Man arrested in series of New York City stabbings, police say
NEW YORK — New York City police have arrested a hospital worker from Queens after a series of recent stabbings, officials announced Thursday. NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban described the six attacks over the past 10 days, none of which were fatal, as “random, unmotivated violence” at a news conference. Jermain...
Judge denies Trump’s request to hold Jack Smith in contempt in federal 2020 election case
WASHINGTON — The federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump on Thursday rejected his lawyers’ bid to hold special counsel Jack Smith’s team in contempt for actions prosecutors took after the judge put the case on hold. But the judge said no further “substantive” court filings...
Utility shut-off protections in Pa. would be expanded to summer months under bill
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 lawmakers have until the end of 2024 to reauthorize a key area of state law that protects low-income utility customers from sudden...
Man riding on back of garbage truck in Centre County killed after crash into overhanging tree
A man riding on the back of a garbage truck was killed this week when the driver backed into a tree in Centre County, state police at Rockview wrote in a crash report. Nathan Kerstetter, 38, of Milesburg, was hanging off the back of the truck about noon Wednesday when...
Hunter Biden agrees to deposition with House Republican after months of defiance, committee says
WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden has agreed to appear before House Republicans for a private deposition next month, ending months of defiance from the president’s son, who had insisted on testifying publicly. The House Oversight Committee announced Thursday that the two parties have agreed for Hunter Biden to sit for a...
Icy blast gripping U.S. blamed for 14 deaths in Tennessee; Oregon braces for another round of coldVideo
NASHVILLE — At least 14 deaths in Tennessee have been linked to a storm system that blanketed the state in snow and sent temperatures plummeting, as bitterly cold weather kept an icy grip Thursday on a swath of the U.S. stretching from Oregon to the Northeast. Tennessee officials updated the...
New York midwife who gave kids homeopathic pellets instead of vaccines fined $300K for falsifying records
NEW YORK — A New York midwife who gave nearly 1,500 children homeopathic pellets instead of required vaccinations has been fined $300,000, the state’s health department announced this week. Jeanette Breen, who operates Baldwin Midwifery on Long Island, administered the pellets as an alternative to vaccinations and then falsified their...
Pennsylvania can’t stop young adults from openly carrying guns during emergencies, U.S. court rules
PHILADELPHIA — Young adults in Pennsylvania cannot be arrested for openly carrying guns in public during a declared state of emergency, at least while a court fight over the issue plays out, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The 3rd U.S. Circuit judges, in a 2-1 decision, relied on the...
Congress votes to avert a shutdown and keep the government funded through early March
WASHINGTON — Congress sent President Joe Biden a short-term spending bill on Thursday that would avert a looming partial government shutdown and fund federal agencies into March. The House approved the measure by a vote of 314-108, with opposition coming mostly from the more conservative members of the Republican conference....
Atlanta’s Spelman College just got the largest-ever single donation to an HBCU
ATLANTA — A billionaire couple is giving $100 million to Atlanta’s Spelman College, which the women’s school says is the largest-ever single donation to a historically Black college or university. The donation was announced Thursday by Ronda Stryker and her husband William Johnston. She is the billionaire granddaughter of the...
Faculty union, Pa. university system reach potential labor deal
The union representing 5,000 state university faculty across Pennsylvania has reached “an agreement in principle” with leaders of the State System of Higher Education, both parties confirmed Thursday. The agreement followed a full day and night of negotiating. It comes almost seven months after the existing agreement between the Association...
Police response to the Uvalde shooting was riddled with failures, a new DOJ report says
UVALDE, Texas — Police officials who responded to the deadly Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting waited far too long to confront the gunman, acted with “no urgency” in establishing a command post and communicated inaccurate information to grieving families, according to a Justice Department report released Thursday that identifies “cascading...
Anti-abortion activists brace for challenges ahead as they gather for annual March for Life
A year ago, anti-abortion activists from across the U.S. gathered for their annual March for Life with reason to celebrate: It was their first march since the Supreme Court, seven months earlier, had overturned the nationwide right to abortion. At this year’s march, on Friday, the mood will be very...
