News category, Page 559
Carnival begins in New Orleans with Phunny Phorty Phellows, king cakes, Joan of Arc parade
NEW ORLEANS — The countdown to Mardi Gras begins Saturday in New Orleans as Carnival season kicks off with dozens of costumed revelers and a brass band set to crowd onto a streetcar for a nighttime ride down historic St. Charles Avenue. Meanwhile, a walking club in the French Quarter...
Federal officials order grounding of some Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners after plane suffers a blowout
Federal officials on Saturday ordered the immediate grounding of some Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners until they are inspected after an Alaska Airlines plane suffered a blowout that left a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage. The required inspections take around four to eight hours per aircraft and...
Woman in her 90s rescued alive 5 days after Japan’s deadly earthquake
WAJIMA, Japan — A woman in her 90s was pulled alive from a collapsed house in western Japan late Saturday, 124 hours after a major quake slammed the region, killing at least 126 people, toppling buildings and setting off landslides. The woman in Suzu city, Ishikawa Prefecture, had survived for...
Hezbollah, Israel trade heavy cross-border fire as Blinken seeks to prevent regional escalation
BEIRUT — Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah traded fire Saturday in one of the heaviest days of cross-border fighting in recent weeks, a day after the militia’s leader urged retaliation for the targeted killing, presumably by Israel, of a top Hamas leader in Lebanon’s capital. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said...
Elementary students invited to enter ‘Litter Hawk’ youth award program
Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful is accepting submissions through the end of January for its annual “Litter Hawk” Youth Award Program. Students in kindergarten through grade 4 are invited to submit a poster, fifth-graders can submit an essay and sixth-graders can submit a video. The theme for this year’s contest is “Open...
Northeast prepares for storm that threatens snow, rain, ice
Millions of people across the eastern U.S. are preparing for a wintry mix of precipitation as a potent storm system looks to bring snow, freezing rain and ice to the region. The system is expected to reach North Carolina by Saturday morning and then track along the northeastern coastline throughout...
Pennsylvania case at center of challenge to police use of Google search data
Civil liberties advocates are mounting a new challenge to the use by police of Google search data for help in solving criminal cases, as the practice draws greater scrutiny nationwide. After a Pennsylvania woman was raped in 2016, police submitted a search warrant to Alphabet’s Google for information about users...
New York seeks $370 million in penalties in Trump’s civil fraud trial. His response: ‘They should pay me’
NEW YORK — New York state lawyers increased their request for penalties to more than $370 million Friday in Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial. He retorted: “They should pay me.” The exchange came as lawyers for both sides filed papers highlighting their takeaways from the trial in court filings...
Iowa principal wounded in school shooting risked himself to protect students, police say
PERRY, Iowa — An Iowa principal critically injured in a school shooting put himself in harm’s way as he tried to protect students from a teenage shooter armed with a shotgun and a handgun, state authorities said Friday. Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger and six other staffers and students...
Nude man caught by police after ‘cannonball’ plunge into giant aquarium at Bass Pro Shop in Alabama
LEEDS, Alabama — A man crashed his car outside a Bass Pro Shop in Alabama, stripped down to his birthday suit and plunged into the giant aquarium inside the store, police said. The ordeal happened Thursday night in front of shocked shoppers in the town just outside Birmingham, Leeds police...
Bus rollover crash on upstate New York highway leaves 1 dead, a dozen injured
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. — A bus rollover crash on an upstate New York highway Friday left one person dead and about a dozen passengers injured, according to police. The bus with 23 people on board was traveling south from Montreal, Canada, when it crashed on the Adirondack Northway in the...
New round of Epstein documents offers another look into his cesspool of sexual abuse
NEW YORK — Nearly 100 more court files were unsealed Friday in a lawsuit involving Jeffrey Epstein, providing yet more detail about the late millionaire financier’s sexual abuse of underage girls and interactions with celebrities. The latest round of documents included additional excerpts of testimony from people who worked for...
