WASHINGTON (AP) — Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, vowed on Monday to prioritize civil rights, combat extremist attacks and ensure the Justice Department remains politically independent. Garland appeared Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee and faced questions about the investigation of Biden’s son Hunter as well as the fallout from the…
(AP) — The U.S. stands at the brink of 500,000 deaths from the coronavirus. A year into the pandemic, America’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, calls the looming milestone horrible and historic. The running total of lives lost, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, was about 498,000 on Sunday. That’s roughly the population…
DALLAS (AP) — Higher temperatures are spreading across the southern United States, bringing some relief to a region weary of winter. The region faces a challenging clean-up and expensive repairs from days of extreme cold and widespread power outages. In hard-hit Texas, where millions were warned to boil tap water before drinking it, the warm-up…
LONDON (AP) — Buckingham Palace has confirmed that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, will not be returning to royal duties, and Harry will give up his honorary military titles. Harry and Meghan stepped away from full-time royal life in early 2020, and it was agreed at the time that the situation would be reviewed…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Extreme winter weather is dealing the first major setback to the Biden administration’s planned swift rollout of coronavirus vaccines just as the national vaccination campaign was hitting its stride. The disruptions caused by frigid temperatures, snow and ice left the White House scrambling to work with states to make up “lost ground.”…
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Many Texans finally have electricity back after a deadly blast of winter this week overwhelmed the electrical grid and left millions shivering in the cold for days. But the crisis is far from over, with 7 million in the state ordered to boil their water before consuming it. And in Jackson,…
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA rover has landed on Mars in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on the red planet. The space agency says the six-wheeled Perseverance hurtled through the thin, orange atmosphere and settled onto the surface Thursday in the mission’s riskiest maneuver…
DALLAS (AP) — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has traveled to Mexico for a family vacation as his home state struggles with a powerful winter storm that’s left many residents without power or safe drinking water. The high-profile Republican senator traveled with his family for a long-planned trip to Cancun and he was expected to return…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The deadly winter storms that knocked out power for millions in Texas and other states have exceeded the worst-case scenarios of many U.S. utilities. They also fit a pattern of worsening extremes under climate change and demonstrate anew that local, state and federal officials have failed to do enough to prepare for…
Here’s what’s happening Wednesday with the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.: THREE THINGS TO KNOW TODAY — The White House said the U.S. is vaccinating some 1.7 million people per day, up from under 1 million a month ago. New figures from the White House show the steady increase in the pace of vaccinations over…