Will Israeli-Palestinian conflict protests, encampments resurface when college resumes?
Alon Leshem, a rising senior at the University of Pittsburgh, is energized to finish his computer science degree and to take secondary field of study courses involving Israel and Palestine. But, like other Jewish students at Pitt and elsewhere, his enthusiasm is tempered by knowing fall could bring renewed pro-Palestinian...
Ferguson officer critically injured at protest on the 10th anniversary of Michael Brown’s death
FERGUSON, Mo. — A Ferguson, Missouri, police officer was critically injured outside the city’s police station during protests on the 10th anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a pivotal moment in the national Black Lives Matter movement, police said Saturday. Ferguson police chief Troy Doyle said Officer Travis...
Police say prisoner killed cellmate for not saying ‘excuse me’ after bumping him
Why did Shaquille Gibson say he beat, and later stomp, his cellmate’s face so severely it caved his nose inward and he died? It was because “Mister Beattie,” his 57-year-old cellmate who used a wheelchair, bumped into him and didn’t say “excuse me,” a state trooper testified. That’s what Gibson...
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 3rd-party candidates face ballot challenges in Pennsylvania
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his running mate, and at least nine third-party candidates are facing challenges that could see them kicked off of...
Travis Scott is released from police custody after arrest over a Paris hotel altercation
PARIS — Travis Scott was released from French police custody without a charge after his arrest at a Paris hotel following an altercation with a security guard, French prosecutors said Saturday. In a statement, the Paris prosecutor’s office said, “the police custody order for Travis Scott has been lifted and...
Debby finally moves out of the U.S., though risk from flooded rivers remains
Debby finally moved out of the U.S. on Saturday after the storm spent the better part of week unleashing tornadoes and flooding, damaging homes and taking lives as it moved up the East Coast after first arriving in Florida as a hurricane. Debby’s last day over the U.S. before blowing...
Torture of 9/11 suspects means even without plea deal, they may never face a verdict
WASHINGTON — A Defense Department disagreement over how to bring to justice the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and two others has thrown the cases into disarray and surfaced tension between the desire of some victims’ families to see a final legal reckoning and the significant obstacles that...
Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school kills at least 80 people, Palestinian health officials say
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza early Saturday, killing at least 80 people and wounding nearly 50 others, Palestinian health authorities said, in one of the deadliest attacks of the 10-month war between Israel and Hamas. A witness said it struck during prayers...
Kamala Harris makes an immigration pitch in Arizona as she fights to gain ground in the Sun Belt
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Vice President Kamala Harris drew on her prosecutorial background to make her first expansive pitch on immigration to border-state voters as she and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, attracted thousands to a campaign rally during their tour of battleground states. Harris, the former attorney...
Trump campaign projects confidence and looks to young male voters for an edge on Harris
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — As Donald Trump adjusts to the reality of his new race against Kamala Harris, his campaign is counting on younger male voters to give him the edge in November in a presidential contest they insist is his to lose. Trump and his Republican campaign now...
Large geological feature known as the ‘Double Arch’ and the ‘Toilet Bowl’ collapses in southern Utah
PAGE, Ariz. — A large geological feature in southern Utah known as the “Double Arch,” the “Hole in the Roof” and sometimes the “Toilet Bowl” has collapsed, National Park Service officials said Friday. No injuries were reported. The popular arch in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area fell Thursday, and...
Iran is accelerating cyber activity that appears meant to influence the U.S. election, Microsoft says
NEW YORK — Iran is accelerating online activity that appears intended to influence the U.S. election, in one case targeting a presidential campaign with an email phishing attack, Microsoft said Friday. Iranian actors also have spent recent months creating fake news sites and impersonating activists, laying the groundwork to stoke...
Trump headlines Montana rally after plane makes emergency landing
BOZEMAN, Mont. — Donald Trump traveled to Montana for a Friday night rally intended to drum up support for ousting the state’s Democratic senator, but the former president’s plane first had to divert to an airport on the other side of the Rocky Mountains because of a mechanical issue, according...
