Senate leader Kim Ward hopes 2024 brings big change to Pa. education system, minimum wage hike
Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward looks forward to 2024 as a year that will deliver a seismic change to Pennsylvania’s education system, a long-awaited boost in the state’s minimum wage and stronger laws against human trafficking. In remarks made after being re-elected for a second year as the chamber’s...
U.S. national debt hits record $34 trillion as Congress gears up for funding fight
WASHINGTON — The federal government’s gross national debt has surpassed $34 trillion, a record high that foreshadows the coming political and economic challenges to improve America’s balance sheet in the coming years. The U.S. Treasury Department issued a report Tuesday logging U.S. finances, which have become a source of tension...
Former Kentucky official who denied gay couples marriage licenses faces $360,000 payment
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A former Kentucky county official who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples must pay a total of $260,104 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one couple, a federal judge has ruled. That judgment against Kim Davis is in addition to a total of...
Prosecutors accuse Sen. Bob Menendez of introducing Qatari royal family member to aid N.J. businessman
NEW YORK — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez used his international clout to help a friend get a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, partly by taking actions favorable to Qatar’s government, federal prosecutors said Tuesday in a revised indictment. The new allegations deepen the legal challenges for Menendez, a...
Trump appeals Maine ruling barring him from ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday appealed a ruling by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state barring him from the ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He was expected to also ask the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on his eligibility to return...
Lawsuit seeks to remove Pa. Rep. Scott Perry from 2024 ballot
A former Pennsylvania congressional candidate filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to remove Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry from the state primary ballot, arguing that Perry’s role challenging the results of the 2020 election should make him ineligible to run for office. Gene Stilp filed the suit as a voter in...
Kennedy cousin whose murder conviction was overturned sues former cop, Connecticut town
HARTFORD, Conn. — Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, whose murder conviction in the 1970s killing of a teenager in Connecticut was overturned, is suing the lead police investigator in the case and the town of Greenwich for alleged malicious prosecution, civil rights violations and other claimed wrongdoing. Skakel, 63, a nephew...
Gunman breaks into Colorado Supreme Court building; intrusion unrelated to Trump case, police sayVideo
DENVER — A man leaving the scene of a car wreck Tuesday shot his way into the Colorado Supreme Court building and inflicted “extensive damage” to the building before being arrested by police, authorities said, adding the incident seems unrelated to the court’s recent ruling banning former President Donald Trump...
Police seek motive in fiery fatal crash in upstate New York; no terror link found
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The driver who crashed an SUV loaded with gas cans outside a western New York concert venue appeared to have been aiming at a pedestrian crossing, but there’s no evidence of a terror motive in the fiery wreck that killed him and two ride-hail passengers on New...
Man found dead at Salt Lake City airport after climbing inside jet engine
SALT LAKE CITY — A man was found dead inside an airplane engine Monday night at Salt Lake City International Airport after police say he breached an emergency exit door, walked onto the tarmac and climbed inside the jet’s engine. Officers found the 30-year-old man unconscious inside an engine mounted...
Uniontown suspect in attempted homicide dies after jumping through window while in police custody
A Uniontown man wanted on attempted homicide charges died Saturday after jumping through a third-floor window as police were taking him into custody. Pennsylvania State Police said officers from Connellsville responded about 11 p.m. Friday after a report of a squatter in a vacant building at North Pittsburgh Street and...
States and Congress wrestle with cybersecurity after Iran attack on Aliquippa water utility
HARRISBURG — The tiny Aliquippa water authority in western Pennsylvania was perhaps the least-suspecting victim of an international cyberattack. It had never had outside help in protecting its systems from a cyberattack, either at its existing plant that dates to the 1930s or the new $18.5 million one it is...
U.S. women are stocking up on abortion pills, especially when there is news about restrictions
Thousands of women stocked up on abortion pills just in case they needed them, new research shows, with demand peaking in the past couple years at times when it looked like the medications might become harder to get. Medication abortion accounts for more than half of all abortions in the...
