1/6 panel to hear of Trump’s pressure on Justice Department
WASHINGTON — The Jan. 6 committee will hear from former Justice Department officials who faced down a relentless pressure campaign from Donald Trump over the 2020 presidential election results while suppressing a bizarre challenge from within their own ranks. The hearing Thursday will bring attention to a memorably turbulent stretch...
Fewer Americans file for jobless aid
WASHINGTON — Fewer Americans applied for jobless benefits last week as the U.S. job market remains robust despite four-decade high inflation and a myriad of other economic pressures. Applications for jobless aid for the week ending June 18 fell to 229,000, a decline of 2,000 from the previous week, the...
Feds: Ghislaine Maxwell deserves at least 30 years in prison
NEW YORK — British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell should spend at least 30 years in prison for her role in the sexual abuse of teenage girls over a 10-year period by her onetime boyfriend, financier Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors said Wednesday in written arguments. Prosecutors said she should serve between 30 years...
Reports: Multiple people killed in helicopter crash in West Virginia
LOGAN, W.Va. — Multiple people were killed when a helicopter crashed Wednesday in West Virginia, according to news outlets. The identities were not confirmed, but Ray Bryant, chief of operations for Logan Emergency Management, told WSAZ-TV they were not local residents. The helicopter was based at the Logan airport and...
John Fettterman lands major endorsement from National Education Association
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman landed a key endorsement on Wednesday from the National Education Association with the “strong support” of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. “John Fetterman is a proven leader on education issues in Pennsylvania,” Rich Askey, president of the PSEA, the state’s largest teachers’ union, said...
Uvalde school police Chief Pete Arredondo on leave after mass shooting
UVALDE, Texas — The Uvalde school district’s police chief was put on leave Wednesday following allegations that he erred in his response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 students and two teachers dead. Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Hal Harrell said that he put...
Former West Virginia lawmaker gets 3 months in Jan. 6 riot
A former West Virginia lawmaker who livestreamed himself on Facebook storming the U.S. Capitol and cheering on what he described as a “revolution” was sentenced Wednesday to three months in prison. Derrick Evans, 37, who pleaded guilty to a felony civil disorder charge, told the judge that he regrets his...
GOP Senator Ron Johnson wanted to intervene for Trump on Jan. 6Video
WASHINGTON — Ron Johnson, a staunch ally of Donald Trump and the most vulnerable Senate Republican, attempted to intervene on the former president’s behalf just moments before Congress met to certify the election results on Jan. 6, 2021, the House panel investigating the attack on the Capitol that day revealed...
Murder conviction overturned in Georgia hot car death caseVideo
ATLANTA — Georgia’s highest court on Wednesday overturned the murder and child cruelty convictions against a man whose toddler son died after he left him in a hot car for hours, saying the jury saw evidence that was “extremely and unfairly prejudicial.” Justin Ross Harris, 41, was convicted in November...
‘Blue slip’ problem hangs up veterans toxic exposure bill
WASHINGTON — A Senate-passed bill to expand health care and disability benefits to veterans exposed to burn pits or other toxic substances during their service has run into a constitutional objection from the House. The bill, which would make it easier for veterans to access benefits by presuming that certain...
Lawmaker wants Penn State to report location, condition of Joe Paterno statue
Rep. Aaron Bernstine (R-Butler/Beaver/Lawrence) is attempting to force Penn State University to provide information regarding the location and condition of the Joe Paterno statue by tying it as an amendment to Senate Bill 1283, which would provide the school’s funding for the fiscal year. Bernstine, who is a Penn State...
The Pennsylvania primary election set voter turnout records. Here’s what else the data show
The 2022 Pennsylvania primary election — finally filed away in the history books after a recount — wasn’t just a wild political saga. It also set voter turnout records. More Democrats and Republicans voted than in any midterm election primary in the last 25 years. Who those voters are, where...
