Elon Musk suspends Kanye West’s Twitter account
Early Friday, Kanye West’s Twitter account was suspended after the rapper posted a picture of a swastika merged with the Star of David. New Twitter CEO Elon Musk confirmed the suspension in a tweet replying to West’s post of an unflattering photo of the billionaire, which West called his “final...
Bidens entertain more than 330 guests at 1st state dinnerVideo
WASHINGTON — The first White House state dinner of President Joe Biden’s administration drew big names Thursday from fashion, entertainment, politics and business who turned out to help celebrate French President Emmanuel Macron and the return of large social events after the pandemic. There were kisses all around as the...
82-year-old woman arrested for not paying $77 trash bill
VALLEY, Ala. — An 82-year-old Alabama woman was arrested for not paying a $77.80 trash bill. Court records show the Valley woman was arrested Sunday for not paying the garbage service bill that covered the months of June, July and August. She was charged with a misdemeanor offense of “failure...
Pa. lawmakers’ pay increase kicks in; 2 elected to higher office without ‘double dipping’
Salaries for Pennsylvania lawmakers jumped Thursday when an automatic 7.8% pay increase took effect, the largest in over a quarter century. Two sitting lawmakers, who ran in simultaneously for other offices, will be getting the legislative pay raise, albeit briefly, before taking more lucrative elected posts next month. Allegheny County...
Matt Gaetz friend gets 11 years for sex crime, other countsVideo
ORLANDO — A former Florida tax collector whose arrest led to a federal probe into U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for sex trafficking of a minor and other offenses. Joel Greenberg, former tax collector for Seminole County, was accused of stalking a political...
Trump probe: Court halts Mar-a-Lago special master review
WASHINGTON — A unanimous federal appeals court on Thursday ended an independent review of documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate, removing a hurdle the Justice Department said had delayed its criminal investigation into the retention of top-secret government information. The decision by the three-judge panel represents a...
Pandemic stress prematurely aged teens’ brains, Stanford study finds
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Stanford University study published Thursday found that stress from the covid-19 pandemic prematurely aged adolescents’ brains, making them more like those of peers about three years older. By comparing MRI scans from children taken before the pandemic with scans from other kids taken during the...
Senate moves to avert rail strike amid dire warnings
WASHINGTON — The Senate moved quickly Thursday to avert a rail strike that the Biden administration and business leaders warned would have had devastating consequences for the nation’s economy. The Senate passed a bill to bind rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the rail...
Importance of HIV PrEP medication for prevention, coverageVideo
On World AIDS Day, Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID) Policy Director Katie Merritt joined representatives from the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs and Hamilton Health Center to highlight the importance of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, medication for HIV prevention, and to detail insurance coverage of the drugs under the Affordable...
The teams helping Josh Shapiro prepare to become Pa.’s next governor include wealthy donors, Republicans
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. HARRISBURG — Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro is preparing for his inauguration and making key decisions about his administration surrounded by some of...
High court to rule on Biden student loan cancellation plan
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to decide whether the Biden administration can broadly cancel student loans, keeping the program blocked for now but signaling a final answer by early summer. That’s about two months before the newly extended pause on loan repayments is set to expire. The administration...
DEP launches $12.7 million initiative to electrify truck fleets for cleaner airVideo
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) launched “Electrifying Truck Fleets for Cleaner Air in Our Communities,” a $12.7 million Driving PA Forward initiative to improve air quality by supporting local freight truck electrification. Projects serving environmental justice areas, high traffic density areas, and Act 47 financially distressed municipalities are...
Russian shelling cuts off power again in liberated Kherson
KHERSON, Ukraine — Russian shelling cut off power in much of the recently liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson on Thursday, just days after it was restored amid Moscow’s ongoing drive to destroy key civilian infrastructure as freezing weather sets in. In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned the capital’s millions of...
Israel’s Netanyahu puts hardliner in charge of settlements
JERUSALEM — Israel’s designated prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday a coalition deal that will give a hardline, pro-settler party control over a number of key government ministries and a senior role in overseeing the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. The agreement with the Religious...
Hawaii volcano’s lava oozes toward key Big Island highway
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii — Rivers of glowing lava oozing from the world’s largest volcano could swallow the main highway linking the east and west coasts of Hawaii’s Big Island as early as this weekend, and there’s nothing humans can do to stop it, experts said. Mauna Loa awoke from its 38-year...
Kunselman to run for open seat on Pennsylvania high court
HARRISBURG — A second Pennsylvania appellate court judge, Deborah Kunselman, said Thursday she will run for an open seat on the state Supreme Court in next November’s election. Kunselman, a Democrat, serves on the state Superior Court. Kunselman, 55, was endorsed in the primary by the Democratic Party when she...
Montgomery County president judge launches bid for Pa. Supreme Court
NORRISTOWN — Montgomery County President Judge Carolyn Tornetta Carluccio, the first woman in county history to lead the county bench, has announced her candidacy for Pennsylvania Supreme Court in next year’s elections. “Pennsylvanians want their judges to read and apply the law,” Carluccio said in a press release announcing her...
U.K. royals arrive in Boston to showcase youthful monarchy
BOSTON — The Prince and Princess of Wales embarked Wednesday on their first overseas trip since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, aiming to showcase the younger face of a monarchy that is tackling important issues like climate change as it attempts to remain relevant in a modern, multicultural Britain....
Key allegations, witnesses as Trump Organization trial winds down
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump’s inaugural address clocked in at just 16 minutes. Closing arguments that are slated for Thursday in his company’s criminal tax fraud case? Prosecutors and defense lawyers say those could take seven hours or more. Those projections speak to the complexity of the case,...
Pa. school test scores still trail pre-pandemic levels
Pennsylvania public school students have made little progress in making up for the learning losses suffered during the covid-19 pandemic. The latest Pennsylvania System of School Assessment results released Monday show just over half of test-takers in grades three through eight statewide scored proficient or advanced, which is regarded as...
North Korea’s Kim calls for meeting to review state affairs
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for a major political conference before year’s end at which he is expected to address his increasingly tense relations with Washington and Seoul over the expansion of his nuclear and missile programs. North Korea’s state media said Thursday that...
Obama heads to Georgia as Warnock seeks big early vote advantage
ATLANTA — Georgia voters have cast more than 1 million ballots ahead of the Dec. 6 U.S. Senate runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker, with Warnock looking to juice an apparent Democratic head start in early voting with a visit Thursday from Barack Obama. The...
China eases virus controls amid effort to head off protests
BEIJING — More Chinese cities eased anti-virus restrictions and police patrolled their streets Thursday as the government tried to defuse public anger over some of the world’s most stringent covid measures and head off more protests. Following weekend demonstrations at which some crowds made the politically explosive demand that leader...
Russian FM: U.S., NATO directly involved in Ukraine conflict
MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister on Thursday accused the West of becoming directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying it with weapons and training its soldiers. Sergey Lavrov also said that Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities and other key infrastructure that have left millions without power, heating...
Deep South tornado outbreak: 2 dead from twister in the darkVideo
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A twister roaring out of the darkness smashed through a small Alabama community early Wednesday during an outbreak of tornadoes across the Deep South, killing a 39-year-old woman and her 8-year-old son on a street where generations of one family lived. One of dozens of tornadoes kicked...
