How the Constitution teaches students to disagree civilly
The motto for Grand Valley High School and its 1,400 students in the Pennsylvania borough of Malvern, about 25 miles west of Philadelphia, is “Creating a new age of learning.” It may be helping create a new age of conversation, too. By all accounts, political polarization is growing in the...
Supreme Court won’t hear Lundergan illegal contribution case
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is leaving in place the illegal campaign contributions conviction of Kentucky businessman and former Democratic Party chief Jerry Lundergan. The high court Monday turned away Lundergan’s appeal of his conviction. As is typical, the justices did not say why they rejected his case. Lundergan and...
MyPillow CEO Lindell gets banned from Twitter, again
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was banned from Twitter for a second time after attempting to use a new account to access the social media platform. Lindell set up a new account Sunday on Twitter under MikeJLindell. The account was quickly suspended. Twitter said Monday that Lindell’s new account was permanently...
Dubai delivery drivers walk off job in rare protest over pay
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Food-delivery drivers protesting wage cuts and grueling working conditions went on an extremely rare strike in Dubai over the weekend — a mass walkout that paralyzed one of the country’s main delivery apps and revived concerns about labor conditions in the emirate. The strike started...
Armenia detains 180 protesters calling on Pashinyan to quit
YEREVAN, Armenia — Police in Armenia’s capital on Monday detained 180 anti-government demonstrators that were blocking streets to protest against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Protests demanding that Pashinyan step down reignited in Armenia last month, after he spoke in the country’s parliament about the need to sign a peace agreement...
Fed to fight inflation with fastest rate hikes in decades
The Federal Reserve is poised this week to accelerate its most drastic steps in three decades to attack inflation by making it costlier to borrow — for a car, a home, a business deal, a credit card purchase — all of which will compound Americans’ financial strains and likely weaken...
Tornado rips through Kansas; 3 meteorology students killed in crash
WICHITA, Kan. — A tornado that barreled through parts of Kansas destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes and buildings, injured several people and left more than 15,000 people without power, officials said Saturday. In addition to wreckage from the tornado itself, three University of Oklahoma meteorology students traveling back from...
First civilians leave Mariupol steel plant, hundreds remainVideo
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — People fleeing besieged Mariupol described weeks of bombardments and deprivation as they arrived Monday in Ukrainian-held territory, where officials and relief workers anxiously awaited the first group of civilians freed from a steel plant that is the last redoubt of Ukrainian fighters in the devastated port city....
Trump endorsement divides Republicans in deep-red Nebraska
OMAHA, Neb. — In one of the nation’s most overwhelmingly Republican states, the party is entering the final stretch of a bruising primary campaign deeply divided over who should become the nominee for governor. Nearly all of Nebraska’s GOP establishment leaders are lining up behind businessman Jim Pillen, believing he...
Evidence mounts of GOP involvement in Trump election schemes
WASHINGTON — Rioters who smashed their way into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, succeeded — at least temporarily — in delaying the certification of Joe Biden’s election to the White House. Hours before, Rep. Jim Jordan had been trying to achieve the same thing. Texting with then-White House...
Woman avoids jail for voting dead mom’s ballot in Arizona
PHOENIX — A judge in Phoenix sentenced a woman o two years of felony probation, fines and community service for voting her dead mother’s ballot in Arizona in the 2020 general election. But the judge rejected a prosecutor’s request that she serve at least 30 days in jail because she...
Ukrainians plead for Mariupol rescue; Russian advance crawls
KHARKIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces fought village by village Saturday to hold back a Russian advance through the country’s east, while the United Nations worked to broker a civilian evacuation from the last Ukrainian stronghold in the bombed-out ruins of the port city of Mariupol. An estimated 100,000 civilians remain...
Biden roasts Trump, GOP, himself at correspondents’ dinner
WASHINGTON — The White House press corps’ annual gala returned Saturday night along with the roasting of Washington, the journalists who cover it and the man at the helm: President Joe Biden. The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, sidelined by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, featured Biden as the...
Runners, spectators return to city streets for 2022 Pittsburgh MarathonVideo
Marathon mania was unleashed in Pittsburgh this weekend. The full 26.2-mile race and 13.1-mile half-marathon kicked off about 7 a.m. Sunday under cloudy skies that turned to rainy, soggy conditions about an hour into the race. But that didn’t dampen the spirit of runners. Many said they were thrilled the...
Biden order to boost mining may not have quick payoff
WASHINGTON — President Biden is turning to a Cold War-era law to boost production of lithium and other minerals used to power electric vehicles, but experts say the move by itself is unlikely to ensure the robust domestic mining Biden seeks as he promotes cleaner energy sources. Biden’s action, part...
Democrats hone populist appeal with proposed stock trading ban
WASHINGTON — When Rep. Abigail Spanberger first introduced a bill banning stock trading by members of Congress and their families, the Virginia Democrat managed to get only eight co-sponsors. So far this session, 62 — or about one out of every seven House members — have signed on. It’s a...
Why independents can’t vote for candidates this May, and the push to change that
HARRISBURG — When Diana Dakey registered to vote in Pennsylvania, she chose to tick the box that would leave her without a political party. “I did not feel that I could label myself as a Republican or a Democrat,” said Dakey, an independent voter from Lackawanna County. “I can’t bring...
Russia will quit International Space Station over sanctions
The head of Russia’s space program said Moscow will pull out of the International Space Station, state media reported, a move it has blamed on sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine. “The decision has been taken already, we’re not obliged to talk about it publicly,” Tass and RIA Novosti...
Why independents can’t vote for candidates this May, and the push to change that
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 — When Diana Dakey registered to vote in Pennsylvania, she chose to tick the box that would leave her without...
Alabama prison official missing after escorting inmate
FLORENCE, Ala. — A prison official from Alabama is missing after escorting an inmate to a courthouse for a hearing. The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post Saturday that Assistant Director of Corrections Vicky White disappeared while escorting an inmate being held on capital murder charges. The...
Suspected tornado rips through Kansas, causes severe damage
WICHITA, Kan. — A suspected tornado that barreled through parts of Kansas damaged multiple buildings, injured several people and left more than 6,500 people without power, officials said Saturday. Officials said the suspected twister moved though parts of southeast Wichita and Andover on Friday evening. Andover Fire Chief Chad Russell...
GOP election-deniers elevate races for secretary of state
ATLANTA — Add one more group of contests to the white-hot races for Congress and governor that will dominate this year’s midterm elections: secretaries of state. Former President Donald Trump’s attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election and his subsequent endorsements of candidates for state election offices who...
Ukrainians plead for Mariupol rescue; Russian advance crawls
KHARKIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces fought village by village Saturday to hold back a Russian advance through the country’s east, while the United Nations worked to broker a civilian evacuation from the last defensive stronghold in the bombed-out ruins of the port city of Mariupol. An estimated 100,000 civilians remain...
Musk engages in Twitter spat after rebuttal from Ocasio-Cortez
WASHINGTON — Elon Musk engaged in a Twitter spat with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she rebuked billionaires and delivered an indirect rebuttal to the Tesla Inc. chief executive’s tweet saying that the Democratic Party “has been hijacked by extremists.” Musk, who has agreed to buy Twitter Inc. for $44 billion,...
Justice Dept. files challenge to Alabama transgender law
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday challenged an Alabama law making it a felony for doctors to treat transgender people under age 19 with puberty-blockers and hormones to help affirm their new gender identity. The Justice Department filed a motion seeking to intervene in an ongoing...
