Hempfield enters partnership with county to identify ‘best reuse’ of former state prison property
Hempfield supervisors have entered an agreement with the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corporation to tear down the former SCI Greensburg state prison. The agreement, which the Hempfield supervisors approved in a meeting Monday evening, outlines the partnership between the township and the corporation, said Jason Rigone, executive director of the...
Study finds climate change fingerprints on July heat waves in Europe, China and America
The fingerprints of climate change are all over the intense heat waves gripping the globe this month, a new study finds. Researchers say the deadly hot spells in the American Southwest and Southern Europe could not have happened without the continuing buildup of warming gases in the air. These unusually...
Pa. is competing for billions to build hydrogen hubs. Will they really be green?
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — As the federal government prepares to dole out billions of dollars to encourage states to invest in hydrogen production...
Alabama woman confesses to fabricating kidnapping
HOOVER, Ala. — Authorities in Alabama said Monday that a woman has confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of the interstate. Hoover Police Department Chief Nicholas Derzis said Carlee Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony, provided...
North Korea fires 2 short-range ballistic missiles after U.S. submarine arrives in South Korea
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern sea, South Korea’s military said Tuesday, adding to a recent streak in weapons testing that is apparently in protest of the U.S. sending major naval assets to South Korea in a show of force. In its...
UN chief urges Russia to revive grain deal with Ukraine, warning ‘the most vulnerable’ will suffer
ROME — The U.N. chief on Monday urged Russia to resume the internationally brokered deal so that grain can be shipped from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, saying that otherwise, the world’s most vulnerable among the hungry will suffer the worst consequences. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made the appeal during a...
New evacuations ordered in Greece as high winds, heat fuel wildfires
RHODES, Greece — A week-old wildfire on the Greek resort island of Rhodes tore past defenses Monday, forcing more evacuations as strong winds and successive heat waves that left scrubland and forests tinder-dry fueled three major fires raging elsewhere in Greece. The latest evacuations were ordered in south Rhodes after...
Authorities search for grizzly bear that killed woman near Yellowstone National Park
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Montana — Authorities searched Monday for a grizzly bear that attacked and killed a woman on a trail west of Yellowstone National Park along the Montana-Idaho border. The attack happened Saturday morning only a few hundred yards (meters) from a trailhead and private campground. There was no sign...
Authorities probing why Ohio police dog was deployed on man who was surrendering
CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio — An investigation has been launched into why an Ohio officer allowed his police dog to attack a truck driver who was surrendering with his hands raised, despite State Highway Patrol troopers urging the officer to hold the dog back. The lengthy pursuit on July 4 and the...
Putin signs legislation banning gender-affirming procedures
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed new legislation Monday which marked the final step in outlawing gender-affirming procedures, a crippling blow to Russia’s already embattled LGBTQ+ community. The bill, which was approved unanimously by both houses of parliament, bans any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a...
Challenge to Florida drag shows law won’t go to trial until next spring
ORLANDO, Fla. — A trial to determine if a new Florida law targeting drag shows is constitutional won’t start until next spring. A filing posted in federal court in Tallahassee late last week shows that the trial won’t start until the beginning of June 2024. It is scheduled to last...
Arizona woman’s heat death after her power was cut off spurred changes, but advocates want more
PHOENIX — Stephanie Pullman died on a sweltering Arizona day after her electricity was cut off because of a $51 debt. Five years later, the 72-year-old’s story remains at the heart of efforts to prevent others in Arizona from having their power cut off, leaving them without life-saving air conditioning...
Jury deliberates in Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault trial in London
LONDON — Jurors in the sexual assault trial of Kevin Spacey retired to begin deliberations Monday on allegations against the actor by four men that date back two decades. Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to nine charges, including multiple counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a...
After decades of delays and broken promises, coal miners hail rule to slow rise of black lung
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A half-century ago, the nation’s top health experts urged the federal agency in charge of mine safety to adopt strict rules protecting miners from poisonous rock dust. The inaction since — fueled by denials and lobbying from coal and other industries — has contributed to the premature...
Seton Hill names Keisha Jimmerson dean of students, diversity officer
Keisha Jimmerson left her home in Virginia in 1993 to pursue a communications degree at Seton Hill University. Now an employee of the university for 25 years, Jimmerson said she has stayed because of the people who have shown her grace — inside and outside of the classroom. “There’s something...
‘Mama bears’ may be the 2024 race’s soccer moms. But where the GOP seeks votes, some see extremism
In many election cycles, there’s a snappy shorthand used to describe the type of voters who may help decide the winner. Think soccer moms or security moms. Even NASCAR dads. And now, the “mama bears.” These conservative mothers and grandmothers, who in recent years have organized for “parental rights,” including...
Deck collapse at Montana country club leaves more than 30 injured as people land atop each other
BILLINGS, Mont. — More than 30 people were injured when a deck collapsed at a Montana country club during a weekend golf tournament, police and city officials said Sunday. The second-story patio floor of Billings’ Briarwood Country Club broke and gave way Saturday evening. The collapse caused head wounds, broken...
One year old, U.S. climate law is already turbocharging clean energy technology
FRANKFORT, Ky. — On a recent day under the July sun, three men heaved solar panels onto the roof of a roomy, two-story house near the banks of the Kentucky River, a few miles upstream from the state capitol where lawmakers have promoted coal for more than a century. The...
Nervous Republicans turn to New Hampshire in hopes of stopping Trump
HUDSON, N.H. — They acknowledge Donald Trump’s dominance, but weary Republicans across New Hampshire — even inside the governor’s office — are fighting to stop the former president from winning the first-in-the-nation primary. For now, however, they’re relying on little more than hope and prayers. Look no further than Mike...
Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teen lynched in Mississippi
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi, and his mother, a White House official said Saturday. Biden will sign...
Police narrow search for infant lost in flash flood, after 2-year-old sister’s body found
WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pa. — Search teams in Pennsylvania were focusing on one underwater area Sunday as they try to find a 9-month-old boy swept away in a flash flood, hours after authorities confirmed that the body of his 2-year-old sister was recovered from the Delaware River. Upper Makefield Township police...
‘It’s heartwarming’: Local running store hosts Labor Day race in support of autism nonprofit
Autism Connection of PA, a Pittsburgh nonprofit, has a “huge mission and a limited budget,” said Director of Operations Tammi Morton. So fundraising events like the Labor Day Run for Autism are vital. Gingerbread Man Running Co., a store for runners with locations in Indiana and Greensburg, has hosted the...
Oregon hospital security guard dies after being shot in hospital; police later kill suspect
PORTLAND, Ore. — A security guard died after being shot at an Oregon hospital Saturday, and the suspect was later killed by police in a nearby community, authorities said. Police responded to reports that a person with at least one firearm fired shots inside Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in...
Israel’s Netanyahu goes to hospital for pacemaker, says he will push ahead with judicial overhaul
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushed to the hospital early Sunday for an emergency procedure to implant a pacemaker, plunging the country into deeper turmoil after widespread protests overt his contentious judicial overhaul plan. Netanyahu’s office said that he would be placed under sedation and that a top...
DeSantis downplays Jan. 6, says it wasn’t an insurrection but a ‘protest’ that ‘ended up devolving’
NEW YORK — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday downplayed the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, saying it was not an insurrection but rather a “protest” that “ended up devolving, you know, in a way that was unfortunate, of course.” DeSantis, speaking in an interview on...
