Judge deals setback to Justice Department effort to seek new indictment against James Comey
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has dealt a setback to Justice Department efforts to seek a new indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, temporarily barring prosecutors from using evidence they had relied on when they initially secured criminal charges. The ruling Saturday night from U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly...
Zohran Mamdani tells immigrant New Yorkers about their right not to comply with ICE
NEW YORK — New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani posted a video to social media on Sunday explaining immigrants’ right to refuse to speak to or comply with agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, days after federal agents carried out a raid in Manhattan. In the video, Mamdani vowed...
Trump slams pardoned Democratic congressman as ‘disloyal’ for not switching parties
Donald Trump is angry that Rep. Henry Cuellar is running again as a Democrat rather than switch parties after the president pardoned the Texas congressman and his wife in a federal bribery and conspiracy case. Trump blasted Cuellar for “Such a lack of LOYALTY,” suggesting the Republican president might have...
Government waives part of a Biden-era fine against Southwest Airlines
The U.S. Department of Transportation is waiving part of a fine assessed against Southwest Airlines after the company canceled thousands of flights during a winter storm in 2022. Under a 2023 settlement reached by the Biden administration, Southwest agreed to a $140 million civil penalty. The government said at the...
White House deletes then posts new Sabrina Carpenter video promoting ICE raids
The Trump administration is trying to get the last word after Sabrina Carpenter blasted the White House for using her song “Juno” in propaganda videos promoting ICE raids. On Friday afternoon, after deleting the first video it shared to X earlier this week, the White House posted a new clip...
Soon no Pearl Harbor survivors will be alive. People turn to other ways to learn about the bombing
HONOLULU — Survivors of the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor have long been the center of a remembrance ceremony held each year on the military base’s waterfront. But today only 12 are still alive — all centenarians — and this year none were able to make the pilgrimage to...
Trump awards medals to the Kennedy Center honorees in an Oval Office ceremony
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Saturday presented the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals during a ceremony in the Oval Office, hailing the slate of artists he was deeply involved in choosing as “perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class” ever assembled. This year’s recipients are actor Sylvester...
Unseen photos of Rosa Parks return to Montgomery, Alabama, 7 decades later
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Seven decades after Rosa Parks was thrust indelibly into American history for refusing to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, new photos of the Civil Rights Movement icon have been made public for the first time, and they illustrate aspects of her legacy that are...
Russian strikes kill 4 in Ukraine as the Kremlin praises new U.S. security strategy
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia on Sunday welcomed the Trump administration’s new national security strategy in comments by the Kremlin spokesman published by Russia’s Tass news agency. Dmitry Peskov said the updated strategic document was largely in line with Moscow’s vision. “There are statements there against confrontation and in favor of...
Netanyahu says Israel and Hamas will enter ceasefire’s 2nd phase soon
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel and Hamas are “very shortly expected to move into the second phase of the ceasefire,” after Hamas returns the remains of the last hostage held in Gaza. Netanyahu spoke during a news conference with visiting German Chancellor...
Java island zoo releases photos of 1st panda cub born in Indonesia
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A zoo on Java island released photos of Indonesia’s first locally-born giant panda cub, and said the male cub was showing signs of being in good health. The mother, 15-year-old Hu Chun, gave birth to Satrio Wiratama — nicknamed Rio — on November 27 at the zoo’s...
Man arrested after pepper spray attack in London’s Heathrow Airport parking garage
LONDON (AP) — Police arrested a man in London after a group of people were assaulted with pepper spray Sunday in a Heathrow Airport parking garage. Ambulance crews treated 21 people at the scene and five were taken to the hospital, though their injuries were not believed to be serious,...
Nobel laureates arrive for a week of events and awards in Stockholm and Oslo
STOCKHOLM — Nobel week was underway in Stockholm and Oslo with laureates holding news conferences and lectures before they will be awarded the prestigious prizes. Hungarian László Krasznahorkai, who won the Prize in literature for his surreal and anarchic novels that combine a bleak world view with mordant humor, was...
National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day, Juneteenth, adds Trump’s birthday
WASHINGTON — The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on President Donald Trump’s birthday next year — which also happens to be Flag Day — but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth. The new list of free admission days for...
Man wounded in 2nd stabbing attack on North Carolina commuter train since August
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police in North Carolina have charged a 33-year-old man with critically injuring another person in a stabbing on a Charlotte commuter train, just a few months after a Ukrainian refugee riding one of the city’s trains was killed in an unrelated knife attack. Oscar Solarzano, 33, was...
Substitute teacher shortages leave some districts scrambling to avoid ‘vicious cycle’ in schools
During Allegheny Valley School District’s two-month search for a consistent high school biology teacher, Superintendent Patrick Graczyk said other teachers, outside substitutes and even school principals stepped in to keep the science class going. Eventually, the district found a long-term substitute with an emergency biology certification to fill the role...
Supreme Court will decide whether Trump’s birthright citizenship order violates the Constitution
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to take up the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s order on birthright citizenship declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. The justices will hear Trump’s appeal of a lower-court ruling...
Social Security Administration plans to cut field office visits by 50%. What it means for you
WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration is hoping to cut visits to its field offices in half next year, a move that advocates for the agency fear signals more closures are coming. Field offices have long been community-based branches that serve as the public face of the SSA, which provide...
Virginia man charged with planting pipe bombs in Washington on eve of Capitol riot appears in court
WASHINGTON — A Virginia man on Friday made his first court appearance on charges that he planted a pair of pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington on the eve of a mob’s attack on U.S. Capitol. U.S. Magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya ordered Brian...
Day 4 of Luigi Mangione’s pretrial hearing is postponed because he’s sick, judge says
NEW YORK — A pretrial hearing on Luigi Mangione’s bid to exclude evidence from his state murder case was postponed Friday because the defendant is sick, his lawyers and the judge said. The hearing is slated to resume Monday. Mangione is seeking to exclude a gun, notebook and other items...
Grand jury transcripts from abandoned Epstein investigation in Florida ordered released
ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida on Friday ordered the release of grand jury transcripts from the federal sex trafficking cases of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith said a recently passed federal law ordering the release of records related to the cases overrode...
German president visits WWII bombing site as Europe seeks to bolster united front against Russia
LONDON — Germany’s president laid a wreath Friday at Coventry Cathedral in central England, symbolically atoning for the atrocities of World War II as his country and the United Kingdom seek to bolster an alliance to combat the new war raging in Europe. Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s pilgrimage commemorates the Nazi bombing...
U.S. vaccine advisers say not all babies need a hepatitis B shot at birth
NEW YORK — A federal vaccine advisory committee voted Friday to end a longstanding recommendation that all U.S. babies get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they’re born. For decades, the government has advised that all babies be vaccinated against the liver infection right after birth. The shots are...
A county jail in Arkansas produces hundreds of ICE arrests under a program surging across U.S.
ROGERS, Ark. — She was already separated from her husband, the family breadwinner and father of her two youngest children, and had lost the home they shared in Arkansas. Then Cristina Osornio was ensnared by the nation’s rapidly expanding immigration enforcement crackdown just months after her husband was deported to...
Realtor: North, South Hills real estate markets have more similarities than you’d think
Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series on real estate market trends in Western Pennsylvania. Twenty-six years ago, Bob Topich broke the age-old social norm of Pittsburgh suburbanites — departing his native South Hills for a home north of the city. Topich, 65, of Franklin Park, has never...
