North Korea fires 2 suspected missiles in possible new warning
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Thursday fired two suspected short-range missiles from the country’s western area, South Korea’s military said, the North’s second weapons launch in the last five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks with Washington could be in danger. The South’s Joint Chiefs...
Vatican law: Priests, nuns must report sex abuse, cover-up
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis issued a groundbreaking law Thursday requiring all Catholic priests and nuns around the world to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-up by their superiors to church authorities, in an important new effort to hold the Catholic hierarchy accountable for failing to protect their flocks. The...
Trump promises more hurricane relief for Florida PanhandleVideo
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. — President Trump promised a swift infusion of federal aid to the Florida Panhandle seven months after devastating Hurricane Michael as he rallied supporters Wednesday for his re-election. Trump addressed a crowd of thousands at an outdoor amphitheater, looking to rally loyalists in the reliably Republican...
Records: 9-year-old boy charged in mother’s shooting death
FAWN RIVER TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A 9-year-old boy has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of his mother in their southern Michigan home, according to court documents. The woman was found early Monday morning in Fawn River Township, St. Joseph County Prosecutor John McDonough told WWMT-TV. Fawn River...
A frustrated Trump questions his administration’s Venezuela strategy
WASHINGTON — President Trump is questioning his administration’s aggressive strategy in Venezuela as a result of the failure of a U.S.-backed effort to oust President Nicolás Maduro, complaining he was misled about how easy it would be to replace the socialist strongman with a young opposition figure, according to administration...
New Jersey woman charged in death of puppy found submerged in pond
WEST MILFORD, N.J. — A woman has been charged in the death of a 10-week-old puppy whose body was found submerged and in a weighted cage in a northern New Jersey pond. Passaic County prosecutors say Tonya Fea faces animal cruelty charges. It wasn’t known if the 47-year-old Jefferson Township...
Denver voters approve decriminalization of ‘magic mushrooms’
Voters in Denver approved the nation’s first referendum on decriminalizing hallucinogenic mushrooms Tuesday. Though it took election officials until Wednesday afternoon to tabulate the vote, 50.6% of the 176,000 voters picked “yes,” and 49.4% voted no. The voters endorsed a change in Denver law that will require police to make...
Kendrick Castillo, who charged attackers, was lone death in Colorado school shootingVideo
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — When a gunman burst into his high school classroom, Kendrick Castillo did not hesitate. The 18-year-old immediately charged, pinning the attacker to the wall before he was fatally shot protecting classmates, witnesses said. As Castillo charged, so did two other students. One of them, Brendan Bialy,...
Coal miners appeal to Mitch McConnell to back a rescue of their pensions
WASHINGTON — He didn’t say no. A contingent of retired coal miners that has long been pressing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to back a fix for their soon-to-be insolvent pension fund, said Wednesday it had a positive meeting with the Kentucky Republican. “He didn’t make any promises,” said Phil...
Senate intelligence committee subpoenas Donald Trump Jr.Video
WASHINGTON — The Senate intelligence committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr., calling him in to answer questions about his 2017 testimony to the panel as part of its probe into Russian election interference. That’s according to two people familiar with the subpoena who discussed it on condition of anonymity. It’s...
House panel votes AG William Barr in contempt, escalating probe disputeVideo
WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress, escalating the Democrats’ extraordinary legal battle with the Trump administration over access to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia report. The vote capped a day of ever-deepening dispute between congressional Democrats and President...
Gov. Tom Wolf started 2nd term with hefty raises to senior aides
HARRISBURG — About a dozen of Gov. Tom Wolf’s senior aides are starting his second term with pay raises that ranged from $25,000 to $33,000. The recipients include members of the Democratic governor’s public relations staff and deputy chiefs of staff who coordinate between the governor’s office and various executive...
TV pitches for prescription drugs will have to include price
TV pitches for prescription drugs will soon include the price, giving consumers more information upfront as they make medication choices at a time when new drugs can carry anxiety-inducing prices. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Wednesday the Trump administration has finalized regulations requiring drug companies to disclose...
