Battle of wreaths erupts in the Arctic when Russian envoy puts his garland over Norway’s wreath
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A battle of wreaths erupted Wednesday when a Russian diplomat in the Arctic town of Kirkenes in northern Norway reportedly put his garland on top of Norway’s at a monument for the 1944 liberation of the region by Soviet troops. Magnus Mæland, the municipality mayor, then angrily...
Derailment costs grow for Norfolk Southern but railroad’s trains moving more smoothly
OMAHA, Neb. — The costs related to the East Palestine derailment continue to grow to reach $966 million for Norfolk Southern, but the railroad’s service is improving and its insurance companies have started to pay their share of the cost of the crash in eastern Ohio early this year. The...
Pa. Superior Court candidate Maria Battista suffered broken collarbone when struck by car, campaign says
Pennsylvania Superior Court candidate Maria Battista has been released from a hospital and is “doing well” after she was injured Sunday when a car hit her, according to her campaign. A statement issued by the campaign Tuesday afternoon said that Battista, a Clarion County Republican, was “putting out her campaign...
States sue Meta claiming its social platforms are addictive and harm children’s mental health
Dozens of states, including California and New York, are suing Meta Platforms Inc. for allegedly harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms. A lawsuit filed by 33 states claims Meta...
Now freed, an Israeli hostage describes the ‘hell’ of harrowing Hamas attack and terrifying capture
JERUSALEM — Eighty-five-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz spoke of a “hell that we never knew before and never thought we would experience” as she described the harrowing Oct. 7 assault on her kibbutz by Hamas militants and the terror of being taken hostage into the Gaza Strip. Lifshitz was the first of...
UN warns Gaza blockade could force it to sharply cut relief operations as bombings rise
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The U.N. warned Wednesday that it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the territory blockaded and devastated by Israeli airstrikes since Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel more than two...
Biden won’t appear on New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot. But write-ins are still an option
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden won’t file to have his name appear on the 2024 New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot, his reelection campaign said Tuesday, opting to skip a contest that the state plans to hold in defiance of a revamped primary order that the White House has championed. Julie...
Parents like private school vouchers so much that demand is exceeding budgets in some states
In some states, higher-income families can now use taxpayer money to cover private school tuition — and more people than projected are taking the offer, which might force scrambles to shore up state budgets. It’s especially an issue in states like Arizona and Iowa, where at least some families whose...
Georgia Supreme Court sends abortion law challenge back to lower court, leaving access unchanged
ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a lower court ruling that the state’s restrictive abortion law was invalid, leaving limited access to abortions unchanged for now. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said last November that the ban was “unequivocally unconstitutional” because it was enacted in...
High-ranking Penn State executive accused of strangling woman, placed on administrative leave
A high-ranking Penn State executive who served as a member of the President’s Council was charged Monday with a felony count of strangulation after an argument with a woman turned physical. Keith Brautigam, the university’s interim vice president for information technology and chief information officer, was charged after a fight...
First major snowstorm of season hitting the northern Rockies after warm fall
HELENA, Mont. — The first major snowstorm of the season is expected to hit the northern Cascades, Rockies and North Dakota this week, sending residents searching for their winter coats, gloves and boots and facing much different driving conditions after a warm fall in many places. The National Weather Service...
Man arrested, accused of secretly recording 2 women as they showered in Penn State dorm
A Boalsburg man was arrested last week after two women alleged he surreptitiously recorded them as they showered in a Penn State dorm. Xinyu Li, 24, admitted to recording the women earlier this month after illegally entering Hamilton Hall, Penn State police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause. Li...
Biden, Saudi crown prince discuss efforts to contain Israeli-Hamas conflict
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed efforts to prevent the conflict between Hamas and Israel from escalating during a phone call Tuesday, the White House said in a statement. The two spoke about “ongoing diplomatic and military efforts to deter state and non-state...
