Illinois police seize carnival ride after boy, 10, was thrown from ride and seriously injured
ANTIOCH, Ill. — Northern Illinois police have seized a carnival ride as they continue investigating a Sunday incident in which a 10-year-old boy was seriously injured when he was thrown from his seat. After the Illinois Department of Labor finished inspecting the ride Wednesday, police in the village of Antioch...
Oklahoma executes man for 1995 butcher knife slaying of Tulsa woman
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for stabbing a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after his escape from a prison work center. Jemaine Cannon, 51, received a lethal injection at 10 a.m. and was pronounced dead 13 minutes later at the Oklahoma...
Tuition remains frozen for Pennsylvania-owned universities
For the 85,000 students attending a Pennsylvania state-owned university who have hoped for relief from rising prices, the news is official. Tuition will remain unchanged for the 2023-24 academic year, now that the State System of Higher Education approved a fifth consecutive tuition freeze across the 10 institutions. By a...
Florida mother charged for seeking hitman to kill 3-year-old son
A young Florida mother was arrested after she allegedly used a parody website to hire a hitman to kill her 3-year-old son, police said. Jazmin Paez,18, is facing charges of first-degree solicitation of murder and third-degree using a communications device for an unlawful use. She’s accused of logging onto hitmanforhire.com...
SALT issue shakes up House GOP tax package discussions
WASHINGTON — House Republicans opposed to limits on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) are making their first stand in a move that could test their newfound power in the GOP conference. Their push to force relief from the $10,000 SALT cap is shaping up as a major challenge...
Mexican volunteer searchers find 27 hacked-up bodies in northern border city
MEXICO CITY — Searchers have found 27 corpses in clandestine graves in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, and many of them were hacked to pieces, volunteer searchers said Wednesday. Some of the corpses were buried so recently that bits of skin with tattoos remained, and...
Ukraine, Pakistan call for restoring the Black Sea grain deal after talks in Islamabad
ISLAMABAD — The foreign ministers of Ukraine and Pakistan called Thursday for the restoration of the Black Sea grain initiative to ensure global food security, days after Russia halted the wartime deal that had allowed grain to flow from Ukraine. The two sides made the demand at a news conference...
Anonymous donations to World Health Organization’s new foundation raise concerns
Nearly 40% of the money raised by the WHO Foundation in its first two years came from anonymous sources, worrying some that donors may be trying to influence the World Health Organization and its role in shaping global health policy with their gifts. The foundation, launched in 2020 to help...
Tornado damages Pfizer plant in North Carolina as scorching heat and floods sock other parts of U.S.
RALEIGH, N.C. — A tornado heavily damaged a major Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina on Wednesday, while torrential rain flooded communities in Kentucky and an area from California to South Florida endured more scorching heat. Pfizer confirmed that the large manufacturing complex was damaged by a twister that touched...
U.S. says North Korea has not responded to attempts to discuss American soldier who ran across border
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea hasn’t responded to U.S. attempts to discuss the American soldier who bolted across the heavily armed border, officials in Washington said, underscoring that the serviceman’s prospects for a quick release are unclear at a time of high tensions and inactive communication channels. Without mentioning...
Jan. 6 charges against Trump would add to his mounting legal peril as he campaigns for 2024
WASHINGTON — Hush-money payments. Classified records. And now, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election that led to the Capitol attack. Already facing criminal cases in New York and Florida, Donald Trump is in increasing legal peril as investigations into his struggle to cling to power after his election loss...
Powerball jackpot of over $1 billion has a winner
LOS ANGELES — A winning ticket has been sold in California for the Powerball jackpot worth an estimated $1.08 billion, the sixth largest in U.S. history and the third largest in the history of the game. The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing were: white balls 7, 10, 11, 13,...
Police cast doubt on Carlee Russell’s kidnapping claim after reporting toddler on an Alabama highwayVideo
Authorities in Alabama cast doubt Wednesday on the story of a woman who set off a frantic search when she disappeared for two days after calling 911 to report a toddler wandering on the highway. Carlee Russell told investigators she was abducted and forced into a car Thursday, but they...