How risky are ticks in Pennsylvania? Survey hopes to find out
Jesy Murcko spent Saturday clearing brush from a hillside at her family’s camp in the Allegheny National Forest, so she wasn’t surprised to find a tick on her. She wasn’t crazy, however, about finding two ticks on her 2-year-old son Wade, who was playing in short grass near the woods...
U.S. imposes new sanctions on Iran as tensions escalate
WASHINGTON — The United States is announcing new sanctions on Iran as tensions escalate between Washington and Tehran. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday announced new sanctions targeting Iran’s steel, aluminum, copper and iron sectors, which provide foreign currency earnings for Iran’s crippled economy. Earlier Wednesday, Iran...
Trucker charged in crash that killed couple en route to Pittsburgh weddingVideo
HAMBURG — A truck driver has been charged with vehicular homicide in a fiery crash last fall that killed a couple driving to their wedding in Pittsburgh. State police say 24-year-old Jaspreet Singh Chahal, of Frenso, Calif., is also charged with reckless endangering and misdemeanors in the Nov. 14 crash...
More visitors could hike The Wave in Arizona
SALT LAKE CITY — A new proposal could mean bigger crowds at one of the most exclusive hiking spots in the southwestern United States. The federal Bureau of Land Management proposed changes Wednesday that would increase daily visitor limits from 20 people to 96 people per day at The Wave,...
Newborn found alive in trash bin after walkers hear her crying
BOCA RATON, Fla. — Florida sheriff’s deputies say a newborn girl has been found alive inside a trash bin. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office says two people walking at an apartment complex near Boca Raton heard crying coming from the bin and found the baby Wednesday morning. Spokeswoman Teri...
92-year-old liberator still grapples with Holocaust horrors
SCRANTON — Alan Moskin knew he was fighting Nazis. He didn’t know he was on a humanitarian rescue mission. Like most U.S. soldiers fighting in World War II’s European theater, Moskin didn’t understand the breadth and depth of Adolf Hitler’s hatred toward Jewish people until he discovered the concentration camps....
Report: U.S. energy consumption, production and exports hit record highs in 2018
U.S. energy consumption, production and exports all reached record levels in 2018, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The United States produced a record amount of energy from various sources in 2018, reaching 96 quadrillion British thermal units — an 8% increase from 2017, EIA said. The increase in...
New York Senate OKs giving U.S. House Trump state tax return
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s Democrat-controlled Senate approved a bill easily Wednesday that would allow three congressional committees to get access to President Donald Trump’s state tax returns, giving Democrats a potential end-run around the administration’s refusal to disclose the president’s federal returns. The bill, which now goes to the...
Point Park University launches $20K mission to ease losses in small-town journalism
Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation in Pittsburgh is launching a $20,000 fellowship designed to tackle the growing dearth of investigative journalism in communities that no longer host a daily newspaper, officials announced Wednesday. A three-year grant from the Allegheny Foundation underwrote the creation of the Annual Doris O’Donnell...
Harlem apartment fire kills 6, including 4 children
NEW YORK — Six family members, including four children, were killed early Wednesday when a fire that apparently started on a stove ravaged a Harlem apartment, authorities said. Firefighters, who were called at about 1:40 a.m., pushed quickly and aggressively into the flames and thick smoke and found a man...
1 killed, 4 injured when motorcycle hits Amish buggy in Ohio
MIDDLEFIELD, Ohio — Authorities say a motorcycle has struck an Amish buggy in Ohio, killing the man driving the motorcycle and injuring all four people in the horse-drawn vehicle. A State Highway Patrol release says 26-year-old Brandon Lee, of Middlefield, died at the scene of the crash that occurred around...
Gov. Wolf to honor Fred Rogers with ‘143 Day’ in Pennsylvania
If you don’t already know why the number 143 was so significant to Fred Rogers, then May 23 will be your day to learn. To get you up to speed, the beloved children’s show host loved the number because it was a sort of code for “I love you” —...
