WASHINGTON (AP) — An influential federal advisory panel has overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give Pfizer booster shots against COVID-19 to most Americans, but it approved the extra shots for those who are 65 or older or run a high risk of severe disease. The twin votes Friday represented a heavy blow to the Biden…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Justice Department official tells The Associated Press that the department is reviewing its policies on housing transgender inmates in the federal prison system. Protections for transgender prisoners were rolled back in the Trump administration. The federal Bureau of Prisons’ policies for transgender inmates are in the spotlight after a leader of…
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A prominent South Carolina lawyer surrendered on Thursday to face insurance fraud and other charges in a failed plot to arrange his own death. Alex Murdaugh turned himself at the Hampton County jail ahead of a bond hearing. State police say Murdaugh tried to arrange his death Sept. 4 so his…
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — .SpaceX’s first private flight has streaked into orbit with two contest winners, a health care worker and their rich sponsor. It was the first time a spacecraft circled Earth with an all-amateur crew and no professional astronauts. SpaceX’s recycled rocket soared Wednesday night from the same Kennedy Space Center pad…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles has told Congress that the FBI and gymnastics officials turned a “blind eye” to USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse of her and hundreds of other women. Biles told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that “enough is enough” as she and three other U.S. gymnasts…
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has emphatically defeated a recall aimed at kicking him out of office. Newsom bolted to a quick victory Tuesday boosted by healthy turnout in the overwhelmingly Democratic state. He cast it as a win for science, women’s trights and other liberal issues. It ensures the nation’s…
KOSICE, Slovakia (AP) — Pope Francis is urging Slovakia’s Roma to integrate better into the mainstream as he meets with the country’s most socially excluded minority group, who have long suffered discrimination, marginalization and poverty. But Francis’ visit Tuesday to the Lunik IX settlement in Kosice brought home just how excluded the Roma are. Police…
HOUSTON (AP) — Tropical Storm Nicholas hit the Texas coast as a hurricane, bringing the threat of up to 20 inches of rainfall to parts of the Gulf Coast. The hurricane center says the storm made landfall on the eastern part of the Matagorda Peninsula and was soon downgraded to a tropical storm. It was…
NEW YORK (AP) — Classroom doors are swinging open for about a million New York City public school students in the nation’s largest experiment of in-person learning during the coronavirus pandemic. The start of the school year Monday coincides with several other milestones in the city’s pandemic recovery that hinge on vaccine mandates. Nearly all…
MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Nicholas is strengthening early Monday as it travels up the western Gulf Coast. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say coastal areas of Texas, Mexico and Louisiana could see heavy rain and flooding. Nicholas has top winds around 60 mph. Tropical storm warnings have been issued for coastal…