News category, Page 480

ATLANTA — District Attorney Fani Willis improperly hired an alleged romantic partner to prosecute Donald Trump and financially benefited from their relationship, according to a court motion filed Monday arguing the indictment was unconstitutional. The bombshell public filing alleged that special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney, paid for lavish...

WASHINGTON — Both the White House and Pentagon said Monday they would look into why President Joe Biden and other top officials weren’t informed for days that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been hospitalized. A Pentagon spokesman pointed to one reason: A key staffer was out sick with the flu....

HARRISBURG — The National Park Service withdrew a proposal Monday to take down a statue of William Penn at a Philadelphia historical site as part of a renovation that touched off a torrent of criticism over the legacy of the man who founded the province of Pennsylvania. In a brief...

TALLAHASSEE — The Republican Party of Florida ousted Chairman Christian Ziegler in a special vote on Monday as police investigate a rape accusation against him — a move that came a week before Gov. Ron DeSantis competes in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucus. A majority of about 200 members approved the...

This story first appeared in The Investigator, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA featuring the best investigative and accountability journalism from across Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — In the new year, Pennsylvania lawmakers plan to put a lot of their energy into changing permitting processes, getting a long-sought constitutional amendment over the...

NEW YORK — An emergency landing by an Alaska Airlines jetliner has prompted U.S. federal authorities to ground some Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, adding another episode to the troubled history of Boeing’s Max lineup of jets. Here is what to know about the Max 9 plane involved, and what...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — President Joe Biden wants Americans to grasp what he sees as the extraordinary stakes of this year’s presidential election. As part of that effort, he’s revisiting some of the nation’s worst traumas to highlight what can happen when hate is allowed to fester. Biden arrived in Charleston,...

NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa — When Donald Trump launched his 2024 presidential campaign after a disappointing midterm election for Republicans, his trajectory was something of a mystery. But seven days before Iowa’s kick-off caucuses, his standing among the GOP faithful is hardly in doubt. Voters, campaign operatives and even some of...

WASHINGTON — White House infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu is leaving his post after two years and is expected to help push publicly for President Joe Biden’s reelection. The Democratic president tasked the former New Orleans mayor with setting up a system to invest more than $1 trillion over the coming...

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who defeated Donald Trump-backed rivals twice in Republican-leaning Kentucky, announced the formation of a federal political action committee on Monday to support candidates across the country as he seeks to broaden his influence beyond the Bluegrass State. Beshear launched a PAC called In...

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Two U.S. fighter jets are set to fly over Bosnia on Monday in a demonstration of support for the Balkan country’s integrity in the face of increasingly secessionist policies of the Bosnian Serb pro-Russia leader Milorad Dodik. The U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons will fly as...

PORTLAND, Ore. — The decision by Alaska Airlines to stop flying one of its planes over the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii due to warnings from a cabin-pressurization system — yet keep flying it over land — is raising questions about whether the jet should have been in the air at...

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Medics, patients and displaced people are fleeing from the main hospital in central Gaza as the fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants draws closer, witnesses said Monday. Losing the facility would be another major blow to a health system shattered by three months of...

When Frank McClain left his 30-year career in the floral industry because of burnout, he did not expect he would become a table games dealer at Live Casino Pittsburgh in Hempfield. But when the casino hosted its first dealer school in August 2020, McClain could not pass up the opportunity....

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders have reached an agreement on overall spending levels for the current fiscal year that could help avoid a partial government shutdown later this month. The agreement largely hews to spending caps for defense and domestic programs that Congress set as part of a bill to suspend...

SILT, Colorado — An investigation is being conducted into an apparent altercation between U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and her ex-husband Jayson Boebert at a restaurant, police in Silt, Colorado, confirmed Sunday. It’s unclear what happened on Saturday, but Boebert’s campaign released a statement Sunday in which she said she “didn’t...

While United Launch Alliance is gunning for its first successful launch of the new Vulcan Centaur rocket early Monday, NASA and commercial company Astrobotic have their own high hopes for success for the moon-bound payload. Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lunar lander will become the first mission to fly under NASA’s...

BISMARCK, N.D. — The first person to spot it was a shovel operator working the overnight shift, eyeing a glint of white as he scooped up a giant mound of dirt and dropped it into a dump truck. Later, after the truck driver dumped the load, a dozer driver was...

EAGLE PASS, Texas — Daniel Bermudez’s family had fled Venezuela and was headed to the U.S. to seek asylum when the freight train they were riding through Mexico was stopped by immigration officials. His wife tried to explain that her family had permission to go to the U.S. Instead, they...

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military signaled that it has wrapped up major combat in northern Gaza, saying it has completed dismantling Hamas’ military infrastructure there, as the war against the militant group entered its fourth month Sunday. Israel did not address troop deployments in northern Gaza going forward. Military spokesman...