Gas driller pleads no contest to polluting Pennsylvania town’s water
MONTROSE — Pennsylvania’s most active gas driller pleaded no contest Tuesday to criminal charges, capping a landmark environmental case against a company prosecutors say polluted a rural community’s drinking water 14 years ago and then tried to evade responsibility. Residents of the tiny crossroads of Dimock in northeastern Pennsylvania said...
Houston lifts boil-water order affecting more than 2 millionVideo
HOUSTON — Houston officials lifted an order Tuesday that had called for more than 2 million people in the nation’s fourth-largest city to boil their tap water before drinking or using it. The boil order had been in effect since Sunday, when a power outage at a purification plant caused...
Penn State wants its 2 law schools ‘back together.’ Now it has to decide what that means
Penn State believes it has two good law schools. It would like to have one excellent one. With that vision in mind, President Neeli Bendapudi on Tuesday announced her intention to unify the two existing fully accredited Penn State law schools into one entity, and the creation of a task...
Twitter ends enforcement of covid misinformation policy
Twitter will no longer enforce its policy against covid-19 misinformation, raising concerns among public health experts that the change could have serious consequences if it discourages vaccination and other efforts to combat the still-spreading virus. Eagle-eyed users spotted the change Monday night, noting that a one-sentence update had been made...
Michigan’s high court pauses Ethan Crumbley parents’ case in Michigan school shooting
DETROIT — The Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday sent the involuntary manslaughter case of the parents of accused Oxford High shooter Ethan Crumbley back to the Court of Appeals to consider whether there was sufficient evidence for James and Jennifer Crumbley to stand trial. The Michigan Court of Appeals in...
Supreme Court wrestles with Biden’s deportation policy
WASHINGTON- — The Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled with a partisan-tinged dispute over a Biden administration policy that would prioritize deportation of people in the country illegally who pose the greatest public safety risk. It was not clear after arguments that stretched past two hours and turned highly contentious at...
Gov. Wolf highlights $2.5 million capital investment for LGBT centerVideo
Governor Tom Wolf joined state and local leaders to highlight a $2.5 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant awarded to the William Way LGBT Community Center for phase two of its major renovation project. The funds, awarded last fall, will be used for upgrades and renovations to the rear...
Survivor of Virginia Walmart mass shooting files $50M suit
NORFOLK, Va. — A Walmart employee who survived last week’s mass shooting at a store in Virginia has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the company for allegedly continuing to employ the shooter — a store supervisor — “who had known propensities for violence, threats and strange behavior.” The lawsuit,...
Qatar says worker deaths for World Cup ‘between 400 and 500’
DOHA, Qatar — A top Qatari official involved in the country’s World Cup organization has put the number of worker deaths for the tournament “between 400 and 500” for the first time, a drastically higher number than any other previously offered by Doha. The comment by Hassan al-Thawadi, the secretary-general...
Rejecting undated mail ballots disproportionately impacts communities of color in Pa., data shows
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. Pennsylvania’s policy of rejecting undated and incorrectly dated absentee and mail ballots is more likely to...
Few Americans know or heed U.S. nutrition guide
Here’s a quick quiz: What replaced the food pyramid, the government guide to healthy eating that stood for nearly 20 years? If you’re stumped, you’re not alone. More than a decade after Agriculture Department officials ditched the pyramid, few Americans have heard of MyPlate, a dinner plate-shaped logo that emphasizes...
Thanksgiving crashes down from 2021
Pennsylvania State Police investigated 970 vehicle crashes resulting in two fatalities and 196 injuries during the Thanksgiving travel period stretching from Wednesday to Sunday, according to a press release. Alcohol was a factor in 48 of the crashes, about 5 percent of the total. Troopers arrested 539 people for driving...
Uneasy calm grips Ukraine as West prepares winter aid
KYIV, Ukraine — An uneasy calm hung over Kyiv on Tuesday as residents of the Ukrainian capital did what they could to prepare for anticipated Russian missile attacks aiming to take out more energy infrastructure as winter sets in. To ease that burden, NATO allies made plans to boost provisions...
China launches 3 astronauts to complete space station
BEIJING — China launched a rocket Tuesday carrying three astronauts to complete construction of the country’s permanent orbiting space station, during which they will expand the facility to its maximum capacity of six crew aboard. The crew of the Shenzhou-15 will overlap for several days with the existing 3-member crew...
4 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in occupied West Bank
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian man on Tuesday rammed his car into an Israeli soldier, seriously injuring her, before he was shot dead by Israeli police in the occupied West Bank. He was the fourth Palestinian killed in a series of violent incidents throughout the day. It was the latest bloodshed...
India, U.S. armies hold exercises close to China border
AULI, India — Indian and U.S. troops on Tuesday participated in a high-altitude training exercise in a cold, mountainous terrain near India’s disputed border with China, at a time both countries are trying to manage rising tensions with Beijing. During the exercise, Indian soldiers were dropped from helicopters to flush...
Why some Western Pa. hospitals choose to remain independent
Editor’s note: This is the final part of a three-day series examining the rapidly changing health care landscape in Western Pennsylvania. Lynn Botelho has lived her life traveling the globe, navigating some of the world’s most time-honored academic institutions. But when she was handed a cancer diagnosis, she looked no...
Nonpartisan journalism is vital to the future of Pa. Here’s how you can keep it going.
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. Huge stories will shape Pennsylvania’s future next year. With a new administration in the governor’s office and a shift in power...
Woman dies in test drive crash outside Florida car lot
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — A 76-year-old passenger was killed when a vehicle being test driven by an 86-year-old man turned into the path of a car just outside the Florida car dealership. The crash happened Saturday evening in Winter Haven, which is between southwest of Orlando, Polk County Sheriff’s officials...
Freedom Caucus brings its national brand of conservatism to the Pennsylvania state House
The new Pennsylvania branch of the House Freedom Caucus is open and ready for business. The original Freedom Caucus, for the uninitiated, launched within the U.S. House of Representatives in 2015, as a wing within the House’s Republican conference for conservative members who resolved not to compromise on conservative principles...
Mike Pence calls on Trump to apologize for dinner with antisemiteVideo
NEW YORK — Former Vice President Mike Pence on Monday said Donald Trump “demonstrated profoundly poor judgment” and called on him to apologize after the former president had dinner last week with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West days after launching his third campaign...
California police: Virginia deputy killed family, took teenager
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The suspect in a Southern California triple homicide who died in a shootout with police was a Virginia law enforcement officer who investigators believe drove across the country to meet a teenage girl before killing three members of her family. Austin Lee Edwards, 28, also likely set...
GOP-controlled Arizona county refuses to certify election
PHOENIX — Republican officials in a rural Arizona county refused Monday to certify the 2022 election despite no evidence of anything wrong with the count, a decision that was quickly challenged in court by the state’s top election official. The refusal to certify by Cochise County in southeastern Arizona comes...
State lawmaker resigns to take new role in Pennsylvania Senate
A state legislator who represented parts of northcentral Pennsylvania for the past three decades is resigning his Senate seat to take on a new role in that legislative chamber. Sen. John Gordner, a Republican, announced on Monday that he will vacate his 27th state senatorial district seat on Wednesday to...
‘We the People’ at heart of White House holiday decorations
WASHINGTON — “We the People” is Jill Biden’s holiday theme with White House decorations designed for “the people” to see themselves in the tree ornaments, mantel displays, mirrors and do-it-yourself creations that have turned the mansion’s public spaces into a winter wonderland. “The soul of our nation is, and always...