Pakistan launches retaliatory airstrikes in Iran after an earlier attack by Tehran, killing 9 people
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s air force launched retaliatory airstrikes early Thursday in Iran, allegedly targeting militant hideouts, an attack that killed at least nine people and further raised tensions between the neighboring nations. The tit-for-tat attacks Tuesday and Thursday appeared to target two Baluch militant groups with similar separatist goals on...
Netanyahu says he has told U.S. he opposes Palestinian state in any postwar scenario
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he has told the United States that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario, underscoring the deep divisions between the close allies three months into Israel’s assault on Gaza aiming to eliminate...
Maine judge stays Trump ballot ban until Supreme Court rules
A Maine judge ruled that the state won’t be able to move forward with removing former President Donald Trump’s name from the presidential primary ballot until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a similar case from Colorado. Maine Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy on Wednesday denied Trump’s request for a...
Man charged in shooting that critically wounded Pennsylvania police officer
SCRANTON — Authorities have announced charges against a man in what they called an ambush-style shooting that critically wounded a police officer in northeastern Pennsylvania last week. Aiden Gabriel Deininger, 20, of Old Forge is charged in Lackawanna County with three counts of attempted homicide of law enforcement officers, criminal...
Power line falls on car during Oregon ice storm, killing 3 and injuring a baby, authorities sayVideo
PORTLAND, Ore. — A power line fell on a parked car in northeast Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday, killing three people and injuring a baby during an ice storm that turned roads and mountain highways treacherous in the Pacific Northwest. Shortly before noon, dispatchers started receiving frantic calls about a downed...
U.S. military launches another barrage of missiles against Houthi sites in Yemen
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military fired another wave of ship- and submarine-launch missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites Wednesday, multiple U.S. officials said, marking the fourth time in days it has directly targeted the group in Yemen as violence that ignited in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war continues to spill...
Gun control measures advance out of Democratic-controlled Pennsylvania House committee
HARRISBURG — Democrats in majority control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives advanced several gun control measures Wednesday, including one that would ban sales of automatic and semi-automatic guns, after years of standstill in the politically divided state government. The bills were passed by the Judiciary Committee on party lines...
5 killed when truck hits minivan crashed in left lane of snowy Pennsylvania highwayVideo
SCRANTON — Five women from New York were killed when a tractor-trailer struck people at the scene of a crashed minivan on Interstate 81 in snowy northeastern Pennsylvania, state police said Wednesday. The minivan, carrying four women, went out of control in the northbound lanes of I-81 in Lackawanna County,...
Supreme Court wrestles with major challenges to power of federal regulators
WASHINGTON — Conservative Supreme Court justices on Wednesday voiced support for weakening the power of federal regulators, but it was not clear whether a majority would overturn a major 40-year-old decision. Billions of dollars are potentially at stake in front of a court that, like the rest of the federal...
Judge denies request to dismiss case against man charged in NYC subway chokehold deathVideo
NEW YORK — A judge on Wednesday declined to dismiss the case against a U.S. Marine veteran charged with manslaughter for placing a man in a deadly chokehold aboard a New York City subway train. Daniel Penny has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide...
Russian missiles hit Ukrainian apartment buildings in latest deadly strikes on civilian areas
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia fired two missiles at Kharkiv during the night, hitting apartment buildings and a medical center and injuring 17 people in the city in northeastern Ukraine, officials said Wednesday, in Moscow’s latest strikes on civilian areas in the almost two-year war. The S-300 missiles landed after dark...
King Charles III will have a prostate operation next week while Kate recovers from abdominal surgery
LONDON — King Charles III and the Princess of Wales are both dealing with medical issues that will force them to delay previously planned public engagements over the coming weeks. Charles will undergo a “corrective procedure” for an enlarged prostate next week, Buckingham Palace said on Wednesday. The palace said...
