Senate bill would continue to reduce state police funding from Motor License Fund
Senate Republicans in Pennsylvania advanced a bill that could reopen discussion about former Gov. Tom Wolf’s suggestion that communities without a police force should help fund the state police who provide services there. Senate Bill 121, introduced by Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr., R-Johnstown, continues the state’s recent trend of lessening...
Biden expected to tighten rules on U.S. investment in China
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Biden administration is close to tightening rules on some overseas investments by U.S. companies in an effort to limit China’s ability to acquire technologies that could improve its military prowess, according to a U.S. official familiar with the deliberations. The soon-to-be-issued executive order from President Joe...
Marianne Williamson begins longshot 2024 challenge to Biden
WASHINGTON — -Self-help author Marianne Williamson, whose 2020 White House campaign featured more quirky calls for spiritual healing than actual voter support, launched another longshot bid for the presidency on Saturday, becoming the first Democrat to formally challenge President Joe Biden for the 2024 nomination. “We are upset about this...
Proposed bill would give Pa. doctors more leeway in prescribing medical marijuana
A bipartisan bill expected to be introduced soon in Harrisburg would loosen regulations of Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program and could substantially increase the number of cannabis patients in the state. A memo on the legislation co-sponsored by state Sens. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, and Mike Regan, R-York, said the bill would...
What to Watch: Shapiro will pitch first budget as Pa. governor
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Josh Shapiro will deliver his first budget to the Legislature on Tuesday, as the Democrat aims in his first months to remake the state’s public school funding system and to put Pennsylvania on competitive footing with other states to attract major companies. Shapiro has been touring...
Pa. lawmaker accused of sexual harassment says he won’t resign, will seek treatment for ‘illness’
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 — A Pennsylvania lawmaker accused of sexual harassment says he won’t resign from office but will seek treatment for an...
First evidence for horseback riding dates back 5,000 years
WASHINGTON — Archaeologists have found the earliest direct evidence for horseback riding — an innovation that would transform history — in 5,000 year old human skeletons in central Europe. “When you get on a horse and ride it fast, it’s a thrill — I’m sure ancient humans felt the same...
Election conspiracies fuel dispute over voter fraud system
ATLANTA — A bipartisan effort among states to combat voter fraud has found itself in the crosshairs of conspiracy theories fueled by Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 presidential election and now faces an uncertain future. One state has dropped out, a second is in the process of doing...
Defense lawyers in Idaho stabbing case say gag order needed
BOISE, Idaho — Defense attorneys for a man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death asked the Idaho Supreme Court on Friday to keep a gag order in place, saying a challenge to the order filed by 30 news organizations is premature and that media coverage of...
The implications of Walgreens’ decision on abortion pills
Walgreens says it will not start selling an abortion pill in 20 states that had warned of legal consequences if it did so. The drugstore chain’s announcement Thursday signals that access to mifepristone may not expand as broadly as federal regulators intended in January, when they finalized a rule change...
Officials: Person dies after brain-eating amoeba infection
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — A person in southwest Florida has died after being infected with an extremely rare brain-eating amoeba, health officials said. The Florida Department of Health in Charlotte County confirmed the death Thursday. The agency had previously issued an alert last month, warning residents about the Naegleria fowleri...
Doctor: Lesion removed from Biden’s chest was cancerous
WASHINGTON — A skin lesion removed from President Joe Biden’s chest last month was a basal cell carcinoma — a common form of skin cancer — his doctor said Friday, adding that no further treatment was required. Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House doctor who has served as Biden’s longtime...
Zelenskyy tells U.S., Europe law chiefs Russia must face court
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Friday with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and top European legal officials, and called for Russia to face international prosecution for war crimes. Zelenskyy announced the meetings in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, hundreds of kilometers from the war’s front lines, during his evening...
In race for technology, China has a ‘sometimes stunning lead’ over the U.S.
American higher education is touted as the world’s envy, but a new report says the United States and other Western countries have fallen dangerously behind China in research that results in leading-edge technology. The world’s most populous country has amassed a “sometimes stunning lead,” says the Australian Strategic Policy Institute,...
U.S. to focus bison restoration on expanding tribal herds
DENVER — U.S. officials will work to restore more large bison herds to Native American lands under a Friday order from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland that calls for the government to tap into Indigenous knowledge in its efforts to conserve the burly animals that are an icon of the American...
Paris Olympics sports bodies seek IOC clarity on Russia
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Ongoing uncertainty about letting Russian athletes try to qualify for the Paris Olympics affects “less than half” of its 32 sports, the umbrella group of Summer Games governing bodies said on Friday. Those sports have an urgent need for more clarity from the International Olympic Committee with...
Who’s benefiting from Russia’s war on Ukraine? Arms dealers and manufacturers
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — There’s always an element of the surreal at arms fairs. You catch it in the chipper tone of salespeople hawking new instruments of destruction; in the euphemisms — “defense” instead of “warfare,” “weapons platforms” rather than “guns” — sprinkled throughout glossy brochures; in the...
Businessman Perry Johnson announces 2024 presidential bid
OXON HILL, Md. — Republican businessman Perry Johnson has announced his long-shot bid for president. Johnson, who tried to run for Michigan governor last year but was deemed by the state’s elections bureau to have filed thousands of fraudulent nominating signatures, announced his White House candidacy to a group of...
Abortion clinics crossing state borders not always welcome
BRISTOL, Va. — The pastors smiled as they held the doors open, grabbing the hands of those who walked by and urging many to keep praying and to keep showing up. Some responded with a hug. A few grimaced as they squeezed past. Shelley Koch, a longtime resident of southwest...
Alex Murdaugh’s fall from grace ends in life sentence for murder
WALTERBORO, S.C. — In the culmination of the once-prominent lawyer’s fall from grace, Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday after being convicted of murdering his wife and son. Judge Clifton Newman asked Murdaugh if he had anything he wanted to say before sentencing him to...
King Charles III picks France, Germany for 1st state visits
LONDON — King Charles III will travel to France and Germany for his first state visits since becoming monarch, Buckingham Palace said Friday, underscoring Britain’s efforts to build bridges with its European neighbors following years of strained relations caused by Brexit. Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, are set to...
U.S., South Korea announce largest field exercises in 5 years
SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean and U.S. militaries announced Friday they will hold their biggest joint field exercises in five years later this month, as the U.S. flew a long-range B-1B bomber to the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against North Korea. The North has threatened...
2 Americans arrested on charges of selling tech to Russia
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Thursday arrested two Kansas men on allegations that the pair illegally exported aviation-related technology to Russia and provided repair services for the equipment. Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky and Douglas Robertson are charged with conspiracy, exporting controlled goods without a license, falsifying and failing to file...
Pentagon Papers leaker Ellsberg says he has terminal cancer
WASHINGTON — Daniel Ellsberg, who copied and leaked documents that revealed secret details of U.S. strategy in the Vietnam War and became known as the Pentagon Papers, said he has terminal cancer and months to live. Ellsberg posted on his Facebook page Thursday that doctors diagnosed the 91-year-old with inoperable...
Black Vietnam vet getting his due: Medal of Honor
WASHINGTON — Nearly 60 years after he was recommended for the nation’s highest military award, retired Col. Paris Davis, one of the first Black officers to lead a Special Forces team in combat, received the Medal of Honor on Friday for his bravery in the Vietnam War. At a crowded...
