Texas will build camp for National Guard members in border city of Eagle Pass
McALLEN, Texas — Texas will build an operations base for up to 1,800 National Guard members in Eagle Pass, expanding the presence of soldiers in the border city where the state has clashed with the Biden administration over immigration enforcement, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday. The 80-acre property along...
A $355 million penalty and business ban: Takeaways from Trump’s New York civil fraud verdict
NEW YORK — Donald Trump suffered a big blow Friday as a New York judge ordered the former president and his companies to pay $355 million in penalties for what the judge described as a scheme to deceive banks and insurers by exaggerating Trump’s wealth on his annual financial statements....
Pennsylvania high court takes up challenge to the state’s life-without-parole sentences
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s high court will consider if some automatic life sentences for those convicted of murder violate constitutional protections for defendants, the justices said Friday. The appeal being pursued by Derek Lee, convicted of a 2014 killing, argues the state’s life-without-parole law violates prohibitions in the Pennsylvania and U.S....
Donald Trump fraud verdict: $364 million penalty in civil fraud case
NEW YORK — A New York judge ruled Friday against Donald Trump, imposing a $364 million penalty over what the judge ruled was a yearslong scheme to dupe banks and others with financial statements that inflated the former president’s wealth. Trump also was barred from serving as an officer or...
2 juveniles charged in mass shooting at Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two juveniles have been charged with crimes connected to the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally, authorities said Friday. A news release from the Jackson County Family Court said the juveniles are being detained in the county’s Juvenile Detention Center “on gun-related and...
Tech companies sign accord to combat AI-generated election trickery
Major technology companies signed a pact Friday to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world. Tech executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and TikTok gathered at the Munich Security Conference to announce a new voluntary...
W.Va. Sen. Joe Manchin announces he won’t run for president in 2024
WASHINGTON — West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced on Friday that he is not running for president, saying he didn’t want to be a “spoiler.” “I will not be seeking a third-party run. I will not be involved in a presidential run,” he said in a speech at West Virginia...
Fani Willis won’t return to the witness stand as judge weighs disqualification in Trump case
ATLANTA — The Fulton County district attorney’s office opted not to put Fani Willis back on the witness stand Friday, avoiding the spectacle of more deeply personal testimony from the top prosecutor as she fights an effort to derail Donald Trump’s 2020 Georgia election interference case. While Willis will not...
U.S. wholesale inflation accelerated in January in latest sign that prices picked up
WASHINGTON — Wholesale prices in the United States accelerated in January, the latest sign that some inflation pressures in the economy remain elevated. The Labor Department reported Friday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 0.3% from December to January after having...
Proposed questions on sexual orientation, gender identity for the Census Bureau’s biggest survey
The U.S. Census Bureau this year plans to test questions about sexual orientation and gender identity for its most comprehensive survey of American life. The test questions will be sent to 480,000 households, with the statistical agency expecting just over half to respond. If the questions are approved, it will...
Greece just legalized same-sex marriage. Will other Orthodox countries join them any time soon?
Greece has become the first majority-Orthodox Christian nation to legalize same-sex marriage under civil law. At least for the near future, it will almost certainly be the only one. Eastern Orthodox leadership, despite lacking a single doctrinal authority like a pope, has been united in opposing recognition of same-sex relationships...
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy signing security agreements with Germany, France as Kyiv shores up support
BERLIN — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a bilateral security agreement with Germany and planned to sign another with France on Friday, securing a strong signal of long-term backing as Kyiv works to shore up Western support nearly two years after Russia launched its full-scale war. The Ukrainian leader was...
Satellite photos show Egypt building a wall near Gaza Strip as Israeli offensive on Rafah looms
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Egypt is building a wall and is leveling land near its border with the Gaza Strip ahead of a planned Israeli offensive targeting the border city of Rafah, satellite images analyzed Friday by the Associated Press show. Egypt, which has not publicly acknowledged the construction,...
Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Putin, has died, Russian authorities say
Alexei Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died Friday in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence, Russia’s prison agency said. He was 47. The stunning news — less than a month before an election...
House members raise questions about Speaker Johnson’s invite of ‘hate preacher’
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are asking for answers after a guest chaplain known for his incendiary preaching was sponsored by Speaker Mike Johnson to give the House’s daily opening prayer last month, according to a letter sent to the speaker and the Office of the Chaplain signed by 26 Democratic House...
In fiery testimony, Fani Willis hits back at misconduct claims that threaten future of Trump caseVideo
ATLANTA — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis took the witness stand Thursday and forcefully pushed back against what she described as “lies” about her romantic relationship with a special prosecutor during an extraordinary hearing over misconduct allegations that threaten to upend one of four criminal cases against Donald Trump....
FBI informant charged with lying about Joe and Hunter Biden’s ties to Ukrainian energy company
WASHINGTON — An FBI informant has been charged with lying to authorities about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company, a claim that is central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress. Alexander Smirnov falsely reported in June 2020 that executives...
Pennsylvania courts say no ransom was paid in cyberattack, and attackers never sent a demand
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state courts agency said Thursday that it never received a ransom demand as part of a cyberattack that briefly shut down some of its online services earlier this month and prompted a federal investigation. The attack, called a “denial of services” attack, on the website of the...
Russia has obtained a ‘troubling’ emerging anti-satellite weapon, the White House says
WASHINGTON — The White House publicly confirmed on Thursday that Russia has obtained a “troubling” emerging anti-satellite weapon but said it cannot directly cause “physical destruction” on Earth. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said U.S. intelligence officials have information that Russia has obtained the capability but that such...
Kansas City shooting elicits social media reactions, calls to action
During the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration and parade on Valentine’s Day, gunfire erupted — leaving one dead and over 20 injured, including children, according to the Associated Press. The AP reported the shooting occurred despite the presence of more than 800 police officers in the building and nearby....
Pennsylvania man charged with beheading father carried photos of federal buildings, bomb plans, DA says
The suburban Philadelphia man charged with decapitating his father and posting a video online in which he held up the severed head had a device with photos of federal buildings and apparent instructions for making explosives when he was arrested, authorities said Thursday. Justin Mohn, 32, faces a dozen new...
Cleveland-Cliffs to shutter West Virginia tin plant, lay off 900 after tariff ruling
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Cleveland-Cliffs announced Thursday that it is shutting down a northern West Virginia tin production facility indefinitely and plans to lay off 900 workers after the International Trade Commission voted against imposing tariffs on tin imports. The trade commission ruled earlier this year that no anti-dumping and countervailing...
‘A celebration of what we bring to the community’: Westmoreland Cultural Trust hosts annual fundraising gala at Palace Theatre
Suits, ties and evening gowns will grace the stage of the Palace Theatre in Greensburg for the Westmoreland Cultural Trust’s “Party at the Palace” fundraising gala. The theme is “shaken, not stirred,” inspired by the way James Bond takes his martini cocktails. The trust has held the gala for 18...
On the USS Eisenhower, 4 months of combat at sea facing Houthi missiles and new sea threat
ABOARD THE USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER — Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its accompanying warships have spent four months straight at sea defending against ballistic missiles and flying attack drones fired by Iranian-backed Houthis, and are now more regularly also defending against a new threat...
Study: More people die after smoking drugs than injecting them
NEW YORK — Smoking has surpassed injecting as the most common way of taking drugs in U.S. overdose deaths, a new government study suggests. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called its study published Thursday the largest to look at how Americans took the drugs that killed them. CDC...
