Donald Trump completes mandatory presentencing interview after less than 30 minutes of questioning
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s mandatory presentencing interview Monday ended after less than a half-hour of routine and uneventful questions and answers, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity. The former president...
Cyber charter changes that could save public schools $530M may be in this year’s budget
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 — Pennsylvania’s public school districts could save roughly $530 million annually if the legislature makes long-sought changes to how cyber charters are funded. Democratic...
Pennsylvania Senate passes bill to outlaw the distribution of deepfake material
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state Senate on Monday approved legislation that would outlaw the distribution of salacious or pornographic deepfakes, with sponsors saying it will eliminate a loophole in the law that had frustrated prosecutors. The bill was approved unanimously and was sent to the House. It comes as states are...
Alzheimer’s drug that can slow disease gets backing from FDA advisers
WASHINGTON — A closely watched Alzheimer’s drug from Eli Lilly won the backing of federal health advisers on Monday, setting the stage for the treatment’s expected approval for people with mild dementia caused by the brain-robbing disease. A panel of Food and Drug Administration advisers voted unanimously that the drug’s...
Sen. John Fetterman and wife in Maryland car crash
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman and his wife, Gisele Fetterman, were in a car crash on a Maryland interstate Sunday morning. They were evaluated at a hospital “out of an abundance of caution” but avoided serious injury, Fetterman’s office said. Fetterman, a Democrat from Braddock, was westbound on Interstate 70 shortly...
Jurors in Hunter Biden’s gun trial begin deliberating whether he’s guilty of federal firearm charges
WILMINGTON, Del. — Jurors in Hunter Biden’s gun trial began deliberating Monday to decide whether the president’s son is guilty of federal firearms charges over a revolver he bought when prosecutors say he was addicted to crack cocaine. He is charged with three felonies in the case that has laid...
How an Israeli raid freed 4 hostages and killed at least 274 Palestinians in Gaza
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — They arrived in the middle of the day, when the squat concrete buildings of the Nuseirat refugee camp are stifling and the narrow streets outside are filled with people. No one suspected a thing until the shots rang out. The Israeli raid caught everyone off...
Far-right gains in the EU election deal stunning defeats to France’s Macron and Germany’s Scholz
BRUSSELS — Far-right parties rattled the traditional powers in the European Union and made major gains in parliamentary elections Sunday, dealing an especially humiliating defeat to French President Emmanuel Macron. On a night where the 27-member bloc palpably shifted to the right, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni more than doubled...
Student teaching stipend aims to fill void for aspiring educators, but some say program needs more support
Almost nothing could deter Brianna Savko from teaching. Generally modest pay, an all-time high annual attrition rate of 7.7% and a statewide shortage of more than 2,000 teachers were not enough to change her mind. “There’s a passion there, and I don’t care what the money is behind it when...
Chaos, confusion have followed Philly encampment clearing, residents and businesses say
When chef Dionicio Jiménez opens the doors of Cantina La Martina on Philadelphia’s Kensington Avenue, his day begins by cleaning up trash and human feces from the sidewalk or disposing of the occasional mattress where people have been sleeping around his restaurant. He and his wife, co-owner Mariangeli Alicea Saez,...
Trump to undergo probation interview Monday, a required step before his New York sentencing
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to be interviewed by New York probation officials Monday, a required step before his July sentencing in his criminal hush money case, according to three people familiar with the plan. Trump will do the interview via a computer video conference from his residence at...
Benny Gantz quits Israeli government after PM fails to meet demands
Benny Gantz, who joined Israel’s ruling coalition to form an emergency wartime government following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, said his party would leave the government after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to meet his demands. While Gantz’s departure won’t cause the ruling coalition to collapse, it will likely...
Coroner: Human remains found in former home of Johnstown man convicted in slaying of wife
JOHNSTOWN — Human remains have been found in the former residence of a man convicted last week of murder in the death of his wife, authorities said. The (Johnstown) Tribune-Democrat reports that 48-year-old Brian Giles lived with Nancy Giles in an apartment in the Johnstown house before she went missing...
