USA

CINCINNATI (AP) — Joe Biden made two campaign stops Monday in Ohio, attempting to expand the battleground map and keep President Donald Trump on the defensive in a state long thought to be out of reach for Democrats after Trump’s wide margin of victory there four years ago.

SANFORD, Florida (AP) — Defiant as ever about the coronavirus, President Donald Trump on Monday turned his first campaign rally since contracting COVID-19 into a full-throated defense of his handling of the pandemic that has killed 215,000 Americans, joking that he was healthy enough to plunge into the crowd and give voters “a big fat kiss.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett will face senators’ questions over her approach to health care, legal precedent and even the presidential election during a second day of confirmation hearings on track to lock in a conservative court majority for years to come.

LAKE CHARLES (Louisiana, US), Oct 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Storm-weary coastal Louisiana residents who fled from the path of Hurricane Delta in recent days streamed back to their homes to face cleanup and repairs from the second hurricane to batter their state over the past six weeks.

Many returned to find that Delta, dissipating substantially as it drifted farther inland on Sunday, had ripped away temporary tarpaulin roofs installed over their homes in late August after Hurricane Laura, a more powerful storm, struck with devastating force.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft said Monday it had used a court order to take control of computers that were installing ransomware and other malicious software on local government networks and threatening to disrupt the November election.

The maker of the Windows operating system said it seized a series of internet protocol addresses hosted by U.S. companies that had been directing activity on computers infected with Trickbot, one of the most common pieces of malware in the world.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The jig may be up for an “asteroid” that’s expected to get nabbed by Earth’s gravity and become a mini moon next month.

Instead of a cosmic rock, the newly discovered object appears to be an old rocket from a failed moon-landing mission 54 years ago that’s finally making its way back home, according to NASA’s leading asteroid expert. Observations should help nail its identity.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Presidential hopefuls tend to declare every upcoming election the most important one that voters have faced in their lifetime. Joe Biden goes bigger.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Fire investigators looking into what caused a wildfire that killed four people in far Northern California have taken possession of equipment belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric, the utility has reported.

PG&E said in a filing Friday with the Public Utilities Commission that investigators with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection seized some of its electrical equipment near where the Zogg Fire started Sept. 27.

O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — A conservative political action committee in Missouri is facing accusations of racism after posting a website that uses images of violent protests and photos of Black politicians to attack the Democratic candidate for governor on her support for police.

WASHINGTON (AP) — While most of the kids in Washington’s public schools are dealing with computer screens and Zoom rooms, a dozen students work diligently at their desks at Meridian Charter School, many separated by tall, three-sided partitions that were originally set up as protection against COVID-19.