U.S./World category, Page 859
West Virginia police officer dies 2 days after being shotVideo
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia police officer has died two days after being shot by a suspect while responding to a parking complaint. The city of Charleston announced officer Cassie Johnson’s death in a news release Thursday. Johnson, 28, joined the city as a humane officer in October 2017...
Vaccine rollout could ease crisis, but who gets it first?
Getting a covid-19 vaccine to the right people could change the course of the pandemic in the United States. But who are the right people? As the decision looms for President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration, a new analysis argues for targeting the first vaccines to the same low-income Black, Hispanic...
California governor: Most of state nears stay-home order
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California will likely order most of its businesses to close or limit capacity in the coming days, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday, part of new rules triggered when fewer than 15% of beds are available in intensive care units for regional hospital networks. Newsom said four of...
Charitable donations on ‘Giving Tuesday’ up 25%
NEW YORK — Donations on Giving Tuesday, an 8-year-old campaign to get people to give money to charities, rose 25% from last year, organizers said. Nearly $2.5 billion was donated in the U.S. on Tuesday, according to estimates by GivingTuesday, the nonprofit behind the campaign. That’s up from last year’s...
Senate confirms Christopher Waller to serve on Fed’s board
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed the nomination of Christopher Waller for the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, placing another of President Donald Trump’s picks on the Fed’s influential board after a string of high-profile rejections. The vote in favor of Waller was 48-47. Waller, research director at...
Nestle to spend $3.6 billion on improving climate footprint
GENEVA — Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, said Thursday that it will spend $3.6 billion over five years to improve its climate footprint. Nestle said the investment will increase the Switzerland-based company’s use of renewable energy, which it aims to use exclusively by 2025. The money will also boost...
Optimism growing for covid relief bill as pressure buildsVideo
WASHINGTON — Optimism about delivering long-sought covid-19 relief is building on Capitol Hill after additional rank-and-file lawmakers voiced support for a bipartisan, middle-of-the-road plan taking shape in the Senate and as top congressional leaders connected on the topic for the first time in months. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate...
12 Days of Christmas cost drops in 2020, but you’re not getting all the gifts
The 12 Days of Christmas will cost you less than half of what it did in 2019. But you’re getting less gifts because of covid-19. “The true cost of Christmas decreased in 2020, as this year’s index accounts for cancellations of many live performances,” PNC said on their rundown of...
Chinese moon probe begins return to Earth with lunar samples
BEIJING — A Chinese lunar probe lifted off from the moon Thursday night with a cargo of lunar samples on the first stage of its return to Earth, state media reported. Chang’e 5, the third Chinese spacecraft to land on the moon and the first to take off from it...
Biden facing high hopes, tough choices on border wall
LOS EBANOS, Texas — The U.S. government has been trying to take Pamela Rivas’ land for a border wall since before Joe Biden was vice president. From a brushy bluff, Rivas can look across the Rio Grande to Mexico on the other side. She spent her childhood fishing on the...
Police say 4 dead after explosion at U.K. waste water plant
LONDON — Four people have died following an explosion at a waste water treatment plant near the southwest England city of Bristol, police said Thursday. Chief Inspector Mark Runacres of Avon and Somerset Police said that a fifth person was injured during the explosion at Avonmouth but that his condition...
Mural at Black archive in Amsterdam vandalized
AMSTERDAM — Vandals daubed white paint over the faces of Black historical figures on a mural outside a Black cultural archive in Amsterdam in what one of the archive’s founders called a racist attack Thursday. The vandals also stuck stickers on the mural saying in Dutch “soot-smudge Pete is genocide,”...
China hits out at U.S. after report of new visa restrictions
BEIJING — China on Thursday accused critics in the U.S. government of “an escalation of political suppression” against Beijing following a report of new visa restrictions on members of China’s ruling Communist Party and their immediate family members. Foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said China would “make representations” to the...
NASA: Mystery object is 54-year-old rocket, not asteroid
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A mysterious object temporarily orbiting Earth is a 54-year-old rocket, not an asteroid after all, astronomers confirmed Wednesday. Observations by a telescope in Hawaii clinched its identity, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The object was classified as an asteroid after its discovery...
Search persists for parents of 628 kids separated at border
SAN DIEGO — A court-appointed committee has yet to find the parents of 628 children separated at the border early in the Trump administration, according to a court filing Wednesday that also said the government last week provided additional phone numbers to aid the long-running search. Parents of 333 children...
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree turns on, with coronavirus rules
NEW YORK — Rockin’ around the Christmas tree looks different for visitors at Rockefeller Center this year, starting with the tree lighting ceremony on Wednesday. What’s normally a chaotic, crowded tourist hotspot during the holiday season was instead a mask-mandated, time-limited, socially distanced locale because of the coronavirus pandemic. The...
Police: Officer in West Virginia shooting unlikely to surviveVideo
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia police officer who was shot by a suspect is unlikely to survive, a police chief said Wednesday. Charleston officer Cassie Johnson was shot Tuesday while responding to a parking complaint. She was sworn in as a police officer in January 2019. Charleston Police Officer...
After covid-19 scare, Ghislaine Maxwell expected to ask again for release on bail
MIAMI — Jeffrey Epstein’s onetime romantic partner and alleged sex trafficking accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell is expected to renew her request to be released on bail, which was originally denied after she was arrested in July. Maxwell has been housed since then at the Metropolitan Detention Center in the New York...
San Francisco bans smoking inside apartments; pot smoking OK
City officials in San Francisco have banned all tobacco smoking inside apartments, citing concerns about secondhand smoke. But lighting up a joint inside? That’s still allowed. The Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 Tuesday to approve the ordinance making San Francisco the largest city in the country to ban tobacco smoking...
‘My God, we’re scared’: Serial attacks put Boston suburb on edge
WALTHAM, Mass. — The attacks come after dark, without warning, usually from behind. The victims, all men, are hit so hard on the head with some sort of blunt object that they are often knocked to the ground and require medical attention. The apparently random string of at least 10...
UN agency removes cannabis from strictest drug category
The U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted Wednesday to remove cannabis and cannabis resin from a category of the world’s most dangerous drugs, which could impact the global medical marijuana industry. The Vienna-based U.N. agency said in a statement that it had voted 27-25, with one abstention, to remove cannabis...
NYC bar owner who defied coronavirus restrictions arrested
An owner of a New York City bar that was providing indoor service in defiance of coronavirus restrictions was arrested after a sting in which plainclothes officers went inside and ordered food and beverages, the city sheriff’s office said. Protesters shouted as deputies arrested Danny Presti, the co-owner of Mac’s...
Pakistani court declares ex-PM Sharif fugitive from justice
ISLAMABAD — A top Pakistani court on Wednesday declared the country’s ailing former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who lives in exile in London, a fugitive from justice after he failed to return home to face additional corruption charges. The move by the Islamabad High Court comes months after Sharif was...
Transportation Department tightens definition of service animals allowed on planes
The days of pets flying with their owners in airplane cabins for free are coming to an end. The Transportation Department issued a final rule Wednesday covering animals on airlines. It decided that only dogs can fly as service animals, and companions that passengers use for emotional support don’t count....
Man pleads guilty to killing woman after remains found
LANCASTER, Ky. — A Kentucky man has pleaded guilty to killing a woman whose remains were found six months after she disappeared, according to court records. David Sparks, 25, entered the plea Monday in Garrard County Circuit Court, news outlets reported, citing court records. He was indicted last year on...
