Wall Street opens higher; Twitter, Snap in focus on results
NEW YORK — Stocks are opening slightly higher on Wall Street Friday ahead of data that’s expected to show the manufacturing industry slowed again last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.4% just after the opening bell while the S&P 500 is barely positive and the Nasdaq is...
‘A complete miracle’: The 20th anniversary of the Quecreek Mine rescue
John Unger promised his wife that if something bad ever happened on his job in the coal mine, he’d find a way to survive. For 29 years, he kept that promise, always returning to the rural, century-old Somerset County home where they raised a family and tended to their cattle....
How rescuers saved the trapped Quecreek miners
Brad Hillegass had operated a crane plenty of times but never with the lives of nine men in the balance. That changed July 24, 2002, when nine miners were trapped 240 feet underground at the Quecreek Mine in Somerset County and his job was to safely lift them to freedom...
A Quecreek Timeline
A timeline of events surrounding the Quecreek mine rescue and beyond...
Mission accomplished: How rescuers saved the trapped Quecreek miners
Brad Hillegass had operated a crane plenty of times but never with the lives of nine men in the balance. That changed July 24, 2002, when nine miners were trapped 240 feet underground at the Quecreek Mine in Somerset County and his job was to safely lift them to freedom...
‘A complete miracle’: 20th anniversary of the Quecreek Mine rescueVideo
John Unger promised his wife that if something bad ever happened on his job in the coal mine, he’d find a way to survive. For 29 years, he kept that promise, always returning to the rural, century-old Somerset County home where they raised a family and tended to their cattle....
Jan. 6 hearing dominates top TV networks — except one
NEW YORK — America’s top television networks on Thursday turned prime time over to a gripping account of former President Donald Trump’s actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol — with one prominent exception. The top-rated news network, Fox News Channel, stuck with its own lineup...
Lee Zeldin, GOP nominee for NY governor, assaulted at rally
NEW YORK — U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for New York governor, was assaulted by a man who apparently tried to stab him at an upstate event Thursday but the congressman escaped serious injury. “I’m OK,” Zeldin said in a statement. “Fortunately, I was able to grab his...
Pa.’s unemployment trust fund is broke. The Wolf admin says a long-term fix will save taxpayers millions
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 — Pennsylvania lawmakers have failed to adopt a policy change that supporters say would bolster the state’s pandemic-battered unemployment program...
FBI: No sign of Jimmy Hoffa under New Jersey bridge
DETROIT — The FBI found no evidence of missing Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa during a search of land under a New Jersey bridge, a spokeswoman said Thursday. The Pulaski Skyway now becomes another dead end in the decadeslong mystery that has stretched from a Michigan horse farm to the East...
DHS watchdog takes over inquiry into lost secret service texts from Capitol riotVideo
The Homeland Security Department’s watchdog has opened an investigation into the loss of Secret Service text messages from the days surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol last year. The Inspector General of Homeland Security is conducting the probe and has instructed the Secret Service to stop its own internal...
Jan. 6: Trump spurned aides’ pleas to call off Capitol mobVideo
WASHINGTON — Despite desperate pleas from aides, allies, Republican congressional leaders and even his family, Donald Trump refused to call off the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol, instead “pouring gasoline on the fire” by aggressively tweeting his false claims of a stolen election and telling the crowd of...
Steve Bannon’s defense seeks acquittal then rests case
WASHINGTON — Trump ally Steve Bannon declined to testify and his lawyers did not call any witnesses in his contempt of Congress trial on Thursday, instead arguing the judge should just acquit him, saying prosecutors hadn’t proven their case. The decision to forego calling any witnesses in Bannon’s defense cleared...
Pa. state universities turn focus to drawing in more students, driving out more graduates
Pennsylvania’s state university system looks a lot different today than it did just five years ago when it began the process of redesigning itself to address the challenges that tested the survival of some of its universities. Initially, a good bit of its focus rested on trying to keep all...
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...
