U.S./World category, Page 676
Supreme Court casts doubt on Biden’s vaccine rule for the workplace
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority cast doubt Friday on President Joe Biden’s plan to require that most American employees be vaccinated for covid-19 or undergo weekly testing. The justices agreed to weigh in on the partisan divide over vaccines and hear from lawyers for 27 Republican-led states, who...
Biden’s economic challenge: Finding workers and goods
President Joe Biden enters the midterm election year of 2022 determined to address what economists call a “supply” problem — there aren’t enough jobseekers or goods to meet the country’s needs. This is also a political problem. The mismatch has obscured the strong growth and 3.9% unemployment rate achieved during...
Ahmaud Arbery killers get life in prison; no parole for father, son
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced Friday to life in prison, with a judge denying any chance of parole for the father and son who armed themselves and initiated the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man. Murder carries a mandatory sentence...
Kazakh president: Forces can shoot to kill to quell unrest
MOSCOW — Kazakhstan’s president authorized security forces on Friday to shoot to kill those participating in unrest, opening the door for a dramatic escalation in a crackdown on anti-government protests that have turned violent. The Central Asian nation this week experienced its worst street protests since gaining independence from the...
Teen in Michigan school shooting waives key court hearing
DETROIT — A teenager charged with killing four students at their Michigan high school waived a key hearing Friday, a decision that moves his case straight to a trial court, while his parents faced a separate court appearance to try to get out of jail. Prosecutors in Michigan typically have...
Video shows Ohio cop shoot without warning at man firing into airVideo
CLEVELAND — Police in Ohio released body camera footage Thursday showing an officer firing multiple rounds through a wooden privacy fence without warning at someone shooting gunfire into the air on the other side. James Williams, 46, of Canton, was shot in the chest minutes into the new year and...
Winter storm blanketing parts of South with snow, iceVideo
NASHVILLE — A winter storm blanketed parts of the South with snow, freezing rain and sleet Thursday, tying up roads in Tennessee and Kentucky as the system tracked a path through Appalachia toward the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The storm began hitting greater Nashville on Thursday morning. About 4 to 6...
Investigators: Fire at Tennessee Planned Parenthood intentionally set
KNOXVILLE — A fire that destroyed a Tennessee Planned Parenthood clinic was intentionally set, fire officials said Thursday. Officials are looking for a suspect and asked the public to provide tips to the Knoxville Fire Department, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported. The building erupted in flames last Friday, with fire...
Official says Kamala Harris was evacuated on Jan. 6 after pipe bomb was found
WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris, then the vice president-elect, was evacuated from the Democratic National Committee headquarters when a pipe bomb was found Jan. 6, 2020, a White House official said Thursday. The confirmation a year-to-the-day after the bomb was discovered adds another detail to Harris’ timeline from the day of...
4th resident of Florida retirement haven charged with voter fraud
THE VILLAGES, Fla. — A fourth resident of a massive Florida retirement community has been arrested on a charge of voter fraud. Charles Barnes, 64, was arrested Tuesday and charged with voter fraud for casting more than one ballot, according to an arrest affidavit filed in court. The arrest affidavit...
U.S. had 5 rabies deaths last year, highest total in a decade
NEW YORK — Five Americans died of rabies last year — the largest number in a decade — and health officials said Thursday that some of the people didn’t realize they had been infected or refused life-saving shots. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on three...
Diaper donnybrook: Family sues condo board, claims swim diaper ban violates baby’s civil rights
Add swim diapers to the list of issues that can get turned into a federal case. A Florida family is suing their condo board over what they say is a rule barring children from using the community pool while wearing swim diapers. Swim diapers are a snug-fitting lightweight alternative to...
Dozens of protesters, 12 police dead in Kazakhstan protests
MOSCOW — Security forces killed dozens of protesters and 12 police died during extraordinarily violent demonstrations in Kazakhstan that saw government buildings stormed and set ablaze, authorities said Thursday. One police officer was found beheaded in escalating unrest that poses a growing challenge to authoritarian rule in the Central Asian...
China plans space station completion, many launches in 2022
China has recommitted itself to completing its orbiting space station by the end of the year and says it is planning more than 40 launches for 2022, putting it roughly level with the United States. Launches would include those of two Shenzhou crewed missions, two Tianzhou cargo spacecraft and the...
U.S. average long-term mortgage rates rise; 30-year at 3.22%
Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose in the past week to start the new year. They reached their highest level since May 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, yet remained historically low. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan...
Scientists explore Thwaites, Antarctica’s ‘doomsday’ glacier
A team of scientists is sailing to “the place in the world that’s the hardest to get to” so they can better figure out how much and how fast seas will rise because of global warming eating away at Antarctica’s ice. Thirty-two scientists on Thursday are starting a more than...
Powerball tickets sold in Wisconsin, California split $632M
MADISON, Wis. — Powerball tickets sold in Wisconsin and California were winners of the latest jackpot and will split $632 million, officials said. The Wisconsin Lottery didn’t immediately announce where the winning ticket in its state was sold. The winning ticket in California was sold at a 7-Eleven convenience store...
Biden decries Trump backers as ‘trying to rewrite history’ on anniversary of Capitol breach
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden accused Donald Trump and his supporters of holding a “dagger at the throat of democracy” in a forceful speech Thursday marking the anniversary of the deadly breach of the U.S. Capitol. He warned that though it didn’t succeed, the insurrection remains a serious threat to...
Trump maintains grip on GOP despite violent insurrection
WASHINGTON — As a raging band of his supporters scaled walls, smashed windows, used flagpoles to beat police and breached the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn a free and fair election, Donald Trump’s excommunication from the Republican Party seemed a near certainty, his name tarnished beyond repair. Some...
Russia-led alliance sending peacekeepers to KazakhstanVideo
MOSCOW — A Russia-led military alliance said Thursday that it will dispatch peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan after the country’s president asked for help in controlling protests that escalated into violence, including the seizure and setting afire of government buildings. Protesters in Kazakhstan’s largest city stormed the presidential residence and the...
Ghislaine Maxwell seeks new trial after juror says he was sex abuse victim and urged jury to convict
Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team is calling for a new trial after one of the jurors who convicted her last week of five of six counts related to child sex trafficking told reporters that he was a victim of sexual abuse and had convinced other jurors to convict Maxwell. Earlier, federal...
Recalling Jan. 6: A national day of infamy, half remembered
NEW YORK — Beneath a pale winter light and the glare of television cameras, it seemed hard not to see the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot for what it was. The violent storming of the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters bent on upending the election of Joe Biden was as...
North Carolina trooper crashes at traffic stop, killing another trooper who was his brother
MOORESBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper and a South Carolina man he was detaining were killed when the trooper’s brother, also a trooper, hit a stopped patrol vehicle as he arrived to help with a traffic stop, officials said. The crash occurred around 9 p.m. Monday...
Fed officials now seeing U.S. job market near full recovery
Federal Reserve policymakers at a meeting last month said the U.S. job market was nearly at levels healthy enough that the central bank’s low-interest rate policies were no longer needed, according to minutes of the meeting released Wednesday. Fed officials also expressed concerns that surging inflation was spreading into more...
Prosecutors alert Ghislaine Maxwell judge of juror’s sex abuse claims
NEW YORK — Prosecutors urged the judge who presided over the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell on Wednesday to conduct an inquiry into a juror’s reported claims that he was a victim of sexual abuse. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, prosecutors said the claims published in...