Biden invokes George Washington, calls Trump a threat to democracy
President Joe Biden pitched his reelection as a defense of democracy Friday, visiting a historic Revolutionary War site to accuse Republican Donald Trump and his supporters of having “abandoned the truth” about what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The president, speaking at a campaign event in Blue...
Massachusetts voters become latest to try to keep Trump off ballot over Jan. 6 attack
BOSTON — Five Republican and Democratic voters in Massachusetts have become the latest to challenge former President Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on the Republican primary election ballot, claiming he is ineligible to hold office because he encouraged and did little to stop the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the...
As 2024 election approaches, voting officials worry Pa. isn’t prepared for misinformation
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 — As the 2024 presidential election approaches, the people who run voting in Pennsylvania say the commonwealth must prepare to be at the center...
NRA chief Wayne LaPierre says he’s resigning days before trial scrutinizing his leadership, spending
NEW YORK — The longtime head of the National Rifle Association said Friday he is resigning, just days before the start of a New York civil trial that’s poised to scrutinize his leadership of the powerful gun rights organization. Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president and chief executive officer, said...
Hundreds of convictions, but a major mystery is still unsolved 3 years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
WASHINGTON — Members of far-right extremist groups. Former police officers. An Olympic gold medalist swimmer. And active duty U.S. Marines. They are among the hundreds of people who have been convicted in the massive prosecution of the Jan 6, 2021, riot in the three years since the stunned nation watched...
Hezbollah leader says his group must retaliate for suspected Israeli strike in Beirut
BEIRUT — The leader of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah said Friday that his group must retaliate after a presumed Israeli strike hit a Beirut neighborhood this week, killing a senior Hamas official, or else all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to Israeli attack. Hassan Nasrallah appeared to be making the...
Actor Christian Oliver and his 2 daughters died in a plane crash in the Caribbean, police sayVideo
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — U.S. actor Christian Oliver and his two daughters died in a plane crash near a tiny private island in the eastern Caribbean, according to police in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The crash occurred Thursday just west of Petit Nevis island near Bequia as the...
Pittsburgh Technical College leaders mull possible sale, merger as enrollment falls
Leaders of a nearly 80-year-old technical college in Oakdale are weighing options that include selling or merging the institution amid falling enrollment and financial strains. The issues facing Pittsburgh Technical College resemble those confronting higher education generally. But they have been complicated by recent infighting over leadership, accusations of misconduct...
Fight at Philadelphia train station ends with man being fatally struck by train
PHILADELPHIA — A man involved in a fight at a Philadelphia train station was killed when he fell onto the tracks and was struck by a train, authorities said. The fight at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority station occurred around 4:30 p.m. Thursday when Chaz Wearing, 40, and another man...
NYC subway crews wrestle derailed train back on tracks, as crash disrupts service for 2nd day
NEW YORK — In the cramped confines of a New York City subway tunnel, work crews labored to lift hulking rail cars back onto the tracks after two passenger trains collided and derailed, causing service disruptions that stretched into a second day Friday. The low-speed crash left the trains blocking...
As more Pa. residents rack up medical debt, hope hinges on a state solution
An innovative plan to help Pennsylvanians with crippling medical debt is delayed but not dead, supporters say. The plan calls for using state funds to buy unpaid medical bills from hospitals and health care providers, which are commonly sold at a steep discount. A $10 to $15 million investment by...
Florida resort cancels Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Jan. 6 event
A fundraiser and book signing at a sprawling Central Florida resort featuring U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been canceled after the resort’s owners discovered the event was also a commemoration of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. “Please be advised that Westgate was...
U.S. employers add a strong 216,000 jobs in a sign of continued economic strength
WASHINGTON — The nation’s employers added a robust 216,000 jobs last month, the latest sign that the American labor market remains resilient even in the face of sharply higher interest rates. Friday’s government report showed that December’s job gain exceeded the 173,000 that were added in November. The unemployment rate...