Did you get covid but never feel sick? New study hints at why
As the coronavirus emerged, so did a mystery: Why did some who got infected never develop symptoms? One likely explanation is it may be a person’s lucky genes. A new study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature suggests people with a specific version of a gene were far more...
Military veteran who stormed Capitol with loaded pistol is sentenced to 7 years in prison
WASHINGTON — A military veteran who stormed the U.S. Capitol with a loaded pistol, metal-plated body armor and a gas mask was sentenced on Wednesday to seven years in prison, one of the longest among hundreds of Jan. 6 riot cases. Christopher Michael Alberts, 35, of Pylesville, Md., isn’t accused...
Pennsylvania-owned universities could see 5th year of tuition freeze
State System of Higher Education administrators plan to recommend Thursday that the system’s governing board freeze tuition for an unprecedented fifth consecutive year across Pennsylvania’s 10 state-owned universities. The board of governors is expected to vote on the proposal at its quarterly meeting in Harrisburg. An affirmative vote would keep...
New Zealand gunman kills 2 people on eve of Women’s World Cup soccer tournament
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A gunman killed two people before he died Thursday at a construction site in Auckland, New Zealand, as the nation prepared to host games in the FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer tournament, authorities said. Police said there were also multiple injuries during the incident, which took...
Pfizer reports North Carolina pharmaceutical plant damaged by tornado, no serious injuriesVideo
A tornado heavily damaged a large Pfizer pharmaceutical plant Wednesday in North Carolina, the latest in a string of extreme weather events plaguing the U.S. on a day when floods deluged communities in Kentucky and scorching heat smothered Phoenix and Miami. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer confirmed that a large complex was...
11 mustangs die in U.S. roundup in Nevada caught on video, showing horses with broken necks
RENO, Nev. — Nearly a dozen wild horses have died in the first 10 days of a big mustang roundup in Nevada, deaths that a Las Vegas congresswoman is calling tragic proof of the urgent need to outlaw helicopters to capture the animals on federal land. The 11 deaths so...
IRS whistleblowers air claims to Congress about ‘slow-walking’ of the Hunter Biden caseVideo
WASHINGTON — House Republicans raised unsubstantiated allegations Wednesday against President Joe Biden over his family’s finances as they summoned IRS whistleblowers to testify publicly for the first time about claims the Justice Department improperly interfered with a tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter. Lawmakers heard from the two IRS agents...
‘It’s inhumane.’ Mexican president blasts treatment of migrants by Texas
AUSTIN, Texas — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blasted the treatment of migrants following reporting earlier this week that officials received orders to push those crossing at the Texas border back into the Rio Grande and also were told not to give them water. The president said he did...
Judge nixes Trump’s bid to move hush-money criminal case, keeping it in New York state court
NEW YORK — Donald Trump can’t make a federal case out of this one. U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein on Wednesday rejected the former president’s bid to move his hush-money criminal case from New York state court to federal court, ruling that Trump’s lawyers had failed to meet a...
Report: Rising gambling revenue for June closes out record haul for fiscal year
June proved to be another lucrative month for Pennsylvania’s gambling joints. Last month, the combined total revenue generated from all forms of gaming clocked in at nearly $440.5 million, a 13% increase compared to June 2022, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Still, it was a drop compared to...
Dark money group puts pressure on Pa. lawmakers after Shapiro vows voucher veto
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — As Pennsylvania’s budget impasse drags on, a group that keeps its donors secret is pressuring key lawmakers to support...
Maine governor expands access to abortion later in pregnancy
AUGUSTA, Maine — Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill into law Wednesday that expands access to abortions later in pregnancy in Maine, joining a half-dozen states that leave it to doctors and patients to make the decision without restrictions on timing. The new law allows abortions at any time...
