Hunter Biden is indicted on 9 tax charges, adding to gun charges in a special counsel investigation
WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden was indicted on nine tax charges in California as a special counsel investigation into the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son intensifies against the backdrop of the 2024 election. The new charges filed Thursday — three felonies and six misdemeanors — are in addition to...
Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry makes early witness list in Trump’s Georgia election case
U.S. Rep. Scott Perry is on an exhaustive list of potential witnesses that prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga., have prepared for a potential 2024 criminal trial against former president Donald J. Trump and 14 co-conspirators for alleged attempts to subvert the 2020 presidential vote in that state. The list, first...
The GOP’s slim House majority is getting even tighter with Kevin McCarthy’s retirement
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson’s margin for error in getting Republican priorities through the House is getting slimmer, complicating future votes and magnifying the ability of individual lawmakers to force concessions. Republicans had just a 222-213 margin before Rep. George Santos of New York was expelled in a broad,...
Ex-Philadelphia labor leader convicted of embezzling from union to pay for home renovations, meals
PHILADELPHIA — Former Philadelphia labor leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty and a codefendant were convicted Thursday of using more than $650,000 in union funds for personal use, marking the second conviction federal prosecutors have secured against the long-powerful figure since a sweeping 2019 indictment. Dougherty, who led Local 98 of...
Families of the Pittsburgh synagogue attack unveil a memorial design
PITTSBURGH — In the years following the deadly 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue attack, relatives of those slain have gone through their own private grief, public memorial services and the trial and death sentence of the perpetrator. They’ve also been deliberating, slowly and methodically, on what kind of permanent memorial should be...
Trump appeals ruling rejecting immunity claim as window narrows to derail federal election case
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump is appealing a ruling that found he is not immune from criminal prosecution as he runs out of opportunities to delay or even derail an upcoming trial on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Lawyers for the 2024...
Texas judge grants pregnant woman permission to get an abortion despite state’s ban
AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas judge on Thursday gave a pregnant woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis permission to get an abortion in an unprecedented challenge over bans that more than a dozen states have enacted since Roe v. Wade was overturned. The lawsuit by Kate Cox, a 31-year-old...
Son of U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer crashes during police chase, killing North Dakota sheriff’s deputy
BISMARCK, N.D. — The 42-year-old son of U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer crashed into a North Dakota sheriff’s vehicle during a police chase, pushing it into a deputy and killing him, according to authorities and the Republican senator’s family. Ian Cramer of Bismarck was arrested and jailed following Wednesday’s crash, and...
No UNLV students killed in shooting; victims were faculty members, university says
LAS VEGAS — A gunman who killed three faculty members at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before dying in a shootout with police, did not appear to be targeting students, according to two law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the investigation. Terrified students and professors cowered in classrooms...
Centenarian survivors of Pearl Harbor attack are returning to honor those who perished 82 years agoVideo
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — Ira “Ike” Schab had just showered, put on a clean sailor’s uniform and closed his locker aboard the USS Dobbin when he heard a call for a fire rescue party. He went topside to see the USS Utah capsizing and Japanese planes in the air. He...
The White House is threatening the patents of high-priced drugs developed with taxpayer dollars
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is putting pharmaceutical companies on notice, warning them that if the price of certain drugs is too high, the government might cancel their patent protection and allow rivals to make their own versions. Under a plan announced Thursday, the government would consider overriding the patent...
UPenn president says calling for Jewish genocide allowed ‘in context,’ then issues correction
Embattled University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill is under fire yet again for her problematic response to antisemitic speech on campus, telling a congressional hearing that calling for Jewish genocide is allowed depending on its “context.” Then, after 24 hours of backlash, Magill released a video refuting her previous statement....
U.K. says Russia’s intelligence service behind sustained attempts to meddle in British democracy
LONDON — Russia’s intelligence services targeted high-profile British politicians, civil servants and journalists with cyberespionage and “malicious cyberactivity” as part of sustained attempts to interfere in U.K. political processes, Britain’s government said Thursday. The Foreign Office said Russia’s FSB agency was responsible for a range of cyberespionage operations in the...
Putin moves a step closer to a 5th term as president after Russia sets 2024 election date
Lawmakers in Russia set the country’s 2024 presidential election for March 17, moving Vladimir Putin a step closer to a fifth term in office. Members of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, voted unanimously to approve a decree setting the date. “In essence, this decision marks the start...
Trump is back at New York fraud trial again as testimony nears an end
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump returned to his civil business fraud trial as a spectator Thursday, after a month of assailing the proceedings from afar. With testimony winding down after more than two months, the Republican 2024 presidential front-runner showed up to watch an accounting professor testify about...
Desperation grows among Palestinians trapped with little aid as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Desperation grew Thursday among Palestinians largely cut off from supplies of food and water as Israeli forces engaged in fierce urban battles with Hamas militants. Strikes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah sowed fear in one of the last places where civilians could seek refuge....
Russian schoolgirl shoots several classmates, leaving 1 dead, before killing herself
MOSCOW — A Russian schoolgirl shot several of her classmates with a gun on Thursday, killing one person and injuring five others, before killing herself, state news agencies and authorities said. The shooting happened at a school in Bryansk, in a region that borders Ukraine, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. Children...
White House delays menthol cigarette ban, alarming anti-smoking advocates
WASHINGTON — White House officials will take more time to review a sweeping plan from U.S. health regulators to ban menthol cigarettes, an unexpected delay that anti-tobacco groups fear could scuttle the long-awaited rule. Administration officials indicated Wednesday the process will continue into next year, targeting March to implement the...
Nikki Haley targeted in the 4th Republican debate by her rivals. They all trail TrumpVideo
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nikki Haley was targeted Wednesday from the opening moments of the fourth debate for Republican presidential hopefuls as time runs out for the shrinking field to shake up a race dominated by former President Donald Trump. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused Haley of backing down from media...
U.S. military grounds entire fleet of Osprey aircraft following a deadly crash off the coast of Japan
WASHINGTON — The military announced late Wednesday it was grounding all of its Osprey V-22 helicopters, one week after eight Air Force Special Operations Command service members died in a crash off the coast of Japan. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps took the extraordinary step of grounding hundreds...
Trump campaign staffer wanted rioting to obstruct Detroit vote counting, prosecutors say
DETROIT — Federal prosecutors alleged in a court filing Tuesday that a campaign employee of former President Donald Trump “encouraged rioting” to obstruct the counting of votes in Detroit after the November 2020 election. The revelation drew a direct connection between the frenzy that took place at Detroit’s riverfront convention...
Late Homer City astronaut and IUP graduate receives space mission name
Dr. Patricia Hilliard Robertson, a 1985 graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, devoted her life not only to medicine but to the advancement of human spaceflight. She never made it into space herself, dying months shy of a mission. On Wednesday, the space industry became the latest to honor the...
Nevada grand jury indicts 6 fake Donald Trump electors
RENO, Nev. — A Nevada grand jury on Wednesday indicted six Republicans who submitted certificates to Congress falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential election in their state, making Nevada the third to seek charges against so-called “fake electors.” “We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go...
Las Vegas shooting suspect was a professor who recently applied for a job at UNLV
LAS VEGAS — The man suspected of fatally shooting three people and wounding another at a Las Vegas university Wednesday was a professor who unsuccessfully sought a job at the school, a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press. The gunman was killed in...
How to watch the fourth Republican presidential debate and what to look for
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The number of candidates on stage is shrinking, but the fundamentals of Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate may be familiar to anyone who has watched the previous three meetings. No one has yet emerged as the clear Republican alternative to former President Donald Trump, whose lead is so...
