Auditor General announces extra money for municipal pensions across Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania municipalities are getting $328.2 million in state funding to cover pension costs this year — an increase of about $30 million from 2018. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale announced the allocations at a meeting of the Pennsylvania Professional Firefighters Association. “You’re putting lives on the line every single day …...
10 charged in drug gang slayings, including quadruple murder
READING — Authorities have announced charges against 10 people in what they allege was a violent drug trafficking organization responsible for slayings and kidnappings in eastern Pennsylvania, including a quadruple murder last year. U.S. Attorney William McSwain and Berks County District Attorney John Adams said Monday the new indictment comes...
PG&E says power lines may have started 2 California firesVideo
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said Monday its power lines may have started two wildfires over the weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area. The fires described in PG&E reports to state regulators match blazes that destroyed a tennis club and forced urgent evacuations in the town...
Prolonged Missouri River flooding could last all winter
OMAHA, Neb. — Flooding along the Missouri River has stretched on for seven months in places and could endure through the winter, leaving some Upper Midwest farmland and possibly some homes encased in ice. There are several reasons for the flooding, including high levels along the river, saturated ground and...
Masterpiece found in French woman’s kitchen sells for $26.6M
PARIS — An old painting found in the kitchen of an elderly French woman, who considered it an icon of little importance, has made her a multimillionaire. The work, a masterpiece attributed to the 13th-century Italian painter Cimabue that was discovered earlier this year, sold for 24 million euros ($26.6...
Customers to spend $1,047.83 this Christmas, despite tariffs, shorter shopping season
Trade wars and a calendar fluke will be among the things affecting shopping behavior during this year’s Christmas holiday shopping season. With new U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods set to begin Dec. 15, shoppers who wait until later in the shopping season may end up paying more for some goods,...
White House official won’t testify in impeachment probe without order
WASHINGTON — A former deputy national security adviser expected to testify in the House impeachment inquiry is signaling that he will not appear Monday as scheduled. Charles Kupperman was supposed to testify behind closed doors, but last week asked the federal court in Washington for guidance on whether he was...
Sewing a place in history, one stitch at a timeVideo
Jessica Young can laugh now, but it was not funny when a client once asked if an article of clothing she had ordered for a re-enactor costume was indeed hand sewn. The stitches, the client believed, were too perfect. “I said, ‘thank you,’” recalls Young, 34, of Trafford. Young is...
Trump draws boos when introduced to Nationals Park crowd at World SeriesVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s low-profile appearance Sunday night at Game 5 of the World Series came at a high-profile moment of his presidency. Yet he still drew loud boos and jeers when introduced to the crowd. Wearing a dark suit and a tie, Trump arrived at Nationals Park just...
California Rep. Katie Hill resigns amid scandalVideo
WASHINGTON — Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., resigned Sunday after allegations that she engaged in an affair with a congressional aide were made public earlier this month. Hill announced the resignation in a statement, saying she was stepping down “with a broken heart.” It is with a broken heart that today...
California declares state of emergency over wildfires, windVideo
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — California’s governor declared a statewide emergency Sunday after officials ordered nearly 200,000 people to leave their homes as hurricane-force winds drove multiple wildfires through bone-dry vegetation. Meanwhile, the state’s largest utility cut electricity to millions of residents as a precaution to prevent more areas from igniting....
John Conyers, longest serving black congressman, dies at 90
DETROIT — Former U.S. Rep. John Conyers, one of the longest-serving members of Congress whose resolutely liberal stance on civil rights made him a political institution in Washington and back home in Detroit despite several scandals, has died. He was 90. Conyers, among the high-profile politicians topped by sex harassment...
Frustrated Democratic governors find ways to sidestep GOP
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tried for months to get the Republican-controlled Legislature to take up a pair of gun control bills, holding news conferences and touting polls showing strong public support. When Republicans wouldn’t budge, Evers turned up the heat by turning to other powers of...
2 dead, 12 injured in shooting at college party in TexasVideo
GREENVILLE, Texas — A gunman opened fire at an off-campus college party in Texas, leaving two people dead and 12 others injured before he escaped in the ensuing chaos, authorities said Sunday. Authorities believe the shooter may have been targeting just one person at the party of about 750 people...
Trump says Islamic State leader dead after U.S. raid in Syria
WASHINGTON — The shadowy leader of the Islamic State group who presided over its global jihad and became arguably the world’s most wanted man, is dead after being targeted by a U.S. military raid in Syria, President Donald Trump said Sunday. “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead,” Trump announced at the...
Ex-Trump aide wants judge to decide on impeachment testimony
WASHINGTON — An ex-White House adviser who’s supposed to testify before House impeachment investigators on Monday has asked a federal court whether he should comply with a subpoena or follow President Trump’s directive against cooperating in what he dubs a “scam.” After getting a subpoena Friday, former deputy national security...
Census bureau to fight misinformation
CHICAGO — Worried about internet trolls and foreign powers spreading false news, census officials are preparing to battle misinformation campaigns for the first time in the count’s 230-year history. The stakes are huge. Who participates in the 2020 census count could influence how U.S. congressional seats and billions of federal...
Bill could usher Pennsylvania elections into new era
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lives in a cave when it comes to modern elections, critics say, but fast-tracked legislation that was quietly negotiated behind closed doors could usher in some advancement. The bill, should it pass, didn’t come easily: Partisan jockeying, 11th-hour blowups and brinksmanship dogged what could be the most...
Trump defense narrative unfolds as conservative supporters gird for impeachment
President Trump’s supporters in Western Pennsylvania seeking solace from the unfolding impeachment inquiry got a harsh dose of reality and strategy from political commentator Dinesh D’Souza. While Senate Republicans condemned the process and a group of House Republicans stormed a hearing room where impeachment witnesses were testifying, D’Souza joined a...
Critics gear up for response to lease sale in Arctic refuge
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Opponents of oil drilling in America’s largest wildlife refuge have a message for oil drillers and the people who finance them: Don’t become the company known for the demise of America’s polar bears. The Department of the Interior hopes to conduct a lease sale in the Arctic...
Scandal brings election risk for rising Democratic star
AGUA DULCE, Calif. — California U.S. Rep. Katie Hill has apologized to friends and supporters for engaging in an affair with a campaign staffer, but Susan Slates still feels let down by the 32-year-old Democrat who arrived in Congress just this year. Slates is a beauty salon owner in Hill’s...
Trump intends to uphold tradition of presidents and baseball
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s plan to attend Game 5 of the World Series on Sunday will continue a rich tradition of intertwining the American presidency with America’s pastime. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s limousine drove onto to the field ahead of the 1933 World Series, the last time the nation’s...
Hong Kong bans posting of police officers’ personal details
HONG KONG — Hong Kong authorities have won a temporary court order banning anyone from posting personal details or photos of police officers online, in their latest effort to clamp down on the city’s protest movement. The government said Saturday that the High Court granted the Department of Justice’s request...
Lawsuit: Flight attendant caught pilots livestreaming bathroom in cockpit during flight from Pittsburgh
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant said she witnessed two pilots streaming live voyeur-camera footage from the airplane’s bathroom into the cockpit, according to a lawsuit filed Friday. The attendant, Renee Steinaker, alleged she discovered the sneaky surveillance during a 2017 flight from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, according to Arizona Central. The...
More Vietnamese fear relatives are among 39 dead in truck
LONDON — More Vietnamese families came forward Saturday with information that their relatives may be among the 39 people found dead in the back of a container truck in southeastern England. British police had initially said they believed the victims were Chinese but have acknowledged this is a “developing picture.”...
