Supreme Court won’t allow Trump to immediately fire head of whistleblower office
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily kept on the job the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda. The justices said in an unsigned order that Hampton Dellinger, head of the...
Pentagon says it will cut 5,400 probationary workers starting next week
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department said Friday it’s cutting 5,400 probationary workers starting next week and will put a hiring freeze in place. It comes after staffers from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, were at the Pentagon earlier in the week and received lists of such employees, U.S....
Trump says he might take control of U.S. Postal Service. Here’s what to know
PHILADELPHIA — President Donald Trump on Friday said he might put the U.S. Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department in what would be an executive branch takeover of the agency, which has operated as an independent entity since 1970. “We want to have a post office that...
Luigi Mangione draws crowd to court for first hearing since arraignment in UnitedHealthcare killing
NEW YORK — The defendant wore a bulletproof vest and shackles. A woman in the crowd wore a “Free Luigi” scarf. Outside, throngs of people cheered and chanted his name. So it went Friday at a pretrial hearing for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian...
Steve Bannon, accused of doing a straight-arm Nazi salute at CPAC, says it was just ‘a wave’
OXON HILL, Md. — Steve Bannon was accused of making a Nazi salute as he concluded a speech at a conservative gathering where President Donald Trump is slated to speak this weekend, but Bannon said Friday the gesture was merely a “wave.” Bannon, who once served as Trump’s chief strategist...
Trump spars with Maine’s governor at White House over transgender athletesVideo
President Donald Trump sparred with Maine’s Democratic governor during a meeting of governors at the White House on Friday, with Gov. Janet Mills telling the Republican president, “We’ll see you in court,” over his push to deny federal funding to the state over transgender athletes. Trump told the governor he...
AP sues 3 Trump administration officials, citing freedom of speech
The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials Friday over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the 10-day blocking of its journalists. The lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The AP says its case is...
New Jersey man convicted of attempted murder in stabbing of Salman Rushdie
MAYVILLE, N.Y. — A New Jersey man was convicted Friday of attempted murder for stabbing author Salman Rushdie multiple times on a New York lecture stage in 2022. Jurors, who deliberated for less than two hours, also found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of assault for wounding a man who was...
Yearslong shortage of popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs is resolved, FDA says
Shortages of Ozempic and Wegovy that have been in place for more than two years have been resolved, as supplies of the popular diabetes and obesity treatments continue to improve, federal regulators said Friday. The drugmaker Novo Nordisk can meet present and future demand in the U.S., the Food and...
Judge extends temporary block to huge cuts in National Institutes of Health research funding
BOSTON — A federal judge on Friday extended a temporary block of the Trump administration’s drastic cuts in medical research funding that many scientists say will endanger patients and delay new lifesaving discoveries. U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley had issued a temporary restraining order earlier this month in response to...
Pope Francis isn’t out of danger but his condition isn’t life-threatening, medical team says
ROME — Pope Francis’ condition isn’t life-threatening, but he’s not out of danger, his medical team said Friday, as the 88-year-old pontiff marked his first week in a hospital with pneumonia on top of chronic bronchitis. Francis’ doctors delivered their first in-person update on the pope’s condition, saying that he...
European troops, U.S. support are part of emerging plan for Ukraine, but it faces many hurdles
LONDON — As the U.S. and Russia push ahead — so far without Ukraine at the table — on talks to end the war, political and military leaders in Europe are fleshing out details of a plan for European forces to help ensure Moscow doesn’t attack again. After months of...
Netanyahu decries release of wrong body as a ceasefire violation. Hamas pledges to investigate
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge Friday for what he described as a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement after a body that Hamas released as part of the deal was found to not be that of an Israeli mother of two young boys, as...
Macron’s message to Trump: ‘You can’t be weak in the face of Putin’
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron said that he intends to tell U.S. counterpart Donald Trump that it’s in the joint interest of Americans and Europeans not to “be weak” in the face of Russian leader Vladimir Putin amid U.S.-led negotiations to end the nearly three-year war in Ukraine. Macron...
Photos: Daily gallery for Feb. 21, 2025
Embark on a visual journey around the Western Pennsylvania region with TribLive’s latest collection of captivating images for Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025....
Senate Republicans approve budget framework, pushing past Democratic objections after all-night vote
WASHINGTON — Republican senators pushed a $340 billion budget framework to passage early Friday, chugging through an all-night session and Democratic opposition in a step toward unleashing money the Trump administration says it needs for mass deportations and border security that top their agenda. The hours-long “vote-a-rama” rambled along in...
Federal judge allows Trump’s mass firings of federal workers to move forward
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington has allowed President Donald Trump’s mass firings of federal workers to move forward. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper decided Thursday he could not grant a motion from unions representing the workers to temporarily block the layoffs. He found that their complaint amounted to...
Crow is not the only thing they eat at a wild game dinner in rural Pennsylvania
PINE GROVE — The buffet line inside the fire hall in rural Northeast Pennsylvania was a familiar sight last weekend as a crowd of about 150 people heaped dinner onto their plates before sitting down to eat, hear a little live music and wait for the raffle. Aside from a...
Westmoreland native paints business windows, collects donations for LGBTQ+ nonprofits
What started as way for artist Victoria “V” Jennings to boost people’s spirits during the covid pandemic has turned into charitable fundraising. The Westmoreland County native has painted murals for about a decade. When the pandemic restrictions of March 2020 continued into the winter, Jennings put her artistic skills to...
Lowering the bar: Centre County tops Pennsylvania in underage drinking citations
Centre County led Pennsylvania in underage drinking citations during the most recent five-year period for which data is available, the administrative arm of the state Supreme Court said earlier this month. Not including DUI offenses, about one in 10 offenses in the county that’s home to Penn State were for...
Dr. Mehmet Oz holds millions from companies that he’d wield power over if confirmed, report shows
WASHINGTON — The wealth of Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity heart surgeon nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has swelled in part from for-profit health care companies over which he’d wield significant power if confirmed, according to a newly filed government ethics...
Trump administration flouting order to temporarily lift freeze on foreign aid, judge says
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has kept withholding foreign aid despite a court order and must at least temporarily restore the funding to programs worldwide, a federal judge said Thursday. Judge Amir H. Ali declined a request by nonprofit groups doing business with the U.S. Agency for International Development to...
IRS layoffs could hurt revenue collection and foil efforts to go after rich tax dodgers, experts say
WASHINGTON — The layoffs of roughly 7,000 IRS probationary workers beginning this week likely mean the end of the agency’s plan to go after high-wealth tax dodgers and could spell disaster for revenue collections, experts say. The majority of employees shown the door at the federal tax collector are newly...
New York sues vape distributors over Elf Bar and other fruit and candy e-cigarettes
New York on Thursday sued some of the country’s biggest distributors of electronic cigarettes, accusing the companies of violating state laws that prohibit the sale of vaping flavors and designs that appeal to children. Attorney General Letitia James announced the lawsuit targeting middlemen that distribute fruit- and candy-flavored e-cigarettes such...
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro appointed by Trump to bipartisan governors panel, will visit White House
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was appointed by President Donald Trump to serve on a little-known panel alongside other governors to strengthen partnerships between states and the federal government. Shapiro joins the council at a challenging time for governors — particularly Democratic ones — as Trump’s administration tries to slash the...
