Census citizenship question was crafted to aid white Republicans, files suggest
WASHINGTON — Just weeks before the Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether the Trump administration can add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, new evidence emerged Thursday suggesting that the question was crafted specifically to give an electoral advantage to white Republicans. The evidence was found in...
College enrollment in Pennsylvania, U.S. slips further
College enrollments in Pennsylvania and nationwide continued to slip through the spring semester. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, which calculates enrollment numbers twice a year, for spring and fall, reported Thursday that college enrollments slipped by 1.7%, or about 300,000 students, between spring 2018 and spring 2019. Although graduate...
Trump lashes special counsel after he says no exoneration
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump angrily assailed special counsel Robert Mueller’s motives on Thursday, a day after Mueller bluntly rebuffed Trump’s repeated claims that the Russia investigation had cleared him of committing a federal crime of obstruction of justice. The president also offered mixed messages on Russia’s efforts to help...
Energy Secretary Rick Perry: U.S. can make oil, gas, coal cleaner
SALT LAKE CITY — The Trump administration is committed to making fossil fuels cleaner rather than imposing “draconian” regulations on oil, gas and coal, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Thursday. Perry made his remarks at an energy conference in Salt Lake City that was briefly interrupted when protesters took...
Photo gallery: D-Day’s landscape in 1944 — and today
ON OMAHA BEACH, France — Warships, bombers, rubble, refugees. That was the Normandy landscape of 1944, as Allied forces fought to wrest France from Nazi control. Today, the region’s towns and beaches are startlingly calm, as still-grateful residents prepare to welcome veterans commemorating 75 years since D-Day. The Associated Press...
Report shows many underage kids get alcohol from parents, friends’ parents
One in four Pennsylvania kids who drink underage get the alcohol from their parents, according to a report released Thursday by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. One in five got the alcohol from a friend’s parent, the report said. The biennial Report on Underage and High-Risk Drinking details current trends...
Former US Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi dies at 81
JACKSON, Miss. — Former U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, who served seven terms and used seniority to steer billions of dollars to his home state of Mississippi, has died. He was 81. Cochran’s final chief of staff, Brad White, said Cochran died Thursday at a veterans’ nursing home in Oxford. Cochran...
Farmers face a historically delayed planting season amid extreme weather
In Kendell Culp’s corner of northwest Indiana, the relentless rain began falling on his farm months ago, saturating the ground his family has nurtured for generations and delaying the kickoff of their planting season by more than a week. It eased up briefly at the end of April, enough time...
Pennsylvania ranked among 10 worst states for job seekers
Pittsburgh may well be among the nation’s top cities for new college grads. A study last month by personal finance tech site SmartAsset put the city among the top 10 in the nation for grads looking to market their new degrees. But another study released Thursday — by WalletHub, a...
Green Gathering will address Westmoreland’s environmental concerns
The Greensburg Group of Ten will hold its first Green Gathering from 2-4 p.m. June 2 at Major Stokes restaurant, 108 W. Pittsburgh St., to celebrate “Environmental Westmoreland County.” The public event includes music by Mark Weakland and book-signing and sale with retired biology teacher Dick Byers of Stahlstown, author...
Class ring found in Florida 17 years after it was lost
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — An Alabama woman reluctantly let her 14-year-old daughter wear her 1986 class ring to impress a boy during a spring break trip to Panama City Beach in 2002. The ring slipped off her daughter’s finger as they walked the beach and quickly disappeared in the waves....
Cargo ship arrives in Philippines to return Canadian trash
SUBIC, Philippines — A Philippine official says a cargo ship has arrived in a northern port to pick up and return 69 containers of Canadian garbage which the government in Manila says was shipped illegally to the Philippines years ago. Administrator Wilma Eisma of Subic Bay freeport says the containers...
Paris wants a ‘Princess Diana Square’ at site of her death
PARIS — Paris City Hall wants to name a small plaza after Princess Diana, at the site of the 1997 car crash that killed the cherished British royal. The site already holds a golden flame-shaped monument in her honor, adjacent to the Alma Tunnel where the accident occurred. The plaza...
Child dies after falling into above-ground pool in Michigan
LANSING, Mich. — Authorities say a young child has died after falling into an above-ground swimming pool at a mid-Michigan home. The Lansing State Journal reports police say the 15-month-old boy was found Wednesday and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The child’s name wasn’t immediately...
Man dead after setting himself on fire outside White House
WASHINGTON — A Maryland man who set himself on fire on the White House Ellipse on Wednesday afternoon has died, according to the U.S. Park Police. The incident occurred about 12:20 p.m. near 15th Street NW and Constitution Avenue NW. The man was taken to a hospital Wednesday and was...
2 people rescued after clinging to boat for 3 hours
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A man and a woman are safe after they spent three hours clinging to their capsized sailboat in the Atlantic Ocean about 65 miles off Atlantic City. The Coast Guard received a satellite distress signal from the 55-foot vessel Bertie on Wednesday evening. Coast Guard Petty...
7 dead, 21 missing in Budapest boat disaster
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Rescue divers and boats using spotlights and radar scanners made a last-ditch attempt to find survivors on Thursday after a sightseeing boat sank on the River Danube in Budapest during an evening downpour, leaving seven people confirmed dead and a further 21 missing. The dead and 19...
White House wanted USS John S. McCain covered up during Trump’s Japan visit
The White House asked Navy officials to obscure the USS John S. McCain while President Trump was visiting Japan, Pentagon and White House officials said Wednesday night. A senior Navy official confirmed that he was aware someone at the White House sent a message to service officials in the Pacific...
Girl believed to be tiniest newborn weighed as much as an apple
SAN DIEGO — When she was born, the baby girl weighed about the same as an apple. A San Diego hospital on Wednesday revealed the birth of the girl and said she is believed to be the world’s tiniest surviving micro-preemie, who weighed just 8.6 ounces when she was born...
Two years after fire, West Newton’s Pizza House reopensVideo
Patrons of the popular West Newton Pizza House have patiently waited for nearly two years to taste their favorite pies again, and some are even willing to wait a day longer. Almost two years to the day that a fire caused major damage to the fourth-generation eatery, it opened for...
Body believed to be missing Utah girl ‘Lizzy’ Shelley is foundVideo
SALT LAKE CITY — A body believed to be a missing 5-year-old Utah girl was found Wednesday less than a block from her home, bringing a wide-ranging search to a grim close five days after the child was taken from her home and killed by her uncle, police said. The...
Louisiana lawmakers send ‘fetal heartbeat’ abortion bill to governor
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana lawmakers on Wednesday passed a strict new abortion ban that would prohibit the procedure before some women even know they are pregnant, joining a half-dozen conservative states with similar measures. In a 79-23 vote, the Louisiana House gave final passage to a bill barring abortion once...
Israel to hold new elections as Netanyahu fails to form a governmentVideo
JERUSALEM — In an unprecedented move, Israel will head to elections for a second time in less than six months after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a government before a midnight deadline. Rather than give someone else the chance to do so, he forwarded legislation to dissolve the...
Health care industry resists White House proposal for pricing transparency
WASHINGTON — President Trump is preparing to issue an executive order to foster greater price transparency across a broad swath of the health care industry while consumer concerns about their costs for medical treatment emerge as a major issue in the leadup to next year’s presidential election. The most far-reaching...
Ethiopian pilot pleaded for training weeks before Boeing 737 Max crash
NEW YORK — Just days after a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max nosedived in Indonesia and killed all 189 people aboard, an Ethiopian Airlines pilot began pleading with his bosses for more training on the Max, warning that crews could easily be overwhelmed in a crisis and that one of...
