U.S. holiday travel expected to approach pre-pandemic levels
Americans are expected to travel in near-record numbers over the July 4 holiday despite the increased cost of gasoline, rental cars and hotel rooms, according to the trade group AAA. “Americans are ready to catch up on those missed opportunities with their friends and families from last year, especially to...
Bill Cosby released from prison after sex assault conviction overturned by Pa. Supreme Court
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and released him from prison Wednesday in a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as “America’s Dad,” ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby....
‘Severe’ blood shortage prompts donation centers to make a call to arms
Clentin Martin was found where he usually is every 56th day or so — giving blood. “I always felt that it was an obligation to do,” Martin, 74, said while donating at the American Red Cross blood drive at St. Bruno Catholic Church in Greensburg. “It’s something that everybody needs.”...
Actor Allison Mack gets 3 years in NXIVM sex-slave case
TV actor Allison Mack, who played a key role in the scandal-ridden, cult-like group NXIVM, was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday on charges she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the group’s spiritual leader. Mack — best known for her role as a young Superman’s close friend...
Pittsburgh, Philadelphia move ahead with plastic bag bans as Pa.’s preemption nears its end
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 — Cities and townships hoping to ban plastic bags within their borders may finally have the legal authority to do...
Putin: U.S. aircraft involved in Black Sea incident
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was operating in sync with a British destroyer during last week’s Black Sea incident. Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of British destroyer Defender on Wednesday to force...
Wolf signs $40M budget package, celebrates public school funding
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday signed a roughly $40 billion budget package that passed last week, as he touted the importance of new funding for public schools. The hundreds of pages of budget legislation emerged publicly from closed-door negotiations on Friday and won approval within hours in the...
McConnell says federal standard may be needed to protect college sports
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday federal legislation “probably is necessary” to protect college sports after a Supreme Court ruling that loosened the NCAA’s control and cleared the way for greater compensation for student athletes. McConnell said there now are a variety of state laws regarding...
Census Bureau dodges challenge to controversial privacy tool
The U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday dodged a challenge for now to its use of a controversial statistical method aimed at keeping people’s data private in the numbers used for redrawing congressional and legislative districts after federal judges refused to stop the technique’s implementation. A panel of three federal judges...
‘Our backyard’: Tragedy strikes home for Miami-Dade rescuers as death toll rises to 12
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Search and rescue teams from Miami-Dade are considered among the best and most experienced in the world, dispatched to epic disaster scenes far beyond Florida — from the rubble of the World Trade Center to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, Mexico and the Philippines. This time disaster struck at home....
Confusion surrounds vote count in New York City mayoral primary
NEW YORK — The Democratic primary for mayor of New York City was thrown into a state of confusion Tuesday when election officials abruptly retracted their latest report on the vote count after realizing it had been corrupted by test data never cleared from a computer system. The bungle was...
Condo board boss warned of worsening damage before collapse
Weeks before a Florida condo building collapsed, the president of its board wrote that structural problems identified in a 2018 inspection had “gotten significantly worse” and owners needed to pay a hefty price to get them fixed. The April 9 “Dear Neighbors” letter from Champlain Towers South Condominium President Jean...
Search at collapsed tower goes into 6th day; Biden to visit
SURFSIDE, Fla. — The slow work of sifting through the remnants of a collapsed Florida condo building stretched into a sixth day Tuesday, as families desperate for progress endured a wrenching wait for answers. “We have people waiting and waiting and waiting for news,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told...
France legalizes in vitro fertilization for lesbians, single women
PARIS — France’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday definitively adopted a law that will allow single women and lesbians access to medically assisted reproduction for the first time. The wide-ranging bioethics law, presented by French President Emmanuel Macron’s government, was approved at the National Assembly with 326 votes for...
Federal agency blocks Indiana’s Medicaid work requirements
INDIANAPOLIS — The Biden administration has revoked the federal authorization for Indiana’s planned work requirements for low-income residents who receive their health insurance through Medicaid. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb sought to implement the work requirements for the Healthy Indiana Plan program in 2019 under approval from the Trump administration. But...
Congressional leaders urge FCC to perform equity audit
Congressional leaders and a media advocacy group are urging the Federal Communications Commission to examine how policy decisions and programs have disparately harmed Black Americans and other communities of color, according to a letter sent Tuesday to the acting FCC chair. In the letter, first shared with the Associated Press,...
House looks to remove Roger Taney bust, Confederate statues
WASHINGTON — The House is expected to approve a bill Tuesday that would remove from the Capitol a bust of Roger Taney, the U.S. chief justice best known for an infamous pro-slavery decision, as well as statues of Jefferson Davis and others who served in the Confederacy. A similar bill...
Prosecutors will ask grand jury to probe building collapse
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Prosecutors in Florida will pursue a grand jury investigation into the deadly collapse of an oceanfront condominium building, officials said Tuesday. Miami-Dade County Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference that she fully supports such an investigation. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she would bring...
Defense lawyer: Newspaper gunman ‘deranged’ and ‘delusional’
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The man who killed five people at a Maryland newspaper was delusional and believed the state’s judicial system was conspiring with the Capital Gazette to persecute him and ruin his life, his attorney told a jury Tuesday, trying to make the case that Jarrod Ramos is not...
33 train cars derail in eastern Pennsylvania; no injuries, spills
GOLDSBORO — Authorities say dozens of freight train cars derailed in Pennsylvania, but no injuries or hazardous spills were reported. Chief Steve Lutz of the Newberry Township police force said 33 of the 133 cars on the eastbound Norfolk Southern train derailed and overturned shortly after 3 p.m. Monday in...
Rolling blackouts for parts of U.S. Northwest amid heat wave
SPOKANE, Wash. — The unprecedented Northwest U.S. heat wave that slammed Seattle and Portland, Oregon, moved inland Tuesday — prompting a electrical utility in Spokane, Wash., to warn that people will face more rolling blackouts amid heavy power demand. The intense weather that gave Seattle and Portland consecutive days of...
Cosmic gulp: Astronomers see black hole swallow neutron star
Talk about a heavy snack. For the first time, astronomers have witnessed a black hole swallowing a neutron star, the most dense object in the universe — all in a split-second gulp. Ten days later they saw the same thing, on the other side of the universe. In both cases,...
Russia targets investigative journalists with raids
MOSCOW — Russian authorities on Tuesday morning raided the apartments of several investigative journalists and their family members, a move that comes amid mounting pressure on Russia’s independent media outlets. Police searched the apartments of Roman Badanin, chief editor of the Proekt investigative online outlet, and Maria Zholobova, one of...
South African court orders ex-president to jail for contempt
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has been found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear before an inquiry probing wide-ranging allegations of corruption during his tenure from 2009 to 2018. Zuma was not in court...
Pope Francis: Thank you, Benedict, for praying for church
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Tuesday offered an affectionate, public thank-you to Benedict XVI, whose retirement from the papacy in 2103 shocked the Roman Catholic Church and the world. Addressing tourists and Romans in St. Peter’s Square, Francis triggered applause when he recalled that it was the 70th anniversary...
