Trump gets March 4 trial date in federal case over efforts to overturn 2020 electionVideo
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump will face trial on March 4, 2024, for four felony charges related to his alleged efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election. That means jury selection would begin a day before Super Tuesday on March 5, when California, Texas and...
Florida governor declares widespread state of emergency ahead of Idalia’s expected landfallVideo
TAMPA, Fla. — Florida residents loaded up on sandbags and evacuated from homes in low-lying areas along the Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Idalia intensified Monday and forecasters predicted it would hit in days as a major hurricane with potentially life-threatening storm surges. As the state prepared, Idalia thrashed Cuba...
Faculty member shot and killed in a campus building, says University of North Carolina officialVideo
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A University of North Carolina faculty member was shot and killed in a campus building, officials said Monday. A suspect was arrested about an hour and a half after shots were reported, UNC Police Chief Brian James said at a news conference. Students and faculty at...
American Airlines fined $4.1 million for dozens of long tarmac delays that trapped passengers
DALLAS — The federal government is fining American Airlines $4.1 million for dozens of instances in which passengers were kept on board planes without a chance to exit during long ground delays. The U.S. Department of Transportation said Monday it is the largest such fine against an airline since rules...
Police in Ohio fatally shot a pregnant shoplifting suspect
BLENDON, Ohio — Police in a Columbus suburb fatally shot a pregnant woman in an Ohio supermarket parking lot after she accelerated her car toward an officer, police officials said. Ta’Kiya Young, 21, of Columbus, died Thursday evening in Blendon. A supermarket employee told officers who were at the store...
Trump and 18 others charged in Georgia election case scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 6
ATLANTA — Former President Donald Trump and the 18 people indicted along with him in Georgia are scheduled to be arraigned next week on charges they participated in a wide-ranging illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election. All 19 defendants, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani...
Union leaders defend historic and controversial Pa. state employee contracts
The labor contracts recently ratified by two of Pennsylvania’s largest state government employee unions have been described as historic for the size of wage increases they grant over four years. Leaders of both unions see the 22.1 % pay increases when compounded over the life of the contracts — the...
Poll: Biden widely seen as too old for office, but Trump has other problems
WASHINGTON — Americans actually agree on something in this time of raw discord: Joe Biden is too old to be an effective president in a second term. Only a few years his junior, Donald Trump raises strikingly less concern about his age. But they have plenty of other problems with...
Jacksonville killings refocus attention on city’s racist past and the struggle to move on
By some measures, the city was making strides to emerge from its racist past. But the killing of three Black people Saturday by a young, white shooter was a painful and startling reminder that the remnants of racism continue to fester in Jacksonville, Florida. What happened in Jacksonville, said longtime...
Pope says ‘backward’ U.S. conservatives have replaced faith with ideology
ROME — Pope Francis has blasted the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the U.S. Catholic Church, saying they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time. Francis’ comments were an acknowledgment of the divisions in the U.S. Catholic Church, which...
Evacuation order finds few followers in northeastern Ukraine despite Russia’s push in region
KUPIANSK, Ukraine — The thunder of mortar fire echoes in the distance as 5-year old David approaches his mother with an innocent request: Can he play with the baseball bat a relative gave him as a gift? Valeria Pototska rolls her eyes and tells her son no for the umpteenth...
A Marine Osprey crashes during drills in Australia, killing 3 and injuring 20, some critically
CANBERRA, Australia — A United States Marine Corps aircraft with 23 Marines aboard crashed on a north Australian island Sunday, killing at least three and critically injuring at least five during a multinational training exercise, officials said. Three had been confirmed dead on Melville Island and five were flown in...
Trump campaign reports raising more than $7 million after Georgia booking
NEW YORK — For former President Donald Trump, a picture is worth … more than $7 million. Trump’s campaign says he has raised $7.1 million since Thursday when he was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in...
Man killed, another wounded in shooting steps away from Philadelphia’s Independence HallVideo
PHILADELPHIA — At least two people were killed and three others were wounded in gun violence in Philadelphia over the weekend, including a man who was gunned down near Independence Hall, authorities said. A 29-year-old man was shot shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday steps away from the tourist attraction where...
Tropical Storm Idalia takes aim at Gulf of Mexico on a possible track toward the U.S., forecasters sayVideo
MIAMI — Tropical Storm Idalia formed Sunday off the coast of Mexico on a potential track to come ashore as a hurricane in the southern U.S., the National Hurricane Center said. At 5 p.m. Sunday, the storm was about 95 miles east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, moving northeast at 3 mph...
Sheriff provides the first details of how a white man fatally shot 3 Black people at a Florida storeVideo
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A 21-year-old white man fatally shot three Black people in Florida with guns bought legally despite his once being involuntarily committed for a mental health exam, the local sheriff said Sunday. Ryan Palmeter shot one of his victims as she sat in her car outside a Jacksonville...
Court ruling on Pa. education funding puts school infrastructure in spotlight
As residents of Hempfield recently learned, the cost associated with school building projects can easily climb above $100 million. For decades, school administrators could turn to what was known as PlanCon to pursue state funding to help ease the local burden. PlanCon — short for the Planning and Construction Workbook...
With drones and webcams, volunteer hunters join a new search for the mythical Loch Ness Monster
LONDON — Mystery hunters converged on a Scottish lake on Saturday to look for signs of the mythical Loch Ness Monster. The Loch Ness Center said researchers would try to seek evidence of Nessie using thermal-imaging drones, infrared cameras and a hydrophone to detect underwater sounds in the lake’s murky...
Thousands convene for March on Washington’s 60th anniversary demonstration
WASHINGTON — Thousands converged on the National Mall on Saturday for the 60th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington, saying a country that remains riven by racial inequality has yet to fulfill the legendary civil rights leader’s dream. “We have made progress, over the last 60...
Bare electrical wire and leaning poles on Maui were possible cause of deadly fires
In the first moments of the Maui fires, when high winds brought down power poles, slapping electrified wires to the dry grass below, there was a reason the flames erupted all at once in long, neat rows — those wires were bare, uninsulated metal that could spark on contact. Videos...
Yale and a student group are settling a mental health discrimination lawsuit
Yale University and a student group announced Friday that they’ve reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit that accused the Ivy League school of discriminating against students with mental health disabilities, including pressuring them to withdraw. Under the agreement, Yale will modify its policies regarding medical leaves of absence, including...
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich appeals extension of pretrial detention in Russia
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has appealed a Moscow court’s decision to extend his pretrial detention in Russia until the end of November, according to documents on the court’s website. The American journalist was arrested in March during a work trip to the city of Yekaterinburg, almost 2,000 kilometers...
University of Pittsburgh is equipping many classrooms with ‘panic buttons’
The University of Pittsburgh says it is installing panic buttons in numerous classrooms ahead of Monday’s fall semester start, among other upgrades, after active shooter hoaxes in April drew heavily armed police to campus and terrified students. The changes follow a “major review of the procedures, policies and tools” for...
White man fatally shoots 3 Black people at Florida store, kills himself
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A masked white man fatally shot three Black people inside a Jacksonville, Florida, Dollar General store in a predominately African-American neighborhood on Saturday, in an attack where he used a gun painted with a swastika, officials said. The shooter, who had also posted racist writings, then killed...
Alabama wants to be the 1st state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe only nitrogen
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen. The Alabama attorney general’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated...
