Gaetz attended drug-fueled parties with call girls at Florida lobbyist’s home, witnesses say
ORLANDO, Fla. — In the summer of 2017, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, attended a party filled with drugs and paid escorts that was hosted by former state Rep. Chris Dorworth at his Heathrow home, according to witness testimony in newly filed federal court documents. One of the...
Democrats in Pa. approach 2024 election with slimmest voter registration advantage in decades
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. HARRISBURG — Despite a bump following Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race, Democrats in Pennsylvania are entering the home stretch of the 2024 election with their weakest voter...
‘She should be alive’ — Harris spotlights woman’s death to blast abortion bans
ATLANTA — Kamala Harris blasted Donald Trump as a threat to women’s freedoms and their very lives, warning in a speech in the battleground state of Georgia on Friday that Republicans would continue to choke off access to abortion if he returns to the White House. The Democratic vice president’s...
North Carolina’s governor vetoes private school vouchers and immigration enforcement orders
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed legislation Friday that allocates several hundred million dollars to an expanded private school voucher program and orders sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigrant agents looking for people in the country illegally who have been brought into county jails. Cooper’s veto was...
Appeals court revives challenge to Biden’s Medicare drug price reduction program
NEW ORLEANS — A constitutional challenge to the Biden administration program enabling Medicare to negotiate lower prices for widely used prescription drugs was revived by a federal appeals court in New Orleans in a 2-1 decision Friday. Congress created the program as part of the Inflation Reduction Act passed in...
Israel ramps up attacks on Hezbollah, says top commander killed
Israel said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs Friday, days after a series of attacks stoked fears the conflict between the two may spiral out of control. The Israel Defense Forces said the airstrike on Beirut killed Ibrahim Aqil, head of Hezbollah’s elite...
Georgia State Election Board approves rule requiring hand count of ballots
ATLANTA — Georgia’s State Election Board on Friday voted to approve a new rule that requires poll workers to count the number of paper ballots by hand. The board voted 3-2 to approve the rule, going against the advice of the state attorney general’s office, the secretary of state’s office...
Were warning signs ignored? Things to know about this week’s testimony on the Titan sub disaster
Last year, five people hoping to view the Titanic wreckage died when their submersible imploded in the Atlantic Ocean. This week, a Coast Guard panel that’s investigating the Titan disaster listened to four days of testimony that has raised serious questions about whether warning signs were ignored. The panel plans...
AI may breathe new life into Three Mile Island to supply power to Microsoft’s data centers
HARRISBURG — The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said Friday that it plans to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement that calls for tech giant Microsoft to buy the power to supply its data centers with carbon-free energy. The announcement by Constellation Energy comes...
Colorado supermarket shooter was sane when he killed 10 people, prosecutor says
BOULDER, Colo. — A mentally ill man carefully amassed the guns and ammunition to kill as many people as possible before pursuing and fatally shooting 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021, proving he knew exactly what he was doing, a prosecutor told jurors Friday. Ahmad Alissa’s decision to...
In-person voting begins for U.S. presidential contest, kicking off the sprint to Election Day
MINNEAPOLIS — In-person voting for this year’s presidential election began Friday, a milestone that kicked off a six-week sprint to Election Day after a summer of political turmoil. Voters lined up to cast their ballots in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia, the states with the first early in-person voting opportunities....
North Huntingdon athletes bring home hardware from international kickboxing competition
Two North Huntingdon athletes ranked internationally at the Junior World Kickboxing Championship in Budapest, Hungary, recently. Xander Eddy, 15, and Gabby Viola, 14, are the first athletes in the state to receive medals at the tournament, according to Bill Viola Jr. — coach and Gabby Viola’s father. “To have two...
Penn State removes student newspapers, sparking free speech debate
Penn State University removed dozens of newsstands from campus buildings that contained its student newspaper because nine of them displayed political ads above the newspaper rack itself: three for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and six promoting voter registration. Penn State administrators say the posters violated rules about advertising and...
U.S. will let more people take methadone at home
The first big update to U.S. methadone regulations in 20 years is poised to expand access to the life-saving drug starting next month, but experts say the addiction treatment changes could fall flat if state governments and methadone clinics fail to act. For decades, strict rules required most methadone patients...
‘Water is flooding everywhere’ as torrential rains sweep through West and Central Africa
ABUJA, Nigeria — Houses swept away to the very last brick. Inmates frantically fleeing the city’s main prison as its walls got washed away by water rising from an overflowing dam. Corpses of crocodiles and snakes floating among human bodies on what used to be main streets. As torrential rains...
Israel carries out targeted strike in Beirut after Hezbollah hits northern Israel with 140 rockets
BEIRUT — Israel hit a Beirut suburb with an airstrike Friday, not long after Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets following a vow by the militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah to retaliate against Israel for a mass bombing attack, the Israeli military and the militant group said. The Israeli...
Pennsylvania state senator sues critics of his book about WWI hero Sgt. York
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania state senator and former GOP gubernatorial candidate whose support for Donald Trump drew him to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has sued a Canadian university and nearly two dozen academics over criticism of him and his research into World War I hero Sgt. Alvin York....
Senate president partners with UPMC, Bayer, others to host breast cancer screenings
Because Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward is a breast cancer survivor, she said she knows the importance of screening for the disease. “When I went through my treatment, I could see firsthand some of the issues that women were facing,” said Ward, a Hempfield resident who was diagnosed with...
Bowhunting season begins Saturday for all of Allegheny County, small slices of western Westmoreland, opens Oct. 5 statewide
Justin Relihan has been bowhunting since he was 16 years old. The Butler resident began hunting at age 12 with a rifle, but quickly found he had more of a passion for using a compound bow. “I like the quietness of bowhunting,” said Relihan, 48. “There’s a lot less people....
‘Doomsday’ glacier set to melt faster, swell seas as world heats up
Tidal action on the underside of the Thwaites Glacier in the Antarctic will “inexorably” accelerate melting this century, according to new research by British and American scientists. The researchers warn the faster melting could destabilize the entire West Antarctic Ice sheet, leading to its eventual collapse. The massive glacier —...
Ohio sheriff condemned for saying people with Harris yard signs should have their addresses recorded
An Ohio sheriff is under fire for a social media post in which he said people with Kamala Harris yard signs should have their addresses recorded so immigrants can be sent to live with them if the Democrat wins the presidency. Good-government groups called it a threat and urged him...
House eyes vote early next week on bipartisan CR
WASHINGTON — The House is gearing up to go first on a bipartisan stopgap funding package early next week after nailing down the particulars this weekend, lawmakers said Thursday. The measure would extend current funding levels, with some “anomalies” allowing for higher rates, likely through Dec. 13, a source familiar...
Postal Service chief frustrated at criticism but promises ‘heroic’ effort to deliver mail ballots
TOPEKA, Kan. — The head of the U.S. Postal Service expressed frustration Thursday with ongoing criticism by election officials of how it handles mail ballots while also seeking to reassure voters it’s ready to handle an expected crush of those ballots this fall. U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told reporters...
Swing states pledge fair elections
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Top election officials from Georgia and other swing states met Thursday to assure the public their elections are fair and accurate. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger outlined a host of measures the state takes to ensure voting is secure. Election officials from Arizona, Michigan, North...
Flurry of polls shows Harris with slight lead over Trump in tight race in Pa.
With less than seven weeks to go before Election Day, a majority of polls released this week show Vice President Kamala Harris has eked out a slight lead in the key swing state of Pennsylvania. Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, gained some favor among Pennsylvanians over the last couple...
