Biden tells oil refiners: Produce more gas, fewer profits
President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on U.S. oil refiners to produce more gasoline and diesel, saying their profits have tripled during a time of war between Russia and Ukraine as Americans struggle with record high prices at the pump. “The crunch that families are facing deserves immediate action,” Biden...
Sweden: Cartoonist Vilks’ fatal car crash was an accident
STOCKHOLM — The police car crash in Sweden that killed Swedish artist Lars Vilks last year was an accident, Swedish authorities said Wednesday, not a targeted attack on the cartoonist who lived under police protection since his controversial 2007 sketch of the Prophet Muhammad. An exploding tire led the driver...
Odessa, Texas, remains without water as temperatures soar
ODESSA, Texas — Residents of the West Texas city of Odessa remained without water Wednesday as crews worked to restore service amid scorching temperatures in the area. The city water system’s 165,000 customers’ taps lost pressure or went completely dry after the 24-inch main broke Monday afternoon, according to the...
U.S. report: nearly 400 crashes of automated tech vehicles
DETROIT — Automakers reported nearly 400 crashes of vehicles with partially automated driver-assist systems, including 273 involving Teslas, according to statistics released by U.S. safety regulators on Wednesday. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cautioned against using the numbers to compare automakers, saying it didn’t weight them by the number...
Election 2022 Takeaways: Big Trump win, Nev. Senate race set
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump notched a significant victory in South Carolina, where his preferred candidate easily ousted five-term Rep. Tom Rice, the first Republican to be booted from office after voting to impeach the former president last year. But another high-profile GOP target of Trump in the state, Rep. Nancy...
Sig Sauer sued over pistol critics say goes off by itself
A pistol made by Sig Sauer and sold to law enforcement and civilians alike is prone to going off without the trigger being pulled, a defect that has led to dozens of injuries over the past several years, a U.S. Army veteran alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The veteran...
Penn-Trafford video class brings home a half-dozen student Emmy awardsVideo
Video production students at Penn-Trafford High School are finishing the year with a bang. Students from the class brought home National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences High School Student Production awards in six different categories in the Mid-Atlantic region on Thursday, including winning “Best Newscast” four of the past...
Monroeville VA clinic expected to serve up to 10,000 veterans annually
Veterans Affairs officials are certainly proud of the work done at their flagship hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. But they’re also well aware of the drawbacks elderly veterans face when walking up the aptly-named “Cardiac Hill” to their appointments. “There are a lot of steep hills, and in bad weather...
At 2nd trial, ex-CIA employee defends himself in big leak
NEW YORK — A former CIA software engineer charged with causing the biggest theft of classified information in CIA history defended himself at the start of his trial Tuesday, telling jurors he was falsely accused and the victim of a political witch hunt. Joshua Schulte, 33, said he was singled...
Pa. is considering ban on trans athletes; experts say it’s discriminatory and ‘anti-evidence’
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 — A coalition of Pennsylvania lawmakers and activists recently gathered on the Capitol rotunda steps with one mission in mind:...
UN says latest bout of tribal violence in Sudan killed 145
CAIRO — Clashes in Sudan killed at least 145 people and injured over 180 others this month, the United Nations said Tuesday, the latest tribal violence to rock the war-wrecked east African nation. The violence in West Darfur and South Kordofan provinces, some of the deadliest in recent years, comes...
Imprisoned Kremlin critic Navalny moved, alarming his allies
MOSCOW — Allies of imprisoned opposition politician Alexei Navalny sounded the alarm Tuesday when they discovered he was no longer in the prison where he had been serving his time and there was no word on where he had been taken. But late in the day, the chairman of a...
1st of 4 summer supermoons rose Monday night
June’s full moon, traditionally known as the “strawberry moon,” is usually the last full moon of spring or first of summer. This year it happened on Monday night and was also a “supermoon.” The lunar event was most visible for residents of Pennsylvania on Monday night with the best viewing...
Synagogue challenges Florida abortion law over religion
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A new Florida law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks with some exceptions violates religious freedom rights of Jews in addition to the state constitution’s privacy protections, a synagogue claims in a lawsuit. The lawsuit filed by the Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor of Boynton Beach contends the law...
FDA advisers back Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for older kids
NEW YORK — A government advisory panel Tuesday endorsed a second brand of covid-19 vaccine for school-age children and teens. The Food and Drug Administration’s outside experts voted unanimously that Moderna’s vaccine is safe and effective enough to give kids ages 6 to 17. If the FDA agrees, it would...
Dangerous heat wave descends on parts of Midwest and South
CHICAGO — Much of the Midwest and a swath of the South braced for a potentially dangerous and deadly heat wave on Tuesday, with temperatures that could reach record highs in some places and combine with humidity to make it feel like it’s 100 degrees or hotter in spots. More...
Fetterman names former Biden Pa. director as new campaign manager
John Fetterman has brought on the former state director of President Joe Biden’s campaign as his new U.S. Senate campaign manager. Brendan McPhillips, who is based in Philadelphia, will replace Bobby Maggio, who served as Fetterman’s campaign manager during the Democratic primary. The move was first reported by the Philadelphia...
Russia lowers gas flows to Europe with part stuck in Canada
Russian natural gas deliveries through a key pipeline to Europe will drop by around 40% this year, state-controlled energy giant Gazprom said Tuesday, after Canadian sanctions over the war in Ukraine prevented German partner Siemens Energy from delivering overhauled equipment. Germany’s utility network agency said it did not see gas...
WHO convenes experts to decide if monkeypox is an emergency
GENEVA — The World Health Organization will convene an emergency committee of experts to determine if the expanding monkeypox outbreak that has mysteriously spread outside Africa should be considered a global health emergency. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday he decided to convene the emergency committee on June 23...
Nebraska’s capital city rescinds LGBTQ fairness ordinance
LINCOLN, Neb. — The City Council in Nebraska’s capital city has rescinded an anti-discrimination measure that extended protections to sexual orientation and gender identity, just four months after unanimously approving it. The Lincoln City Council voted 4-3 Monday to rescind the February revision to the city’s fairness ordinance in the...
Police: House Republican’s tour of Capitol wasn’t suspicious
WASHINGTON — Police have determined that there is nothing suspicious about a tour of U.S. Capitol office buildings that a House Republican gave about 15 people the day before the Jan. 6 attack by rioting supporters of then-President Donald Trump. The House committee investigating the 2021 insurrection examined whether rioters...
Nude woman steals police car, runs over officer’s leg, then crashes car, cops say
CHICAGO — A nude woman lying in the street stole a Chicago police squad car, ran over an officer with it and then crashed it Monday morning, Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference. Police received a call of a woman in the street unclothed, Brown said. When police...
‘How to Murder Your Husband’ author gets life in prison for killing her husband
PORTLAND, Ore. — A self-published romance novelist who once wrote an online essay called “How to Murder Your Husband” was sentenced Monday to life in prison with the possibility of parole for murdering her husband at his workplace in Portland four years ago. Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, was convicted of...
Abortion foes, accustomed to small wins, ready for a big one
COLUMBIA, S.C. — For tens of millions of Americans who see abortion as wrong, it’s gone this way for a half-century: One woman swayed to reconsider as dozens of others follow through. One clinic’s doors closed only to see desperate patients go elsewhere. One law passed, another overturned. A movement...
Mexican government prodding its farmers to grow more food
MEXICO CITY — The corn has begun to sprout on the hillsides south of Mexico’s capital, though it’s unclear whether these shoots will have enough water to grow or whether the farmer will be able to afford the increasingly expensive fertilizer. What is known is that the government of President...
