McCarthy says negotiators are ‘closer to an agreement’ on debt crisis, but no deal yet
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Saturday that Republican negotiators were “closer to an agreement” that would resolve the looming debt crisis, but had not reached a deal with President Joe Biden. The Republican speaker gathered top allies behind closed doors at the Capitol as negotiators pushed for a...
GOP-controlled Texas House votes to impeach Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas’ GOP-led House of Representatives impeached state Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday on articles including bribery and abuse of public trust, a sudden, historic rebuke of a fellow Republican who rose to be a star of the conservative legal movement despite years of scandal and alleged...
Serbian border troops on high alert after ethnic clashes inside Kosovo
PRISTINA, Kosovo — Serbian troops on the border with Kosovo were put on high alert Friday following clashes inside Kosovo between police and ethnic Serbs that injured more than a dozen people. Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo, who are a majority in that part of the country, had tried to...
U.N. regional group has endorsed Amazon city to host 2025 climate conference
SAO PAULO — Brazil’s government announced Friday that a U.N. Latin America regional group has endorsed a Brazilian city in the Amazon region to host the 2025 U.N. climate change conference, though the world body has not yet publicly confirmed the venue. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva initially said...
Yellen tells Congress U.S. could run out of money to pay all its bills by June 5
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress on Friday that the U.S. could default on its debt obligations by June 5 — four days later than previously estimated — if lawmakers do not act in time to raise the federal debt ceiling. Yellen’s letter comes as Congress breaks for...
‘X-date’ calculations aim to zero in on when the U.S. may run short of cash
WASHINGTON — For all the concern over just when the government might run short of money to pay its bills, it turns out that no one can be absolutely sure exactly when the country will default — what officials are calling the “X-date” — if there’s no deal to raise...
From the Civil War to today’s mattress sales, Memorial Day is full of contradiction
NORFOLK, Va. — Memorial Day is supposed to be about mourning the nation’s fallen service members, but it’s come to anchor the unofficial start of summer and a long weekend of discounts on anything from mattresses to lawn mowers. Auto club AAA said in a travel forecast that this holiday...
Pa. limited a board’s power to regulate abandoned oil and gas wells, but Democrats want to restore it
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 — Across Pennsylvania, unplugged oil and gas wells spew a powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere and contaminate soil and...
Mother of man who killed Gabby Petito said in letter she would help son ‘dispose of a body’
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The mother of the man who killed Gabby Petito told her son in an undated letter that she would “dispose of a body” if needed because she loved him so much, according to copies of the note shared publicly for the first time this week by attorneys...
U.S. cities reporting fewer killings hope crime strategies prevent a summer surge
CHICAGO — An expected bump in violent crime this summer has mayors and police officials around the U.S. rolling out familiar strategies of making officers more visible and engaging with community groups, in some cases leaning on civilians to enforce curfews and keep the peace. Chicago is among the U.S....
Latest GOP 2024 hopeful DeSantis ‘blazing a trail’ on book bans in Republican-controlled states
TALLAHASSEE, Florida— As he vies for the Republican presidential nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is touting a series of measures he has pushed that have led to an upswing in banned or restricted books — not just in Florida schools but in an increasing number of other conservative states. Florida...
Judge halts South Carolina’s new stricter abortion law until state Supreme Court review
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A judge on Friday put a temporary halt to South Carolina’s new law banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy until the state Supreme Court can review the measure. The ruling by Judge Clifton Newman came just about 24 hours after Gov. Henry McMaster signed the...
Pa. baseball player fatally struck in face while dismantling unapproved dugout
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A college baseball player died after he was struck in the face when a makeshift dugout he was helping to dismantle collapsed on him this week. Angel Mercado, 19, was a middle infielder who had just completed his freshman season at Division II Central Penn College. He...
Biden releases new strategy to tackle rise in antisemitism, says ‘hate will not prevail’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced what he said is the most ambitious and comprehensive undertaking by the U.S. government to fight hate, bias and violence against Jews, outlining more than 100 steps the administration and its partners can take to combat an alarming rise in antisemitism. Speaking...
Flight cancellations, strikes raise fears of new summer travel chaos in Europe
LONDON — British Airways canceled dozens of flights Friday, blaming computer problems for disrupting plans for thousands of passengers at the start of a busy holiday weekend — a rocky kickoff to the summer travel season in Europe. The technical glitches and strikes by airport staff across Europe are stirring...
Russia says Ukraine attacks border regions; Moscow’s forces strike Dnipro clinic
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia’s southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine came under attack from Ukrainian artillery fire, mortar shells and drones Friday, authorities said, hours after two drones struck a Russian city in a region next to the annexed Crimea Peninsula. The Kremlin’s forces, meanwhile, struck a clinic in Dnipro, in...
U.S. surgeon general calls for action on social media to ‘protect kids now’
The U.S. surgeon general is warning there is not enough evidence to show that social media is safe for children and teens — and is calling on tech companies, parents and caregivers to take “immediate action to protect kids now.” With young people’s social media use “near universal” but its...
Report: Trump workers moved classified documents at Mar-a-Lago before prosecutors arrived
Former President Donald Trump’s workers at Mar-a-Lago reportedly moved boxes of classified documents just a day before federal prosecutors came to collect papers pursuant to a subpoena. The two Trump employees, including longtime valet Walt Nauta, brought boxes of documents to a basement storage room on June 2, just hours...
GOP field in Pennsylvania Senate race still wide open as Doug Mastriano says he won’t run
HARRISBURG — A hard-right Pennsylvania state lawmaker said Thursday night that he will not challenge Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, leaving the GOP field wide open as Republican Party officials try to recruit a strong candidate in the moderate battleground state to help capture a Senate majority in 2024. Doug Mastriano,...
Murder, cruelty charges dismissed in Georgia toddler’s hot car death
ATLANTA — A father from Georgia will not face another trial over his toddler’s death in a hot car, prosecutors said Thursday, after the Georgia Supreme Court last year reversed his murder and child cruelty convictions. Justin Ross Harris, 42, was found guilty in November 2016 on eight counts including...
Texas lawmakers issue 20 articles of impeachment against state Attorney General Ken Paxton
AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton teetered on the brink of impeachment Thursday after years of scandal, criminal charges and corruption accusations that the state’s Republican majority had largely met with silence for years until now. In an unanimous decision, a Republican-led investigative committee that spent months quietly looking...
Supreme Court limits EPA protection for wetlands, ruling for property rights over clean waterVideo
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday limited federal protection for millions of acres of wetlands, ruling for property rights over clean water. In a 5-4 decision, the justices said the Clean Water Act does not forbid discharges of pollutants into marshy areas or dry creek beds because water does...
7-year-old West Virginia child charged with arson of family home
RIPLEY, W.Va. — A 7-year-old West Virginia child has been charged with first-degree arson after intentionally setting the family home on fire while the child’s parents were asleep inside, officials said. The juvenile was taken into custody Wednesday evening after the blaze, which caused minor burn injuries to two people,...
Attorney demands firing of Mississippi police officer after 11-year-old boy is shotVideo
JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi police officer who shot and wounded an unarmed 11-year-old Black boy in the child’s home should be fired, an attorney for the child’s mother said Thursday. The child, Aderrien Murry, was hospitalized five days for a collapsed lung, lacerated liver and fractured ribs after an...
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack
WASHINGTON — Oath Keepers extremist group founder Stewart Rhodes was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison for orchestrating a weekslong plot that culminated in his followers attacking the U.S. Capitol in a bid to keep President Joe Biden out of the White House after winning the 2020 election. Rhodes,...
