‘Oppenheimer’ fanfare likely to fuel record attendance at New Mexico’s Trinity atomic bomb test site
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. — Thousands of visitors are expected to descend Saturday on the southern New Mexico site where the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated, with officials preparing for a record turnout amid ongoing fanfare surrounding Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film, ” Oppenheimer.” Trinity Site, a designated National...
Donald Trump is dominating the GOP primary and settling into a new role: Defendant
NEW YORK — After turns as a real estate magnate, a New York tabloid mainstay, a reality TV star and president of the United States, Donald Trump is settling into a new role: defendant. The front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination spent two days this week in a Manhattan courtroom...
Company bosses and workers grapple with the fallout of speaking up about the Israel-Hamas war
NEW YORK — Starbucks accused a union representing thousands of its baristas of damaging the brand and endangering co-workers with a pro-Palestinian tweet. The CEO of a prominent tech conference is facing boycotts after he publicly suggested Israel was committing war crimes. Company bosses have vowed never to hire members...
Americans’ faith in institutions has been sliding for years. The chaos in Congress isn’t helping
WASHINGTON — For many Americans, the Republican dysfunction that has ground business in the U.S. House to a halt as two wars rage abroad and a budget crisis looms at home is feeding into a longer-term pessimism about the country’s core institutions. The lack of faith extends beyond Congress, with...
Biden is dangling border security money to try to get billions more for Israel and Ukraine
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is trying to sweeten his pitch for more money for Ukraine by mixing in billions of dollars for securing the U.S.-Mexico border in the hope that it will bring more Republicans on board. The idea came up late last month, after Ukraine assistance was stripped...
Egypt’s border crossing opens to let a trickle of desperately needed aid into besieged Gaza
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The border crossing between Egypt and Gaza opened on Saturday to let a trickle of desperately needed aid into the besieged Palestinian territory for the first time since Israel sealed it off in the wake of Hamas’ bloody rampage two weeks ago. Just 20 trucks were...
A new field of would-be U.S. House speakers takes shape after Jim Jordan fails
WASHINGTON — House Republicans have dispensed with Jim Jordan as their nominee for the U.S. speakership, and several more representatives are preparing to enter the fray. The new field began to take shape minutes after the party voted by secret ballot to rescind the nomination of Jordan, who had been...
Long lines at pump unlikely, but Middle East crisis could disrupt oil supplies, raise prices
WASHINGTON — Fifty years after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the current crisis in the Middle East has the potential to disrupt global oil supplies and push prices higher. But don’t expect a repeat of the catastrophic price hikes and long lines at the gasoline pump, experts say. The Israel-Hamas...
Spirit Airlines cancels dozens of flights to inspect some planes; disruptions will last days
Spirit Airlines canceled about 100 flights Friday after pulling some planes out of service for inspections, and the airline expects the disruptions to last several days. Spirit did not describe the nature of the inspections and did not respond when asked for further information, but the Federal Aviation Administration said...
French intelligence: Palestinian rocket, not Israeli airstrike, likely caused Gaza hospital blast
PARIS — An assessment by French military intelligence indicates the most likely cause of the deadly explosion at Gaza City’s al-Ahli hospital was a Palestinian rocket that carried an explosive charge of about 11 pounds and possibly misfired, a senior French military official said Friday. Several rockets in the arsenal...
Israel: 2 Americans held hostage by Hamas, a mother and daughter, have been released
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Hamas on Friday freed an American woman and her teenage daughter who had been held hostage in Gaza, Israel said, the first such release from among the roughly 200 people the group abducted from Israel during its Oct. 7 rampage. Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old...
Clean energy funds investment can aid hard-hit communities
If the region can boast there are workers here who are trained in the semi-conductor industry, it could be a boon for economic development. That’s the thinking of Mary Salony, the executive director of the Tri-County Workforce Investment Board. And the group is set to receive $1.4 million in federal...
