At fraud trial, Avenatti asks Stormy Daniels about ghosts
NEW YORK — Michael Avenatti sought Friday at his fraud trial to portray his former client Stormy Daniels as someone who might be delusional as he questioned the porn actor about her belief that her house was once haunted by ghosts. Avenatti, who is acting as his own lawyer, got...
Willow Biden joins long and varied line of White House pets
NEW YORK — Welcome, Willow, to a long line of presidential pets. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have added a green-eyed tabby from Pennsylvania to the White House family, the first feline tenant since President George W. Bush’s controversially named cat India. The 2-year-old Willow joins Commander,...
W.Va. Gov. tells Bette Midler to kiss dog’s ‘heinie’ — and shows itVideo
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice has a message for singer and actress Bette Midler, who called West Virginians “poor, illiterate and strung out” in a tweet after Sen. Joe Manchin refused to support President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act. The 70-year-old Republican governor ended his televised State of...
Ohio group gathers enough signatures in pot legalization effort
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A group seeking to legalize marijuana in Ohio has gathered enough signatures to put the issue in front of legislators, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said on Friday. The Republican-dominated Legislature will now have four months to decide whether to legalize the use and cultivation of...
Swastikas scrawled on Union Station in Washington
WASHINGTON — Vandals scrawled swastikas on the outside of Union Station, the central hub for regional train transportation in the nation’s capital. The graffiti was discovered Friday, one day after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, with crude Nazi symbols marked on columns across the front of the massive building and several...
After huge pandemic losses, governments see rapid rebound
State and local governments lost at least $117 billion of expected revenue early in the pandemic, according to an Associated Press analysis, but many are now awash in record amounts of money, boosted partly by federal aid. In response to the dramatic turnaround, governors, lawmakers and local officials have proposed...
Jan. 6 committee subpoenas fake Trump electors in 7 states
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection subpoenaed more than a dozen individuals Friday who it says falsely tried to declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election in seven swing states. The panel is demanding information and testimony from 14 people who it says allegedly...
Texas toddler saves his family of 7 from massive house fire: ‘Nothing short of a miracle’
A toddler in Alvord, Texas, managed to wake his mother in the early-morning hours of Jan. 15 and is credited for saving his entire family from a massive fire that destroyed their home, reports say. According to a report by WFAA, Nathan and Kayla Dahl lost everything in the fire....
Judge OKs agreement to destroy gun used by Kyle Rittenhouse
KENOSHA, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge on Friday approved an agreement by lawyers to destroy the assault-style rifle that Kyle Rittenhouse used to shoot three people during a 2020 street protest. Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger said the state crime lab would destroy the gun, probably in April. Judge Bruce...
Russia says U.S. ignored its security demands over Ukraine
MOSCOW — Russia said Friday it will not start a war in Ukraine but warned that the U.S. and NATO have ignored its demands and left little room for compromise in the crisis. President Vladimir Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that the West has failed to consider Russia’s key...
Why Ethan Crumbley’s insanity defense could become ‘battle of experts’
PONTIAC, Mich. — Teenager Ethan Crumbley plans to pursue an insanity defense for his alleged role in the Oxford High School mass shooting that killed four students and wounded seven others. One of Crumbley’s attorneys, Paulette Michel Loftin, filed a one-sentence notification Thursday to Oakland County Circuit Judge Kwame Rowe...
Ex-cop’s trial for Breonna Taylor raid offers new chance for justice
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The only criminal trial to arise from the botched police raid that left Breonna Taylor dead gets underway Friday as hundreds of potential jurors gather at a Louisville courthouse in what activists see as a chance for justice. The former Louisville officer facing trial, Brett Hankison, was...
Penn State neared pandemic record with 631 covid cases last week
Penn State neared a pandemic record last week with 631 covid cases, University Park’s highest number of campus infections since the 2020 fall semester — but, with cases declining statewide, the hope is that Penn State’s cases will soon follow suit. Based on data from Jan. 17-23 on the university’s...
Sarah Palin dines out again in New York days after positive virus test
NEW YORK — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was spotted dining out at a New York City restaurant two days after testing positive for the coronavirus. The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee’s visit Wednesday to the upscale Manhattan eatery Elio’s drew attention from photo-snapping bystanders. It came shortly after she...
Key Pennsylvania Dems to miss Biden visit, cite scheduling conflicts
HARRISBURG — President Joe Biden will appear Friday in Pittsburgh as an opening step in a broader campaign to promote the White House’s achievements in key states before the midterm elections. But two of the three leading Democrats on Pennsylvania’s statewide ballot this spring who were invited to appear with...
Coast Guard to suspend search for migrants off FloridaVideo
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — The Coast Guard said Thursday that it had found four additional bodies in its search for dozens of migrants lost at sea off Florida but would suspend its rescue operations at sunset if it doesn’t receive any new information. Homeland Security Investigations officials said they were...
Massive winter nor’easter expected to swamp New York area and New EnglandVideo
NEW YORK — Long Island will likely be buried in snow by Saturday. A nor’easter set to blanket the tri-state area and New England over the weekend could drop as much as 36 inches near Islip, according to AccuWeather’s latest predictions Thursday. More likely, though, is a snowfall closer to...
2 powerful drugs now adding to U.S. overdose crisis
NEW YORK — Emerging reports show that two little-known drugs are making lethal new contributions to America’s drug overdose crisis. Para-fluorofentanyl and metonitazene are being seen more often by medical examiners looking into overdose deaths, according to a government report published Thursday. They often are taken with — or mixed...
Police: Bedford County man taking target practice shoots child in head with pellet gun
A man taking target practice with a pellet gun at a home shot a child in the head, instead, saying the child ran into his line of fire. Now, as WJAC-TV in Johnstown reports, the shooter, identified as Leo Ramsey, 36, of Saxton Borough, Bedford County, is facing charges of...
Alabama police chief quits amid questions over improper ticketingVideo
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The police chief in a small Alabama town that received about half its municipal revenue from fines and forfeitures linked to aggressive traffic enforcement resigned this week as a result of a report about the practice. Mike Jones, chief of police in the Jefferson County town of...
Book about Holocaust banned in Tennessee school districtVideo
ATHENS, Tenn. — A Tennessee school district has voted to ban a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust due to “inappropriate language” and an illustration of a nude woman, according to minutes from a board meeting. The McMinn County School Board decided Jan. 10 to remove “Maus” from its...
Biden: 1st Black woman justice on high court ‘long overdue’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday affirmed his pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying it was “long overdue.” He praised retiring Justice Stephen Breyer as a model public servant and promised a nominee by the end of February. Breyer joined Biden at...
Michigan school shooting suspect to pursue insanity defense
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) — A teenager charged with killing four students at Michigan high school will pursue an insanity defense, his lawyers said in a notice filed Thursday as he, his parents and school officials faced a new lawsuit over the attack at Oxford High School that killed four students....
Vaccine mandate for 1st wave of health care workers to kick in
Health care workers in Pennsylvania and about half the states face a Thursday deadline to get their first dose of the covid-19 vaccine under a Biden administration mandate that will be rolled out across the rest of the country in the coming weeks. While the requirement is welcomed by some,...
Kellyanne Conway memoir ‘Here’s the Deal’ coming out in May
Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has a memoir out May 24: “Here’s the Deal” is billed by her publisher as a look beyond the headlines of the Trump administration and her family life, including her husband and prominent Trump detractor, George Conway. “Not just the story of the White...
