Debt ceiling explained: Why it’s a struggle in Washington and how the impasse could end
WASHINGTON — Pushing to strike a debt ceiling deal, the Republican negotiating team headed Wednesday to the White House for more discussions with the sides still far apart. Time is short: There are just days left before the government could run out of cash to pay its bills. The White...
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton likely broke laws, Republican investigation findsVideo
AUSTIN — A Republican-led investigation on Wednesday accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of committing multiple crimes in office — including felonies — during an extraordinary public airing of scandal and alleged lawbreaking that plunged one of the GOP’s conservative stars into new political and legal risk. For more than...
Haley commits to federal abortion ban but says it’s unlikely without more Republicans in Congress
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Wednesday pledged to sign a federal ban on abortion but noted that passing one would be highly unlikely without more Republicans in Congress. Although Haley didn’t say how many weeks a federal ban should encompass, her commitment to signing one is...
1st seditious conspiracy sentences in Jan. 6 attack to be handed down
WASHINGTON — Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and members of his antigovernment group will be the first Jan. 6 defendants sentenced for seditious conspiracy in a series of hearings beginning this week that will set the standard for more punishments of far-right extremists to follow. Prosecutors will urge the judge...
Game Commission: 2 children attacked by bear in Northeastern Pennsylvania
A bear attacked two children on Monday in Luzerne County, causing non-life threatening injuries and the Pennsylvania Game Commission is now investigating the incident. The attack occurred while the children were playing in the driveway of their home in Wright Township in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The game commission said there are...
Montana 1st to ban those in drag from reading to children in schools, libraries
HELENA, Mont. — Montana has become the first state to specifically ban people dressed in drag from reading books to children at public schools and libraries, part of a host of legislation aimed at the rights the LGBTQ+ community in Montana and other states. Bills in Florida and Tennessee also...
Abortion debates happening this week in U.S. courts and statehouses
Lawmakers in South Carolina passed an abortion ban while a judge in Montana was weighing restrictions there in the latest developments in the shifting landscape of law since the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade and the nationwide right to abortion. Here’s what to know. Back to...
U.S. gay rights group issues Florida travel advisory for anti-LGBTQ+ laws
ORLANDO, Fla. — The largest LGBTQ+ rights organization in the U.S. joined other civil rights organizations Tuesday in issuing a travel advisory for Florida, warning that newly passed laws and policies may pose risks to minorities, immigrants and gay travelers. The Human Rights Campaign joined the NAACP, the League of...
Do not call: States sue telecom company over billions of robocalls
PHOENIX — Attorneys general across the U.S. joined in a lawsuit against a telecommunications company accused of making more than 7.5 billion robocalls to people on the national Do Not Call Registry. The 141-page lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix against Avid Telecom, its owner Michael...
Germany cracks down on climate activists after Scholz calls protest group ‘nutty’
BERLIN — German police raided 15 properties linked to the Last Generation climate activist group Wednesday, seizing assets as part of an investigation into its finances in a sign of growing impatience with disruptive protest tactics also seen in other European countries. Members of the group have repeatedly blocked roads...
Pa. karate teacher threatened to toss teen out of class if she didn’t send him nude photos, police say
A central Pennsylvania man has been arrested on accusations he sexually abused several teenage students at the martial arts studio where he worked. Devin Hogue, 23, of the 500 block of Ridge Road, New Cumberland, had several inappropriate interactions with four teenage girls that, in some instances, escalated to sexual...
Debt ceiling talks stuck on classic problem: Republicans demand spending cuts and Democrats resist
WASHINGTON — Debt ceiling negotiations are locked on a classic problem that has vexed, divided and disrupted Washington before: Republicans led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy want to roll back federal government spending, while President Joe Biden and other Democrats do not. Time is short to strike a deal before...
Just in case: Anxious retirees, social service groups among those making default contingency plans
WASHINGTON — Phoenix retiree Saundra Cole has been watching the news about the debt limit negotiations in Washington with dismay — and limiting her air conditioning use to save money just in case her monthly Social Security check is delayed due to a default. For her, air conditioning is no...
