors are stockpiling doses of drugs used in medication abortions, amid fears that a court ruling could restrict access to the most commonly used method of abortion in the U.S. Massachusetts has purchased enough doses of the drug mifepristone —...
Biden ends covid national emergency after Congress acts
WASHINGTON — The U.S. national emergency to respond to the covid-19 pandemic ended Monday as President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan congressional resolution to bring it to a close after three years — weeks before it was set to expire alongside a separate public health emergency. The national emergency allowed...
Will your next car be electric? New poll has mixed results
WASHINGTON — Many Americans aren’t yet sold on going electric for their next cars, a new poll shows, with high prices and too few charging stations the main deterrents. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults are at least somewhat likely to switch, but the history-making shift from the country’s century-plus...
Pa. Democrats aim to appeal to working-class voters with policy, symbolism, and some anger
Pennsylvania Democrats are trying to show they can be populists, too. When Gov. Josh Shapiro took office in January, he sent a symbolic message by using his first executive order to end the four-year college degree requirement for most state government jobs. Sen. John Fetterman campaigned as a Democrat who...
Senate Democrats ask chief justice to probe Clarence Thomas’ luxury trips
WASHINGTON — All Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have called on Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate undisclosed luxury trips that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted from a wealthy Republican donor. The panel, the Democrats said in a Monday letter, would soon hold a hearing on the court’s...
Trump due back in New York for questioning in AG’s fraud lawsuit
NEW YORK — Donald Trump is scheduled Thursday to return to New York for a deposition in a business fraud lawsuit filed against him and his company by the state’s attorney general, according to a person familiar with the matter. It will be the former president’s first trip to New...
University of Pittsburgh Chancellor-elect Joan Gabel talks top priorities
University of Pittsburgh Chancellor-elect Joan Gabel said in a wide-ranging interview Monday that her top priorities after taking office figure to include identifying the school’s next provost, initiating a capital campaign and dealing with tuition and labor issues. But Gabel said her first 100 days and beyond “will also include...
Justice Department appeals Texas abortion pill order
AUSTIN, Texas — The Justice Department on Monday appealed a Texas court ruling that would halt approval of a drug used in the most common method of abortion in the U.S., calling the decision “extraordinary and unprecedented.” If allowed to stand, the order issued last week by U.S. District Judge...
Black lawmaker who was expelled to return to Tennessee House
NASHVILLE — One of the two Black Democrats who were expelled last week from the GOP-led Tennessee House was reinstated Monday after Nashville’s governing council voted to send him straight back to the Legislature. The unanimous vote by the Nashville Metropolitan Council took only a few minutes to restore Rep....
1 dead, 1 wounded in shooting outside Louisville college
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A man was fatally shot and a woman wounded outside a community college in downtown Louisville on Monday, just a few hours after a mass shooting at a bank blocks away, police said. The two shootings were not related, Louisville Metro Police said in a statement. The...
Pa. launches abortion access website in wake of Texas ruling against abortion medication
After a federal judge’s ruling in Texas last week halted the approval of a drug used in medication abortions, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro launched a website informing state residents about their rights to accessing to abortion services. Shapiro said Monday that Pennsylvanians’ reproductive rights have not changed because of the...
A list of recent high-profile shootings in the U.S.
The latest high-profile shooting in the United States happened Monday in Louisville, Ky., when at least four people were killed at a downtown bank. The shooting in downtown Louisville is the 15th mass killing of the year in the U.S. in which four or more people were killed other than...
Trump appeals ruling that Mike Pence has to testify to Jan. 6 grand juryVideo
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is appealing a court decision that would require former Vice President Mike Pence to appear before a federal grand jury investigating efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election, according to a person familiar with the matter. A federal judge in Washington in late March rejected the...
Fox News settles 2020 election-related defamation suit with Venezuelan businessman
It’s not the settlement the media industry has been anticipating, but Fox News has reached an agreement with a Venezuelan businessman whose name was linked to false allegations about voting machines used in the 2020 election. Attorneys for Fox News and Majed Khalil, the plaintiff in the suit, filed a...
Grand jury charges mother of Virginia 6-year-old who shot teacher
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Newport News grand jury on Monday indicted the mother of the 6-year-old boy who shot his first grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School three months ago. Deja Nicole Taylor, 25, of Newport News — whose son shot 25-year-old teacher Abby Zwerner during class on Jan....
Netanyahu reverses firing of defense minister amid tension
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday reversed his decision to fire his defense minister over criticism of the government’s contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary. In a televised speech, Netanyahu said that Yoav Gallant is staying at his post. “I decided to put the differences we had...