House OKs bill to protect contraception from Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — The right to use contraceptives would be enshrined in law under a measure that Democrats pushed through the House on Thursday, their latest campaign-season response to concerns a conservative Supreme Court that already erased federal abortion rights could go further. The House’s 228-195 roll call was largely along...
New York reports 1st U.S. polio case in nearly a decade
New York health officials on Thursday reported a polio case, the first in the U.S. in nearly a decade. Officials said the Rockland County resident is an unvaccinated adult, but they did not detail the person’s condition. It appears the person had a vaccine-derived strain of the virus, perhaps from...
Republicans challenge Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law anew
HARRISBURG — Republicans have sued again in an attempt to throw out Pennsylvania’s broad mail-in voting law, even as the state’s highest court considers a separate lawsuit aimed at wiping out a law that lost favor with Republicans following former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims about election fraud. It is...
Biden tests positive for covid-19, has ‘mild symptoms’Video
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden tested positive for covid-19 on Thursday and is experiencing “very mild symptoms,” the White House said, as new variants of the highly contagious virus are challenging the nation’s efforts to get back to normal after two and a half years of pandemic disruptions. White House...
A beginner’s guide to requesting public records on Pa. law enforcement
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. Disputes over public records reached a record high last year, with the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records reporting 322 appeals involving...
Russia pounds major Ukrainian city after expanding war aims
KHARKIV, Ukraine — Russian shelling pounded a densely populated area in Ukraine’s second-largest city Thursday, killing at least three people and injuring at least 23 others with a barrage that struck a mosque, a medical facility and a shopping area, according to officials and witnesses. Police in the northeast city...
Pressure on Senate GOP after same-sex marriage passes House
WASHINGTON — The Senate unexpectedly launched a new push Wednesday to protect same-sex marriage in federal law after a surprising number of Republicans helped pass landmark legislation in the House. Some GOP senators are already signaling support. The legislation started as an election-season political effort to confront the new Supreme...
AP-NORC poll: Majority want Congress to keep abortion legal
WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans say Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide, according to a new poll that finds over half say they feel at least somewhat “sad” or “angry” about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The high court’s decision...
House Dems move to protect contraception from Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — The right to use contraceptives would be inscribed into law under a measure Democrats are pushing through the House, their latest campaign-season response to worries that a conservative Supreme Court that’s erased federal abortion rights could go further. The House planned to vote Thursday on the legislation and...
Vatican says they’re gifts; Indigenous groups want them back
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican Museums are home to some of the most magnificent artworks in the world, from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel to ancient Egyptian antiquities and a pavilion full of papal chariots. But one of the museum’s least-visited collections is becoming its most contested before Pope Francis’ trip to...
White House insiders to talk about Trump’s actions on Jan. 6
WASHINGTON — Matthew Pottinger was a journalist in China, concerned about the country’s drift toward authoritarianism, when he decided — at age 31 — to enlist in the U.S. Marines after the invasion of Iraq. “Our form of government is not inevitable,” Pottinger recalled thinking during an interview two years...
Senators propose changes to electors law after Capitol riot
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators agreed Wednesday on proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act, the post-Civil War-era law for certifying presidential elections that came under intense scrutiny after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. Long in the...
You can own a dinosaur skeleton — and other prehistoric stuff — for the right priceVideo
Despite every child gazing in wonder and/or terror at the world-famous Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, they will never be able to buy it and put it in their house. But for the right price, they might be able to afford his cousin. An exhibition-ready,...
Pennsylvania certifies primary election in 64 of 67 counties
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania has certified the results of primary elections from 64 of 67 counties, leaving out three counties in a growing legal dispute over whether to count mail-in ballots on which the voter didn’t handwrite a date, state officials said Wednesday. Certification of the remaining three counties — Berks,...
Secret Service tells House committee it’s still seeking lost Jan. 6 textsVideo
WASHINGTON — The Secret Service has failed so far to provide Congress with any substantial new agency text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, but assures the House committee investigating last year’s Capitol attack it will continue searching for the lost material. Secret Service Communications Chief Anthony Guglielmi...
Indiana Republicans propose banning abortion with exceptions
INDIANAPOLIS — Leaders of Indiana’s Republican-dominated Senate on Wednesday proposed banning abortion with limited exceptions — a move that comes amid a political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who came to the state from neighboring Ohio to end her pregnancy. The proposal will be taken up during a special...
Judge refuses to lift restrictions for Mechanicsburg woman accused of stealing Pelosi’s laptop at Capitol riot
A Cumberland County woman accused of stealing Nancy Pelosi’s laptop during the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol will continue to be confined to her home and must wear an ankle monitor leading up to her trial, according to a judge’s ruling. Riley Williams, 23, of Mechanicsburg, previously filed...
Biden announces modest climate actions; pledges more to comeVideo
SOMERSET, Mass. — President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced modest new steps to combat climate change and promised more robust action to come, saying, “This is an emergency and I will look at it that way.” The president stopped short, though, of declaring a formal climate emergency, which Democrats and...
Who are the richest people in Pennsylvania? Here’s a look at the Keystone State’s 17 billionaires
Pennsylvania’s richest people made their fortunes in different ways: food, drink, sports, finances and more. Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s billionaires lists 2,668 people with a collective worth of $12.7 trillion in 2022. America has the most representatives on that list, with 735 billionaires, including the top-ranked individual, Elon...
NASA aiming for late August test flight of giant moon rocket
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — On the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, NASA announced Wednesday it’s shooting for a late August launch of its giant, new moon rocket. NASA will attempt the more than month-long lunar test flight with three mannequins, but no astronauts, as early as Aug....
Donald Trump and family attend Ivana Trump’s funeral in NYC
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump paid respects to his first wife, Ivana Trump, joining their three children Wednesday at a funeral Mass for the 1980s style icon and businesswoman who helped him build an empire that launched him to the presidency. “A very sad day, but at the...
Secret memo links citizenship question to apportionment
Trump officials tried to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census in a move experts said would benefit Republicans despite initial doubts among some in the administration that it was legal, according to an investigative report released Wednesday by a congressional oversight committee. The report offers a smoking gun...
Giuliani ordered to testify in Georgia 2020 election probe
ATLANTA — A judge in New York has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta that’s investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia. New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber on...
How canine heart disease was tied to grain-free dog food
In 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, acting on input from a group of veterinary researchers, began investigating whether the increasing popularity of grain-free dog foods had led to a sudden rise in a potentially fatal heart disease in dogs, dilated cardiomyopathy. Four years later, the FDA has found...
Uvalde schools look to fire Chief Arredondo after shooting
UVALDE, Texas — Facing massive public pressure, Uvalde’s top school official has recommended the firing of the school district police chief who was central to the botched law enforcement response to the elementary school shooting nearly two months ago that killed two teachers and 19 students. The South Texas city’s...
