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...
Judge accepts insanity plea deal for man in face-biting case
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A judge accepted a plea deal Monday for a man who randomly killed a Florida couple in their garage six years ago and then chewed on one victim’s face that will send him to a mental hospital for treatment. Austin Harrouff, 25, pleaded not guilty by...
Buffalo gunman pleads guilty in racist supermarket massacre
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The white gunman who massacred 10 Black shoppers and workers at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded guilty Monday to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges, guaranteeing that he will spend the rest of his life in prison. Payton Gendron, 19, entered the plea Monday in a courthouse roughly two...
Pa. Republicans look inward after voters quashed the expected red wave
Votes were barely counted in the Nov. 8 election before the “autopsy” stories started rolling in on the Pennsylvania Republican Party. After Democrats took back the state House after 12 years and won contested congressional races, the governor’s race, and U.S. Senate seat in an expected “red wave” year for...
Ukraine on edge for more attacks, West eyes humanitarian aid
KYIV — Ukraine prepared for more Russian strikes on Monday and warned of the possibility for a new round of evacuations from the capital during a relative lull from the airstrikes on energy facilities and other key infrastructure in recent weeks. In the West, meanwhile, preparations were stepped up to...
Pennsylvania campaign wild card Fetterman turns to governing
HARRISBURG — When John Fetterman goes to Washington in January as one of the Senate’s new members, he’ll bring along an irreverent style from Pennsylvania that extends from his own personal dress code — super casual — to hanging marijuana flags outside his current office in the state Capitol. Pennsylvania’s...
China’s Xi faces threat from public anger over zero covid
SHANGHAI — Barely a month after granting himself new powers as China’s potential leader for life, Xi Jinping is facing a wave of public anger of the kind not seen for decades, sparked by his “zero COVID” strategy that will soon enter its fourth year. Demonstrators poured into the streets...
Crews rescue 2 from plane caught in power lines in Maryland
GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Two people were rescued early Monday more than six hours after their small plane crashed into live power lines, causing widespread outages in Montgomery County, Maryland. Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said the plane got stuck in the lines about 100 feet (30 meters) above the...
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa erupts, officials warn people to prepareVideo
HONOLULU — Waves of orange, glowing lava and smoky ash erupted Monday from the world’s largest active volcano and people living on Hawaii’s Big Island were warned to be ready if their communities are threatened. The eruption of Mauna Loa wasn’t immediately endangering towns, but officials told residents to be...
Hospitals embrace mergers as path to survival
Editor’s note: This is the second part of a three-day series examining the rapidly changing health care landscape in Western Pennsylvania. As Excela Health CEO John Sphon irons out the details of a merger with Butler Health System, his message to the public is clear. He believes the alliance...
Newborn among 7 dead in landslide on Italy’s Ischia island
MILAN — Search teams have recovered seven dead, including a 3-week-old infant and a pair of young siblings, buried in mud and debris that hurtled down a mountainside and through a densely populated port city on the resort island of Ischia, officials said Sunday. The Naples prefect confirmed that five...
Trump faulted for dinner with white nationalist and rapper Ye
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump is renewing attention to his long history of turning a blind eye to bigotry after dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West just days into his third campaign for the White House. Trump had dinner Tuesday...
Kim’s daughter appears again, heating up succession debate
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter made a public appearance again, this time with missile scientists and more honorific titles as her father’s “most beloved” or “precious” child. She’s only about 10, but her new, bold photos are deepening the debate over whether she’s being...
Crowd angered by lockdowns calls for China’s Xi to step down
SHANGHAI — Protesters angered by strict anti-virus measures called for China’s powerful leader to resign, an unprecedented rebuke as authorities in at least eight cities struggled to suppress demonstrations Sunday that represent a rare direct challenge to the ruling Communist Party. Police using pepper spray drove away demonstrators in Shanghai...
As Western Pa. hospitals expand, fears grow over higher health care costsVideo
Editor’s note: This is the first part of a three-day series examining the rapidly changing health care landscape in Western Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania’s two health care giants have jumped into a controversial nationwide hospital building boom, spending billions on glitzy, state-of-the-art facilities that critics say patients ultimately will pay for...
New state voter fraud units finding few cases from midterms
WASHINGTON — State-level law enforcement units created after the 2020 presidential election to investigate voter fraud are looking into scattered complaints more than two weeks after the midterms but have provided no indication of systemic problems. That’s just what election experts had expected and led critics to suggest that the...
At Nantucket retreat, Biden family weighs 2024 run
President Joe Biden and his family are tackling a weighty question during their Thanksgiving holiday retreat to the chilly quiet of Nantucket: whether he’ll seek a second term in 2024. A final decision won’t be made on the Massachusetts island, where the Bidens are staying at a home owned by...
