Gas price-shocked Pennsylvanians looking for relief, but Harrisburg unlikely to provide it any time soon
While a spokesperson for AAA says near-record gasoline prices could rise higher — the Pennsylvania average was $4.76 a gallon on Tuesday — relief seems unlikely to come from Harrisburg any time soon. Initiatives to help consumers from both Gov. Wolf’s office and the state Legislature have failed to gain...
New covid cases drop 15% in Pennsylvania’s latest report; deaths nearly double
In its weekly update on covid-19 Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 24,862 new cases in the past week. The latest batch of cases are 15% fewer than last week’s report of 29,227. Pennsylvania is now averaging 3,552 new cases per day. Despite the lower number new cases, the...
Explainer: Effects of EU Russia oil ban, Moscow’s response
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The European Union has agreed to slash Russian oil imports in a tough escalation of the bloc’s campaign of sanctions to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. It’s a landmark decision that will hit Russian coffers in the long term, but could also hurt consumers...
Africans see inequity in monkeypox response elsewhere
OSUN, Nigeria — As health authorities in Europe and elsewhere roll out vaccines and drugs to stamp out the biggest monkeypox outbreak beyond Africa, some doctors acknowledge an ugly reality: The resources to slow the disease’s spread have long been available, just not to the Africans who have dealt with...
Guns overtake cars as leading cause of death for U.S. kids
For decades, the biggest threat kids faced growing up came from the automobiles they happily hopped into every day for a trip to school, the store or soccer practice. Now, it’s gunfire. As the country mourns its latest school shooting victims in Uvalde, Texas, it also has reached a grim...
Uvalde school police chief says he’s still cooperatingVideo
UVALDE, Texas — The school district police chief who served as on-site commander during last week’s deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas, said Wednesday that he’s talking daily with investigators, contradicting claims from state law enforcement that he has stopped cooperating. In a brief interview, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police...
Western nations vow to send more, better arms to Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — Western nations promised more and more advanced arms to Ukraine, in an effort to tip the balance in Kyiv’s favor as it fends off a grinding Russian advance in the east. Germany said Wednesday it will supply Ukraine with modern anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, and the...
John Hinckley to get full freedom 41 years after shooting President Reagan
WASHINGTON — John Hinckley Jr., who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, is “no longer a danger to himself or others” and will be freed from court oversight this month as planned, a federal judge said Wednesday, capping Hinckley’s four-decade journey through the legal and mental health systems. U.S. District...
After Uvalde, holiday weekend sees shootings nationwide
Even as the nation reeled over the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, multiple mass shootings happened elsewhere over the Memorial Day weekend in areas both rural and urban. Single-death incidents still accounted for most gun fatalities. Gunfire erupted in the predawn...
Gift ban, other good-government changes stall in Pa. despite promises from leadership
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 — Rabbi Michael Pollack stood at a podium in the Capitol, just steps away from where the legislature meets, to...
Explainer: A look at Bill Cosby’s sexual assault civil trial
LOS ANGELES — Eleven months after he was freed from prison when a Pennsylvania appeals court threw out his criminal conviction, Bill Cosby, 85, will again be the defendant in a trial over sexual assault allegations. This time, it will be in a civil case in California relating to events...
Clinton 2016 campaign lawyer acquitted of lying to the FBI
WASHINGTON — A lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI when he pushed information meant to cast suspicions on Donald Trump and Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election. The case against Michael Sussmann was the first courtroom test of special...
Biden talks gun control, extremism with New Zealand’s PM
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden praised New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday for her success in curbing domestic extremism and guns as he tries to persuade a reluctant Congress to tighten gun laws in the aftermath of horrific mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. The...
Wolf: Money could be spent to address gun violence but ‘we cannot ignore the elephant in the room’
Gov. Tom Wolf is calling on policymakers to “be open to the things that work” to address gun violence “but we cannot ignore the elephant in the room and that is guns.” During an interview Tuesday morning on KDKA radio, Wolf reacted to last week’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary...
2nd body found after boat carrying 13 flips on Colorado lake
PUEBLO, Colo. — A boat flipped over in high winds on a Colorado lake over Memorial Day weekend, sending 13 people into the water and leaving two dead. The eight children and three adults were on the large, flat boat at Lake Pueblo State Park when it capsized Sunday evening....
Rising U.S. traffic deaths put focus on 1 Philadelphia road
PHILADELPHIA — Just one more step and the stroller would have been on the curb. The thought haunts Latanya Byrd years after a driver racing down Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia struck and killed her 27-year-old niece, Samara Banks, and three of Banks’ young sons as they crossed the 12-lane road....
Israel says Iran spied on nuclear inspectors 2 decades ago
JERUSALEM — Israel said Tuesday it has proof that Iran stole classified documents from the U.N. atomic energy agency nearly two decades ago and used them to conceal its nuclear activities from international inspectors. The documents appear to show that Iran was spying on the inspectors and trying to anticipate...
Ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro subpoenaed in DOJ’s 1/6 probe
WASHINGTON — Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro revealed in a draft court filing Tuesday that he has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury this week as part of the Justice Department’s sprawling probe into the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Navarro, who was a trade adviser to...
Biden to meet Fed chair as inflation bites U.S. pocketbooks
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to meet with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as soaring inflation takes a bite out of Americans’ pocketbooks and the president’s public approval. Tuesday’s meeting is the first since Biden renominated Powell to lead the central bank and comes weeks after his...
Canada to cap the market for handguns with new law
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government introduced legislation Monday that would put a freeze on importing, buying or selling handguns. “We are capping the number of handguns in this country,” Trudeau said. The regulations to halt the growth of personally owned handguns is expected to be enacted...
Uvalde grieves, says goodbyes at visitations, funerals
UVALDE, Texas — It should have been the first day of a joyous week for Robb Elementary School students — the start of summer break. Instead, the first two of 19 children slain inside a classroom were being remembered at funeral visitations. The gathering for 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza was...
Hurricane Agatha sets May record, then weakens over Mexico
PUERTO ESCONDIDO, Mexico — Hurricane Agatha made history as the strongest hurricane ever recorded to come ashore in May during the eastern Pacific hurricane season, making landfall on a sparsely populated stretch of small beach towns and fishing villages in southern Mexico. The storm hit Oaxaca state Monday afternoon as...
‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with school chief’s role
UVALDE, Texas — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — even as parents outside begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been placed with the school district’s homegrown police chief. It’s left residents in...
All bodies recovered from Nepal plane crash; autopsies begin
KATHMANDU, Nepal — Rescuers have recovered all 22 bodies from the site where a plane crashed on a mountainside in Nepal, the airline said Tuesday. All the bodies were flown to Kathmandu and taken to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital where doctors are performing autopsies, Tara Air said in a...
In big bid to punish Moscow, EU bans most Russia oil imports
BRUSSELS — In the most significant effort yet to punish Russia for its war in Ukraine, the European Union agreed to ban the overwhelming majority of Russian oil imports after tense negotiations that exposed the cracks in European unity. From the moment Russia invaded on Feb. 24, the West has...
