Landslide destroys Los Angeles home and threatens at least 2 others
LOS ANGELES — A landslide destroyed a hillside home and imperiled at least two others in Los Angeles early Wednesday. The slide occurred just before 3 a.m. in Sherman Oaks, a neighborhood of expensive homes about 12 miles northwest of downtown. An initial search found no victims, but several people...
Judge dismisses some charges against Trump in the Georgia 2020 election interference case
ATLANTA — The judge overseeing the Georgia 2020 election interference case on Wednesday dismissed some of the charges against former President Donald Trump and others, but the rest of the sweeping racketeering indictment remains intact. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee quashed six counts in the indictment, including three...
‘It’s home for me’: Penn-Trafford assistant superintendent bids district farewell after 26 years
For the first time in 10 years, Scott Inglese did not wake up to an alarm or prepare to walk the hallways of the Penn-Trafford School District administration building. Inglese, 56, of Penn Township, has worked at the district for 26 years as a teacher, principal and — for the...
Shapiro unveils plan to cut greenhouse gases, boost renewables in big energy producer
SCRANTON — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled a plan Wednesday to fight climate change, saying he will back legislation to make power plant owners in the nation’s third-biggest energy-producing state pay for their greenhouse gas emissions and require utilities to buy more electricity from renewable sources. Such legislation would make...
Haiti is preparing itself for new leadership. Gangs want a seat at the table
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Politicians across Haiti are scrambling for power after Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced Tuesday that he would resign once a transitional presidential council is created. But elbowing their way into the race are powerful gangs that control 80% of Haiti’s capital and demand a say in the...
New AI tools can record your medical appointment or draft a message from your doctor
Don’t be surprised if your doctors start writing you overly friendly messages. They could be getting some help from artificial intelligence. New AI tools are helping doctors communicate with their patients, some by answering messages and others by taking notes during exams. It’s been 15 months since OpenAI released ChatGPT....
Biden and Trump clinch nominations, setting the stage for a grueling general election rematch
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump clinched their parties’ presidential nominations Tuesday with decisive victories in a slate of low-profile primaries, setting up a general election rematch that many voters do not want. The outcome of contests across Georgia, Mississippi and Washington state was never in...
House passes a bill that could lead to a TikTok ban if Chinese owner refuses to sellVideo
WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell, as lawmakers acted on concerns that the company’s current ownership structure is a national security threat. The bill, passed by a vote...
Putin warns again that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty is threatened
President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty or independence is threatened, issuing another blunt warning to the West just days ahead of an election in which he’s all but certain to win another six-year term. The Russian leader has repeatedly talked...
At least 2 dead, dozens injured in a suspected gas explosion outside Beijing
BEIJING — An explosion caused by a suspected gas leak ripped through a building in northern China on Wednesday, killing at least two people and injuring 26 others, authorities said. The blast occurred early in the morning at a fried chicken shop in the city of Sanhe, authorities said in...
House GOP launches new probe of Jan. 6 and tries shifting blame for Capitol attack away from Trump
WASHINGTON — House Republicans are launching a vast reinvestigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, seeking to push the blame away from Donald Trump, who has been indicted over his actions or his supporters in the mob siege trying to overturn the 2020 election. As Trump...
Joe Biden wins enough delegates to clinch Democratic nomination
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, who took office aiming to steady a nation convulsed by the coronavirus pandemic and the Jan. 6 insurrection, clinched a second straight Democratic nomination Tuesday and set up an all-but-certain rematch with the predecessor he blames for destabilizing the country. Biden became his party’s presumptive...
Top Alexei Navalny strategist attacked in Lithuania’s capital
TALLINN, Estonia — Associates of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny said late Tuesday that the politician’s close ally and top strategist was attacked near his home in Lithuania’s capital. Kira Yarmysh, who had been Navalny’s spokesperson, said the assailant smashed a window of Leonid Volkov’s car, sprayed tear gas into...
Rep. Ken Buck to leave Congress next week, narrowing GOP’s slim majority
DENVER — Republican Rep. Ken Buck said Tuesday he will resign next week, narrowing his party’s razor-thin House majority and scrambling the already heated GOP primary to fill his Colorado seat. Buck, a staunch conservative who already declined to run for reelection as he became increasingly critical of his party’s...
Supreme Court extends order blocking Texas law that allows police to arrest migrants
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Tuesday extended an order blocking Texas from enforcing a new law that gives the state a role in arresting and deporting immigrants. Alito — who handles emergency petitions in cases out of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi — had originally blocked Texas from enforcing...
Biden, Trump could clinch nominations in Tuesday’s contests
NEW YORK — Joe Biden and Donald Trump hope to clinch their parties’ presidential nominations with dominant victories in a slate of state primaries Tuesday as the 2024 fight for the White House moves into a new phase. Neither Biden, a Democrat, nor Trump, a Republican, faces significant opposition in...
Pentagon to give Ukraine $300 million in weapons even as it lacks funds to replenish U.S. stockpile
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will rush about $300 million in weapons to Ukraine after finding some cost savings in its contracts, even though the military remains deeply overdrawn and needs at least $10 billion to replenish all the weapons it has pulled from its stocks to help Kyiv in its...
Georgia restricted transgender care for youth in 2023. Now Republicans are seeking an outright ban
ATLANTA — A year ago, Georgia lawmakers said they were striking a balance when they banned most gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for transgender people under 18, but let doctors continue prescribing puberty blockers and let minors then receiving hormone replacement therapies continue. Now state Sen. Ben Watson, the...
Purple Ohio? Parties in the former bellwether state take lessons from 2023 abortion, marijuana votes
COLUMBUS, Ohio — For more than half a century, Ohio was one of the most important states to watch during presidential election years, a place where both parties competed vigorously for support from voters who were often genuinely undecided. Then came Donald Trump. Beginning in 2016, Ohio became reliably Republican...
Double-swiping the rewards card led to free gas for months — and a felony theft charge
LINCOLN, Neb. — A Nebraska woman allegedly found a lucrative quirk at a gas station pump — double-swipe the rewards card and get free gas! Unfortunately for her, you can’t do that, prosecutors said. The 45-year-old woman was arrested March 6 and faces felony theft charges accusing her of a...
Congressional hearing on Biden classified documents probe turns into proxy campaign battle
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers turned a Tuesday hearing on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents into a proxy battle between the Democratic president and Republican front-runner Donald Trump, as a newly released transcript of Biden’s testimony last fall showed that he repeatedly insisted he never meant to retain classified information...
An aid ship sets sail to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands face starvation 5 months into war
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail for Gaza on Tuesday in a pilot program for the opening of a sea corridor to the territory, where the five-month-old Israel-Hamas war has driven hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the brink of...
Rep. Frankel seeks details about imminent closure of UPMC Montefiore dental center
A UPMC decision to close its Montefiore dental center has state Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, worried about how many patients will be displaced and the potential impact on their care. Frankel sought an explanation for the closure in a letter sent Friday to UPMC, a copy of which was...
Argument at Jefferson County Walmart leads to fatal shooting
Pennsylvania State Police is investigating after a man was shot and killed on Monday afternoon at a Walmart in Jefferson County. State police said they were called to the Walmart located at 21920 US-119, Punxsutawney, Young Township, at 12:15 p.m., after an argument between two men resulted in one of...
Guests at Kansas GOP event punch, kick effigy of President Joe BidenVideo
Attendees at a Johnson County Republican Party event Friday physically attacked an effigy of President Joe Biden, according to photos and video posted to social media, prompting the state party’s former chair to call for the resignation of its current leaders. Video posted to the right-wing video sharing site Rumble...