What Pennsylvania’s $47.6B budget does for the state’s rural communities
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for our north-central Pa. newsletter, Talk of the Town, at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/talkofthetown. BELLEFONTE — Officials in rural Pennsylvania didn’t get everything they wanted in...
Last known intact U.S. slave ship is too ‘broken’ and should stay underwater, a report recommends
MOBILE, Ala. — The last known U.S. slave ship is too “broken” and decayed to be extracted from the murky waters of the Alabama Gulf Coast without being dismembered, a task force of archaeologists, engineers and historians announced following a yearslong investigation. The task force headed by the Alabama Historical...
Harvard rebuffs protests and won’t remove Sackler name from two buildings
BOSTON — Harvard University has decided against removing from campus buildings the name of a family whose company makes the powerful painkiller OxyContin, despite protests from parents whose children fatally overdosed. The decision last month by the Harvard Corporation to retain Arthur M. Sackler’s name on a museum building and...
FDA won’t approve psychedelic MDMA for PTSD, calling for additional study
WASHINGTON — Federal health regulators on Friday declined to approve the psychedelic drug MDMA as a therapy for PTSD, a major setback for groups seeking a breakthrough decision in favor of using mind-altering substances to treat serious mental health conditions. Drugmaker Lykos Therapeutics said the FDA notified the company that...
‘Keeping their memories alive’: Cemetery volunteers to lead workshop on cleaning, resetting fallen headstones
For the past two years, Bill Bray has been on a mission to restore abandoned cemeteries. Bray, 57, of Penn Township, has cleaned headstones covered in years of mold, moss and lichen and reset stones that tipped over or sunk into the earth. The Army veteran has replaced nearly 75...
Covid-19 falls to No. 10 cause of death in U.S.
U.S. death rates fell last year for all age groups compared with 2022, federal health officials said Thursday. Here’s what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed: — Covid-19 fell to the 10th leading cause of death. Early in the pandemic, the coronavirus was the nation’s third leading...
Michael Brown’s death 10 years ago sparked change in Ferguson
FERGUSON, Mo. — Michael Brown once told his father the “world is going to know my name,” words Michael Brown Sr. still takes to heart. Friday marks 10 years since the 18-year-old was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, turning the St. Louis suburb into the focal point...
Israeli troops launch new assault into Gaza’s Khan Younis as mediators push for cease-fire talks
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops launched a new assault Friday into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, targeting Hamas fighters who the military claims still operate there despite repeated offensives, as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire...
3rd person in custody over foiled plot targeting now-canceled Taylor Swift shows in Vienna
VIENNA — A third teenager has been arrested in connection with a foiled attack on now-canceled Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna, Austria’s interior minister said Friday. Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said an 18-year-old was taken into custody Thursday evening in Vienna after allegedly being in contact with the main...
Russia declares federal emergency in border region under attack from Ukrainian forces
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia’s Ministry for Emergencies on Friday declared the situation in the Kursk region a “federal level” emergency, four days after hundreds of Ukrainian troops poured over the border in what appeared to be Kyiv’s biggest attack on Russian soil since the war began. Meanwhile, a Russian plane-launched...
Maui remembers the 102 lost in the Lahaina wildfire with a paddle out 1 year after devastating blazeVideo
LAHAINA, Hawaii — Dozens of Maui surfers, canoe paddlers and boat riders made their way into the ocean off Lahaina on Thursday to remember the 102 people killed when the nation’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century destroyed the historic town one year ago. The “paddle out” gathering is...
Legal challenge seeks to prevent RFK Jr. from appearing on Pennsylvania’s presidential ballot
HARRISBURG — A legal challenge filed Thursday seeks to have third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. kept off Pennsylvania’s fall ballot, an effort with ramifications for the hotly contested swing-state battle between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. The petition argues the nominating papers filed by Kennedy and...