Violent threats from Virginia to Texas disrupt Muslim groups raising support for Palestinians
ARLINGTON, Va. — For more than 20 years, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has held its annual banquet at the Marriott Crystal Gateway hotel in Crystal City, Va., just outside the nation’s capital, according to CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad. Sporadic protests and angry phone calls targeting the Muslim civil...
Former Florida lawmaker who sponsored ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law gets prison for covid-19 relief fraud
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The former Florida lawmaker who sponsored the controversial law critics call “Don’t Say Gay” was sentenced to six months in federal prison Thursday for defrauding a federal coronavirus relief loan program for small businesses. Former state Rep. Joe Harding, a 36-year-old Republican, resigned in December after being...
Judge temporarily lifts narrow gag order on Trump in 2020 election case
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan temporarily lifted her narrow gag order in Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case in Washington on Friday to give lawyers time to file more briefs on the matter. Chutkan made that ruling shortly after Trump’s lawyers urged the judge to pause the gag order while...
Owner of California biolab that fueled bio-weapons rumors charged with mislabeling, lacking permits
FRESNO, Calif. — The Chinese owner of an unauthorized central California lab that fueled conspiracy theories about China and biological weapons has been arrested on charges of not obtaining the proper permits to manufacture tests for covid-19, pregnancy and HIV and mislabeling some of the kits. Jia Bei Zhu, 62,...
Another guilty plea entered in Trump Georgia election interference probe
ATLANTA — Another defendant has reached a plea deal in the Fulton County election interference case, ending a trial that was set to begin with jury selection Friday. Attorney Kenneth Chesebro — one of the authors of a plan to use Republican presidential electors to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory...
Penn Township family receives community support after house fire
Greg Benson and his wife, Donna, had no idea their house was on fire Thursday evening. “A passerby came beating on the front door. We have two chocolate Labs, and I thought it was my oldest son just trying to irritate the dogs,” said Greg, 65, of Penn Township. “I...
Maryland police officer suspended after arrest on Capitol riot charges
SILVER SPRING, Md. — A Maryland police officer who fatally shot a stabbing suspect this year was arrested Thursday on charges he assaulted police during a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Montgomery County Police Department said in a news release it has suspended Officer Justin...
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office will pay $295K to settle sexual harassment allegation against top aide
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 — Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office agreed to pay $295,000 to quietly settle a sexual harassment complaint against one of his most trusted advisors, according...
300-year-old painting stolen by American soldier during World War II returned to German museum
CHICAGO — After a stopover in the U.S. that lasted the better part of a century, a baroque landscape painting that went missing during World War II was returned to Germany on Thursday. The FBI handed over the artwork by 18th century Austrian artist Johann Franz Nepomuk Lauterer to a...
PennWest, other universities weigh options for unused student housing
“Live here, live well.” That’s the online pitch promoting “Vulcan Village” apartments near PennWest University’s California campus in Washington County. The student complex has a resort-inspired outdoor pool, around-the-clock maintenance and a fitness center. But these days, there aren’t enough students living there. Fewer than half of its 770 beds...
Judge fines Trump over social media post, threatens jail for further violations
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump was fined $5,000 on Friday after a disparaging social media post about a key court staffer in his New York civil fraud case lingered on his campaign website for weeks after the judge ordered it deleted. Judge Arthur Engoron avoided holding Trump in...
Judge rules Alex Jones can’t use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying Sandy Hook families
HOUSTON — A Texas judge has ruled that Infowars host Alex Jones cannot use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying more than $1.1 billion to families who sued over his conspiracy theories that the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax. The decision is another significant defeat for Jones in the...
Pig heart transplant recipient reaches 1-month mark, pushing through physical therapy
WASHINGTON — It’s been a month since a Maryland man became the second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig — and hospital video released Friday shows he’s working hard to recover. Lawrence Faucette was dying from heart failure and ineligible for a traditional heart transplant when doctors...
