Supreme Court justices nix 2nd mostly Black district in Louisiana for 2022
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday put on hold a lower court ruling that Louisiana must draw new congressional districts before the 2022 elections to increase Black voting power. With the three liberal justices dissenting, the high court short-circuited an order from a federal judge to create a second...
Former Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry avoids prison time over 3 felony convictions
WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., was sentenced Tuesday to two years’ probation for lying to the FBI and concealing information during an investigation into his campaign’s receipt of tens of thousands of dollars in illegal foreign contributions, a decision that allows him to avoid any time in prison....
51 migrants die after trailer abandoned in San Antonio heatVideo
SAN ANTONIO — Desperate families of migrants from Mexico and Central America frantically sought word of their loved ones as authorities began the grim task Tuesday of identifying 51 people who died after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer without air conditioning in the sweltering Texas heat. It was the worst...
Fight over 2020 election records lands in Pennsylvania court
HARRISBURG — A county judge in Williamsport has to decide whether to force officials to provide voter-by-voter electronic election records after the state Office of Open Records ruled Pennsylvania law makes them confidential. Heather Honey, who heads the Lebanon, Pa.-based firm Haystack Investigations, sought in October a digital copy of...
Covid-sniffing dogs can also smell long-term virus symptoms in patients, study says
While researchers already discovered a trained dog’s nose can identify covid-19 with its scent-detecting capabilities, dogs have now demonstrated they can also sniff out long-term virus symptoms — often called “long covid” — in patients, researchers in Germany found. Dogs are ” superior smellers ” and are already used to...
Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump White House aide, now in spotlightVideo
WASHINGTON — Just two years out of college, Cassidy Hutchinson said she watched as a valet mopped up the president’s lunch after he had smashed his plate against a wall. Donald Trump was in a rage because his attorney general had refuted his claims that the election he lost had...
FDA advisers debate updating covid booster shots for fall
Government advisers debated Tuesday if Americans should get a modified covid-19 booster shot this fall — and exactly how best to update it to fight a virus that surely will change even more by then. “That’s the problem — we’re being asked to more or less have a crystal ball...
Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 20 years in prisonVideo
NEW YORK — Ghislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. The stiff sentence was the punctuation mark on a trial that explored the sordid rituals...
4th person dies following Missouri Amtrak derailment
MENDON, Mo. — A fourth person has died from injuries suffered in an Amtrak train derailment in Missouri, the state highway patrol said Tuesday. The patrol said the person died at University of Missouri Health Center. The person’s identity was not released. The patrol said the fourth fatality was aboard...
France’s Macron says Russia can’t win in Ukraine after strike on mall
KREMENCHUK, Ukraine — France’s president denounced Russia’s fiery airstrike on a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine as a “new war crime” Tuesday and vowed the West’s support for Kyiv would not waver, saying Moscow “cannot and should not win” the war with its neighbor. The strike, which killed at least...
Fire kills 51 after apparent riot attempt at Colombia prison
BOGOTA, Colombia — A fire at a prison in southwestern Colombia has killed at least 51 people and injured a dozen more, prison authorities reported Tuesday. The director of the national prison system, Tito Castellanos, told Radio Caracol that it’s not clear if all of the dead were prisoners. He...
Some cities nix July 4 fireworks for shortages, fire dangers
PHOENIX — The skies over a scattering of Western U.S. cities will stay dark for the third consecutive Fourth of July as some major fireworks displays are canceled again this year — some over wildfire concerns amid dry weather and others because of enduring pandemic-related staffing and supply chain issues....
Millennial Money: Getting therapy when cost is a barrier
The race to find mental health treatment can feel like a marathon when you may not have the energy or ability to even make it to the starting line. You may be faced with limited affordable options and a lack of available therapists. “Prior to the pandemic, we had an...
G-7 leaders end summit pledging to hurt Russia economically
ELMAU, Germany — Leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies struck a united stance to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes” as Russia’s invasion grinds on, and said they would explore far-reaching steps to cap Kremlin income from oil sales that are financing the war. The final statement Tuesday...
‘Silicon Heartland’ boon for Ohio, but families mourn homes
JOHNSTOWN, Ohio — When President Joe Biden applauded a decision by Intel Corp. to build a $20 billion semiconductor operation on “1,000 empty acres of land” in Ohio, it didn’t sit well with Tressie Corsi. The 85-year-old woman has lived on 7 acres of that land since she and her...
Aide: Trump dismissed Jan. 6 threats, wanted to join crowd
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump dismissed the presence of armed protesters headed to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and even endorsed their calls to “hang Mike Pence,” a key former White House aide told House investigators Tuesday, describing chaotic scenes inside and outside the executive mansion as Trump...
Public, private sectors cooperate to try to boost apprenticeship numbers in Pennsylvania
In the years leading up to his graduation from Hampton Township High School in 2019, Nic Michielli discussed his future with district staff. “When I told my high school guidance counselor that I probably wasn’t planning to go to college, the conversation pretty much ended there,” Michielli said. With a...
46 migrants found dead in abandoned trailer in San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO — Forty-six people were found dead after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer on a remote back road in San Antonio in the latest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico to the U.S. Sixteen people were hospitalized, including four children. A city...
John Eastman, lawyer who advised Trump, says federal agents seized phone
WASHINGTON — A lawyer who aided former President Donald Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 election results said in a federal court filing Monday that federal agents seized his cell phone last week. John Eastman said the agents took his phone as he left a restaurant last Wednesday evening, the...
Pennsylvania House targets colleges’ fetal research in bill
HARRISBURG — A proposal to require Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities to promise they are not conducting research or experiments with fetal tissue from elective abortions was added to a state budget bill by House Republicans on Monday. The chamber voted 108-92, with three Republicans crossing party lines, for the amendment...
Heckler charged with assault after confronting Rudy GiulianiVideo
NEW YORK — A heckler who clapped former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the back at a campaign event was arrested, jailed for more than 24 hours and now faces an assault charge. The episode Sunday at a Staten Island supermarket produced dueling accounts, with Giuliani likening the...
8-year-old Florida boy accidentally shoots, kills baby
PENSACOLA, Fla. — An 8-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed a 1-year-old girl and injured a 2-year-old girl at a Florida motel on Sunday, authorities said. The boy’s father left the gun holstered in his Pensacola motel room closet. After he left the room, his son found it and fired...
Conflicting reports, gaps in data obscure true number of Pa. law enforcement agencies
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. Spotlight PA’s weeklong trip down a reporting rabbit hole began with a simple question: How many law enforcement agencies are in...
3 killed, dozens hurt in Amtrak train crash in MissouriVideo
MENDON, Mo. — An Amtrak passenger train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago struck a dump truck Monday in a remote area of Missouri, killing three people and injuring dozens more as rail cars tumbled off the tracks and landed on their sides, officials said. Two of those killed were...
Jan. 6 panel calls surprise hearing to present new evidence
WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 panel is calling a surprise hearing this week to present evidence it says it recently obtained, raising expectations of new bombshells in the sweeping investigation into the Capitol insurrection. The hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. on Tuesday comes after Congress left Washington for a...