Harvard president Claudine Gay resigns amid plagiarism claims, backlash from antisemitism testimonyVideo
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy. Gay is the second Ivy League president...
Inmate at federal prison in West Virginia is found dead after reported fight with another inmate
BEAVER, W.Va. — An inmate at a federal prison in West Virginia has died after after a fight at the facility, authorities said. Andrew Davis, 39, was found with unspecified injuries from a “perceived altercation” with another inmate on Sunday at the Federal Corrections Institute Beckley and treated before being...
Donald Trump is expected to appeal the Colorado and Maine rulings banning him from primary ballots
DENVER — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday is expected to appeal rulings from Colorado and Maine that ban him from the states’ ballots, setting up a high-stakes showdown over a 155-year-old addition to the Constitution that bars from office those who “engaged in insurrection.” Trump would appeal the Colorado...
New year means a pay raise for Gov. Josh Shapiro, his Cabinet and judges
The arrival of 2024 brings a 3.5% pay raise for Gov. Josh Shapiro and other executive branch officials and judges across Pennsylvania. Under state law that provides for automatic pay hikes for the governor and other top officials, Shapiro’s salary will increase to $237,679 - about $8,000 more than he...
Russian missiles hit Ukrainian cities, killing 5 and injuring almost 100, Kyiv officials say
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s two largest cities came under attack Tuesday from Russian missiles that killed at least five people and injured almost 100, officials said, as the war approached its two-year mark and the Kremlin stepped up its winter bombardment of urban areas. Four civilians were killed and 92...
A missing person with no memory: How investigators solved the cold case of Seven Doe
CHICAGO (AP) — Buried at the edge of a Chicago Catholic cemetery are an elderly person’s remains marked only by a cement cylinder deep in the ground labeled with the numbers 04985. The person died in 2015 at a nursing home not remembering much, including their own name. They went...
$842 million Powerball ticket sold in Michigan, 1st time the game has been won on New Year’s Day
JOHNSTON, Iowa — Someone in Michigan has won an $842.4 million Powerball jackpot on the first day of 2024, the first time it has been won on New Year’s Day since the game’s start in 1992. The winning numbers drawn were: 12, 21, 42, 44, 49 and red Powerball: 1....
Biden and Trump are poised for a potential rematch that could shake American politics
LACONIA, N.H. — U.S. presidential elections have been rocked in recent years by economic disaster, stunning gaffes, secret video and a pandemic. But for all the tumult that defined those campaigns, the volatility surrounding this year’s presidential contest has few modern parallels, posing profound challenges to the future of American...
Planes collide and catch fire at Japan’s busy Haneda airport, killing 5; hundreds evacuated safely
TOKYO — A large passenger plane and a Japanese coast guard aircraft collided on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday and burst into flames, killing five people aboard the coast guard plane, officials said. All 379 people on Japan Airlines flight JAL-516 got out safely before the Airbus...
Apparent Israeli strike kills senior Hamas figure in Beirut, raises fears conflict could expand
BEIRUT — An apparent Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut killed Hamas’ No. 2 political leader Tuesday, marking a potentially significant escalation of Israel’s war against the militant group and heightening the risk of a wider Middle East conflict. Saleh Arouri, who was the most senior Hamas figure...
Powerful earthquakes leave at least 55 dead, destroy buildings along Japan’s western coast
WAJIMA, Japan — A series of powerful earthquakes that hit western Japan have left at least 55 people dead and damaged thousands of buildings, vehicles and boats. Officials warned Tuesday that more quakes could lie ahead. Aftershocks continued to shake Ishikawa prefecture and nearby areas a day after a magnitude...
South Korean opposition leader stabbed in neck during airport construction site visit
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck by an unidentified knife-wielding man during a visit Tuesday to the southeastern city of Busan. Busan’s emergency office said Lee was attacked as he visited the construction site of a new airport in the city....
