Ruffs Dale bassoonist, 17, earns Friday Evening Music Club’s Gardner Scholarship
Until Walter Vinoski was 11, he couldn’t have told you what a bassoon even was. Now the 17-year-old Yough senior is the Friday Evening Music Club’s 2021 Mildred Gardner Scholarship Competition winner, earning $1,000 through this year’s virtual competition. He is a member of the Westmoreland Youth Symphony Orchestra and...
Biden picks former Florida senator who flew in space to lead NASA
President Joe Biden has chosen a former senator from Florida who flew on the space shuttle right before the Challenger accident to lead NASA. Biden on Friday announced his intent to nominate Bill Nelson as the space agency’s administrator. If confirmed by the Senate, Nelson will become NASA’s 14th administrator,...
Bucks County prosecutor demoted for DoorDash moonlighting during work
A top aide to a district attorney in suburban Philadelphia has been demoted because he was caught moonlighting for DoorDash during work hours. Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub announced the punishment Thursday against prosecutor Gregg Shore, who was demoted from the office’s first assistant district attorney to being a...
Michigan requires teen athlete testing amid climbing covid case rates
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan on Friday eased outdoor stadium capacity restrictions before baseball’s Opening Day but ordered weekly testing of teen athletes amid a climbing coronavirus case rate that ranks fourth nationally over the past week. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said, for now, she does not plan to tighten covid-19 restrictions...
5 White House staffers lose jobs over drugs, marijuana use
Five White House staffers have been fired because of their past use of drugs, including marijuana, press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday. Marijuana has become a delicate issue for President Joe Biden’s administration because 15 states and Washington, D.C., allow for recreational usage, despite a federal prohibition. The administration...
Lou Barletta to decide soon on whether to run for Pa. governor
HARRISBURG — Lou Barletta, the former congressman who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in 2018, said Friday that he will make a decision in the next few weeks on whether to seek the Republican nomination for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022. Barletta began considering a run late last year,...
Kremlin: Putin’s offer of a call with Biden was to save ties
MOSCOW — The Kremlin said Friday that President Vladimir Putin’s offer to speak by phone with U.S. President Joe Biden was intended to prevent bilateral ties from completely falling apart over the American’s remark that the Russian leader was a killer. Putin made it clear that “it makes sense to...
Happiness Report: World shows resilience in face of covid-19
STOCKHOLM — The coronavirus brought a year of fear and anxiety, loneliness and lockdown, and illness and death, but an annual report on happiness around the world released Friday suggests the pandemic has not crushed people’s spirits. The editors of the 2021 World Happiness Report found that while emotions changed...
Covid cases jump in Allegheny, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania
More covid cases were reported Friday in Allegheny County than at any point in the past 10 days, according to the most recent health department data. An additional 346 cases were announced Friday, bumping the county’s seven-day average up to 262. That’s the highest level for that metric since March...
In dealing with immigration, Biden is using some of same tactics as Trump, leaving Democrats in political bind
WASHINGTON — Democrats who long blistered the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies are suddenly in a tough political bind. The Biden administration is responding to a wave of children crossing the southern border into the U.S. with some of the very tactics that evoked moral outrage from Democrats when former...
CDC changes school guidance, allowing desks to be closer
NEW YORK — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed its social distancing guidelines for schools Friday, saying students can now sit 3 feet apart in classrooms. The revised covid-19 recommendations represent a turn away from the 6-foot standard that has forced some schools to remove desks, stagger scheduling...
Atlanta police on shooting probe: ‘Nothing is off the table’
ATLANTA — Police said Thursday that “nothing is off the table” in the investigation of the deadly shootings at two Atlanta massage businesses, including whether the slayings were a hate crime. Those attacks and a third one near the suburban town of Woodstock killed eight people and prompted President Joe...
Judge refuses to delay, move trial of ex-cop in George Floyd death
MINNEAPOLIS — A judge on Friday denied a defense request to delay or move the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death after a $27 million settlement for Floyd’s family raised concern about a tainted jury. Jury selection was halfway complete last week in former...
Emergency sites for migrant children raising safety concerns
McALLEN, Texas — The U.S. government has stopped taking immigrant teenagers to a converted camp for oil field workers in West Texas as it faces questions about the safety of emergency sites it is quickly setting up to hold children crossing the southern border. The Associated Press has learned that...
U.S. won’t recognize Syria presidency vote unless UN involved
UNITED NATIONS — The United States warned Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday that the Biden administration will not recognize the result of its upcoming presidential election unless the voting is free, fair, supervised by the United Nation and represents all of Syrian society. The acting U.S. deputy ambassador to...
North Korea cuts diplomat ties with Malaysia over U.S. extradition
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Friday said it was cutting diplomatic ties with Malaysia to protest a court ruling that allowed a North Korean to be extradited to the United States to face money laundering charges. North Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the charges an “absurd fabrication and sheer...
Levine pressed for answers on Pa.’s missing nursing home data as confirmation advances
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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 — Former Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine is under pressure from U.S. House Republicans to provide more details about the...
USPS agents found no evidence of backdated Erie ballots, report says
HARRISBURG — U.S. Postal Service investigators did not find evidence of any backdated presidential election ballots in the post office in Erie, according to a report summarizing the investigation into claims by a postal worker that spurred calls from Republicans for a federal probe. The presidential battleground of Pennsylvania was...
Newsmax beefs up Trump team, hiring Jason Miller, Andrew Giuliani
NEW YORK — The conservative network Newsmax said Thursday it is hiring Jason Miller, a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump as a contributor who will provide commentary on a variety of issues. Newsmax also says it is also hiring Andrew Giuliani, an ex-Trump aide and son of former...
Biden says U.S. to hit 100 million covid shots on Friday
WASHINGTON — With the U.S. closing in on President Joe Biden’s goal of injecting 100 million coronavirus vaccinations weeks ahead of his target date, officials announced on Thursday the nation is now in position to help supply neighbors Canada and Mexico. The Biden administration announced the outlines of a plan...
11th juror picked, lawyers clash over expert in George Floyd trial
MINNEAPOLIS — Attorneys at the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death moved closer to seating a jury Thursday, choosing two jurors hours after clashing over how much the panel should hear of Floyd’s own actions. The latest jurors include a white registered nurse in...
Pa. vaccine provider map gets face-lift, officials still aim for May 1 open eligibilityVideo
The Pennsylvania Department of Health appears to be inching toward a more centralized system for finding and making covid-19 vaccine appointments as officials work to make a map of providers more accessible and more interactive. Health officials touted the updates to the map, which right now is the sole place...
Biden, Harris to focus on Atlanta-area shootings during Georgia trip
ATLANTA — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris plan to meet with Asian American community leaders in Georgia in the wake of the deadly shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors, the White House announced Thursday. Meanwhile, authorities said the investigation was wide open and could still result in...
4-story marble tablet of First Amendment freedoms moves from Newseum to Philly
A four-story, 50-ton marble tablet engraved with the text of the First Amendment, previously displayed on the facade of the now-shuttered Newseum in Washington, will find a new home in Philadelphia across from Independence Hall. The National Constitution Center, which sits in an area of the city billed as America’s...
Redistricting data may be ready a month early, in old format
States under pressure to redraw congressional and legislature districts but facing a delay in the release of the needed data may be able to get the numbers in an outdated format in August, more than a month earlier than the planned date for their official release, a U.S. Census Bureau...
