With Trump present in court, judges express skepticism of claims that he’s immune from prosecution
WASHINGTON — With Donald Trump listening intently in the courtroom, federal appeals court judges in Washington expressed deep skepticism Tuesday that the former president was immune from prosecution on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The panel of three judges, two of whom were...
Explosion at historic Texas hotel injures 21 and scatters debris in downtown Fort Worth
FORT WORTH, Texas — An explosion at a historic Texas hotel in Fort Worth on Monday blew out windows, littered downtown streets with large sections of debris from the building and injured 21 people, including one who was in critical condition, authorities said. The blast flung doors and entire sections...
France gets its youngest-ever prime minister, Gabriel Attal, as Macron shakes up government
PARIS — Gabriel Attal was named Tuesday as France’s youngest-ever prime minister, as President Emmanuel Macron seeks a fresh start for the rest of his term amid growing political pressure from the far right. Macron’s office announced the appointment in a statement. Attal, 34, rose to prominence as the government...
Israel’s military says no damage was caused in a strike on an army base in northern Israel
GHANDOURIYEH, Lebanon — Israel’s military said no damage was caused to one of its army bases in northern Israel after Hezbollah said it launched explosive drones Tuesday toward the area, while an Israeli drone strike in Lebanon killed three members of the militant group, officials said. The Israeli military did...
Spain investigates contamination of Atlantic shore by countless plastic pellets spilled from ship
MADRID — Spanish state prosecutors have opened an investigation of countless tiny plastic pellets washing up on the country’s northwest coastline after they were spilled from a transport ship, posing a possible major ecological problem in the area. The state prosecutor’s office made the announcement late on Monday after having...
Filing alleges ‘improper’ relationship between Fulton County DA, top Trump prosecutor
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...
White House, Pentagon will review Defense Secretary Austin’s lack of disclosure on his hospital stay
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....
Park Service retracts decision to take down William Penn statue at Philadelphia historical site
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...
Explosion at historic Texas hotel injures 21 and scatters debris in downtown Fort WorthVideo
FORT WORTH, Texas — An explosion at a historic Texas hotel in Fort Worth on Monday blew out windows, littered downtown streets with large sections of debris from the building and injured 21 people, including one who was in critical condition, authorities said. The blast flung doors and entire sections...
Florida Republicans oust state party chairman facing rape allegations in critical election year
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...
Man caught on camera accosting a Las Vegas judge in court is sentenced in an unrelated attackVideo
LAS VEGAS — The same judge accosted by a defendant in a Las Vegas courtroom last week sentenced her attacker Monday to up to four years in prison in an unrelated case. Deobra Delone Redden leapt over the bench and attacked Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus in...
School funding, permitting at top of Pa. legislature’s 2024 agenda
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...
What to know about the Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 jet that suffered a blowout
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...
Biden will visit church where Black people were killed to lay out election stakes and perils of hate
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,...
Trump is raising expectations heading into the Iowa caucuses. Now he has to meet them
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...
White House infrastructure czar Landrieu leaving job and expected to make case for Biden reelection
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...
Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear forms PAC to support candidates across the country
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...
U.S. fighter jets to fly over Bosnia in a sign of support to the country as Serbs call for secession
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...
Alaska Airlines’ decision not to ground Boeing jet despite warning signs comes under scrutiny
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...
Palestinians flee from central Gaza’s main hospital as strike kills Hezbollah commander in Lebanon
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...
‘Here I am 3 years later, loving it’: Live Casino Pittsburgh hosts free dealer school
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....
Canceled flights are piling up as Alaska, United are stuck without their grounded Boeing jetsVideo
PORTLAND, Ore. — Alaska Airlines and United Airlines grounded all of their Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners again on Sunday while they waited to be told how to inspect the planes to prevent another inflight blowout like the one that damaged an Alaska jet. Alaska Airlines had returned 18 of...
Defense secretary remains hospitalized as details emerge about delays in notification, even to BidenVideo
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin remained in the hospital Sunday as more details emerged about key decision-makers, even President Joe Biden, being kept in the dark for days that the Pentagon chief had been in the intensive care unit at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Pentagon’s failure to...
Congressional leaders announce an agreement on spending levels, a key step to averting shutdown
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...
Colorado police investigating apparent altercation with U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and her ex-husband
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...
