Category Archives: Pennsylvania

John Fetterman, Democratic Pennsylvania Senate candidate, suffers stroke

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Lieutenant governor and frontrunner in Democratic primary says he’s recovering and insists ‘campaign isn’t slowing down one bit’

John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania and frontrunner in the state’s Democratic US Senate primary, suffered a stroke Friday, and is recovering, he said in a statement.

“On Friday, I wasn’t feeling well, so I went to the hospital to get checked out. I didn’t want to go – I didn’t think I had to – but Gisele insisted, and as usual, she was right,” Fetterman said in a statement posted to Twitter, referring to his wife. “I hadn’t been feeling well, but was so focused on the campaign that I ignored the signs and just kept going.”

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US rocked by three separate mass shootings over Easter weekend

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Two teenage boys killed in Pittsburgh in one of at least three shootings over the weekend, including two in South Carolina

Two teenage boys were killed and eight other people were wounded after gunfire erupted at a party in a short-term rental home in Pittsburgh early Sunday, one of at least three mass shootings across the US on Easter weekend.

The other two shootings – both in South Carolina – left a total of 18 people with bullet wounds, once again reigniting calls among advocates for meaningful gun control legislation.

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Philadelphia becomes first major US city to reinstate indoor mask mandate

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Covid-19 cases have risen more than 50% in 10 days, the threshold at which city’s guidelines call for masking indoors

Philadelphia on Monday became the first major US city to reinstate its indoor mask mandate after reporting a sharp increase in coronavirus infections, with the city’s top health official saying she wanted to forestall a potential new wave driven by an Omicron sub-variant.

Confirmed Covid-19 cases had risen more than 50% in 10 days, the threshold at which the city’s guidelines called for people to wear masks indoors, said Dr Cheryl Bettigole, Philadelphia health commissioner.

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‘TV is like a poll’: Trump endorses Dr Oz for Pennsylvania Senate nomination

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Former president enthuses about TV doctor in statement and at rally but many on far right doubt conservative credentials

Donald Trump has endorsed Dr Mehmet Oz for the Republican nomination for Senate in Pennsylvania, an expression of support for a fellow TV star which could test the former president’s grip on his party.

Being on TV was “like a poll, that means people like you,” the former president and Celebrity Apprentice star said of Oz, a heart surgeon turned daytime host.

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‘Adults are banning books, but they’re not asking our opinions’: meet the teens of the Banned Book Club

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Conservatives are pushing to ban books from school libraries. At a time of crisis, a group of Pennsylvania teenagers are fighting back

“Napoleon’s use of the sheep was notable,” says Jordan Daughtry, 14. She’s clutching a copy of Animal Farm, and referring to the authoritarian Berkshire boar who seizes control of an English acreage, before bending his fellow animals to his will.

The sheep, who represent the unwitting masses in George Orwell’s critique of Joseph Stalin’s totalitarian rule, are “ignorant buffoons”, Daughtry says.

Kiara Daughtry, left, and Lena Cackley.

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Biden visits site of Pittsburgh bridge collapse and promises action with infrastructure law –as it happened

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Defense secretary Lloyd Austin will host a joint press conference with joint chief of staff chair Mark Milley later today.

A 2019 law allowing anyone in Pennsylvania to vote by mail is unconstitutional, a state court ruled on Friday.

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Pittsburgh bridge collapses hours before Biden’s infrastructure speech in city

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At least 10 injured and a bus and several cars left stranded in wreckage after 477ft-long bridge on Forbes Avenue caved in

It would be hard to imagine a more dramatic way to illustrate the need for investment in US infrastructure that Joe Biden was set to talk about in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Friday.

Hours before his visit and just four miles from where the president was scheduled to speak, one of Pittsburgh’s major car bridges collapsed.

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Pittsburgh New Year’s Day meteor explosion equivalent to 30 tonnes of TNT, says Nasa

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If not for clouds, the half-tonne fireball would have been easily visible in the day, maybe about 100 times the brightness of a full moon

A meteor that caused an earthshaking boom over suburban Pittsburgh on New Year’s Day exploded in the atmosphere with an energy blast equivalent to an estimated 30 tonnes (27,200kg) of TNT, officials said.

The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh initially responded, suggesting the most likely explanation was a “meteor explosion” as people took to social media in search of answers.

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Kellogg to replace 1,400 strikers as deal is rejected

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Strike, which began in October, expected to continue as workers seek significant raises, saying they work 80-hour weeks

Kellogg has said it is permanently replacing 1,400 workers who have been on strike since October, a decision that comes as the majority of its cereal plant workforce rejected a deal that would have provided 3% raises.

The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union said an overwhelming majority of workers had voted down the five-year offer.

