Ex-lawmaker Margo Davidson fined over campaign law violations
HARRISBURG — A former Democratic state lawmaker who pleaded guilty to theft and campaign finance violations in December was fined $150 on Monday by a county judge in Harrisburg. Margo Davidson, who had represented a Delaware County district in the state House before she resigned after being charged last year,...
Official: Justin Trudeau to use emergency powers across CanadaVideo
OTTAWA, Ontario — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to invoke emergency powers across all of Canada to quell the protests by demonstrators who have paralyzed Ottawa and blocked border crossings in anger over the country’s covid-19 restrictions, a senior government official said Monday. The prime minister met virtually with...
Budget report on Pa. education agency provokes spat between lawmakers, watchdogs
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — With a single sentence tucked 15 pages into an otherwise dry budget report on the state Department of Education,...
Sliver of hope: Kremlin sees a diplomatic path on Ukraine
MOSCOW — The Kremlin signaled Monday it is ready to keep talking with the West about security grievances that led to the current Ukraine crisis, offering hope that Russia might not invade its beleaguered neighbor within days as the U.S. and European allies increasingly fear. Questions remain about Russian President...
Investigated Colorado clerk wants to run state’s elections
A Colorado official who repeats former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential contest and is under investigation for alleged election security breaches announced Monday she is running to be her state’s top elections officer. Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, whom a judge suspended from overseeing last year’s election...
Ohio mayor quits after saying ice shanties may bring prostitution
HUDSON, Ohio — The mayor who suggested that allowing ice fishing shanties on a lake could lead to prostitution resigned Monday after days of being mocked and drawing national attention to the city. Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert said in his resignation letter that his comments at a City Council meeting...
Corruption trial opens for ex-Goldman banker in 1MDB scandal
NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors told a jury Monday that a former Goldman Sachs executive pocketed $35 million in “secret kickbacks” in the multibillion-dollar ransacking of a Malaysian state investment fund, accusing the banker of playing a “crucial” role in the massive money laundering and bribery scheme. Roger Ng also...
Tripwire for real war? Cyber’s fuzzy rules of engagement
BOSTON — President Joe Biden couldn’t have been more blunt about the risks of cyberattacks spinning out of control. “If we end up in a war, a real shooting war with a major power, it’s going to be as a consequence of a cyber breach of great consequence,” he told...
Spiked Champagne in Bavarian bar leaves 1 dead, 8 sick
BERLIN — One man died and eight other people were hospitalized in serious condition after unknowingly drinking Champagne spiked with Ecstasy at a bar in Bavaria, German prosecutors said Monday. The man who died was 52, and the others were between 33 and 52, police told the German news agency...
Prince Charles’ wife Camilla tests positive for covid
LONDON — Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for covid-19 four days after her husband, Prince Charles, was confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus, the couple’s office said Monday. Clarence House said Camilla was self-isolating. Charles has been isolating since he tested positive on Thursday, but Camilla had...
Bill to protect doctors prescribing ivermectin, other unproven drugs against covid advances in Pa.
A state House committee on Monday approved a bill that would free doctors to prescribe off-label drugs to treat covid-19 and allow pharmacists to fill the prescriptions, also without penalty. The bill was authored by Republican state Rep. Dawn Keefer of York County. It was approved by the health committee...
Woman killed by man who followed her into NYC apartment
NEW YORK — A woman was stabbed to death inside her lower Manhattan apartment by a man who followed her from the street into her building, authorities said. Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was found fatally wounded in her bathtub at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday, police said. The suspected killer was...
Democrats eye key governors’ races as backstop against GOP
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers was in a familiar spot earlier this month when Republican legislators sent him a bill that would have banned anti-racist teachings in schools. For the 66th time since taking office in 2019, he pulled out his veto pen. The rejection was the latest reminder of the...
Ivan Reitman, producer, ‘Ghostbusters’ director, dies at 75
Ivan Reitman, the influential filmmaker and producer behind beloved comedies from “Animal House” to “Ghostbusters,” has died. He was 75. Reitman died peacefully in his sleep Saturday night at his home in Montecito, Calif., his family told The Associated Press. “Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband,...
Trump distortions before Capitol riot are a focus of House probe
WASHINGTON — The House investigation into last year’s Capitol insurrection will move its work into the public eye as soon as April, laying out for voters evidence that they say shows former President Donald Trump and his allies stoked the violence. The select committee of five Democrats and two Republicans...
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin prods Fed to tackle inflation, citing economy riskVideo
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin said the Federal Reserve needs to “stop pussyfooting around” and “tackle inflation head-on,” renewing his call for the central bank to act against the fastest pace of price increases since the early 1980s. The West Virginia Democrat has warned for months about the impact of...
West Virginia school district investigating religious eventVideo
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia school superintendent is investigating a Feb. 2 religious revival event that occurred at Huntington High School, saying he believes some students’ rights have been violated. Cabell County Schools Superintendent Ryan Saxe announced the investigation in a statement issued on Friday. About 100 students at...
Suspect charged 40 years after Pennsylvania woman was killed
MARCUS HOOK, Pa. — A Pennsylvania man has been charged with murder and kidnapping more than 40 years after an 18-year-old woman was killed, prosecutors announced Friday. Investigators had long suspected two men named in the announcement Friday had played a role in the death of Denise Marie Pierson, who...
From campus to Congress, colleges urged to end legacy boost
America’s elite colleges are facing growing calls to end the decades-old tradition of giving an admissions boost to the children of alumni — a practice that critics say is rooted in racism and bestows an unfair advantage to students who need it least. Fueled by the national reckoning with racial...
Graham becomes early player to watch in Supreme Court drama
WASHINGTON — The list of Republicans willing to support President Joe Biden’s forthcoming nominee to the Supreme Court “is longer than you would initially imagine,” the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat recently teased to reporters. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin declined to name names. But it’s clear that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is...
Key U.S.-Canada bridge reopens after police clear protesters
WINDSOR, Ontario — The busiest U.S.-Canada border crossing reopened late Sunday after protests against covid-19 restrictions closed it for almost a week, while Canadian officials held back from a crackdown on a larger protest in the capital, Ottawa. Detroit International Bridge Co. said in a statement that “the Ambassador Bridge...
Paris police fire tear gas to disperse banned virus protest
Paris police fired tear gas Saturday against a handful of demonstrators on the Champs-Elysees Avenue who defied a police order by taking part in a vehicle protest against virus restrictions inspired by Canada’s horn-honking truckers. In the Netherlands, dozens of trucks and other vehicles — ranging from tractors to a...
Canada border blockade clearing peacefully as police move in
A tense standoff at a U.S.-Canadian border crossing crucial to both countries’ economies appeared to be dissolving peacefully Saturday as Canadian police moved in to disperse the nearly weeklong blockade and protesters began leaving without resistance. Many demonstrators drove away from the Ambassador Bridge spanning the river between Detroit and...
Biden warns Putin of ‘severe costs’ of Ukraine invasion
President Joe Biden told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that invading Ukraine would cause “widespread human suffering” and that the West was committed to diplomacy to end the crisis but “equally prepared for other scenarios,” the White House said Saturday. It offered no suggestion that the hourlong call diminished the threat of...
Many faith leaders wary of religious exemptions for vaccine
By the thousands, Americans have been seeking religious exemptions in order to circumvent covid-19 vaccine mandates, but generally they are doing so without the encouragement of major denominations and prominent religious leaders. From the Vatican, Pope Francis has defended the vaccines as “the most reasonable solution to the pandemic.” The...
