1 injured in shooting at a Virginia hospital; suspect in custody
RICHMOND, Va. — Police said one person was injured at a Richmond hospital when a man who had come into the hospital for a mental health evaluation began shooting. Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards told reporters that a 911 call came in at 4:11 a.m. of shots fired at Chippenham...
Biden signs executive order aimed at financial facilitators of the Russian defense industry
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday giving the U.S. Treasury Department the authority to target financial institutions that facilitate Russia’s efforts to bolster its defense industry. The new sanctions authority is meant to gum up the Kremlin’s push to restock the Russian military’s depleted arsenal after...
Israel strikes 2 homes, killing more than 90 Palestinians while hundreds have been detained
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — More than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two homes, rescuers and hospital officials said Saturday, a day after the U.N. chief warned again that nowhere is safe in Gaza and that Israel’s offensive is creating “massive obstacles”...
Russian official says U.S. is hampering a prisoner exchange with unequal demands
MOSCOW — A Russian deputy foreign minister said that talks with the United States on a potential prisoner exchange that would free Americans held in Russia are hampered by publicity and an alleged disparity in the U.S. negotiating stance. The U.S. State Department said last week that Russia rejected several...
Probe: Doomed Philadelphia news helicopter hit trees fast, broke up, then burned, killing 2
SHAMONG, N.J. — A Philadelphia television news helicopter returning from an assignment photographing Christmas lights this week plunged into a southern New Jersey forest “at very high speed,” broke apart, then caught fire after it crashed, killing both occupants, a federal crash investigator said Friday. Todd Gunther, an investigator with...
Biden believes U.S. Steel sale to Nippon Steel warrants ‘serious scrutiny,’ White House says
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden believes “serious scrutiny” is warranted for the planned acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, the White House said Thursday after days of silence on a transaction that has drawn alarm from the steelworkers union. Lael Brainard, the director of the National Economic Council,...
New Pa. poll shows would-be presidential race between Biden, Trump a statistical dead heat
A new poll of Pennsylvania voters shows that a would-be presidential race between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump is a statistical dead heat. Muhlenberg College in Allentown released a statewide poll this week that showed 42% of Pennsylvania voters say they prefer Biden in 2024, compared to 41%...
Administrative election errors rise as Pa. counties struggle to keep voting officials
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. In mid-October, Greene County, in southwest Pennsylvania, notified voters that some mail ballots for the November election listed two races for magisterial district judges, though voters were only supposed...
Trump transformed the Supreme Court. Now the justices could decide his political and legal future
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump touts his transformation of the U.S. Supreme Court as one of his presidency’s greatest accomplishments. Now his legal and political future may lie in the hands of the court he pushed to the right. With three Trump-appointed justices leading a conservative majority, the court is being...
Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy days after being ordered to pay $148 million in defamation case
NEW YORK — Rudy Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy, days after being ordered to pay $148 million in a defamation lawsuit brought by two former election workers in Georgia who said his targeting of them led to death threats that made them fear for their lives. In his filing Thursday,...
UN report says more than 570,000 people in Gaza now ‘starving’ due to fallout from war
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — More than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving due to “woefully insufficient” quantities of food entering the territory ever since Israel’s military responded to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, according to a report released Thursday by the U.N....
A lone gunman opens fire in a Prague university, killing 14 people and injuring 25
PRAGUE — A lone gunman opened fire Thursday in a university building in downtown Prague, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 20 in the Czech Republic’s worst mass shooting, police and the city’s rescue service said. The bloodshed took place in the philosophy department building of Charles...
Taliban official says Afghan girls of all ages permitted to study in religious schools
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan girls of all ages are permitted to study in religious schools, which are traditionally boys-only, a Taliban official said Thursday. A day earlier, U.N. special envoy Roza Otunbayeva told the Security Council and reporters that the United Nations was receiving “more and more anecdotal evidence” that...
U.S. unemployment claims rise slightly, remain at low levels despite higher interest rates
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week but still remained at historically low levels despite high interest rates intended to slow hiring and cool the economy. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims were up by 2,000 to 205,000 the week that...
Ready, set, travel: The holiday rush to the airports and highways is underway
It’s beginning to look a lot like a hectic holiday travel season, but it might go relatively smoothly if the weather cooperates. Travel over Christmas and New Year’s tends to spread out over many days, so the peaks in the U.S. are likely to be lower than they were during...
Parents of children sickened by lead linked to tainted fruit pouches fear for kids’ future
When Cora Dibert went for a routine blood test in October, the toddler brought along her favorite new snack: a squeeze pouch of WanaBana cinnamon-flavored apple puree. “She sucked them dry,” recalls her 26-year-old mother, Morgan Shurtleff, of Elgin, Oklahoma. Within a week, the family got an alarming call. The...
Health officials push to get schoolchildren vaccinated as more U.S. parents opt out
When Idaho had a rare measles outbreak a few months ago, health officials scrambled to keep it from spreading. In the end, 10 people, all in one family, were infected, all unvaccinated. This time, the state was lucky, said the region’s medical director Dr. Perry Jansen. The family quickly quarantined...
Federal judge blocks California law that would have banned carrying firearms in most public places
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a California law that would have banned carrying firearms in most public places, ruling that it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and deprives people of their ability to defend themselves and their loved ones. The law signed...
Christmas is in jeopardy for some New Englanders after storms and flooding knocked out power
PORTLAND, Maine — Megan Michaud and her family of five lost power for three days after a powerful storm throttled her home state of Maine, and a new challenge is creeping up on her: It’s almost time for Christmas. “This morning, my second grader told me, ‘It’s five days until...
Motorists to save as Pa.’s gas tax to drop more than 5% in 2024
Motorists will begin to see a little relief at the gas pump, starting on Jan. 1. Pennsylvania’s gas tax rate is going down from this year’s 61.1 cents per gallon to 57.6 cents a gallon, according to the state Department of Revenue. Diesel tax rates too are dropping next year...
U.S., Venezuela swap prisoners: Maduro ally for 10 Americans, plus fugitive contractor ‘Fat Leonard’
MIAMI — The United States freed a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in exchange for the release of 10 Americans imprisoned in the South American country and the return of a fugitive defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard” who is at the center of a massive Pentagon bribery...
Some state abortion bans stir confusion, and it’s uncertain if lawmakers will clarify them
Ever since the nation’s highest court ended abortion rights more than a year ago, vaguely worded bans enacted in some Republican-controlled states have caused bewilderment over how exceptions should be applied. Supporters have touted these exemptions, tucked inside statutes restricting abortion, as sufficient enough to protect the life of the...
President Biden denounces Trump as ‘doubling down’ on support for insurrection
MILWAUKEE — President Joe Biden said it’s “self-evident” that Donald Trump is an insurrectionist for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss but stopped short of commenting on a Colorado legal case that would bar him from the state’s ballot. The Democratic president made the comments about his likely Republican...
Trump’s lawyers ask Supreme Court to stay out of dispute on whether he is immune from prosecution
WASHINGTON — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to stand down from a dispute over whether he can be prosecuted on charges he plotted to overturn the 2020 election results. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team last week urged the nation’s high court to...
The Constitution’s insurrection clause threatens Trump’s campaign. Here is how that is playing out
DENVER — Former President Donald Trump’s bid to win back the White House is now threatened by two sentences added to the U.S. Constitution 155 years ago. The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday barred Trump from the state’s ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who...
