W.Va. teachers end strike after no action on doomed bill
CHARLESTON — Unions for West Virginia teachers ended their two-day strike Wednesday night after lawmakers did not act on a doomed, broad-based education bill. Leaders of three unions representing teachers and school service personnel said at a news conference that classrooms would reopen statewide on Thursday. The House of Delegates...
Gory details emerge about Kelsey Berreth’s suspected demise
DENVER — After months of mostly silence from authorities investigating the disappearance of a Colorado mother on Thanksgiving Day, grim details about her suspected demise emerged this week, including accusations that the woman’s fiance beat her to death with a baseball bat while their baby was in the next room....
Pope Francis skips meeting with survivors on eve of Vatican clergy abuse summit
Clergy sexual abuse survivors were left waiting for answers Wednesday as an international mix of Catholic Church leaders gathered in Rome to address the child sexual abuse scandal that has rocked parishes around the world — including Western Pennsylvania. Calls for an apology to survivors, an acknowledgement of their pain,...
U.S. says Alabama woman who joined Islamic State can’t return
WASHINGTON — An Alabama woman who left home to join the Islamic State group in Syria is not a U.S. citizen and will not be allowed to return to the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday. In a brief statement that gave no details as to...
‘Snow, Hey Oh’: School principals croon cold-weather announcements
By the time late February rolls around, the drudgery of snow days is enough to spark creativity by even the most jaded school superintendents. Wednesday morning’s snowfall forced hundreds of Western Pennsylvania schools to cancel classes, from Jeannette to Ambridge, Greensburg Salem to Laurel Highlands. The National Weather Service office...
Neptune’s newest, tiniest moon likely fragment of bigger one
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Neptune’s newest and tiniest moon is probably an ancient fragment of a much larger moon orbiting unusually close. In the journal Nature on Wednesday, California astronomers shine a light on the 21-mile-wide moon Hippocamp, named after the mythological sea horse. SETI Institute’s Mark Showalter discovered Neptune’s...
After surgery, Michael Cohen’s prison date postponed to May
NEW YORK — A judge has agreed to postpone the start of ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s prison sentence by two months to May 6. New York Judge William Pauley signed off on the delay Wednesday after Cohen’s lawyers said he needed more time to recover from shoulder surgery. They noted...
Nature’s Path Foods recalls some cereals containing gluten
Nature’s Path Foods has recalled some of its cereals because they may contain gluten. The cereals are supposed to be gluten-free. Some boxes of EnviroKidz Choco Chimps, Gorilla Munch and Jungle Munch cereals have been recalled because they may contain undeclared gluten from wheat and barley that could make people...
Google forgot to notify customers it put microphones in Nest security systems
The worst kind of microphone is a hidden microphone. Customers were caught off guard in early February when Google announced its home security system, Nest Secure, would be able to act as an AI-powered Google Assistant after a recent update. “With the flip of a switch in the Nest app,...
Pennsylvania must keep up on voting systems, lawmakers told
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s top elections official is warning that failing to replace voting machines by 2020 could make the state the only one without a voter-verifiable paper trail. Kathy Boockvar, Pennsylvania’s acting state secretary, also told senators Wednesday during an Appropriations Committee hearing that election-security experts agree that moving to...
U.S., North Korean envoys to meet in Hanoi ahead of summit
HANOI, Vietnam — U.S. and North Korean special envoys are to meet in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, to make final preparations for a second summit next week between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Steve Biegun was to arrive in Hanoi...
Putin sternly warns U.S. against putting missiles in Europe
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin sternly warned the United States against deploying new missiles in Europe, saying Wednesday that Russia will retaliate by fielding new weapons that will take just as little time to reach their targets. While the Russian leader didn’t say what specific new weapons Moscow could...
Family of Covington teen sues Washington Post for $250 million
The family of the Kentucky teen who was involved in an encounter with a Native American advocate at the Lincoln Memorial last month filed a defamation lawsuit against The Washington Post on Tuesday, seeking $250 million in damages for its coverage of the incident. The suit alleges that The Post...