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Man killed by stray bullet while eating Thanksgiving dinner at home

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District attorney names victim and suspect in incident in suburbs of Philadelphia on Thursday

A man eating Thanksgiving dinner inside a home in the suburbs of Philadelphia was killed by a stray bullet that pierced a window, authorities said.

Edilberto Miguel Palaez Moctezuma, 25, was shot in the torso just before 9.30pm on Thursday, the Montgomery county district attorney, Kevin Steele, said in a press release. Palaez Moctezuma was flown to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

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America mourns as leaders and families mark 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks

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Ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and at Pentagon mark the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks

Some wept. Some held photos of loved ones At 8.46am, precisely two decades after a passenger plane became a new and deadly weapon here, all fell silent in remembrance.

Families of the victims gathered at the 9/11 memorial plaza in New York on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and helped shape the 21st century.

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Hurricane Ida death toll nears 60 as states begin to comb through debris

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The US death toll from Hurricane Ida rose towards 60 on Saturday, nearly a week after one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US mainland made landfall in Louisiana. Two more evacuated nursing home residents were confirmed to have died in the southern state.

Related: Louisiana Shell refinery left spewing chemicals after Hurricane Ida

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More than 40 killed in US north-east amid sudden heavy rains and flooding

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Deaths and damage spanned huge areas in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland

The death toll from floods and tornadoes in the US north-east rose past 40 on Thursday, as authorities continued to digest the full impact of the remnants of Hurricane Ida.

Ida struck Louisiana last Sunday, knocking out power to the city of New Orleans and causing deaths in that state and Mississippi.

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Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction overturned by Pennsylvania court

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  • Cosby has served two years of a 3-to-10-year sentence
  • Court says charges invalid because of prior deal with prosecutor

Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction on Wednesday after finding an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.

Cosby has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia. He had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand.

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Philadelphia holds day of remembrance for 1985 Move bombing that left 11 dead

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Occasion overshadowed by disclosure that bones of children who died held for almost four decades by University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia on Thursday marks the city’s first official day of remembrance for the 1985 bombing of a Black liberation group in which 11 people, including five children, were killed and an entire African American neighborhood burned to ashes.

Related: Ivy League colleges apologize for ‘serious error’ in using bones of Black child for teaching

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Bones of Black children killed in police bombing used in Ivy League anthropology course

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Remains of those killed in 1985 Move bombing in Philadelphia serve as ‘case study’ in Princeton-backed course

The bones of Black children who died in 1985 after their home was bombed by Philadelphia police in a confrontation with the Black liberation group which was raising them are being used as a “case study” in an online forensic anthropology course presented by an Ivy League professor.

It has emerged that the physical remains of one, or possibly two, of the children who were killed in the aerial bombing of the Move organization in May 1985 have been guarded over the past 36 years in the anthropological collections of the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton.

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Pittsburgh official goes viral by rebuking Ted Cruz – and looking like Jeff Daniels

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Rich Fitzgerald told local TV that senator’s climate tweet was ‘outrageous’, prompting Twitter users to make comparison to actor

Rich Fitzgerald, the elected executive of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, has achieved viral internet fame – for rebuking the Republican senator Ted Cruz but also for looking remarkably like the Emmy-winning actor Jeff Daniels.

Related: Melania Trump's photo snub prompts speculation over post-White House path

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First major snowstorm of season blankets US north-east and sets records

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Hazardous conditions reported in multiple states as regions in Pennsylvania and New York saw accumulations in double digits

The first major snowstorm of the season left the north-east blanketed in snow, setting records in some areas.

“Williamsport regional airport made history,” the National Weather Service in State College said, reporting 24.7in of snow. Forecasters said that was the most snow in that location from a single storm on record, breaking the previous record of 24.1in set there in January 1964.

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States targeted in Texas election fraud lawsuit condemn ‘cacophony of bogus claims’

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Attorneys general from both parties reject baseless allegations in case filed with US supreme court

Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Thursday urged the US supreme court to reject a lawsuit filed by Texas and backed by Donald Trump seeking to undo Joe Biden’s victory, saying the case has no factual or legal grounds and makes “bogus” claims.

“What Texas is doing in this proceeding is to ask this court to reconsider a mass of baseless claims about problems with the election that have already been considered, and rejected, by this court and other courts,” Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Democratic attorney general, wrote in a filing to the nine justices.

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Pennsylvania supreme court throws out Republican bid to reject 2.5m mail-in votes

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Judge says plaintiff ‘failed to allege that even a single mail-in ballot was fraudulently cast or counted’

Pennsylvania’s highest court has thrown out a lower court’s order that was preventing the state from certifying dozens of contests from the 3 November election.

In the latest Republican lawsuit attempting to thwart president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the battleground state, the state supreme court unanimously threw out the three-day-old order, saying the underlying lawsuit was filed months after the law allowed for challenges to Pennsylvania’s year-old mail-in voting law.

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