Pennsylvania Senate bill aims to undo 2023 gas tax increase
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state Senate on Wednesday voted to undo an automatic wholesale tax increase on gasoline and diesel that kicks in this year in an effort to prevent motorists from paying more per gallon. The vote, 29-19, sent the bill to the state House of Representatives, where a partisan...
Mike Kelly’s federal bill would ban abortions after fetal heartbeat is detected
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, a Butler County Republican, has re-introduced a bill to ban abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected. “Our founders understood that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are our most fundamental rights,” Kelly said in a statement. “First among these is life.” Kelly, who introduced...
Haitians seizing on legal path to U.S. rush to secure passport
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hundreds of Haitians are flocking daily to the sole immigration office in Port-au-Prince, pressing against the bright blue gate as they strain to hear whether their name is called, hoping they will soon be chosen to live legally in the U.S. under a new immigration plan. The...
6 stabbed in Paris train station, attacker shot by police
PARIS — An attacker wounded six people in an unprovoked blade attack in Paris’ busy Gare du Nord train station Wednesday morning before being shot and wounded by police, France’s interior minister said, praising the swift intervention of police for helping prevent any fatalities. The suspect attacked several people, including...
Russia will launch new capsule to return space station crew
MOSCOW — Russia will send up a new capsule next month to bring back three space station crew members whose original ride home was damaged, officials said Wednesday. The two Russians and one American will stay several extra months at the International Space Station as a result of the capsule...
U.S., Japan to boost security, military cooperation
WASHINGTON — The United States and Japan plan to boost military and security cooperation as their top national security officials hold talks on Wednesday. The U.S. and Japanese foreign and defense ministers are set to agree to adjust the American troop presence on the island of Okinawa. And, as they...
Electric vehicles win truck, utility of the year awards
PONTIAC, Mich. — Electric vehicles took two of three categories for the first time in this year’s North American Car, Truck and Utility of the Year awards. Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric pickup won the truck category, while Kia’s EV6 battery-powered EV was named the top SUV. The Integra, a small...
Oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor marks 105th birthday
NEW ORLEANS — Flag-waving admirers lined the sidewalk outside the National World War II Museum in New Orleans on Wednesday to greet the oldest living survivor of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor as he marked his upcoming 105th birthday. “It feels great,” Joseph Eskenazi of Redondo Beach, California, told...
A critical shortage: Amid burnout, fatigue, exhaustion, nurses leave their jobs
In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, Denelle Korin was assigned to the covid wing in an acute care hospital in central Pennsylvania where she worked as a nurse. For months, Korin saw patients die. Like thousands of nurses across the country, she herself put her health and safety...
George Santos refuses to resign despite political pressureVideo
NEW YORK — State and local Republican leaders in New York on Wednesday called for the immediate resignation of their new GOP congressman George Santos, who is facing multiple investigations by prosecutors over his personal and campaign finances and lies about his resume and family heritage. “His lies were not...
Photo gallery: A community remembers Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire
Thousands attended the funeral services to show their support for Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire on Wednesday. Police officers from all over the state came to pay their respect and take part in a procession that began at Mount St. Peter Church in New Kensington and ended at Mt. Airy...
Ukraine says mining town holding out against Russian assault
KYIV, Ukraine — The fate of a devastated salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine hung in the balance Wednesday as Ukraine said its forces were holding out against a furious Russian onslaught in one of the fiercest and costliest recent ground battles of the nearly 11-month war. Soledar was under heavy...
Watchdog sees light at the end of the tunnel for the IRS
WASHINGTON — The IRS is beginning to see “a light at the end of the tunnel” of its customer service struggles, thanks to tens of billions of new money from the Democrats’ climate and health law and the authority to hire more people, according to an independent watchdog within the...
Supreme Court lets New York enforce gun law during lawsuit
WASHINGTON — New York can for now continue to enforce a sweeping new law that bans guns from “sensitive places” such as schools, playgrounds and Times Square, the Supreme Court said Wednesday, allowing the law to be in force while a lawsuit over it plays out. The justices turned away...
Oil price cap takes small slice of Russia’s revenue
FRANKFURT, Germany — A price cap and European Union embargo on most Russian oil have cut into Moscow’s revenue from fossil fuels, but the Kremlin is still earning substantial cash to fund its action in Ukraine because the $60-per-barrel cap was “too lenient,” researchers said Wednesday. The combination of the...
Japan, South Korea protest China visa stoppage in covid spat
TOKYO — Japan and South Korea defended their public health restrictions on travelers from China on Wednesday, a day after China stopped issuing new visas in both countries in apparent retaliation. South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said he finds it “significantly regrettable” that China stopped issuing short-term visas to...
U.K. ambulance workers walk out, joining wave of strike action
LONDON — Around 25,000 U.K. ambulance workers went on strike Wednesday, walking out for the second time since December in an ongoing dispute with the government over pay. The industrial action by paramedics, drivers and call handlers was the latest in a wave of strikes in recent months that has...
Storm-struck California scrambles to clean up ahead of rain
LOS ANGELES — Storm-ravaged California scrambled to clean up and repair widespread damage on Wednesday as the lashing rain eased in many areas, although the north could see thundershowers and another powerful weather front was expected to hit the state Friday. At least 17 people have died in the storms...
New Mega Millions jackpot of $1.35B is game’s 2nd highest
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Mega Millions prize has grown again to an estimated $1.35 billion after there was no winner of the lottery’s latest giant jackpot. The numbers drawn late Tuesday night were: 7, 13, 14, 15, 18 and gold Mega Ball 9. The new jackpot drawing on Friday...
Computer breakdown sows chaos across U.S. air travel system
NEW YORK — Thousands of flights across the U.S. were canceled or delayed Wednesday after a system that offers safety information to pilots failed, and the government launched an investigation into the breakdown, which grounded some planes for hours. The Federal Aviation Administration said preliminary indications “traced the outage to...
U.N. says ozone layer slowly healing, hole to mend by 2066Video
DENVER — Earth’s protective ozone layer is slowly but noticeably healing at a pace that would fully mend the hole over Antarctica in about 43 years, a new United Nations report says. A once-every-four-years scientific assessment found recovery in progress, more than 35 years after every nation in the world...
Landslides, sinkholes, floodwaters plague soggy CaliforniaVideo
LOS ANGELES — Sinkholes swallowed cars and floodwaters swamped towns and swept away a small boy as California was wracked by more wild winter while the next in a powerful string of storms loomed on the horizon Tuesday. Millions of residents faced flood warnings, nearly 50,000 people were under evacuation...
Trial ordered for 4 in ambush shooting outside Philly school
PHILADELPHIA — A judge has ordered four suspects to stand trial in an ambush shooting outside a Philadelphia high school that killed a 14-year-old and wounded several other teenagers after a football scrimmage last fall. At the preliminary hearing Tuesday, prosecutors presented evidence they said tied the adult and juvenile...
Pittsburgh native Blake Hounshell, New York Times editor, dies at 44
WASHINGTON — Blake Hounshell, a well-known journalist who edited The New York Times’ “On Politics” newsletter and formerly held several leadership positions at Politico, died Tuesday of an apparent suicide. He was 44. Joe Kahn, the Times executive editor, and Carolyn Ryan, the newspaper’s managing editor, said in a note...
Cardinal George Pell, whose convictions were overturned, dies at 81
ROME — Cardinal George Pell, who was the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sex abuse and spent 404 days in solitary confinement in his native Australia before his convictions were overturned, died Tuesday in Rome. He was 81. Pell died after undergoing hip surgery at Salvator...
