Iowa principal wounded in school shooting risked himself to protect students, police say
PERRY, Iowa — An Iowa principal critically injured in a school shooting put himself in harm’s way as he tried to protect students from a teenage shooter armed with a shotgun and a handgun, state authorities said Friday. Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger and six other staffers and students...
Nude man caught by police after ‘cannonball’ plunge into giant aquarium at Bass Pro Shop in Alabama
LEEDS, Alabama — A man crashed his car outside a Bass Pro Shop in Alabama, stripped down to his birthday suit and plunged into the giant aquarium inside the store, police said. The ordeal happened Thursday night in front of shocked shoppers in the town just outside Birmingham, Leeds police...
Bus rollover crash on upstate New York highway leaves 1 dead, a dozen injured
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. — A bus rollover crash on an upstate New York highway Friday left one person dead and about a dozen passengers injured, according to police. The bus with 23 people on board was traveling south from Montreal, Canada, when it crashed on the Adirondack Northway in the...
New round of Epstein documents offers another look into his cesspool of sexual abuse
NEW YORK — Nearly 100 more court files were unsealed Friday in a lawsuit involving Jeffrey Epstein, providing yet more detail about the late millionaire financier’s sexual abuse of underage girls and interactions with celebrities. The latest round of documents included additional excerpts of testimony from people who worked for...
Biden invokes George Washington, calls Trump a threat to democracy
President Joe Biden pitched his reelection as a defense of democracy Friday, visiting a historic Revolutionary War site to accuse Republican Donald Trump and his supporters of having “abandoned the truth” about what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The president, speaking at a campaign event in Blue...
Massachusetts voters become latest to try to keep Trump off ballot over Jan. 6 attack
BOSTON — Five Republican and Democratic voters in Massachusetts have become the latest to challenge former President Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on the Republican primary election ballot, claiming he is ineligible to hold office because he encouraged and did little to stop the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the...
As 2024 election approaches, voting officials worry Pa. isn’t prepared for misinformation
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — As the 2024 presidential election approaches, the people who run voting in Pennsylvania say the commonwealth must prepare to be at the center...
NRA chief Wayne LaPierre says he’s resigning days before trial scrutinizing his leadership, spending
NEW YORK — The longtime head of the National Rifle Association said Friday he is resigning, just days before the start of a New York civil trial that’s poised to scrutinize his leadership of the powerful gun rights organization. Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president and chief executive officer, said...
Hundreds of convictions, but a major mystery is still unsolved 3 years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
WASHINGTON — Members of far-right extremist groups. Former police officers. An Olympic gold medalist swimmer. And active duty U.S. Marines. They are among the hundreds of people who have been convicted in the massive prosecution of the Jan 6, 2021, riot in the three years since the stunned nation watched...
Hezbollah leader says his group must retaliate for suspected Israeli strike in Beirut
BEIRUT — The leader of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah said Friday that his group must retaliate after a presumed Israeli strike hit a Beirut neighborhood this week, killing a senior Hamas official, or else all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to Israeli attack. Hassan Nasrallah appeared to be making the...
Actor Christian Oliver and his 2 daughters died in a plane crash in the Caribbean, police sayVideo
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — U.S. actor Christian Oliver and his two daughters died in a plane crash near a tiny private island in the eastern Caribbean, according to police in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The crash occurred Thursday just west of Petit Nevis island near Bequia as the...
Pittsburgh Technical College leaders mull possible sale, merger as enrollment falls
Leaders of a nearly 80-year-old technical college in Oakdale are weighing options that include selling or merging the institution amid falling enrollment and financial strains. The issues facing Pittsburgh Technical College resemble those confronting higher education generally. But they have been complicated by recent infighting over leadership, accusations of misconduct...
Fight at Philadelphia train station ends with man being fatally struck by train
PHILADELPHIA — A man involved in a fight at a Philadelphia train station was killed when he fell onto the tracks and was struck by a train, authorities said. The fight at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority station occurred around 4:30 p.m. Thursday when Chaz Wearing, 40, and another man...
NYC subway crews wrestle derailed train back on tracks, as crash disrupts service for 2nd day
NEW YORK — In the cramped confines of a New York City subway tunnel, work crews labored to lift hulking rail cars back onto the tracks after two passenger trains collided and derailed, causing service disruptions that stretched into a second day Friday. The low-speed crash left the trains blocking...
As more Pa. residents rack up medical debt, hope hinges on a state solution
An innovative plan to help Pennsylvanians with crippling medical debt is delayed but not dead, supporters say. The plan calls for using state funds to buy unpaid medical bills from hospitals and health care providers, which are commonly sold at a steep discount. A $10 to $15 million investment by...
Florida resort cancels Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Jan. 6 event
A fundraiser and book signing at a sprawling Central Florida resort featuring U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been canceled after the resort’s owners discovered the event was also a commemoration of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. “Please be advised that Westgate was...
U.S. employers add a strong 216,000 jobs in a sign of continued economic strength
WASHINGTON — The nation’s employers added a robust 216,000 jobs last month, the latest sign that the American labor market remains resilient even in the face of sharply higher interest rates. Friday’s government report showed that December’s job gain exceeded the 173,000 that were added in November. The unemployment rate...
House Republicans ready contempt of Congress charges against Hunter Biden over a subpoena he defied
WASHINGTON — House Republicans plan to move forward next week with holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after the president’s son defied a congressional subpoena to appear for a private deposition last month. The Republican chairmen of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees announced Friday that they will hold...
Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius freed after serving nearly 9 years in prison for killing girlfriend
PRETORIA, South Africa — Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee who became a global star competing at his sport’s highest level while running on carbon-fiber blades, was released from prison on Friday after serving nearly nine years for killing his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius, 37, quietly left the...
100 New Jersey firefighters battle blaze at former Singer sewing machine factory
ELIZABETH, N.J. — Over 100 firefighters battled a blaze Friday at a New Jersey industrial park that was home to the Singer Sewing Machine factory for more than a century. A passerby reported the fire around 5:30 a.m., Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said. No one was in the building and...
Los Angeles County has thousands of ‘unclaimed dead.’ These investigators retrace their lives
LOS ANGELES — Arusyak Martirosyan struggles to open the door of a stranger’s one-bedroom apartment overflowing with the belongings from a life lived but not claimed in death. Wedged against the door is a giant box of Gain laundry detergent and plastic tubs piled high. Blouses and T-shirts, suspended by...
Ukraine unleashes more drones and missiles at Russian areas as part of its new year strategy
Russian air defenses downed dozens of Ukrainian drones in occupied Crimea and southern Russia on Friday, officials said, as Kyiv pressed its strategy of targeting the Moscow-annexed peninsula and taking the 22-month war well beyond Ukraine’s borders. Air raid sirens wailed in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, and traffic...
Iran mourns those slain in Islamic State-claimed suicide blasts as death toll rises to 89
KERMAN, Iran — Iranian officials tried Friday to link Israel and the U.S. to an Islamic State group-claimed suicide bombing while speaking to a mass funeral for some of the 89 people killed in the attack, seeking to intertwine the assault with wider Middle East tensions from the Israel-Hamas war....
With more records, world sees how Jeffrey Epstein leveraged powerful to abuse vulnerable girls
NEW YORK — A new batch of unsealed documents pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls was released Thursday, adding several hundred pages to a trove of information detailing how the financier leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to recruit his victims and cover up his...
House Democrats say Trump hotels got foreign money during presidency
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump-owned hotels received at least $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments and their representatives during his presidency, according to a report from House Democrats. The 155-page report shows this money came from China, Saudi Arabia and more than 20 other countries — and that the amount...
