Thousands take to U.S. streets demanding action on gun laws
Thousands of people rallied on the National Mall and across the United States on Saturday in a renewed push for gun control measures after recent deadly mass shootings from Uvalde, Texas, to Buffalo, New York, that activists say should compel Congress to act. “Enough is enough,” District of Columbia Mayor...
Candidates of color say they need more party support, financial backing to be successful in Pa.
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 — Neither Omy Maldonado nor Yamelisa Taveras had run for office before May of this year. Maldonado is a U.S....
Geico facing payout to woman who got HPV after sex in car
Geico could be required to pay a Missouri woman $5.2 million because she said she contracted a sexually transmitted disease while having sex in the car of a man who is insured by the company. A three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a Jackson County...
What’s next for the Jan. 6 panel? More hearings, more Trump
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has laid out a roadmap for the hearings this month as it examines President Donald Trump’s responsibility for the melee and the damage that resulted for law enforcement officers, members of Congress and others in attendance...
Biden, leaders reach migration pact despite attendance flap
LOS ANGELES — President Joe Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders on Friday announced what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees. “The Los Angeles Declaration” is perhaps the biggest achievement of the Summit of the Americas, which was undercut by...
March for Our Lives returns with a renewed gun control push
WASHINGTON — Angered by the unrelenting toll from gun violence, tens of thousands of people are expected at rallies this weekend in the nation’s capital and around the United States demanding that Congress pass meaningful changes to gun laws. The second March For Our Lives rally will take place Saturday...
U.S. lifts covid-19 test requirement for international travelVideo
The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international travelers test negative for covid-19 within a day before boarding a flight to the United States, ending one of the last remaining government mandates designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus. A senior administration official said Friday that the mandate...
Jack Del Rio fined $100K for comments about Capitol riot
Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio has been fined $100,000 by the team for his comments about protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Coach Ron Rivera announced the fine in a statement Friday after meeting...
House approves ‘red flag’ gun bill unlikely to pass Senate
The House approved a “red flag” bill Thursday that would allow families, police and others to ask federal courts to order the removal of firearms from people at extreme risk of harming themselves or others. It’s the Democratic-controlled chamber’s latest response to U.S. mass shootings and likely stands little chance...
Ukraine fears a long war might cause West to lose interest
KYIV, Ukraine — As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grinds into its fourth month, officials in Kyiv have expressed fears that the specter of “war fatigue” could erode the West’s resolve to help the country push back Moscow’s aggression. The U.S. and its allies have given billions of dollars in weaponry...
Plant giveaway promotes Thailand’s medical marijuana sector
BANGKOK — Thailand’s health minister kicked off a marijuana giveaway Friday, handing out the first 100 seedlings of a planned distribution of 1 million plants a day after the country legalized cultivation and possession of the drug. Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who has been the driving force behind legalization, presided...
Pa. bills limiting discussion, materials on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools poised for introduction
An elementary school with gender-neutral bathrooms labelled as “they/them.” School volunteers being permitted to talk to elementary students about LGBTQ issues without parental knowledge. A school district telling elementary school teachers to withhold information from parents about children questioning their gender. Two state lawmakers say they have been bombarded with...
U.S. Rep. Scott Perry asked about presidential pardon after attacks on Capitol, Select Committee leader asserts
It didn’t take long for a Pennsylvania politician to get outed in the opening public hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Less than 30 minutes in, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, stated that midstate Congressman Scott Perry,...
Police say man who died in lake with gators missing 3 limbs
LARGO, Fla. — A man found dead in a Florida lake while searching for Frisbees and other flying discs was missing three limbs after a likely encounter with alligators, police said Friday. Largo Police Department spokeswoman Megan Santo said in an email that the medical examiner’s final report on the...
Pakistan probes Hindu temple’s desecration as India protests
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s foreign ministry on Friday said authorities were trying to trace and arrest suspects who this week desecrated a Hindu temple located at a home in the country’s port city of Karachi, drawing condemnation from India. In a statement, the ministry said that investigations were still underway, and...
Police say W.Va. shooting suspect under guard, hurt trooper released
A West Virginia man accused of fatally shooting three co-workers at a western Maryland machine shop remained under police guard at a hospital Friday, but authorities said a Maryland state trooper injured in a shootout with the suspect was treated and released. The 25-year veteran of the Maryland State Police...
Pennsylvania pulls gay pioneer’s marker over 1993 interview
HARRISBURG — A roadside historical marker installed less than a year ago to honor a gay rights pioneer has been removed after a state senator raised concerns with Pennsylvania’s state history agency about the man’s 30-year-old memories of an early sexual encounter with another boy. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum...
Pennsylvania is sitting on billions in stimulus money. Lawmakers may actually agree on a plan to spend some of it.
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 — As the June 30 deadline for the Pennsylvania Legislature to pass a new budget approaches, support for spending some...
New restrictions on ships to protect whales coming soon
PORTLAND, Maine — Federal authorities spent the past few years analyzing rules for the shipping industry and are now close to releasing fresh guidelines to help protect a vanishing species of whale. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been reviewing the speed regulations it uses to protect North Atlantic...
White supremacists are riling up thousands on social media
WASHINGTON — The social media posts are of a distinct type. They hint darkly that the CIA or the FBI are behind mass shootings. They traffic in racist, sexist and homophobic tropes. They revel in the prospect of a “white boy summer.” White nationalists and supremacists, on accounts often run...
U.S. lifts covid-19 test requirement for international travel
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international air travelers to the U.S. take a covid-19 test within a day before boarding their flights, easing one of the last remaining government mandates meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus. A senior administration official said the mandate...
Missing daughter of Texas murder victims found after 42 years
AUSTIN, Texas — A decades-long search by a Florida woman and her extended family linked to an unsolved murder case has resulted in the woman finally finding her missing granddaughter, now grown with no previous knowledge of her tragic history, officials said Thursday. Meanwhile, the mystery behind who brutally killed...
Rep. Scott Perry asked Trump for a pardon after Jan. 6, committee leader says as hearings openVideo
U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., one of the leading figures in the effort to throw out Pennsylvania’s votes in the 2020 presidential election, was one of several members of Congress who contacted the White House seeking a pardon from Donald Trump in the days after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack...
Report: Police knew of injured at Texas school while waiting
AUSTIN, Texas — Police waited for protective equipment as they delayed entering the Texas elementary school where a gunman inside killed 19 children and two teachers, even as they became aware that some victims needed medical treatment, according to records obtained by The New York Times. The details published Thursday...
Capitol riot panel blames Trump for Jan. 6, ‘attempted coup,’Video
WASHINGTON — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump Thursday night, saying the assault was hardly spontaneous but an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. With a never-before-seen...
