Jeffries wins historic bid to lead House Dems after Pelosi
WASHINGTON — Emboldened House Democrats ushered in a new generation of leaders on Wednesday with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries elected to be the first Black American to head a major political party in Congress as long-serving Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team step aside next year. Showing rare party unity after...
U.K. royals in Boston for a 3-day visit
BOSTON — The first overseas trip by the Prince and Princess of Wales since the death of Queen Elizabeth II began Wednesday, an occasion to show the world as much about who they are not as who they are. With their three-day visit to Boston, focused on Prince William’s initiative...
Puerto Rico extends power contract amid outages, objections
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A heavily criticized private company that operates the transmission and distribution of power in Puerto Rico secured a last-minute extension on its contract Wednesday despite widespread objections. Luma Energy obtained the extension following a 4-1 vote by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s board, with...
Pa. lawyer pleads guilty to stealing $1 million from his clients
A formerly prominent Chester County attorney has plead guilty to stealing over $1 million from clients, according to a story from The Daily Local News. Thomas Evan Schindler, 62, of Newlin Township admitted in court that he had taken money from clients that he was not entitled to, and had...
No longer the fringe: Small-town voters fear for America
HUDSON, Wis. — A word — “Hope” — is stitched onto a throw pillow in the little hilltop farmhouse. Photographs of children and grandchildren speckle the walls. In the kitchen, an envelope is decorated with a hand-drawn heart. “Happy Birthday, My Love,” it reads. Out front, past a pair of...
Higher food prices worsen hunger crisis this holiday season
WASHINGTON — Staffers at Bread for the City, a venerable charity in the nation’s capital, thought they were prepared for this year’s annual pre-Thanksgiving Holiday Helpers food giveaway. The pandemic had faded, but inflation was high, so they budgeted to give out 12,000 meals, 20% higher than normal pre-pandemic levels....
Drug slows Alzheimer’s but can it make a real difference?
An experimental Alzheimer’s drug modestly slowed the brain disease’s inevitable worsening — but the anxiously awaited new data leaves unclear how much difference that might make in people’s lives. Japanese drugmaker Eisai and its U.S. partner Biogen had announced earlier this fall that the drug lecanemab appeared to work, a...
Tornadoes wrecking homes around south
WETUMPKA, Ala. (AP) — Tornadoes damaged numerous homes, destroyed a fire station, briefly trapped people in a grocery store and ripped the roof off an apartment complex in Mississippi, while two people died as a tree crunched their mobile home in Alabama, authorities said Wednesday. The National Weather Service had...
Jiang Zemin, former president of China, dies at 96
Jiang Zemin, the unlikely former leader who stewarded China through groundbreaking economic reforms and served as a bridge between the country’s strongman era and a more consensus-driven government, has died. He was 96. Chinese state television reported Jiang’s death Wednesday, saying the former leader had died in Shanghai, a city...
Election certification delays few, but a ‘test run’ for 2024
Before November, election officials prepared for the possibility that Republicans who embraced former President Donald Trump’s lies about voter fraud would challenge the verdict of voters by refusing to certify the results. Three weeks after the end of voting, such challenges are playing out in just two states, Arizona and...
Taliban: 10 killed in bombing of Afghan religious school
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A bomb blast hit a religious school in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 10 students, a Taliban official said. The explosion went off at around the time of afternoon prayers at the Al Jihad Madrassa in Aybak, capital of Samangan province, a resident of the...
Hawaii volcano eruption has some on alert, draws onlookers
HILO, Hawaii — The first eruption in 38 years of the world’s largest active volcano is attracting onlookers to a national park for “spectacular” views of the event, and it’s also dredging up bad memories among some Hawaii residents who have been through harrowing volcanic experiences in the past. It...
China vows crackdown on ‘hostile forces’ as public tests Xi
BEIJING — China’s ruling Communist Party has vowed to “resolutely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces,” following the largest street demonstrations in decades staged by citizens fed up with strict anti-virus restrictions. The statement from the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission released late Tuesday comes...
Philadelphia woman found decapitated inside home, man charged: reports
Philadelphia police are investigating after a woman was found decapitated inside a home in the city’s Lawndale neighborhood, according to reports from the Philadelphia Inquirer and WPVI. Police said they responded around 12:45 p.m. Tuesday to a report of a stabbing at a house on the 300 block of Magee...
EU Commission proposes blocking billions in funds to Hungary
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s executive branch recommended Wednesday that billions of euros of EU funds allocated to Hungary remain frozen over its failure to implement solid rule-of-law reforms, a move highlighting the growing rift between the EU’s traditional Western democratic values and its partner’s democratic backsliding. The EU’s 27...
Congress prepares to take up bill preventing rail strike
WASHINGTON — Congress is moving swiftly to prevent a looming U.S. rail workers strike, reluctantly intervening in a labor dispute to stop what would surely be a devastating blow to the nation’s economy if the transportation of fuel, food and other critical goods were disrupted. The House was expected to...
Pa. Senate sets rules for Philly DA Larry Krasner’s impeachment trial
HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday approved two procedural measures needed to stage an impeachment trial for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, the latest step in an unprecedented effort to remove the city’s prosecutor from office. The resolutions set the rules of the trial, which is expected to begin...
Defense: Ohio man had no reason to help family in killings of 8Video
WAVERLY, Ohio — An Ohio man accused of helping his family kill eight members of another family had no reason to take part and wasn’t even there, his attorney told trial jurors Tuesday during closing arguments. George Wagner IV, his brother and parents were charged in the 2016 shooting deaths...
Texas woman pleads guilty to role in Vanessa Guillen’s death
AUSTIN, Texas — The only suspect arrested in connection with the killing of Vanessa Guillén at a Texas military base in 2020 pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that included helping dispose of the soldier’s body near Fort Hood. Cecily Aguilar, 24, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Waco, Texas,...
Landmark same-sex marriage bill wins Senate passageVideo
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Tuesday to protect same-sex marriages, an extraordinary sign of shifting national politics on the issue and a measure of relief for the hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples who have married since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide. The...
Judge orders men who made fake robocalls to register voters
CLEVELAND — Two men convicted of fraud for targeting Black voters with phony robocalls before the 2020 election must spend 500 hours registering voters in low-income neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., an Ohio judge has ruled. Jacob Wohl, 24, of Irvine, California, and Jack Burkman, 56, of Arlington, Va., pleaded guilty...
Supreme Court counsel says no evidence of Alito ethical lapse in 2014 case
WASHINGTON — A U.S. Supreme Court official said he sees no indication Justice Samuel Alito violated ethics rules after a New York Times story said a 2014 dinner party at the justice’s home allegedly produced a leak about the outcome of a major case over religious rights and contraceptives. In...
Oath Keepers boss guilty of seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 caseVideo
WASHINGTON — Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted Tuesday of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential win, handing the Justice Department a major victory in its massive prosecution of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. A Washington, D.C., jury found Rhodes guilty of sedition...
Storms could spawn major tornadoes, floods in several statesVideo
JACKSON, Miss. — Residents in several towns in Louisiana and Mississippi took cover when tornado sirens blared on Tuesday, as forecasters warned of the potential for strong twisters that could stay on the ground for long distances in parts of the South. Heavy rain and hail the size of tennis...
Study: U.S. gun death rates hit highest levels in decades
NEW YORK — The U.S. gun death rate last year hit its highest mark in nearly three decades, and the rate among women has been growing faster than that of men, according to study published Tuesday. The increase among women — most dramatically, in Black women — is playing a...
