‘Harry Potter’ books burned at Catholic parish in Poland
WARSAW, Poland — Priests at a Catholic parish in northern Poland have burned books, including the “Harry Potter” series, and other items that their owners said had evil forces. Images from the burning at Gdansk’s Mother of Church parish on Sunday were posted on Facebook by a Catholic foundation that...
Father vows safety push after daughter’s ride sharing death
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The father of a University of South Carolina student killed when police say she got into the wrong car thinking it was her Uber ride says he will dedicate his life to increasing safety with ride sharing services. Seymour Josephson says he thinks his 21-year-old daughter Samantha...
U.S. safety agency opens probes into Hyundai, Kia fires
DETROIT — The U.S. government’s highway safety agency has decided to open two new investigations into fires involving Hyundai and Kia vehicles after getting complaints of more than 3,100 fires and 103 injuries. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it granted a petition seeking the investigations from the nonprofit...
Study finds Pennsylvania women lose more than $10k a year through gender wage gap
When President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, the average American woman earned 63 cents for every dollar earned by men. More than five decades later, a new analysis found Pennsylvania women still earn less than men for doing the same work, with the disparity equaling...
Official: Trump team overruled 25 security clearance denials
WASHINGTON — A career official in the White House security office says dozens of people in President Donald Trump’s administration were granted security clearances despite “disqualifying issues” in their backgrounds, such as concerns about foreign influence, drug use and criminal conduct. Tricia Newbold, an 18-year government employee who oversees the...
Child welfare agencies scrutinized after teen’s brutal death
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania officials are scheduled to release a report on how child welfare agencies handled the case of a teenager who endured years of abuse before her 2016 rape and murder. Sara Packer pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced Friday to life without parole for plotting...
2019 measles count in U.S. already more than all of 2018
NEW YORK — The number of U.S. measles cases through the first three months of this year have surpassed the count for all of 2018, health officials say. There have been 387 cases through March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday. There were 372 last year. The...
U.S. retail sales declined 0.2% in February
WASHINGTON — U.S. retail sales fell in February, as consumers pulled back their spending on building materials, groceries, furniture, electronics and clothing amid signs of a slowing economy. The Commerce Department said Monday that retail sales fell 0.2% in February, after posting an upwardly revised gain 0.7% in January. Over...
Week in pictures (March 25-31)
The week in pictures throughout the region captured by the Tribune-Review visuals staff....
Technical outage causing flight delays for airlines
NEW YORK — A technical outage is impacting major airlines and causing flight delays that may impact travel. The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday that several airlines were dealing with computer issues. The agency recommended people contact their airline directly for flight information and updates. There are delays already at...
Barbara Bush saw Trump as a ‘symbol of greed’
WASHINGTON — Barbara Bush didn’t bite her tongue in recent years when it came to Donald Trump: She just didn’t like him. But a new biography of the former first lady finds that her disdain for the Republican president, who transformed the party her own family had embodied for generations...
TSA’s social media highlight weird stuff in travelers’ bags
WASHINGTON — David Johnston stands over a table full of peculiar items confiscated at Dulles International Airport: A glittery clutch with brass knuckles as a clasp. A perfume bottle shaped like a grenade. A rusted circular saw blade. A pocket-sized pitchfork. None of those are quite right. Then Johnston sees...
Trump White House doubles down on threat to close U.S.-Mexico borderVideo
WASHINGTON — The White House doubled down Sunday on President Trump’s threat to close the U.S. border with Mexico, despite warnings that the move would inflict immediate economic damage on American consumers and businesses while doing little to stem a tide of migrants clamoring to enter the United States. Sealing...
One of Russia’s richest women dies in plane crash in Germany
FRANKFURT, Germany— One of Russia’s richest women, S7 Group co-owner Natalia Fileva, died Sunday in a plane crash in Germany, the airline operator said. Fileva, 55, was aboard a single-engine, six-seat Epic LT aircraft that crashed and burned in a field as it approached the small airport at Egelsbach, a...
German train car arrives in New York for Auschwitz exhibit
NEW YORK — On a Sunday morning, a crane lowered a rusty remnant of the Holocaust onto tracks outside Manhattan’s Museum of Jewish Heritage — a vintage German train car like those used to transport men, women and children to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. The windowless boxcar is...
2 pilots killed in Marine helicopter crash in Arizona
YUMA, Ariz. — U.S. Marine Corps officials are investigating after two pilots died in a helicopter crash during a training mission in southwestern Arizona. A statement from the Marine Corps Air Station says the crash of the AH-1Z Viper occurred at about 8:45 p.m. Saturday. A spokesman for the station...
Chief: Ride-share mistake led to death of South Carolina college student Samantha Josephson
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The man accused of killing a woman who got into his car thinking it was her Uber ride had activated the child locks in his backseat so the doors could only be opened from the outside, police in South Carolina say. Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook also...
Manhattan tolls, plastic bag ban approved in New York budget
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s Democrat-controlled Legislature on Sunday passed a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags and expected to approve tolls for driving into the busiest sections of Manhattan starting in 2021 as part of a $175.5 billion state budget agreement worked out with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The Assembly...
Salem Township woman loved to work in her garden
Helen Kersten loved to garden. It was the place where she could be creative, and she had a real good sense of colors, said her daughter, Donna McDowell of Ligonier. “She had a beautiful garden,” McDowell said. “She always liked flowers that were different.” Mrs. Kersten did not rely on...
German train car arrives in New York for Auschwitz exhibit
NEW YORK — On a Sunday morning, a crane lowered a rusty remnant of the Holocaust onto tracks outside Manhattan’s Museum of Jewish Heritage — a vintage German train car like those used to transport men, women and children to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. The windowless boxcar is...
Biden defends his behavior with women
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday he doesn’t believe he ever acted inappropriately toward women but will “listen respectfully” to suggestions he did. Biden, who is deciding whether to join the 2020 presidential race, released a new statement in response to allegations from a Nevada politician that...
Trump’s battle with ‘Obamacare’ moves to the courts
WASHINGTON — After losing in Congress, President Donald Trump is counting on the courts to kill off “Obamacare.” But some cases are going against him, and time is not on his side as he tries to score a big win for his re-election campaign. Two federal judges in Washington, D.C.,...
Vestige of the past, Pennsylvania House’s ‘lobbyist room’ vanishes
HARRISBURG — It happened without any warning: The “lobbyist room” at the back of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives chamber was closed and is now off limits to lobbyists. For decades, lobbyists could sit there in a handful of comfortable chairs, watch floor proceedings on TV, print out copies of legislation...
Pa. woman convicted in cult-related slaying of boyfriend
STROUDSBURG, Pa. — A woman has been convicted of killing her boyfriend, which she said he asked her to do because of issues with an online cult. Jurors in Monroe County deliberated for nine hours before convicting 42-year-old Barbara Rogers of third-degree murder Friday in the death of 32-year-old Steven...
Historic Philly street closed due to danger of collapse
Officials say a stretch of street in Philadelphia’s historic Independence National Historical Park has been closed out of concerns that the road might collapse. The Philadelphia Water Department says the stretch of street that runs past the old City Hall, which is attached to Independence Hall, is “severely undermined.” Water...