Super Typhoon Mawar passing over Guam as Category 4 storm with strong winds, rain
HONOLULU — Typhoon Mawar rumbled through Guam as a powerful Category 4 storm on Thursday, relentlessly lashing the U.S. Pacific island territory with heavy rain, powerful winds, and a dangerous storm surge and knocking out power to many communities where frightened residents hunkered down for the night in homes and...
Pa. is sitting on billions in unclaimed property, but a bill would get some back to its owners
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 — Pennsylvania’s treasurer wants the state to start sending unclaimed money directly to the people it belongs to, a proactive...
Trump lawyers seek meeting with Garland as Mar-a-Lago investigation shows signs of winding downVideo
WASHINGTON — Lawyers for Donald Trump on Tuesday asked for a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland as a Justice Department investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents shows signs of winding down. In the letter, which Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, attorneys John Rowley and...
Texas governor sent bill abolishing position of Harris County elections chief
AUSTIN — Shaking up elections in Texas’ largest county, the GOP-controlled Legislature on Tuesday approved abolishing a position in Harris County that oversees more than 2 million voters around Houston months before the city chooses a new mayor. At the same time, Republicans advanced a separate plan that would also...
Former Kansas police officer sentenced for sexual assaults, window peeping
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A former Kansas police officer has been sentenced to 23 1/2 years in prison for a series of sexual assaults committed while he was an officer. Todd W. Allen, 52, pleaded guilty in April to 12 felony sex crime charges and five breach of privacy charges. Prosecutors...
Pennsylvania man convicted of torture at Iraqi military compound
A Pennsylvania resident directed Kurdish soldiers to kidnap a man in Iraq and “beat, tase, choke, and otherwise physically and mentally abuse” him for 39 days in 2015, federal prosecutors said. After the victim was kidnapped and taken to an Iraqi military compound, Ross Roggio, 54, of Stroudsburg, suffocated him...
Pa. House committee passes expansion of property tax and rent rebates
A bill that would fulfill one of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s major budget requests passed out of the Pennsylvania House Finance Committee on Tuesday on a unanimous vote, albeit after Republicans unsuccessfully tried to strip the bill of the one of its core components. House Bill 1100 expands the state’s Property...
Catholic clergy sexually abused Illinois kids far more often than church acknowledged, state findsVideo
CHICAGO — More than 450 Catholic clergy in Illinois sexually abused nearly 2,000 children since 1950, the state’s attorney general found in an investigation released Tuesday, revealing that the problem was far worse than the church had let on. Attorney General Kwame Raoul said at a news conference that investigators...
‘A sign of his compassion’: Man killed while helping ducklings safely cross busy California street
ROCKLIN, Calif. — His family says it’s no surprise that Casey Rivara’s final act was one of compassion. When he spotted a mama duck trying to guide her ducklings across a busy California intersection, Rivara stopped his car at a red light and got out to help them make it...
Guam residents shelter, military sends away ships as Super Typhoon Mawar closes inVideo
HONOLULU — President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration as an intensifying Super Typhoon Mawar approached Guam, where anyone not living in a concrete house was urged to seek safety elsewhere and emergency shelters began to fill ahead of what could be the most powerful storm to hit the U.S....
Energy Dept. cancels $200M grant to battery maker after GOP criticism over alleged ties to China
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has canceled plans to award a $200 million grant to a U.S. battery manufacturer amid criticism from Republican lawmakers over the company’s alleged ties to China. Texas-based Microvast was one of 20 companies to win preliminary grants totaling $2.8 billion to boost domestic manufacturing of...
‘Mother Nature has no mercy’: Man gets stuck waist-deep in Alaska mud flats, drowns as tide comes in
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A man who was walking on tidal mud flats with friends in an Alaska estuary got stuck up to his waist in the quicksand-like silt and drowned as the tide came in before frantic rescuers could extract him, authorities said. Zachary Porter, 20, of Lake Bluff, Illinois,...
