News category, Page 1622

PHILADELPHIA — The founder of a green energy company who authorities say ran a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of millions of dollars has been sentenced to more than two decades in prison. Troy Wragg, 37, was sentenced last week in federal court to 22 years in prison and...

BIARRITZ, France — A top Iranian official paid an unannounced visit Sunday to the G-7 summit and headed straight toward the heart of the city where leaders of the world’s major democracies have been debating how to handle the country’s nuclear ambitions. France’s surprise invitation of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Leaders of the Group of Seven nations said Sunday they are preparing to help Brazil battle fires burning across the Amazon region and repair the damage even as tens of thousands of soldiers got ready to join the fight against blazes that have caused global alarm....

HONOLULU — When starlight from billions of years ago zips across the universe and finally comes into focus on Earth, astronomers want their telescopes to be in the best locations possible to see what’s out there. Despite years of legal battles and months of protests by Native Hawaiian opponents, the...

GENEVA — Countries have agreed to protect more than a dozen shark species at risk of extinction, in a move aimed at conserving some of the ocean’s most awe-inspiring creatures who have themselves become prey to commercial fishing and the Chinese appetite for shark fin soup. Three proposals covering the...

BIARRITZ, France — President Donald Trump said Sunday that he had second thoughts about escalating the trade war with China, but the White House later reversed that message saying the president was misinterpreted and that his only regret in hiking tariffs is that he didn’t raise them higher. Trump faced...

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — West Virginia politicians are calling for answers after a Vietnam veteran’s death at a VA hospital was ruled a homicide. U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito vowed Friday to investigate after a news report on the death of retired Army Sgt. Felix Kirk McDermott at...

CAMP SPRINGS, Md. — A Maryland police chief says seven adults were injured when shots were fired at a child’s birthday party a few miles southeast of the nation’s capital. Prince George’s County police Cpl. Nicholas Clayton tells The Associated Press the shooting occurred Saturday night near the Camp Springs...

ATLANTA — Five people were injured Saturday when lightning struck a 60-foot pine at the Tour Championship, showering the area with debris, Atlanta police said. The third round of the season-ending PGA Tour event had been suspended for about 30 minutes because of storms in the area, and fans were...

ST. LOUIS — Police say an 8-year-old girl has been killed and three others injured in a shooting near a high school in St. Louis. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the shooting happened about 8 p.m. Friday outside Harold’s Chop Suey restaurant in the city’s Academy neighborhood. Police Chief John...

President Donald Trump is threatening to use the emergency authority granted by a powerful but obscure federal law to make good on his tweeted “order” to U.S. businesses to cut ties in China amid a spiraling trade war between the two nations. China’s announcement Friday that it was raising tariffs...

MIAMI — The third locally transmitted case of dengue fever this year has been confirmed in Miami-Dade County, the Florida Department of Health announced Friday. The first case of the mosquito-borne ailment was confirmed in March. The second came earlier this month. The three cases don’t seem to be related,...

A Russian space capsule carrying a humanoid robot has failed to dock as planned with the International Space Station. A statement from the Russian space agency Roscosmos said the failure on Saturday was because of problems in the docking system. It said the space station itself and the six-person crew...

PARADISE, Calif. — It’s hard to recognize Paradise. It is heaps of melted metal. It is scorched pine trees. It is a place where things used to be, before a fire destroyed nearly 19,000 structures and killed 86 people last November. But on Friday night, Paradise looked like home again....

HAMPTON, Va. — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Saturday a new state commission to review educational standards for teaching black history in the state, as officials observed the arrival of enslaved Africans to what is now Virginia 400 years ago. Northam, who noted “we are a state that for too...

After almost five years in Pittsburgh, WPXI reporter Damany Lewis is headed south. The veteran news man posted the announcement on Facebook on Saturday morning stating that he will become a Monday through Friday anchor for WSOC, an ABC affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. It wasn’t immediately clear when his last...

After a white supremacist discussed plans on Facebook for a mass shooting at a synagogue, police in Washington used a new law to quickly seize his 12 firearms, long before he was convicted of any crime. But when a Tennessee father became alarmed about his son after receiving a suicidal...

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A New Zealand teenager who visited Disneyland and other Southern California tourist spots last week brought along more than just her luggage. She brought measles. Public health officials in Los Angeles and Orange counties issued a warning Friday that people may have been exposed to the...

A white Florida man who told detectives he had a “pet peeve” about illegal parking in handicapped spots was convicted late Friday of manslaughter for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man outside a convenience store. Six jurors deliberated for six hours before convicting Michael Drejka for the July...

Growing up with Eliza Bacher as one’s mother was a little like growing up with one’s boss. Mrs. Bacher owned and operated The Driftwood in Ligonier Township with her husband, Fred, for more than 60 years. Together, they attracted a following of faithful local customers, as well as travelers on...

When it comes to Western Pennsylvania’s recent weather woes, forewarned is forearmed. Those warnings might get a little more accurate and timely with a new Penn State project to install a series of mini weather stations across the state. The Pennsylvania Mesonet — short for mesoscale network — will eventually...

That first day of school may have been rough, but chances are new teachers are doing comparatively better in Pennsylvania than just about anywhere else in the nation. A study by business.org that looked at average teacher starting salaries across the nation and then calculated the pay gap between that...