From ‘carp’ to ‘copi’: unpopular fish getting a makeover
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — You’re in the mood for fish and your server suggests a dish of invasive carp. Ugh, you might say. But how about broiled copi, fresh from the Mississippi River? Here’s the catch: They’re the same thing. Illinois and partner organizations kicked off a market-tested campaign Wednesday...
San Francisco subway train shooting kills 1, wounds another
SAN FRANCISCO — One person was killed and another was wounded in a shooting on a crowded subway train in San Francisco Wednesday, a city supervisor said. Supervisor Myrna Melgar said San Francisco police informed her that the shooting happened around 10 a.m. on a San Francisco Muni train between...
Bills on poll watchers, earlier presidential primary advance in Pa.
HARRISBURG — Proposals to hold Pennsylvania’s presidential primaries in March rather than April and to permit poll watchers to operate outside the counties where they live were advanced Wednesday by a divided House State Government Committee. Both bills had already passed the state Senate and were approved for consideration by...
Ginni Thomas responds to Jan. 6 panel, hearings stretch to July
WASHINGTON — The House’s Jan. 6 committee plans to continue its public hearings into July as its investigation of the Capitol riot deepens. The chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, told reporters Wednesday that the committee is receiving “a lot of information” — including new documentary film footage of Donald Trump’s final...
Man found not responsible for Times Square vehicle rampage
NEW YORK — A man who drove his car through crowds of people in Times Square in 2017, killing a young tourist and maiming helpless pedestrians, was cleared of responsibility Wednesday because of mental illness. A jury in New York City accepted an insanity defense claiming Richard Rojas was so...
Mark Cuban’s pharmacy could have saved Medicare $3.6 billion, researchers find
Medicare could have saved $3.6 billion in a single year if it had bought generic drugs from Mark Cuban’s online pharmacy, according to a Harvard University report. In the report published this week in Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers from Brigham’s and Women’s Hospital with the Harvard Medical School made...
Sen. Kevin Cramer injures hand, may face finger amputation
WASHINGTON — Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota announced Wednesday that he suffered a serious injury to his right hand and is potentially facing amputation of a finger. The Republican lawmaker said he was working in his yard over the weekend when he sustained the injury that required immediate surgery....
Biden calls for 3-month suspension of gas, diesel taxes
President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on Congress to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months — an election-year move meant to ease financial pressures that was greeted with doubts by many lawmakers. The Democratic president also called on states to suspend their own gas taxes or provide...
Crowds flock to Yellowstone as park reopens after floods
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Throngs of tourists gleefully watched the legendary Old Faithful geyser shoot towering bursts of steaming water while others got stuck in “bison jams” on picturesque valley roads as visitors returned Wednesday for the partial reopening of Yellowstone National Park after destructive floods. Park managers raised the...
‘Heightened alert’: Abortion providers brace for ruling
In her first week on the job at a Philadelphia abortion clinic, Amanda Kifferly was taught how to search for bombs. About a year later, protesters blocked the entrances and exits of the The Women’s Centers, at one point pulling Kifferly into something resembling a mosh pit, where they surrounded...
U.K. plans to rewrite human rights law; critics cry foul
LONDON — The British government on Wednesday unveiled plans for a Bill of Rights it says will strengthen free speech and the power of Parliament — but that critics argue will rip up human rights protections for ordinary people. The government published the bill days after courts in the U.K....
Kuwait’s crown prince dissolves parliament, calls elections
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Kuwait’s crown prince on Wednesday dissolved Parliament and called for early elections, a move to ease government gridlock that has bred popular opposition and paralyzed the tiny country for months. In his televised national address, the 81-year-old Sheikh Meshal Al Ahmed Al Jaber said that...
China says Ukraine crisis has sounded alarm for humanity
BEIJING — The conflict in Ukraine has “sounded an alarm for humanity,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Wednesday, as China continues to assume a position of neutrality while backing its ally Russia. China has refused to criticize Russia’s war in Ukraine or even to refer to it as an invasion...
