Federal health regulators said late Friday that kid-size doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine appear highly effective at preventing symptomatic infections in elementary school children and caused no unexpected safety issues, as the U.S. weighs beginning vaccinations in youngsters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. budget deficit totaled $2.77 trillion for 2021, the second highest on record but an improvement from the all-time high of $3.13 trillion reached in 2020. The deficits in both years reflect trillions of dollars in government spending to counteract the devastating ef…

America is on life support, and it doesn't seem like the country knows how to fix its issues.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Tom McCarthy helps people discover their artistic expression, believing that art can have transformative, therapeutic power in the lives of people who are suffering. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators on Wednesday signed off on extending COVID-19 boosters to Americans who got the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine and said anyone eligible for an extra dose can get a brand different from the one they received initially.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — In a county of less than 85,000 people, more than 1% of its population was summoned as prospective jurors in the high-profile trial of three white men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was jogging in their Georgia neighborhood.  

After the most mild flu season on record in 2020, the Centers for Disease Control is warning the virus could come back early and hit harder this year.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Once-endangered alligators are thriving in the wild, so Louisiana authorities are proposing a deep cut in the percentage that farmers must return to marshes where their eggs were laid.

ROWLEY, Massachusetts — The Great Marsh Shellfish Co. has officially started a growout farm and planted its first oyster crop in the water in Massachusetts.

ANDOVER, Massachusetts — It was one of life’s little twists.

TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma – More than 200 friends, colleagues, and strangers gathered at a downtown park in a Northeastern Oklahoma town Thursday evening to honor the memory of a local woman they say was loved by everyone.

On Monday, Oct. 4, users across various social networking platforms were unable to use  Facebook and Instagram. Social media is a huge part of many people’s daily activities, and being shut out was difficult for many.

Gathered on Thursday under a tent near the entrance gate to Peoples Natural Gas Park, Patient Order of Meticulous Metalsmiths members did millimeter-by-millimeter precision work on different parts of a chest they were making together.

Tammie Dilla’s desire is to be a light for breast cancer patients. But first, she’s got to escape the shadow that the disease still casts over her.

More than 114 years have passed since Robert Hughes, 18, was lynched in Cumberland.

U.S. health advisers said Thursday that some Americans who received Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine at least six months ago should get a half-dose booster to rev up protection against the coronavirus.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of retirees on Social Security will get a 5.9% boost in benefits for 2022. The biggest cost-of-living adjustment in 39 years follows a burst in inflation as the economy struggles to shake off the drag of the coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration is wrestling with whether and when to offer another dose of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, while a new study out Wednesday raises the prospect that using a different brand as the booster might work better.

MONTGOMERY — It's no secret the South accounted for the majority of the 6,500 Black people killed from lynchings between 1865 to 1950 following the abolition of slavery but lynchings also occurred throughout the U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the House on Tuesday pushed through a short-term increase to the nation's debt limit, ensuring the federal government can continue fully paying its bills into December and temporarily averting an unprecedented default that would have decimated the economy.

MONTGOMERY, Alabama — In an era where racial justice continues to be a topic in the U.S., the newly expanded Legacy Museum seeks equality for all Americans.

Fifty-five years ago Bobbi Gibb sprinted into the 1966 Boston Marathon field of male runners, trying to hide herself under her brother’s blue-hooded sweatshirt. With that one act, the 23-year-old would become the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.

CUMBERLAND, Md. — The mother of Jeffrey Allen Burnham, the Cumberland man charged with killing three people last week, contacted police just hours before the first victim was found dead inside her Fourth Street home out of concern for her son’s mental stability, according to district court documents.

TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma – A group of Northeastern Oklahoma residents gathered Oct. 2 in a public park to protest a Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and allowing citizens to sue providers and anyone else who helps a woman obtain an abortion.

These days, too many Americans inhabit local and federal prisons throughout the country.

MONTGOMERY — Alabama has a history of slavery and racism but legislators want to remove the language of that history from the state constitution.  

WASHINGTON (AP) — When the U.S. government issues the September jobs report on Friday, the spotlight will fall not only on how many people were hired last month. A second question will command attention, too: Are more people finally starting to look for work?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week, another sign that the U.S. job market and economy continue their steady recovery from last year's coronavirus recession.

If Mark Zuckerberg seems irritable, he has good reason. His Facebook Empire is facing a digital scandal provoked by a former employee turned whistleblower.

As various states restrict abortions, many low-income women will be burdened with medical expenses during and after an unwanted pregnancy – especially in states that have not expanded Medicaid benefits.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Johnson & Johnson asked the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to allow extra shots of its COVID-19 vaccine as the U.S. government moves toward expanding its booster campaign to millions more vaccinated Americans.

In most cases, a cancer patient getting breast conservation surgery, known as a lumpectomy, would have to come in early on the day of their surgery for a localization procedure.

Abortion, guns and religion top the Supreme Court term that begins Monday. A look at those and a few other notable cases:

MONTGOMERY — In an era where racial justice continues to be a topic in the U.S., the newly expanded Legacy Museum in Montgomery aims to bring the races together for reckoning to bring equality for all Americans. 

The pulsing, nagging pain in your head may not be a migraine. Headaches come in various forms and not all are treated the same.

While many Maryland jurisdictions have moved forward and are focused on COVID-19 booster shots in the fight to end the pandemic, Allegany and Garrett counties are far behind most of the state for the number of residents that have gotten at least one dose of a vaccine.

The last time I saw Darrell Siggers, he was slumped forward, cradling his head in his hands in a dim holding cell in the Wayne County Jail in downtown Detroit. His pain was palpable. It seemed to ooze from his eyes and mouth.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday added five new cases to its calendar for the term that begins next week, among them a challenge to federal election law brought by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.