‘QAnon’ conspiracy theory creeps into mainstream politics
MILWAUKEE (AP) — President Donald Trump was more than halfway through his speech at a rally in Milwaukee when one of his hand gestures caught the eye of a supporter standing in the packed arena. The 51-year-old woman believed the president had traced the shape of the letter “Q” with...
Murrysville woman lived life to help others
Patricia Loughran was the kind of person who lived her life for others. She raised seven daughters. She was director of financial aid at St. Francis University in Loretto for 18 years. She was a grief counselor at several Catholic parishes. She was an advocate for people with disabilities. In...
China’s virus death toll surpasses SARS but new cases fall
BEIJING — Mainland China’s death toll from the new virus outbreak has risen to 811, surpassing the number of fatalities in the 2002-2003 SARS pandemic. However, the number of new cases reported over the last 24 hours on Sunday fell significantly from the previous period, something experts see as a...
Pennsylvania’s big higher education problem gets a spotlight
HARRISBURG — Gov . Tom Wolf’s proposal to start a major new scholarship program for students at Pennsylvania’s state-owned universities caused a stir over his idea to divert the money from a sacred cow, but it also spotlit an uncomfortable truth about Pennsylvania’s ragged performance on higher education funding. By...
U.S. says 2 soldiers killed, 6 wounded in Afghanistan attack
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two U.S. soldiers were killed and six wounded in a so-called insider attack in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province late Saturday when an Afghan dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire, the U.S. military said. Afghanistan’s defense ministry said one Afghan soldier was also killed and three...
Soldier kills 27 in bloodiest shooting spree in Thailand
NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand — Thai officials said a soldier who went on a shooting rampage and killed a reported 27 people and wounded 57 others has been shot dead inside a mall in northeastern Thailand. Thailand’s prime minister said 27 people are dead, including the gunman who went on the...
Weinstein lawyer on avoiding sexual assault: ‘I would never put myself in that position’
Harvey Weinstein’s lead defense attorney in the movie mogul’s rape and sexual assault trial said in an interview that she has never been a victim of sexual assault “because I would never put myself in that position.” In an interview released by The Daily podcast on Friday, Donna Rotunno, was...
New virus has infected more than 34,800 people globally
A viral outbreak that began in China has infected more than 34,800 people globally. The latest figures reported by global health authorities as of Saturday in Beijing: — China: 722 deaths and 34,546 confirmed cases on the mainland. In addition, Hong Kong has had 25 cases, including one death. Macao...
Actor-comedian Orson Bean, 91, hit and killed by car in LA
LOS ANGELES — Orson Bean, the witty actor and comedian, was hit and killed by a car in Los Angeles, authorities said. He was 91. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office confirmed Bean’s Friday night death, saying it was being investigated as a “traffic-related” fatality. The coroner’s office provided the...
Payback: Trump ousts officials who testified on impeachment
WASHINGTON — Exacting swift punishment against those who crossed him, an emboldened President Donald Trump ousted two government officials who had delivered damaging testimony against him during his impeachment hearings. The president took retribution just two days after his acquittal by the Senate. First came news Friday that Trump had...
Greensburg woman loved to travel – Feb. 8, 2020
Dorothy Piekarski loved to travel around the world with her husband, Robert, exploring new places. “They traveled to Egypt and rode the camels. They loved traveling along the coast of California and visiting the redwood forests,” said her stepdaughter, Nancy K. Coons. Dorothy J. “Dottie” Piekarski of Hempfield died Wednesday,...
AP fact check: Democrats skew health care, Iraq facts in debate
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the world is witnessing a great American economic revival that he brought on by reversing course from the Obama years. Yet the economy is not so different from the robust one he inherited and disparages at every turn. Trump’s State of the Union speech...
Key takeaways from Democratic debate in New Hampshire
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Three days before the critical New Hampshire Primary, seven Democratic presidential candidates debated, with many of them fighting to survive in the race to challenge President Donald Trump. Here are some key takeaways. MAYOR PETE MAKES HIS CASE Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend.,...
Front-runners Buttigieg and Sanders beat back debate attacks
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Democratic presidential front-runners Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg beat back a barrage of attacks during a Friday night debate as rivals raised persistent questions about their ideology and experience, hoping to sow doubts about their ability to defeat President Donald Trump. Reeling from a weak finish in...
Judge strikes blow to US immigration enforcement tactics
SAN DIEGO — A federal judge has prohibited U.S. immigration authorities from relying on databases deemed faulty to ask law enforcement agencies to hold people in custody, a setback for the Trump administration that threatens to hamper how it carries out arrests. The ruling applies only to the Central District...
Kansas GOP lawmakers fail in anti-abortion amendment effort
TOPEKA, Kan. — Republican lawmakers in Kansas on Friday failed to get a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution on the ballot, stalling efforts to ensure that its Bill of Rights does not secure a right to an abortion. Neither side expected Friday’s vote in the Kansas House to...
Michael Avenatti considering testifying at extortion trial
NEW YORK — California lawyer Michael Avenatti may decide to testify at his New York trial on charges that he tried to extort Nike for millions of dollars, his lawyer said Friday. Attorney Scott Srebnick said he’ll file arguments Saturday asking a judge to exclude any questions about allegations that...
New Mississippi AG reviewing 6-trial murder case
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi’s new attorney general must decide whether to take a quadruple murder case to a seventh trial. Curtis Flowers has had two mistrials and four reversed convictions in connection with the 1996 slayings of four people at a furniture store. Flowers was sentenced to death in the...
Defective software could have doomed Boeing’s crew capsule
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Defective software could have doomed Boeing’s crew capsule during its first test flight, a botched trip that was cut short and never made it to the International Space Station, NASA and company officials said Friday. The Starliner capsule launched without astronauts in December, but its automatic...
Trump used Philly girl’s story to attack ‘failing’ schools. But she’s at one of the city’s most desired charters
PHILADELPHIA — President Donald Trump turned a Philadelphia fourth grader into a poster child for the school-choice movement Tuesday when he told the nation thousands of students were “trapped in failing government schools” and announced that she was finally getting a scholarship to attend the school of her choice. But...
NTSB releases photo of Kobe Bryant helicopter flying into cloud before crash
LOS ANGELES — As part of its preliminary investigation into the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash, the National Transportation Safety Board on Friday released an image of the chopper flying under cloudy conditions shortly before it hit a hill in Calabasas. The report also included photos showing the poor visibility in...
More planes with quarantined China passengers arrive in US
SAN DIEGO — Hundreds more people evacuated from the virus zone in China began arriving Friday at military bases across the U.S. to begin a two-week quarantine. There were no signs of illness among those who flew into Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy...
Shrinking country: Serbia struggles with population decline
BLAGOJEV KAMEN, Serbia — Uros Trainovic remembers when his small mining village in eastern Serbia was a vibrant home to 200 families, had a school of its own, a doctor and a shop. How times have changed. Now, 60-odd years later, it’s a ghost village with just eight residents. The...
Mexico won’t really raffle off huge presidential jet
MEXICO CITY — Mexicans will no longer have to worry about where to park a Boeing Dreamliner when the government raffles off the luxurious presidential jet: the air force will keep it. In fact, nobody will win the actual $130 million Boeing 787 plane in the lottery-style raffle to be...
Appeals court dismisses Democrats’ lawsuit against Trump
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday dismissed one of several ongoing lawsuits charging that President Donald Trump has illegally profited off the presidency. The lawsuit the court dismissed was filed by Democratic members of Congress in 2017. The court was not ruling on whether Trump violated...
