Feds propose ‘student loan safety net’ alongside forgiveness
WASHINGTON — The White House is moving forward with a proposal that would lower student debt payments for millions of Americans now and in the future, offering a new route to repay federal loans under far more generous terms. President Joe Biden announced the repayment plan in August, but it...
Safety agency to consider ban on gas stoves amid health fears
A federal agency says a ban on gas stoves is on the table amid rising concern about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by the appliances. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to take action to address the pollution, which can cause health and respiratory problems. “This is a hidden...
California deluge forces mass evacuations, boy swept awayVideo
LOS ANGELES — As another powerful storm walloped California, a 5-year-old boy was swept away by floodwaters Monday on the state’s central coast and an entire seaside community that is home to Prince Harry, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities was ordered to evacuate on the fifth anniversary of deadly mudslides...
Chief: 6-year-old shot Virginia teacher during class lesson
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — In the moments before a 6-year-old Virginia boy shot his teacher, there was no fight, no physical struggle and no warning, authorities said Monday. “What we know today is that she was providing instruction. He displayed a firearm, he pointed it and he fired one round,”...
DOJ reviewing potentially classified documents at Biden center
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is reviewing a batch of potentially classified documents found in the Washington office space of President Joe Biden’s former institute, the White House said Monday. Special counsel to the president Richard Sauber said “a small number of documents with classified markings” were discovered as Biden’s...
Having elected House speaker, Republicans try governingVideo
WASHINGTON — Electing the House speaker may have been the easy part. Now House Republicans will try to govern. Speaker Kevin McCarthy passed his first test Monday evening as the Republicans approved their rules package for governing House operations, typically a routine step on Day One that stretched into the...
Ethics group seeks investigation of Rep. George Santos’ campaign financesVideo
WASHINGTON — Freshman Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican who became embroiled in scandal after news reports cast doubt on his stated biography and on his campaign expenditures, faced yet another complaint Monday. The Campaign Legal Center, a Washington group that focuses on political money laws, filed a 50-page...
Prosecutor: Husband of missing Massachusetts wife bought cleaning supplies
QUINCY, Mass. — The husband of a Massachusetts woman missing since New Year’s Day was seen on surveillance video buying $450 worth of cleaning supplies at a home improvement store the day after his wife was last seen, a prosecutor said Monday at his arraignment on a charge of misleading...
Albuquerque police ID potential links between some shootings
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Authorities in New Mexico’s largest city have found evidence of gunfire at the home of another elected official in early December, bringing the number of officials who have reported gunfire at or near their homes or offices in recent weeks to six. No one has been injured...
Pa. officials fly high in state plane on taxpayers’ dime
Gov. Tom Wolf appeared in Allentown one day last fall to celebrate his success in boosting early education funding. An hour later he was at a news conference 90 miles away in Steelton, touting free breakfasts for students. Despite the distance, no speed limits were broken. Wolf winged it from...
GOP lawmaker turns on Democrat he helped win Pa. speakership
HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania state House Republican who recently nominated and voted for Democratic Rep. Mark Rozzi to serve as speaker wrote him Monday to say Rozzi was waffling on whether he will register as an independent and therefore should resign. The letter from Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair, who has...
Pa. county is about to start a hand recount of its 2020 presidential election results
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. This article is available for reprint under the terms of Votebeat’s republishing policy. More than two years after the last ballot was cast in the 2020 election, Lycoming County...
Migrant repatriations continue as Florida steps up patrols
KEY WEST, Fla. — The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 273 migrants to Matanzas, Cuba, over the weekend following interdictions off the Florida Keys. While more than 4,400 migrants from Cuba and Haiti have made their way by boat to the state since August, more than 700 migrants arrived in the...
Ukraine school rejects Russian claim of troops killed there
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Officials at a vocational school in an eastern Ukraine city dismissed claims by Russia that hundreds of Ukrainian troops were killed in a missile strike there, saying Monday that a rocket merely blew out windows and damaged classrooms. Russia specifically named the vocational school in Kramatorsk as...
Georgia special grand jury finishes probe of 2020 election
ATLANTA — The special grand jury in Atlanta that has been investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies committed any crimes while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia has finished its work, bringing the case closer to possible criminal charges against Trump and others. Fulton County...
Donors offer over $9B for Pakistan after devastating floods
GENEVA — Dozens of countries and international institutions on Monday pledged more than $9 billion to help Pakistan recover and rebuild from devastating summer floods, with the sum set to balloon further at a U.N.-backed conference to help the country through what the U.N. chief called “a climate disaster of...
Feds reviewing Musk tweet about disabling driver monitoring
DETROIT — A tweet from Elon Musk indicating that Tesla might allow some owners who are testing a “Full Self-Driving” system to disable an alert that reminds them to keep their hands on the steering wheel has drawn attention from U.S. safety regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says...
U.K. government meeting unions in bid to end wave of strikes
LONDON — U.K. government ministers met trade union leaders on Monday in a bid to end a wave of strikes that has hobbled the rail network and strained the overburdened health system. There were small signs of progress but no breakthrough after a meeting between Health Secretary Steve Barclay and...
Use drugs, surgery early for obesity in kids
Children struggling with obesity should be evaluated and treated early and aggressively, including with medications for kids as young as 12 and surgery for those as young as 13, according to new guidelines released Monday. The longstanding practice of “watchful waiting,” or delaying treatment to see whether children and teens...
Hepatitis C is a slow-moving killer that can be stopped
LOS ANGELES — Michael Mendez said that when learned he had hepatitis C, “I didn’t even know what it was.” Mendez, 47, had been homeless for years in Los Angeles, and said he hadn’t gone to a doctor the entire time he was living on the streets. When Mendez got...
What we know about the ‘kraken’ covid variant XBB.1.5 and why it’s causing concern
A new covid-19 variant that first was detected last year quickly has become the dominant strain in the U.S. Nicknamed the “kraken variant” by some, it surged through the nation and now has been identified in at least 28 other countries, according to the World Health Organization. Here are your...
Nurses go on strike at 2 big New York City hospitals
NEW YORK — Nurses at two of New York City’s largest hospitals went on strike Monday in a dispute over pay and staffing levels after a weekend of negotiations did not produce a deal for a new contract. The walkout involves as many as 3,500 nurses at Montefiore Medical Center...
Prince Harry accuses royals of complicity in Meghan’s pain
LONDON — Prince Harry has accused the royal family of being complicit in his wife Meghan’s anguish, claiming his stepmother Camilla, the queen consort, had leaked private conversations to the media in order to burnish her own reputation. In interviews broadcast Sunday, Harry accused members of the royal family of...
Brazil authorities seek to punish pro-Bolsonaro rioters
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian authorities were picking up the pieces and investigating Monday after thousands of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace then trashed the nation’s highest seats of power. The protesters were seeking military intervention to either restore the far-right Bolsonaro to...
Russia opts out of European anti-corruption convention
MOSCOW — Russia on Monday opted out of a European convention on fighting corruption, a move that comes in the wake of its withdrawal from the Council of Europe following start of Moscow’s military action in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin asked the lower house of parliament, the State Duma,...
