Kentucky Senate passes ban on older transgender athletes
FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Senate passed a bill Wednesday to bar older transgender girls from participating in school sports that match their gender identity. The 27-8 vote followed an emotional plea from a lawmaker who shared her own family story and warned that the bill is hurtful because “you’re...
Wolf renews higher-ed scholarship idea, amid worker shortage
HARRISBURG — Two years after he first proposed it, Gov. Tom Wolf is trying to engage the Legislature anew in his bid to start a major new scholarship program for college students in Pennsylvania, but on Wednesday said the idea has new urgency because of difficulties in finding workers across...
Investigation: Zinke misused position as Interior secretary
BILLINGS, Mont. — Former U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke misused his position to advance a commercial development project that included a microbrewery in his Montana hometown and lied to an agency ethics official about his involvement in the project, according to a report by federal investigators released Wednesday. The investigation...
Prosecutors reduce requested sentence for ex-cop Kim Potter
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota prosecutors have apparently backed away from their pursuit of a longer-than-usual sentence for the suburban Minneapolis police officer who said she confused her handgun for her Taser when she killed Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist. Kim Potter, 49, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday following her...
Online harassment, real harm: Fixing the web’s biggest bug
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — It should have been a time of celebration: Brittan Heller would soon graduate from college and head to one of the nation’s top law programs. But when a classmate with unrequited feelings for Heller wasn’t admitted to that same school, he turned his rage on her. He...
Low-income Philadelphians to receive no-strings-attached cash in anti-poverty experiments
PHILADELPHIA — The City of Philadelphia will be introducing two programs that will distribute money to low-income residents with no strings attached. The goal of the programs is to understand the impact of cash infusions on household stability and economic well-being. City officials are releasing few details about the initiatives,...
Prosecutors build case for hate crimes in Arbery killing
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Prosecution witnesses retook the stand Wednesday in the federal hate crimes trial of three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery. The first witness was FBI intelligence analyst Amy Vaughan, who went through evidence from the defendants’ text messages and social media posts. On the first day...
Latest Trump-Russia filing generates buzz
WASHINGTON — The latest filing from special counsel John Durham in his investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe has been seized on by the conservative media and Donald Trump himself as vindication of the former president’s oft-repeated claims that he was “spied” on. One headline said Durham had...
A stunning fall for ex-Honduran president wanted in U.S.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The arrest of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández and the images that followed — a leader shackled and paraded before the cameras like a common criminal — were a stunning reversal for a man who for years seemed impervious to growing allegations of corruption. While president...
Brazil mudslides from torrential rains kill at least 38
PETROPOLIS, Brazil — The death toll from devastating mudslides and floods that swept through a mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro state has reached 78, Gov. Claudio Castro said Wednesday afternoon. The city of Petropolis was slammed by a deluge Tuesday, and Castro said almost 400 people were left homeless....
Biden orders release of Trump White House logs to Congress
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is ordering the release of Trump White House visitor logs to the House committee investigating the riot of Jan. 6, 2021, once more rejecting former President Donald Trump’s claims of executive privilege. The committee has sought a trove of data from the National Archives, including...
Abortion ban after 15 weeks passed by West Virginia House
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Republican-dominated West Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill Tuesday that would ban abortion after 15 weeks, a piece of legislation almost identical to the Mississippi law currently under review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court’s ruling in the Mississippi abortion case could lead...
P.J. O’Rourke, irreverent author and commentator, dead at 74
NEW YORK — P.J. O’Rourke, the prolific author and satirist who re-fashioned the irreverence and “Gonzo” journalism of the 1960s counterculture into a distinctive brand of conservative and libertarian commentary, has died at age 74. O’Rourke died Tuesday morning, according to Grove Atlantic Inc. Books publisher and president Morgan Entrekin....
Sen. Doug Mastriano, seeking GOP governor nomination, issued Jan. 6 subpoenaVideo
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania state senator who was in regular communication with Donald Trump as the then-president sought to reverse his 2020 election loss, and was outside the U.S. Capitol the afternoon of the Jan. 6 rioting, was subpoenaed Tuesday by the congressional committee looking into the insurrection. Sen. Doug...
New York girl missing since 2019 found hidden under staircase
SAUGERTIES, N.Y. — A young girl reported missing in 2019 was found hidden under a staircase by officers searching a home in New York’s Hudson Valley, police said Tuesday. The child was found in good health Monday night in a Saugerties home about 130 miles east of Cayuga Heights, where...
Massachusetts preschool closes, apologizes after blackface activityVideo
NEWTON, Mass. — A Massachusetts Montessori preschool has shut down and apologized after a classroom full of toddlers painted black faces on paper plates and held them up to their own faces as a celebration of Black History Month. ICKids in Newton in a statement posted on Facebook and on...
Crashed plane carried 4 teens who’d been on hunting trip in North CarolinaVideo
Four teenagers and four adults returning from a hunting trip were on board a small plane that crashed off the coast of North Carolina over the weekend, authorities announced Tuesday. One body has been pulled from the Atlantic Ocean by search crews combing the area and there is no indication...
Kremlin critic Navalny faces new trial, this time in prison
MOSCOW — A new trial against Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny opened Tuesday at the penal colony where he faces another lengthy prison term, a further step in a yearlong, multi-pronged crackdown on Russia’s most ardent Kremlin critic, his allies and other dissenting voices. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s longtime foe,...
Jury rejects Sarah Palin’s lawsuit against New York Times
NEW YORK — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin lost her libel lawsuit against The New York Times on Tuesday when a jury rejected her claim that the newspaper maliciously damaged her reputation by erroneously linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting. A judge had already declared that if the...
Covid-19 vaccine in pregnancy may protect babies after birth
Covid-19 vaccines during pregnancy can protect babies after they’re born and lead to fewer hospitalized infants, a U.S. government study released Tuesday suggested. The study is the first to show potential benefits to infants born to people who received two doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines during pregnancy, Centers for...
Alec Baldwin sued by family of cinematographer killed on set
LOS ANGELES — The family of a cinematographer shot and killed on the set of the film “Rust” is suing Alec Baldwin and the movie’s producers for wrongful death, their attorneys said Tuesday. Lawyers for the family of Halyna Hutchins announced the lawsuit filed in New Mexico in the name...
Mexico scientist pleads guilty to spying for Russia in Miami
MIAMI — A prominent Mexican scientist who led a double life with two families on separate continents pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge of being co-opted by Russian agents into surveilling a U.S. government informant residing in Miami. Hector Cabrera Fuentes was arrested in 2020 at Miami International Airport as...
Prince Andrew to settle sex abuse case, donate to charity
NEW YORK — Britain’s Prince Andrew has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, who said she was sexually trafficked to the British royal by the financier Jeffrey Epstein when she was 17. The deal described in a court filing Tuesday in New York avoids a trial that...
Justice Department finds Pa. courts discriminated against people with opioid use disorder
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 — Courts in Pennsylvania violated federal law by telling people to stop taking life-saving addiction medications, the Department of Justice...
What is snowmobiling worth to Pennsylvania’s economy?
Snowmobiling adds $65 million to Pennsylvania’s economy each year, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. More than 40,000 snowmobiles are registered with the department, which requires registration and titling of all snowmobiles in the state. Registration is $20 for two years. Titling is $22.50. In addition,...
