White House issues new rule restricting access for journalists
A new White House rule issued Friday restricts the ability of credentialed journalists to freely access the offices of press secretary Karoline Leavitt and other top communications officials in the West Wing, near the Oval Office. The new memorandum from the National Security Council bans journalists from accessing Room 140,...
Trump administration announces $100 million in funding to upgrade coal plants
The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday announced it will make $100 million available to refurbish and modernize existing coal-fired power plants. The move is part of the Trump administration’s effort to reverse the decline of coal use in the United States. The Energy Department said last month it would...
U.S. judge permanently blocks Trump order requiring voters to prove citizenship
A federal judge Friday permanently blocked part of an executive order from President Donald Trump, ruling the president cannot require voters to show passports or similar documents as proof of citizenship before voting. Several lawsuits have challenged the president’s March 25 executive order, a sweeping order aimed at overhauling federal...
NASA administrator calls out Kim Kardashian for promoting moon landing conspiracy
The head of NASA has called out Kim Kardashian after the famous mogul and reality television star claimed that the iconic 1969 moon landing was faked. In the most recent episode of “The Kardashians,” a clip shows Kardashian, 45, telling actress Sarah Paulson that she believed the Apollo 11 lunar...
Judges order Trump administration to use contingency funds for SNAP payments during shutdown
BOSTON — Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown. The judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island gave the administration leeway on whether to fund the program...
Agile and vicious Nanotyrannus was not just a teenage T. rex
WASHINGTON — At the twilight of the age of dinosaurs, an agile and vicious predator named Nanotyrannus prowled western North America, resembling a smaller version of Tyrannosaurus - about a tenth the body mass - but with several key anatomical differences. That is the finding of new research concluding that...
19 states are ready to ban the time change. Here’s what would need to happen first.
Clocks are set to “fall back” this weekend across the United States as daylight saving time is coming to an end. Daylight saving time always begins on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November. In 2025, that means it started on March 9 and...
Men shot by the hundreds, disappeared after Sudanese city falls to paramilitaries, witnesses say
Fighters riding camels rounded up a couple of hundred men near the Sudanese city of al-Fashir at the weekend and brought them to a reservoir, shouting racial slurs before starting to shoot, according to a man who said he was among them. One of the captors recognized him from his...
Ukraine hands over suspected Russian war criminal to Lithuania
KYIV/VILNIUS — Ukraine has handed over a captured Russian soldier accused of torture and illegal detention to Lithuania for trial, in what Kyiv said was the first case of its kind involving the justice system of a third country during Russia’s nearly four-year-old war. The soldier, described by Lithuania as...
U.S. expects more flight disruptions as government shutdown enters Day 31
WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday delayed flights at airports in Austin, Newark and Nashville as air traffic control staffing problems continue to snarl flights and a government shutdown hits its 31st day. At least nine FAA facilities were facing staffing issues on Friday and the agency said...
Analysis: Trump’s big nuclear reactor push raises safety concerns
A huge nuclear deal announced by the Trump administration earlier this week provides a multi-billion-dollar incentive for the U.S. government to issue permits and approvals for new Westinghouse reactors - an unprecedented structure that critics say poses environmental and safety risks. Under the agreement with Westinghouse Electric’s owners, Canada-based Cameco...
Analysis: Nuclear curveball: Trump’s testing plan raises fears, confusion in Washington
WASHINGTON - If U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Richard Correll thought he was going to have an easy confirmation hearing on Thursday to become the commander of America’s nuclear forces, those hopes surely vanished at 9:04 p.m. the night before he was to testify. That was when President Donald Trump shocked...
Pennsylvania criminal case highlights problems with 3rd-party voter registration drives
This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access. In the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, workers with an Arizona-based consulting firm conducting a voter registration drive tried to submit fake registrations in Pennsylvania in an effort to earn more...
U.S. pediatrician group recommends against routine use of drug for autism
CHICAGO — The American Academy of Pediatrics on Friday said it does not recommend the routine use of leucovorin — a form of vitamin B9 — in children with autism, citing a lack of evidence on the treatment’s benefits and risks to support widespread use in this population. The announcement...
Andrew’s banishment from royal life welcomed by press and politicians in Britain
LONDON — British politicians, papers and the public welcomed King Charles’ banishment of Andrew from public life on Friday, after the monarch moved to protect the institution from his younger brother’s ties to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Charles stripped Andrew of his title of prince and evicted him from...
Israeli attacks kill 3 Palestinians in Gaza, testing fragile truce
CAIRO — The Israeli military attacked the Gaza Strip for a fourth day on Friday, killing three people, Palestinian health authorities said, in another test of a fragile ceasefire agreement. Residents reported Israeli shelling and gunfire in northern Gaza on Friday, as Israel continued to bombard areas of the enclave...
Somerset County sheriff charged with corruption of minors
Somerset County Sheriff Dustin Weir was charged Thursday with corruption of minors, according to court documents detailing an alleged incident at a Shop With a Cop event last December. Weir, 46, of Quemahoning, is accused of taking a 15-year-old girl to the condom aisle of a Walmart during the event...
The internet compares Grokipedia and Wikipedia
Earlier this week, Elon Musk introduced Grokipedia, an AI-powered online encyclopedia designed to rival Wikipedia. As users began exploring the new platform, social media quickly buzzed with comparisons between the information offered by the two sites. Musk, who has called Wikipedia “filled with left-wing propaganda,” according to the Associated Press,...
Why tracking spending in this year’s critical Pa. Supreme Court retention races is so difficult
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. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — How much are state and national groups spending to flood the airwaves, fill mailboxes, and buy up...
Government shutdown stalls FBI investigations
WASHINGTON - FBI investigations have been slowed or stalled by the second-longest U.S. government shutdown in history, leaving the bureau without funds to pay informants or make undercover drug or gun buys, gaps that an FBI spokesperson said are putting national security at risk. The FBI does not provide detailed...
Louisiana and Virginia take steps toward redistricting in a growing battle for U.S. House power
Republican lawmakers in Louisiana and Democrats in Virginia pressed ahead Wednesday with plans that could allow mid-decade redistricting as part of a growing national battle for partisan advantage in next year’s congressional elections. Louisiana lawmakers passed legislation pushing back the state’s 2026 primary elections by a month — a move...
Trump cuts tariffs on China after meeting Xi in South Korea
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Donald Trump described his face-to-face with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday as a roaring success, saying he would cut tariffs on China, while Beijing had agreed to allow the export of rare earth elements and start buying American soybeans. The president told reporters...
Trump’s comments on nuclear testing upend decades of U.S. policy. Here’s what to know about it
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Donald Trump’s comments Thursday suggesting the United States will restart its testing of nuclear weapons upends decades of American policy in regards to the bomb, but come as Washington’s rivals have been conducting tests of atomic-powered weapons and expanding their arsenals. Nuclear weapons policy,...
Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba pick up the pieces after Melissa’s destruction
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba — People across the northern Caribbean were digging out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa on Thursday as deaths from the catastrophic storm climbed. The rumble of large machinery, whine of chainsaws and chopping of machetes echoed throughout southeast Jamaica as government workers and residents began...
Trump asks Pentagon to immediately resume testing nuclear weapons
President Donald Trump, ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, said he has instructed the Department of Defense to immediately resume testing nuclear weapons on an “equal basis” with other nuclear powers. “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to...