Pa. Senate passes bill opponents worry targets books about LGBTQ+, marginalized people
HARRISBURG — A bill passed the GOP-controlled state Senate to require Pennsylvania parents to opt in their children to access book deemed sexually explicit after more than an hour of passionate floor debate Tuesday. The bill passed 29-21, with objection from most Democrats. It goes to the Democrat-controlled House, where...
Toll rises to 8 dead, 63 hurt in Louisiana pileup blamed on dense fog, smoke
NEW ORLEANS — The toll from a series of crashes on a Louisiana interstate rose to eight dead and 63 injured Tuesday evening, a day after a “super fog” of marsh fire smoke and dense fog snared more than 160 vehicles in the fiery pileup, authorities said. Lance Scott was...
Florida officials ask Supreme Court to block rulings limiting anti-drag show law
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block lower court rulings that prohibit the enforcement of a new law targeting drag shows. Florida officials filed an application with the nation’s highest court Friday asking that the prohibition against enforcing the anti-drag show law only be limited...
U.S. developing contingency plans to evacuate Americans from Mideast in case Israel-Hamas war spreads
WASHINGTON — The White House said Tuesday “prudent contingency planning” is underway to evacuate Americans from the Middle East in case the Israel-Hamas war spreads into a broad regional conflict. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stressed there are no “active efforts” to evacuate Americans from the region...
Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows gets immunity in D.C. election-interference probe
WASHINGTON — Mark Meadows, the final chief of staff to Donald Trump, has been given immunity from prosecution in the election-interference probe against the former president in Washington and has testified before a grand jury hearing evidence in the case, according to a person familiar with the events. In his...
Off-duty pilot accused of trying to cut jet engines pleads not guilty to attempted murder charges
PORTLAND, Ore. — An off-duty airline pilot riding in an extra cockpit seat on a Horizon Air flight said “I’m not OK” just before trying to cut the engines midflight and later told police he had recently taken psychedelic mushrooms as his mental health worsened, according to charging documents made...
Officials celebrate Pa.’s 2 hydrogen hubs, but many details remain shrouded in secrecyVideo
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania officials are celebrating the Biden administration’s announcement that it will invest $1.6 billion to build hydrogen hubs partially located in the state...
Tropical Storm Otis strengthens to hurricane ahead of expected landfall near Mexico’s AcapulcoVideo
MEXICO CITY — Tropical Storm Otis strengthened to a hurricane Tuesday as it approached Mexico’s southern Pacific coast where it was forecast to make landfall near the resort of Acapulco late Tuesday or early Wednesday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said that Otis was about 145 miles south-southeast of Acapulco...
$43M CCAC facility to focus on robotics, other advancing technologies
Justin Starr spent years working in Pittsburgh’s robotics industry and saw first-hand the disconnect between the skills students often leave colleges with and those his industry desperately sought. “We always had great success on the engineering end, but when it came to getting technicians to do things like actually build...
Republicans nominate Mike Johnson for House speaker after Emmer’s withdrawal, desperate to end chaos
WASHINGTON — Republicans chose Rep. Mike Johnson as their latest nominee for House speaker late Tuesday, hours after an earlier pick, Rep. Tom Emmer, abruptly withdrew in the face of opposition from Donald Trump and hardline GOP lawmakers. Johnson of Louisiana, a lower-ranked member of the House GOP leadership team,...
Israel’s increased strikes across Gaza kill more than 700 people in the past day, Palestinians sayVideo
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Rapidly expanding Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people in the past day as medical facilities across the territory were forced to close because of bombing damage and a lack of power, health officials said Tuesday. The soaring death toll from Israel’s...
In court faceoff, Michael Cohen testifies against Trump in fraud trial. Trump shrugs: ‘Proven liar’
NEW YORK — In a courtroom showdown five years in the making, Donald Trump’s fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen testified Tuesday that he worked to boost the supposed value of the former president’s assets to “whatever number Trump told us to.” Trump’s lawyers — and outside court, Trump himself — by turn...
