GOP voters told to hold onto mail ballots until Election Day
ATLANTA — Republican activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump have crafted a plan that, in their telling, will thwart cheating in this year’s midterm elections. The strategy: Vote in person on Election Day or — for voters who receive a mailed ballot —...
Biden: ‘Legitimate’ for voters to weigh age as he nears 80
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — President Joe Biden joked that it’s difficult acknowledging he’s about to turn 80, but said he’s physically and mentally capable of serving a potential second term in the White House. Biden, who turns 80 on Nov. 20, said it’s “totally legitimate” for voters to question whether...
Companies lure hourly workers with college tuition perks
NEW YORK — When Daniella Malave started working for Chipotle at 17, the main benefit she was seeking was free food. As it turned out, she also got a free college education. While working full time for the chain, Malave completed two years of community college with annual stipends of...
Cheney: Jan. 6 panel has not ruled out Trump’s live TV testimony
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Capitol riot won’t give Donald Trump the chance to turn a possible live TV appearance of his subpoenaed testimony into a “circus” and “food fight” as lawmakers try to ensure he complies with their demands, the panel’s vice chair said Sunday. The committee...
Wisconsin parade suspect’s court antics won’t help appeal, experts say
MADISON, Wis. — He stripped his shirt off in court. He complains that the prosecutors are “slick.” He won’t let the judge get a word in. He won’t even answer to his own name. The Wisconsin man accused of killing six people by driving his SUV through a Christmas parade...
Report: Salman Rushdie lives, but loses use of eye and hand
NEW YORK — Salmon Rushdie’s agent says the author has lost sight in one eye and the use of a hand as he recovers from an attack from a man who rushed the stage at an August literary event in western New York, according to a published report. Literary agent...
Where governor candidates Mastriano, Shapiro stand on rural health care, broadband and agriculture
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 — People who live in rural Pennsylvania face unique barriers to health care, broadband, and economic opportunities. About 3.4 million...
Illegal border crossings to U.S. from Mexico hit annual high
SAN DIEGO — A surge in migration from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua in September brought the number of illegal crossings to the highest level ever recorded in a fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The year-end numbers reflect deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries, the...
Politicians seek to leverage celebrities to reach voters
ATLANTA — A beer garden near downtown Atlanta filled for a recent event hosted by Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock aimed at Latino voters. Some said they came to seek Warnock, who is seeking reelection in the midterm elections on Nov. 8 against Republican challenger Herschel Walker. But others came...
Genes link bipolar, schizophrenia, once thought unrelated
ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. — When Chastity Murry had her first psychotic break, she went into her bathroom and downed a whole bottle of pills, hoping to die. Her teenage daughter had to perform CPR to save her life. Around that same time more than a decade ago, the man who would...
Alex Jones seeks new trial after $1B Sandy Hook verdict
HARTFORD, Conn. — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has asked a Connecticut judge to throw out a nearly $1 billion verdict against him and order a new trial in a lawsuit by Sandy Hook families, who say they were subjected to harassment and threats from Jones’ lies about the 2012 Newtown...
Venezuelans expelled from U.S. decide next steps in Mexico
MEXICO CITY — In a shelter on Mexico City’s east side, Venezuelan mechanic José Cuicas is waiting anxiously for an American friend to answer his request to sponsor him for one of the 24,000 visas the Biden administration says it will give to Venezuelans. Cuicas was one of some 1,700...
Explainer: Why the British public is not choosing its leader
LONDON — Observers of Britain’s governing structure can be forgiven for scratching their heads in recent weeks as they watch the country reel through a succession of prime ministers without holding an election. While the opposition Labour Party is demanding an election, the governing conservatives are pushing on with choosing...
Russian-installed authorities order evacuation of Kherson
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine told all residents of the city of Kherson to leave “immediately” Saturday ahead of an expected advance by Ukrainian troops waging a counteroffensive to recapture one of the first urban areas Russia took after invading the country. In a post on the Telegram...
Jail officials across Pa. sound alarm as mental health crisis puts people at risk, survey finds
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. County jails across Pennsylvania lack the resources to address a growing mental health crisis, putting some of the most vulnerable incarcerated...
Most outside spending on Pa. governor’s race has one aim: to defeat Doug Mastriano
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 nationally watched race for Pennsylvania governor, Democrat Josh Shapiro has outspent Republican rival Doug Mastriano by tens...
Biden student debt relief plan blocked by appeals court
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court late Friday issued an administrative stay temporarily blocking President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel billions of dollars in federal student loans. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay while it considers a motion from six Republican-led states to block the loan cancellation...
Tennessee GOP leaders vow to ban transgender youth care
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Top Tennessee Republicans on Friday vowed to push for some of the strictest anti-transgender policies in the United States at a rally Friday, where hundreds of people cheered in support as LGBTQ rights activists yelled back in protest. The rally comes nearly a month after video surfaced...
Democrat for Florida governor dismisses manager over arrest
MIAMI — Florida gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist’s campaign manager has left his position after being charged in a domestic violence case. Austin Durrer was charged Tuesday with misdemeanor assault in Dorchester County, Maryland, according to online court records. The Crist campaign announced in a Wednesday statement that Durrer had resigned,...
Doorbell video shows malnourished Texas twins seeking help
CYPRESS, Texas — A mother whose twin teenagers told police in Texas they were handcuffed and forced to drink bleach was in jail Friday in neighboring Louisiana, where records show the woman had pleaded guilty a decade earlier to charges of putting her kids in danger. Zaikiya Duncan, 40, was...
Justice Kagan at UPenn: ‘Time will tell’ if court finds common ground
WASHINGTON — Justice Elena Kagan on Friday waded into the issue of divisiveness on the Supreme Court, saying that “time will tell” whether the court can get back to “finding common ground” after a term in which its six conservatives and three liberals split over contentious issues like abortion and...
Tennessee man receives 4 years in prison for Capitol breach
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee business owner who scaled a wall outside the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Friday to four years in prison after he was convicted of five charges connected to the raid on Jan. 6, 2021, federal prosecutors said. Matthew Bledsoe, 38, of Olive Branch, Miss., was found...
Guilty plea due in Michigan school shooting that killed 4
DETROIT — A teenager accused of killing four fellow students and injuring more at a Michigan high school is expected to plead guilty to murder next week, authorities said Friday. Ethan Crumbley had created images of violence during a classroom assignment last November but was not sent home from Oxford...
Jan. 6 panel issues subpoena to Trump, demanding he testify
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol issued a subpoena Friday to Donald Trump, exercising its subpoena power against the former president who lawmakers say “personally orchestrated” a multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The nine-member panel issued a...
Bannon gets 4 months behind bars for defying 1/6 subpoena
WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was sentenced Friday to serve four months behind bars after defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols allowed Bannon to stay free pending appeal...
