Top Stories category, Page 203
Lawyers spar in Johnstown courtroom over government effort to deport Venezuelan
A skirmish in a nationwide battle over the Trump administration’s push to deport immigrants it claims are criminals played out Monday in a Western Pennsylvania courtroom. Attorneys for a Venezuelan man accused of being part of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang asked a federal judge in Johnstown to bar...
Trump administration asks judge to toss lawsuit restricting access to abortion medication
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday asked a judge to toss out a lawsuit from three GOP-led states seeking to cut off telehealth access to abortion medication mifepristone. Justice Department attorneys stayed the legal course charted by Biden administration, though they didn’t directly weigh in on the underlying issue...
Trump administration says Harvard will receive no new grants until it meets White House demands
WASHINGTON — Harvard University will receive no new federal grants until it meets a series of demands from President Donald Trump’s administration, the Education Department announced Monday. The action was laid out in a letter to Harvard’s president and amounts to a major escalation of Trump’s battle with the Ivy...
Badly needed updates to Pa.’s election law unlikely despite new consensus on voter ID
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. HARRISBURG — For two decades, disputes over voter identification have sunk attempts to rewrite Pennsylvania’s badly outdated election law. But in recent years, prominent Democrats have offered tentative support...
Pete Hegseth directs 20% cut to top military leadership positions
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday directed the active duty military to shed 20% of its four-star general officers as the Trump administration keeps pushing the services to streamline their top leadership positions. Hegseth also told the National Guard to shed 20% of its top positions. In a...
Gainey: Overcrowding complaint, not bias, prompted inspection at Pittsburgh gay bar
A weekend compliance check at P*Town, a gay bar in Bloomfield, was prompted by an overcrowding complaint — not to target the LGBTQIA+ community, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said Monday. In explaining the city’s actions, Gainey appeared to be responding to social media commentary that sprang up after police officers...
Rite Aid returns to bankruptcy protection as it seeks to sell all assets
Rite Aid is again seeking bankruptcy protection as the struggling drugstore chain says it will try to sell substantially all of its assets. The company said Monday that its stores will remain open as it returns to Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The company said it will work to ensure that...
Trump administration says it will pay immigrants in the U.S. illegally $1,000 to leave the country
WASHINGTON — Pushing forward with its mass deportation agenda, President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday that it would pay $1,000 to immigrants who are in the United States illegally and return to their home country voluntarily. The Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that it would also...
Real ID deadline has arrived: What you need to know
Travelers planning a domestic flight this week should be prepared as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is no longer accepting state-issued identification that are not Real ID-compliant at security checkpoints. On Wednesday, all airline passengers 18 and older, including TSA PreCheck and Clear members, must have a Real ID or...
Highlands High School still without power, internet
Heavy storms that rolled through the area nearly a week ago still are impacting daily life in the Alle-Kiski Valley. Highlands High School remained closed Monday, with district officials blaming an ongoing power and internet outage. “This is all from last week’s storm,” Superintendent Monique Mawhinney said. “We are under...
‘I want him to rot’: Pitcairn man who killed Uber driver gets life in prison
Christina Spicuzza’s family called her killer a coward. Three years ago, Calvin Crew marched Spicuzza, an Uber driver, into the cold, dark woods, ignoring her pleas to spare her life. He didn’t show up for his own sentencing Monday. It went on without him. Crew, 26, of Pitcairn was ordered...
Lawsuit claims West Mifflin cops left hurt New Kensington man in holding cell without medical care, leading to death
West Mifflin police officers left a visibly injured assault victim untreated in a holding cell for more than nine hours after arresting him last summer, leading to his death three days later, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Monday. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh,...
If Harvard loses its tax-exempt status, Western Pa. universities, nonprofits could be in trouble
Harvard University could lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually if the federal government is able to revoke its tax-exempt status. But University of Pittsburgh law professor Philip Hackney suspects the move, vocalized by President Donald Trump for a second time Friday, could mean big trouble for higher education institutions...
Trump threatens a 100% tariff on foreign-made films, saying the movie industry in the U.S. is dying
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump is opening a new salvo in his tariff war, targeting films made outside the U.S. In a post Sunday night on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has authorized the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to slap...
Wrong-way detection project starting on Route 28
PennDOT is set to begin installing wrong-way detection technology along Route 28 on Monday. The technology will be added to off-ramps in Pittsburgh, Millvale, Sharpsburg, Etna, Aspinwall, Shaler, O’Hara and Harmar. Shoulder restrictions will occur weekdays from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Millvale exit through Friday. Officials will...
Tim Benz: Home woes, offensive ineptitude have Derek Shelton searching for answers
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ 4-0 shutout loss at home Sunday to the San Diego Padres was notable for a lot of reasons. • It plunged the Pirates to 12-23 (.343). That’s the third-worst record in Major League Baseball. • It’s the Bucs’ fourth loss in a row and their eighth in...
Severe storms remain a possibility as some remain without power
With the potential for severe storms brewing Monday afternoon, a National Weather Service meteorologist urged people to check on each other, especially those in areas still reeling from last week’s weather. “We encourage folks to check on eachother and to keep eachother updated,” said David Shallenberger, a meteorologist at the...
As deadline looms for Penn State’s future, former PSNK chancellors share thoughts
Robert Arbuckle has myriad suggestions for what Penn State could do to combat declining enrollment and financial issues at its branch campuses. None of them include closing campuses. “You have to use your imagination and be creative,” said Arbuckle, who was the Upper Burrell college’s CEO from 1977 to 1992....
Trump blasts Mexico’s Sheinbaum for rejecting offer to send U.S. troops into Mexico to fight cartels
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump on Sunday said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected his proposal to send U.S. troops to Mexico to help thwart the illegal drug trade because she is fearful of the country’s powerful cartels. The comments by Trump came a day after Sheinbaum confirmed...
Trump says he will reopen Alcatraz prison
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island that has been closed for more than 60 years. In a post on his Truth Social site Sunday evening, Trump wrote that, “For too...
Human remains found in wooded area off I-70 in Washington County
Human remains were found Sunday near Interstate 70 East in Washington County, county Coroner Tim Warco’s office said. A passerby found the remains in a wooded area off of the interstate around 10:30 a.m. The death did not appear to be suspicious, Warco’s office said. No other information about the...
Missile from Yemen halts flights in Israel hours before vote on intensifying Gaza warVideo
BEN-GURION INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Israel — A missile launched by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at Israel’s main international airport on Sunday after its impact near an access road caused panic among passengers. The attack on Ben-Gurion International Airport came hours before Israeli Cabinet ministers were...
Brazilian police arrest 2 people over alleged plot targeting Lady Gaga concert in RioVideo
RIO DE JANEIRO — Police in Brazil said on Sunday that two people have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to detonate explosives at a free Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro. The Rio event on Saturday was the biggest show of the pop star’s career that...
Power outage update: Pittsburgh locations to be restored by late Tuesday, other areas sooner
While Duquesne Light anticipates restoring power to certain municipalities by about mid-day Monday, Pittsburgh residents without electricity might not have service restored until late Tuesday, a week after destructive storms hit the region. In an update Sunday, Duquesne Light said areas expected to be restored by 12:30 p.m. Monday include...
Trump, in a new interview, says he doesn’t know if he backs due process rights
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump is circumspect about his duties to uphold due process rights laid out in the Constitution, saying in a new interview that he does not know whether U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike deserve that guarantee. He also said he does not think military...
