U.S. agency softens opioid prescribing guidelines for doctors
NEW YORK — The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday softened its guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention new recommendations are an update to 2016 guidelines that added momentum to a decline in opioid painkiller prescriptions. Opioids painkillers...
In 1 classroom, 4 teachers manage 135 kids — and love it
MESA, Ariz. — A teacher-in-training darted among students, tallying how many needed his help with a history unit on Islam. A veteran math teacher hovered near a cluster of desks, coaching some 50 freshmen on a geometry assignment. A science teacher checked students’ homework, while an English teacher spoke into...
Stellantis: Park older models due to 3 Takata air bag deaths
DETROIT — Stellantis and the U.S. government are warning owners of 276,000 older vehicles to stop driving them after Takata air bags apparently exploded in three more vehicles, killing the drivers. The company, formerly Fiat Chrysler, is telling people to stop driving Dodge Magnum wagons, Dodge Challenger and Charger muscle...
Official: Pakistan’s ex-PM Imran Khan wounded in gun attack
ISLAMABAD — A gunman opened fire at a campaign truck carrying Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday, wounding him slightly and also some of his supporters, a senior leader from his party and police said. Party official Asad Umar said Khan was wounded in the leg and was...
Russians try to subdue Ukrainian towns by seizing mayors
KYIV, Ukraine — Not long after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, soldiers broke down the office door of Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov. They put a bag over his head, bundled him into a car and drove him around the southern city for hours, threatening to kill him. Fedorov, 34, is...
Powerball prize up to $1.5 billion, 3rd-largest ever in U.S.
DES MOINES, Iowa — The bad news is that no one won Wednesday night’s huge $1.2 billion Powerball jackpot. The good news is that means the prize has grown even larger to $1.5 billion ahead of the next drawing Saturday night. That is the third-largest lottery prize in U.S. history....
What effect did the Oz-Fetterman debate have on the Pa. Senate race? Here’s what 2 new polls show
For all the attention last week’s debate between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz received, the race appears virtually unchanged — and extremely close — in its aftermath. Separate polls from the Monmouth University Polling Institute and Muhlenberg University released this week indicate the race is essentially tied with six days...
University makes new review of Doug Mastriano’s doctoral research
HARRISBURG — A Canadian university that granted a doctorate in history to Doug Mastriano nearly a decade before he became the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania is investigating a fresh complaint about his work that makes multiple allegations of academic fraud in his recently public dissertation. University of New...
Biden implores voters to save democracy from lies, violenceVideo
WASHINGTON — After weeks of reassuring talk about America’s economy and inflation, President Joe Biden turned Wednesday night to a darker, more urgent message, warning in the final days of midterm election voting that democracy itself is under threat from former President Donald Trump’s election-denying lies and the violence he...
North Korea continues missile barrage with test over Japan
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea continued its barrage of weapons tests on Thursday, with Japan saying missiles were shot over its northern territory and South Korea saying it detected at least two missiles shot toward its eastern waters. The launches are the latest in a series of North Korean...
Philadelphia Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, wife, acquitted of fraud charges
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia City Council member and his wife have been acquitted of corruption charges in federal court. Jurors deliberated for five days before finding Councilman Kenyatta Johnson and his wife, Dawn Chavous, not guilty Wednesday in their second trial on honest services wire fraud charges. The Philadelphia Inquirer...
Psychedelic ‘magic mushroom’ drug may ease some depression
The psychedelic chemical in “magic mushrooms” may ease depression in some hard-to-treat patients, a preliminary study found. The effects were modest and waned over time but they occurred with a single experimental dose in people who previously had gotten little relief from standard antidepressants. The study is part of a...
Woman testifies that husband wanted 8 Ohio family members killed
WAVERLY, Ohio — A woman who helped plan the 2016 slayings of eight members of another family, a crime that shook rural southern Ohio and stymied investigators for over two years, says the massacre was her husband’s idea. Angela Wagner made the claim while testifying Tuesday at the murder trial...
Trump lawyers who fought election results saw Justice Clarence Thomas as keyVideo
WASHINGTON — Lawyers who aided former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election regarded an appeal to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as “key” to their chances of success, according to emails provided to congressional investigators and made public Wednesday. The email exchange from Dec....
UN: Russian invasion has uprooted 14 million Ukrainians
UNITED NATIONS — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has driven some 14 million Ukrainians from their homes in “the fastest, largest displacement witnessed in decades,” sparking an increase in the number of refugees and displaced people worldwide to more than 103 million, the U.N. refugee chief said Wednesday. Filippo Grandi, who...
Stocks fall after Fed says it’s too soon to pause rate hikes
Stocks fell sharply after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled that interest rates will need to go even higher than previously thought in order to tame the worst inflation in decades. The Fed also raised its benchmark rate by three-quarters of a percentage point Wednesday, its fourth consecutive hike of...
Going to win $1.2B Powerball prize? Consider not taking cash
DES MOINES, Iowa — Think you’re a sure bet for Wednesday night’s estimated $1.2 billion Powerball jackpot? If so, you need to decide whether to take cash, which would actually pay out $596.7 million, or choose the $1.2 billion annuity option that is twice as large but is paid out...
Musk: People banned from Twitter won’t be restored for weeks
NEW YORK — Elon Musk said Wednesday that Twitter will not allow anyone who has been kicked off the site to return until it sets up procedures on how to do that, a process that will take at least a few weeks. That would mean people banned from the site...
Parkland school killer formally sentenced to life in prison
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz formally received a sentence of life without parole Wednesday after families of his 17 slain victims spent two days berating him as evil, a coward, a monster and a subhuman. Cruz, shackled and in a red jail jumpsuit, watched Judge Elizabeth...
21 new graves found in search for Tulsa Massacre victims
The search for remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has turned up 21 additional graves in the city’s Oaklawn Cemetery, officials said. Seventeen adult-size graves were located Friday and Saturday, Oklahoma State Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck said Monday. Additionally, the city announced Tuesday that four graves, two adult-size...
Russia rejoins key deal on wartime Ukrainian grain exports
KYIV, Ukraine — Diplomatic efforts salvaged a wartime agreement that allowed Ukrainian grain and other commodities to reach world markets, with Russia saying Wednesday it would stick to the deal after Ukraine pledged not to use a designated Black Sea corridor to attack Russian forces. The Russian Defense Ministry said...
Search for solutions drives race to save Utah salt flats
WENDOVER, Utah — In the Utah desert, a treeless expanse of pristine white salt crystals has long lured daredevil speed racers, filmmakers and social media-obsessed tourists. It’s so flat that on certain days, visitors swear they can see the curvature of the earth. The glistening white terrain of the Bonneville...
Germany to force plastic makers to help pay for cleanups
BERLIN — The German government said Wednesday that it plans to make plastic manufacturers contribute to the cost of cleaning up litter in streets and parks. The Cabinet agreed on a bill that makers of products containing single-use plastic will need to pay into a central fund managed by the...
White House: North Korea covertly shipping artillery to Russia
WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday accused North Korea of covertly shipping a “significant number” of artillery shells to Russia in support of its invasion of Ukraine. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. believes North Korea is “trying to make it appear as though they’re being...
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra paid $15K to take 2 Pa. lawmakers to Europe
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 — In the waning days of summer, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra embarked on a whirlwind, nine-city European tour — its...
