Ivanka Trump testifies before House Jan. 6 panel
WASHINGTON — Ivanka Trump, former President Donald Trump’s daughter and one of those closest to him during the insurrection at the Capitol, is testifying before the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, said Tuesday afternoon that she had been answering investigators’...
Biden orders push on long covid, pandemic’s shadowy mystery
WASHINGTON — Confronting the pandemic’s lasting shadow, President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered a new national research push on long covid, while also directing federal agencies to support patients dealing with the mysterious and debilitating condition. Biden assigned the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate an urgent new...
Chester police: Gun handled by 2-year-old boy in car killed girl, 4
CHESTER — A 2-year-old boy was handling a gun in a parked vehicle at a gas station pump near Philadelphia when it discharged, killing a 4-year-old girl, police said. Chester police said the shooting happened shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Eagle Save Mart. Police said adults at the...
U.S. health care system ‘consistently fails’ women of reproductive age
The U.S. health care system “consistently fails” to meet the basic needs of reproductive-age women, which may partly explain why women are more than three times as likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth in the country compared to other high-income countries, according to new research from the...
Barack Obama, returning to White House with Biden, touts his signature health care law’s anniversaryVideo
WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama returned to the White House on Tuesday for the first time since leaving office to celebrate the 12th anniversary of his landmark health care law, which President Joe Biden bolstered with two new actions. Biden, who as Obama’s vice president famously celebrated the Affordable...
1 killed in Texas as damaging storms tear across SouthVideo
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Violent storms killed one person Tuesday in Texas as hail pelted communities and strong wind knocked trees into power poles elsewhere in the South. Authorities issued a flurry of tornado warnings at the start of what could be two days of violent weather in the region. In...
Pa.’s broken ‘compassionate release’ law, by the numbers
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. In Pennsylvania prisons, thousands of people are aging behind bars, suffering from chronic health conditions, and requiring regular medical care that...
White House to extend student loan pause through August
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration plans to freeze federal student loan payments through Aug. 31, extending a moratorium that has allowed millions of Americans to postpone payments during the coronavirus pandemic, according to an administration official familiar with the White House’s decision-making. Student loan payments were scheduled to resume May...
Officers won’t be charged in fatal shooting at McDonald’s
GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Four Maryland police officers won’t be charged in the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old Black man in a McDonald’s drive-thru last summer, officials said. The Montgomery County’s State’s Attorney’s Office announced Monday that an investigation by prosecutors in neighboring Howard County into Ryan LeRoux’s July 2021 death...
Ohio GOP lawmakers push sexual orientation discussion ban
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio educators would be banned from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, under newly introduced Republican legislation that mirrors a recently passed Florida law dubbed “Don’t say gay” by critics. The Ohio legislation also requires that teaching about sexual orientation or...
Student shot at Erie high school; person of interest fled
ERIE — One student was injured when multiple shots were fired Tuesday morning in a high school in northwestern Pennsylvania, and a person of interest in the shooting left the school after the gunfire, officials said. Erie’s Public Schools said the shooting happened inside the Erie High School building shortly...
In fiery speech, Zelenskyy implores U.N. Security Council to hold Russia to accountVideo
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an impassioned address to the United Nations Security Council, on Tuesday likened Russian atrocities in his homeland to Nazi war crimes, calling for Nuremberg-style tribunals to hold Moscow accountable. “They shot and killed women outside their houses — they killed entire families,...
300 killed by Mali’s army and foreigners, says rights group
DAKAR, Senegal — Mali’s army and foreign soldiers suspected to be Russian recently killed an estimated 300 men — some of them suspected Islamic extremist fighters but most civilians — in Moura in central Mali, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. It is the worst single atrocity reported in Mali’s 10-year...
European Union proposes Russian coal ban in new sanctions
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s executive branch proposed Tuesday a ban on coal imports from Russia in what would be the first EU sanctions targeting the country’s lucrative energy industry over its war in Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU needed to increase the pressure...
Obama, back at White House with Biden, celebrates his signature health care law’s anniversary
WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama will return to the White House Tuesday for the first time since leaving office to celebrate the 12th anniversary of his landmark health care law, which President Joe Biden is planning to bolster with two new actions. Biden will sign an executive order to...
Stacey Abrams reaches millionaire status before 2nd campaign
ATLANTA — When Democrat Stacey Abrams first ran for Georgia governor in 2018, her lackluster personal finances and a hefty bill from the IRS gave Republicans fodder to question how she could manage a state budget when she struggled with her own debts. As she launches a second bid this...
With divisive cases coming, Barrett says ‘Read the opinion’
LOS ANGELES — Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett said Monday that judges are not deciding cases to impose a “policy result,” but are making their best effort to determine what the law and the Constitution require. In a nation splintered by partisanship and wracked by incivility, Barrett in remarks...
Amazon’s first U.S. union overcomes hurdles, faces new ones
NEW YORK — When a scrappy group of former and current warehouse workers on Staten Island, New York went head-to-head with Amazon in a union election, many compared it to a David and Goliath battle. David won. And the stunning upset on Friday brought sudden exposure to the organizers and...
New Twitter biggie Musk may have thoughts on edit button
Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO and power Twitter user who is now Twitter’s largest shareholder and newly appointed board member, may have thoughts on a long-standing request from users: Should there be an edit button? On Monday evening, Musk launched a Twitter poll about whether they want an edit...
Lawmakers fail to override key element of Gov. Wolf’s climate plan
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature failed Monday in a last-ditch effort to block the centerpiece of Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to fight climate change, a regulation requiring fossil fuel-fired power plants to pay a price for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit. A 32-17 vote in the state Senate...
Democratic, GOP Senate bargainers reach $10B covid agreement
WASHINGTON — Senate bargainers reached agreement Monday on a slimmed-down $10 billion package for countering covid-19 with treatments, vaccines and other steps, the top Democratic and Republican negotiators said, but ended up dropping all funding to help nations abroad combat the pandemic. The compromise drew quick support from President Joe...
Wild foal made an orphan after tourists took it from its mom, North Carolina national park says
A newborn wild horse on one of North Carolina’s barrier islands had to be permanently taken from its mother after well-meaning tourists ferried it off the Shackleford Banks, according to Cape Lookout National Seashore. The incident happened March 26, and the people involved have been cited for removing a wild...
Arrest made in connection with Sacramento mass shootingVideo
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento police announced an arrest Monday connected to the shooting that killed six people and wounded a dozen others in the heart of California’s capital as at least two shooters fired more than 100 rounds and people ran for their lives. Police said they booked Dandrae Martin,...
Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney back Ketanji Brown Jackson, all but assure confirmationVideo
WASHINGTON — Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney announced Monday night they will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic elevation to the Supreme Court, giving President Joe Biden’s nominee a burst of bipartisan support and all but assuring she’ll become the first Black female justice. The senators...
Medicare enrollees to get free covid-19 tests at drug stores
WASHINGTON — Amid worries that the latest coronavirus variant could spark another rise in cases, Medicare announced Monday that millions of enrollees will finally have access to free over-the-counter covid-19 tests at drug stores. More than 59 million people with Medicare’s “Part B” outpatient coverage will be able to get...
