News category, Page 559

HARRISBURG — For nearly 30 years, Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania have approved millions of taxpayer dollars for an anti-abortion program. Now the state’s new governor plans to end the contract as the organization that distributes those funds and other groups like it gain attention since the overturning of...

WEST CHESTER — A man recently convicted of murder in Pennsylvania for the fatal stabbing his ex-girlfriend remained at large Friday, a day after he escaped from a county jail. Danelo Cavalcante, 34, is also wanted in his native Brazil in a separate slaying and is considered an extremely dangerous...

WASHINGTON — The attending physician to Congress said Thursday that he had cleared Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to continue with his planned schedule after evaluating an incident in which McConnell appeared to freeze up at an event in Kentucky. But the health episode — his second in public this...

The Community College of Allegheny County will offer free, for-credit courses in computer information technology starting next week at its Homewood-Brushton Center. The menu of 12- and 14-week, in-person courses have two start dates: next Tuesday and on Sept. 18, officials said Thursday. Costs for tuition, fees and textbooks are...

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk said Thursday that his social network X, formerly known as Twitter, will give users the ability to make voice and video calls on the platform. Musk, who has a history of making proclamations about coming features and policies that have not always come to fruition,...

DALLAS — By some measures, air travelers have enjoyed a less stressful summer than last year, but canceled flights remain elevated as airlines face their last big test of the prime vacation season: Labor Day weekend. The Federal Aviation Administration predicts that this will be the third busiest holiday weekend...

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court allowed a new state law banning gender-affirming care for minors to take effect Friday, setting up Texas to be the most populous state with such restrictions on transgender children. Legal advocates who sued on behalf of the families and doctors, including the American...

TORONTO — Canada this week updated its travel advisory to the U.S., warning members of the LGBTQ+ community that some American states have enacted laws that may affect them. The country’s Global Affairs department did not specify which states, but is advising travelers to check the local laws for their...

WASHINGTON — More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a Justice Department unit trying to stem the tide of violent and graphic threats against people who count and secure the vote. Government employees are being bombarded with threats even in normally quiet periods...

WASHINGTON — A former organizer of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in prison for spearheading an attack on the U.S. Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election. Federal prosecutors had...

PHOENIX — Andrea Nissen is trying to prepare her 65-year-old husband, who has Alzheimer’s disease, for a solo flight from Arizona to Oklahoma to visit family. She worries about travelers and airport officials misinterpreting his forgetfulness or habit of getting in people’s personal space, and feels guilty about not being...

WASHINGTON — Wednesday’s incident in which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had difficulty speaking in a public setting comes at a time of heightened concern about the health and ages of U.S. political leaders. But the Kentucky Republican is not even among the 10 oldest members of the current Congress....

As former President Donald Trump continues to dominate the Republican presidential primary, some liberal groups and a growing number of legal experts contend that a rarely used clause of the Constitution prevents him from being president after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The 14th Amendment bars...

AUSTIN, Texas — Unexplained Caribbean and European trips that cost taxpayers more than $90,000. A $600 sports coat paid for by an event organizer. A $45 office Christmas cake taken as his own. These are among the perks that Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ‘s former employees say he...

ROME — A speeding out-of-service train slammed into a group of workers doing nighttime track maintenance in northern Italy on Thursday, killing five of them, authorities said. The crash occurred shortly after midnight at a station in Brandizzo, a town in Italy’s Piedmont region. Piedmont Gov. Alberto Cirio provided the...

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Thursday its latest missile launches simulated “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korea and that it’s also been rehearsing an occupation of its rival’s territory in the event of conflict. Pyongyang has previously tested nuclear-capable missiles and described how it would use them...

JOHANNESBURG — A nighttime fire ripped through a rundown five-story building in Johannesburg that was occupied by homeless people and squatters, leaving at least 73 people dead early Thursday, emergency services in South Africa’s biggest city said. Some of the people living in a maze of shacks and other makeshift...

PERRY, Fla. — Tropical Storm Idalia descended on the Carolinas on its way out to the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction throughout the Southeast that stretched back to its landfall as a hurricane in Florida. Rescue and repair efforts continued in the areas the...

CANBERRA, Australia — The bodies of three U.S. Marines killed in a tiltrotor aircraft crash during a training exercise in Australia were retrieved from the crash scene while another Marine remained in critical condition, the Marine Corps said Tuesday. Those killed were from Illinois, Virginia and Colorado. The Marine V-22B...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh has lost his phone privileges and his prison tablet computer after his lawyer recorded him reading his journal entries on a call for a documentary about his case, South Carolina Corrections Department officials said Wednesday. Prison policy prohibits inmates from talking to the...

BUÑOL, Spain — Some 15,000 people, including many tourists, pasted each other with tomatoes Wednesday as Spain’s annual Tomatina street battle took place in the eastern town of Buñol. Workers on trucks tipped 120 tons of overripe tomatoes into the main street of the town for participants to throw. The...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Wednesday held Rudy Giuliani liable in a defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers who say they were falsely accused of fraud, entering a default judgment against the former New York City mayor and ordering him to pay tens of thousands of dollars...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is considering changing the state’s 2024 presidential primary to an earlier day, although the proposed move may do little to give the state’s voters more say in deciding presidential nominees. State lawmakers plan to vote on legislation Wednesday that would change Pennsylvania’s primary from late April to...

A rare blue supermoon could raise tides above normal just as Hurricane Idalia lashes Florida’s west coast, exacerbating flooding from the storm. The moon was closest to the Earth on Wednesday, the same day Idalia made landfall as a high-end Category 3 hurricane near Keaton Beach in Florida’s sparsely populated...