Ohio ex-speaker ill, corruption trial pauses after big week
CINCINNATI — The racketeering trial of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and lobbyist Matt Borges was cancelled due to illness again Friday, giving jurors a long holiday weekend to mull striking new details revealed this week by players directly involved in an alleged $60 million bribery scheme. It marked...
DOJ search of Pence’s office turns up no new classified docs
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department searched the office of former Vice President Mike Pence ‘s Washington advocacy group for several hours Friday as part of its investigation into the discovery of sensitive documents at the homes and offices of current and former top U.S. officials. Pence adviser Devin O’Malley said...
Military finishes recovering Chinese balloon debris
WASHINGTON— The U.S. has finished efforts to recover the remnants of the large balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina, and analysis of the debris so far reinforces conclusions that it was a Chinese spy balloon, U.S. officials said Friday. Officials said the U.S. believes that...
Penn State plans to renovate, not replace Beaver Stadium
Penn State University has decided to renovate rather than replace Beaver Stadium, the storied home of the Nittany Lions football program for more than six decades and one of the most prominent venues in college athletics. “After significant consultation and research, the university has decided that rather than build new...
What the public can and can’t know about Four Diamonds, beneficiary of Penn State THON’s fundraising
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for our regional newsletter, Talk of the Town. STATE COLLEGE — For years, thousands of Penn State students have participated in a grueling...
White House defends response to Ohio toxic train derailment
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Friday defended its response to a toxic freight train derailment in Ohio two weeks ago, even as local leaders and members of Congress demanded that more be done. The Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, left toxic chemicals spilled or burned off, prompting...
Dog vs. shark standoff thrills tourists on Bahamas boat tour
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The sight of a massive hammerhead shark was a rare treat for 32 travelers on a tour boat in the Bahamas this week. But then, something stranger still: A dog dove from a nearby dock to confront the monstrous sea creature. Tourists aboard the four-hour...
5 Memphis officers plead not guilty in death of Tyre Nichols
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Five former Memphis police officers pleaded not guilty Friday to second-degree murder and other charges in the violent arrest and death of Tyre Nichols, with his mother saying afterward that none of them would look her in the eye in court. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills...
Off camera, Fox hosts doubted 2020 election fraud claims
WILMINGTON, Del. — To millions of viewers, Fox News hosts gave allies of former President Donald Trump a platform to champion false claims that he lost the 2020 election because of voter fraud. To one another, they expressed doubts about the claims and mocked the people making them. Private exchanges...
House GOP opens investigation of Afghanistan withdrawal
WASHINGTON — Several Biden Cabinet members, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, received a letter Friday from House Republicans as they launched the second investigation into the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, sent a series of...
U.S. says IS commander killed, troops wounded in NE Syria raid
BEIRUT — The U.S. military said Friday a helicopter raid led by its forces in northeast Syria left a senior leader with the Islamic State group dead and four American service members wounded. The military added in the short statement that the operation was conducted Thursday night in partnership with...
Power outage cancels, diverts flights at Kennedy Airport
NEW YORK — A power outage in a terminal of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport stretched into a second day Friday after forcing some flights to be canceled or diverted, including one that was turned around and sent back to New Zealand after nearly making it to the...
Turkish quake victims sleep in trains, tents, greenhouses
SAMANDAG, Turkey — Nearly two weeks after a massive earthquake leveled tens of thousands of buildings and displaced millions of people in Turkey and Syria, many are still struggling to fulfill their basic needs and some are bedding down in tents, factories, train cars and greenhouses. People pushed from their...
Floodwaters force W.Va. students to spend night at high school
Floodwaters in West Virginia forced some high school students to hunker down for the night in an impromptu slumber party complete with pizza, board games and football tosses in the gymnasium. All schools in Lincoln County, in the southern part of the state, were dismissed two hours early on Thursday...
2 wounded, 1 with medical problem in Memphis mall shooting
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Two people were wounded and a third person suffered a medical problem Thursday in a shooting stemming from a fight at a large mall in suburban Memphis, police said. Memphis police and other law enforcement agencies went to Wolfchase Galleria at about 4:50 p.m. after receiving an...
College, university endowments report losses on their most recent balance sheets
A year ago, the nation’s college and university endowments shook off a pandemic-driven market slump to score impressive growth to support their schools’ academic missions. This time, in fiscal year 2022, the story was the same, say two organizations that closely monitor those funds — only the order was reversed,...
Prosecutors: Mechanicsburg woman should spend 7+ years in prison over Capitol riot
Federal prosecutors want a Cumberland County woman who acted as an “accelerant” during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol to serve seven years in prison for her role. They also want her to serve three years of supervised release, and pay $3,039 in restitution. But Riley Williams,...
Kari Lake loses appeal of loss in Arizona governor’s race
PHOENIX — An Arizona appeals court has rejected Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, denying her request to throw out election results in the state’s most populous county and hold the election again. In a ruling on Thursday, the Arizona...
Doctor says Biden’s ‘vigorous’ as he readies for 2024 run
WASHINGTON — Despite testing positive twice last year for the coronavirus, President Joe Biden has no long-term symptoms and has been declared “healthy, vigorous” and “fit” to handle his White House responsibilities, according to a routine medical checkup performed Thursday. The findings were contained in a memo by Biden’s doctor,...
DoorDash sees record orders and users, but losses grow
DoorDash said Thursday that it saw a record number of orders and active users in the fourth quarter as it expanded overseas and gained market share at home. The San Francisco-based delivery company said its monthly active users grew 28% to a record 34 million during the October-December period. DashPass...
USDA tells Senate panel it’s struggling to feed needy families
WASHINGTON — A U.S. Department of Agriculture official testified Thursday that some of the agency’s food programs are being overburdened in the push to feed needy families. The acknowledgment came Thursday morning as Republicans on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee repeatedly hammered the USDA over a dramatic rise...
Amid U.S. TikTok bans, a few balk at writing its name in law
TOPEKA, Kan. — Banning TikTok from government devices enjoys bipartsan support across the U.S., but a few Democratic legislators in Kansas object to expanding one imposed by their party’s governor because they don’t want a state law to target a company by name. The Republican-controlled Kansas House voted 109-12 on...
Justice Department taking over Texas attorney general corruption probe
DALLAS — Justice Department officials in Washington have taken over the corruption investigation into Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, removing the case from the hands of the federal prosecutors in Texas who’d long been leading the probe. The move was disclosed in a statement by state prosecutors handling their own...
IUP, state system roiled by former student’s racist social media post
The chairwoman of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education on Thursday condemned a racist social media post made earlier this month by a former Indiana University of Pennsylvania student. The student posted the racist message in response to a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before a men’s basketball...
Crews responding to freight train derailment near DetroitVideo
VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Emergency crews were on the scene of a freight train derailment Thursday near Detroit that sent several train cars off the tracks, officials said. Video from the scene of the derailment in Van Buren Township showed that numerous train cars from the Norfolk Southern train...
