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...
House Republicans ready contempt of Congress charges against Hunter Biden over a subpoena he defied
WASHINGTON — House Republicans plan to move forward next week with holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after the president’s son defied a congressional subpoena to appear for a private deposition last month. The Republican chairmen of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees announced Friday that they will hold...
Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius freed after serving nearly 9 years in prison for killing girlfriend
PRETORIA, South Africa — Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee who became a global star competing at his sport’s highest level while running on carbon-fiber blades, was released from prison on Friday after serving nearly nine years for killing his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius, 37, quietly left the...
100 New Jersey firefighters battle blaze at former Singer sewing machine factory
ELIZABETH, N.J. — Over 100 firefighters battled a blaze Friday at a New Jersey industrial park that was home to the Singer Sewing Machine factory for more than a century. A passerby reported the fire around 5:30 a.m., Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said. No one was in the building and...
Los Angeles County has thousands of ‘unclaimed dead.’ These investigators retrace their lives
LOS ANGELES — Arusyak Martirosyan struggles to open the door of a stranger’s one-bedroom apartment overflowing with the belongings from a life lived but not claimed in death. Wedged against the door is a giant box of Gain laundry detergent and plastic tubs piled high. Blouses and T-shirts, suspended by...
Ukraine unleashes more drones and missiles at Russian areas as part of its new year strategy
Russian air defenses downed dozens of Ukrainian drones in occupied Crimea and southern Russia on Friday, officials said, as Kyiv pressed its strategy of targeting the Moscow-annexed peninsula and taking the 22-month war well beyond Ukraine’s borders. Air raid sirens wailed in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, and traffic...
Iran mourns those slain in Islamic State-claimed suicide blasts as death toll rises to 89
KERMAN, Iran — Iranian officials tried Friday to link Israel and the U.S. to an Islamic State group-claimed suicide bombing while speaking to a mass funeral for some of the 89 people killed in the attack, seeking to intertwine the assault with wider Middle East tensions from the Israel-Hamas war....
With more records, world sees how Jeffrey Epstein leveraged powerful to abuse vulnerable girls
NEW YORK — A new batch of unsealed documents pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls was released Thursday, adding several hundred pages to a trove of information detailing how the financier leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to recruit his victims and cover up his...
House Democrats say Trump hotels got foreign money during presidency
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump-owned hotels received at least $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments and their representatives during his presidency, according to a report from House Democrats. The 155-page report shows this money came from China, Saudi Arabia and more than 20 other countries — and that the amount...
New York City subway train derails in collision with another train, injuring more than 20 people
NEW YORK — A New York City subway train derailed Thursday after colliding with another train at low speed, leaving more than 20 people with minor injuries and causing major service disruptions across Manhattan during the afternoon rush hour, authorities said. At about 3 p.m. on the Upper West Side,...
Poor schools prepared to return to court if Pennsylvania budget falls short on funding plan
HARRISBURG — The poor schools that won a landmark school funding court case in Pennsylvania last year are prepared to go back to court if the Legislature and governor don’t adequately address shortfalls as key junctures approach, the schools’ lawyers said Thursday. Public schools in Pennsylvania are currently underfunded by...
Florida man charged with threatening to kill U.S. Rep Eric Swalwell and his children
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A South Florida man threatened to kill U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell and his children in a series of voicemails left at the California Democrat’s Washington office last month, federal prosecutors said. Michael Shapiro, 72, of Greenacres, Florida, was arrested Wednesday morning on a charge of...
Oscar Pistorius is set to be released on parole. He will be strictly monitored until December 2029
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Oscar Pistorius is due to be released from prison Friday to live under strict conditions at a family home having served nearly nine years of a murder sentence for the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The double-amputee Olympic runner from South Africa is set...
Russia and Ukraine exchange long-range attacks as their front-line forces remain bogged down
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that its air defenses shot down 10 Ukrainian air-launched missiles over Crimea, as both sides in the war pounded each other with long-range aerial strikes while fighting along the front line remained largely deadlocked. The White House, meanwhile, said U.S. intelligence officials have determined that...
Pittsburgh’s Astrobotic Technology is attempting the first U.S. moon landing since the Apollo missions a half-century ago
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — China and India scored moon landings, while Russia, Japan and Israel ended up in the lunar trash heap. Now two private companies are hustling to get the U.S. back in the game, more than five decades after the Apollo program ended. It’s part of a NASA-supported...
Jeffrey Epstein documents: Here’s what we know so far
NEW YORK — The release of dozens of previously sealed court documents from a lawsuit involving Jeffrey Epstein might disappoint online sleuths who anticipated explosive new information. The 40 documents released late Wednesday largely mention figures whose names were already known, including high-profile friends of Epstein’s and victims who have...
Feeling caucus confusion? Your guide to how Iowa works
WASHINGTON — The race for the White House officially begins in less than two weeks, and despite some prolonged jockeying over the election calendar, the long primary season will once again begin in Iowa with a caucus process that has served as the lead-off voting event since the 1970s. While...
Trump’s lawyers want special counsel Jack Smith held in contempt in 2020 election interference case
WASHINGTON — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Thursday pressed to have special counsel Jack Smith’s team held in contempt, saying the prosecutors had taken steps to advance the 2020 election interference case against him in violation of a judge’s order last month that temporarily put the case on...
The key question about fiery crash at Tokyo airport: Did one or both planes have OK to use runway?
Passengers on Japan Airlines Flight 516 were buckled up and ready to land at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport as their pilot made a final approach. “Cleared to land,” the pilot repeated after receiving an instruction from air traffic control to put the jet down on a specific runway. About two minutes...
Trump’s ballot fight plunges the Supreme Court into the 2024 election
The U.S. Supreme Court will chart the nation’s political future as it confronts a potentially stark choice over efforts to remove Donald Trump from this year’s presidential ballot for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss. The court’s options include putting the kibosh on challenges to Trump’s candidacy with a...
Police say 17-year-old killed a 6th grader and wounded 5 in Iowa school shootingVideo
PERRY, Iowa — A 17-year-old opened fire at a small-town Iowa high school on the first day of school after the winter break, killing a sixth-grader and wounding five others as students barricaded in offices and fled in panic. The suspect, a student at the school in Perry, died of...
U.S. airstrike in Baghdad kills Iran-backed militia leader as regional tensions escalate
BAGHDAD — A U.S. airstrike on the headquarters of an Iran-backed militia in central Baghdad on Thursday killed a high-ranking militia commander, militia officials said. Thursday’s strike comes amid mounting regional tensions fueled by the Israel-Hamas war and fears that it could spill over into surrounding countries. It also coincides...
Vatican says no heresy in allowing blessings for same-sex couples after pushback by some bishops
ROME — After pushback by some bishops in Africa, Poland and elsewhere, the Vatican on Thursday defended the recent move by Pope Francis to allow blessings for same-sex couples, insisting there is nothing “heretical” involved. In a five-page statement, the Holy See’s office to safeguard doctrinal orthodoxy expressed understanding that...