Trump complains about his teleprompters at a scorching Las Vegas rally
LAS VEGAS — Former President Donald Trump rallied voters in the scorching heat of Las Vegas, at points telling his supporters to ask for help if needed and appearing irritable with the teleprompters that he said were not working. The presumptive GOP nominee’s campaign hired extra medics, loading up on...
Biden honors U.S. war dead with a cemetery visit ending a French trip that served as a rebuke to Trump
BELLEAU, France — President Joe Biden closed out his trip to France by paying his respects at an American military cemetery that Donald Trump notably skipped when he was president, hoping his final stop Sunday helped draw the stakes of the November election in stark relief. Before returning to the...
Howard University cuts ties with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs after video of attack on Cassie
Howard University is cutting ties to Sean “Diddy” Combs, rescinding an honorary degree that was awarded to him and disbanding a scholarship program in his name, after a recently released 2016 video that appeared to show him attacking the R&B singer Cassie. “Mr. Combs’ behavior as captured in a recently...
Local third graders buzz through Greensburg Rotary Club spelling bee
Nearly 30 third grade students from Aquinas Academy, Hempfield Area and Greensburg Salem school districts marched into the Greensburg Salem Middle School auditorium Thursday evening to “Gonna Fly Now,” known colloquially as the “Rocky” movie theme song. But only Amanda Wang remained on the auditorium stage when “We Are the...
From women pastors to sexual abuse to Trump, Southern Baptists have a busy few days ahead of them
Thousands will gather in Indianapolis June 11-12 for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. The meeting comes at a fraught time in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Messengers — as voting delegates are known — will vote on whether to establish a constitutional ban on churches with women...
Gaza’s Health Ministry says 274 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raid that rescued 4 hostages
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — At least 274 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more were wounded in the Israeli raid that rescued four hostages held by Hamas, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday. The military said its forces came under heavy fire during the complex daytime operation deep inside the territory....
‘It’s given me a lot of confidence’: Penn Township Girl Scout troops honor Gold Award recipients at bridging ceremony
When Allison Huffman decided to pursue the Gold Award at the end of her 12 years in Girl Scouts, she knew she wanted to teach children about mental and physical health. But she had no idea she would learn just as much as the 80 children she taught. Huffman, 17,...
Western Pa. education leaders seek solutions to statewide teacher shortage crisis
Thousands of teaching positions in Pennsylvania were vacant or filled by someone on an emergency certificate in the past year, leaving education across the state in crisis mode, one industry onlooker said. More than 2,000 teaching positions were vacant in Pennsylvania as of October, according to data released by the...
Haiti’s new prime minister hospitalized days after being selected to lead country, official says
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s newly selected prime minister, Garry Conille, was hospitalized late Saturday in the capital of Port-au-Prince just days after arriving in the country, an official told The Associated Press. It wasn’t immediately known why Conille was hospitalized. Louis Gérald Gilles, a member of the transitional presidential council...
Cargo ship hit by missile in Gulf of Aden in suspected attack by Yemen Houthi rebels. No one hurt
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A missile struck an Antigua and Barbuda-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday in a suspected attack by Houthi rebels in Yemen, authorities said. The missile hit the ship’s forward station, starting a fire that those on board later put out, the...
Woman who fell down steep hill below Bigelow Boulevard rescued by Pittsburgh first responders
Pittsburgh Public Safety personnel rescued a woman on the hillside below Frank Curto Park on Bigelow Boulevard on Saturday afternoon after employees at a car dealership below heard her screaming. The woman, who is in her 30s, likely fell from a concrete retaining wall she had been sitting on, a...
Toxicology reports on the deaths of Mt. Lebanon woman and her daughter, 10, could take weeks
A Mt. Lebanon woman who was found dead along with her 10-year-old daughter Friday in South Park was involved in divorce proceedings and a custody dispute. Serena Keona Guan, 43, and Abigail Neal, 10, were found inside a car at a South Park grove after Mt. Lebanon police were contacted...