Pennsylvania among top third of states in taxpayer accuracy
A little under 6 percent of Pennsylvania taxpayers are spot-on when it comes to figuring their federal income tax. That is, when they file their returns with the IRS, they’re neither due a refund nor required to submit a payment. That’s not a very big percentage, but it’s enough to...
U.S. mining sites dump 50 million gallons of fouled wastewater daily
RIMINI, Mont. — Every day many millions of gallons of water loaded with arsenic, lead and other toxic metals flow from some of the most contaminated mining sites in the United States and into surrounding lakes and streams without being treated, the Associated Press has found. That torrent is poisoning...
Brexit accord is already being hammered out, Spain says
A new Brexit agreement is already being hammered out in Brussels, according to Spain’s foreign minister, as the bloc seeks reassuring language that can convince British members of Parliament to back the deal. Prime Minister Theresa May is heading back to Brussels on Wednesday, seeking changes to the divorce agreement....
State patrol: Ohio prison inmates planned possible escape, riot
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The State Highway Patrol says inmates at an Ohio maximum security prison were plotting “a possible escape attempt and possible riot” when the plan was interrupted. The patrol is investigating the Feb. 12 incident in which authorities confiscated three fake handguns, drawings of handguns, and a fake...
Former Congressman Shuster joins lobbying firm
If anyone had any doubts about the speed of the revolving door in Washington, D.C., rest assured it still is spinning. Politics PA reports that Bill Shuster, the former Republican congressman from Bedford County who opted not to seek re-election last year, has a new gig in the nation’s capital...
Missouri official investigates day care ‘fight club’ claims
ST. LOUIS — Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is launching his own investigation of a St. Louis day care center where two workers were accused of facilitating a “fight club” among small children, his office said Wednesday. The announcement came two weeks after St. Louis prosecutors dropped criminal charges against...
‘Firefall’ phenomenon wows visitors to Yosemite’s El Capitan
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — California’s Yosemite National Park is again wowing visitors and photographers with its annual “firefall.” Every February for a few days, the setting sun illuminates Horsetail Fall to make it glow like a cascade of molten lava. The natural wonder draws scores of people to Yosemite...
Wisconsin school ends cheerleading awards for body parts
KENOSHA, Wis. — A Wisconsin high school is ending cheerleading awards given annually to girls with the largest breasts or buttocks — dubbed “Big Booty” and “Big Boobie” — after the American Civil Liberties Union demanded action following repeated complaints from parents and a former coach to school and district...
Trump administration to cancel $929 million in California high-speed rail funding
The fate of California’s high-speed rail project was cast into further doubt Tuesday when the Department of Transportation announced plans to cancel $929 million in grant funds, a move that some viewed as political payback. The action marks an escalation in the battle between President Trump and the state of...
Trump nominates Jeffrey Rosen for deputy attorney general to replace Rod Rosenstein
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday nominated Jeffrey Rosen, a longtime litigator and deputy transportation secretary, to replace Rod Rosenstein as deputy attorney general. In his current post, the 60-year-old Rosen serves as the Department of Transportation’s chief operating officer and is in charge of implementing the department’s safety and...
Top ethics watchdog rejects Wilbur Ross’s financial disclosure form
WASHINGTON — The top federal ethics watchdog has rejected Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s 2017 financial disclosure form. The Office of Government Ethics declined to certify Ross’s latest financial disclosure because after reporting that he had sold off his shares in BankUnited Inc. that year, he actually sold the stock in...
Former Philly homicide detective charged with rape, intimidation in course of his investigations
PHILADELPHIA — A former Philadelphia homicide detective was arrested Tuesday and accused of grooming and sexually assaulting male witnesses during criminal investigations, then intimidating them to keep them silent — part of what prosecutors concluded was a pattern of misconduct during nearly a decade in one of the Police Department’s...
