Debt ceiling talks to resume as Biden, McCarthy prepare to meet Monday to resolve standoffVideo
WASHINGTON — Debt ceiling talks were set to resume Sunday evening as Washington races to strike a budget compromise along with a deal to raise the nation’s borrowing limit and avert an economy-wrecking federal default. President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy spoke by phone Sunday while the president...
Back in hoodies and gym shorts, Fetterman tackles Senate life after depression treatment
WASHINGTON — Before Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman checked himself in to the hospital for clinical depression in February, he walked the halls of the Senate stone-faced and dressed in formal suits. These days, he’s back to wearing the hoodies and gym shorts he was known for before he became a...
Pa. opioid settlement money: What you need to know
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. Billions of dollars are expected to come to Pennsylvania to help the state respond to the opioid epidemic, but tracking how...
Former Arkansas U.S. Rep. Marion Berry, who served 7 terms, dies at 80
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Former U.S. Rep. Robert Marion Berry, an Arkansas Democrat who served seven terms in Congress and was known for his blunt rhetoric and advocacy for farmers and older residents, has died. He was 80. Berry, who was known as “Marion,” died Friday, his family confirmed in...
Uvalde families dig in for new test of gun industry protections
AUSTIN, Texas — After Mayah Zamora was shot and wounded at Robb Elementary School, her family did what many mass shooting survivors do: They sued. They sued the store off Main Street in Uvalde, Texas, that sold the teenage gunman his AR-style rifle. They sued the gun maker. And they...
F-18 fighter jet accident at Zaragoza airbase as pilot ejects successfully
BARCELONA, Spain — An F-18 fighter jet crashed at an airbase in the Spanish city of Zaragoza but the pilot ejected successfully, the Spanish defense ministry said Saturday. The aircraft landed within the perimeter of the base, the defense ministry said on Twitter. The base, which lies about 10 miles...
Television’s biggest mystery: how long will pipeline for new programming be closed?
NEW YORK — For decades, the week in May when television executives revealed what new shows were coming and which old ones were going spoke to the power and influence that ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox had over popular culture. This past week offered more evidence of how that is...
Low-income tenants lack options as old mobile home parks are razed
PHOENIX — Alondra Ruiz Vazquez and her husband were comfortable in Periwinkle Mobile Home Park for a decade, feeling lucky to own their mobile home and pay about $450 a month for their lot in a city with spiraling rents. But now they and dozens of other families have until...
DeSantis asks that judge be disqualified from Disney’s free speech lawsuit
ORLANDO, Fla.— Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking that a federal judge be disqualified from the First Amendment lawsuit filed by Disney against the Florida governor and his appointees, claiming the jurist’s prior statements in other cases have raised questions about his impartiality on the state’s efforts to take over Disney...
Franklin Regional recognized as model for education excellence by national association
The Franklin Regional School District was among six in the U.S. to be chosen by the School Superintendents Association as a model of positive change in public education. The association recognized Franklin Regional as a 2023 spring “Lighthouse System,” adding it to the 120-member Learning 2025 Network, a group of...
World leaders warn China and North Korea on nukes as Ukraine’s Zelenskyy travels to G7 summit
HIROSHIMA, Japan — Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies warned China and North Korea against building up their nuclear arsenals, pivoting to major northeast Asian crises ahead of the arrival later Saturday of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The focus on Asia at the Group of Seven summit comes as...
American Airlines and JetBlue must abandon their partnership in the Northeast, federal judge rules
American Airlines and JetBlue Airways must abandon their partnership in the northeast United States, a federal judge in Boston ruled Friday, saying that the government proved the deal reduces competition in the airline industry. The ruling is a major victory for the Biden administration, which has used aggressive enforcement of...
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s return to Capitol has been closely watched. Can she still do her job?
WASHINGTON — For seven months in 1988, Joe Biden was absent from the Senate, recovering from operations to repair brain aneurysms. The first lasted eight hours. Three months later, a second aneurysm sent him back to surgery. The Delaware senator’s convalescence was so guarded that he wouldn’t take phone calls...
Biden endorses F-16 training for Ukrainians at G7 summit
HIROSHIMA, Japan — President Joe Biden told allies Friday he was approving plans to train Ukrainian pilots on U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, according to two people familiar with the matter, as leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies worked to toughen punishments on Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine....
Diplomatic tour by Ukraine’s Zelenskyy highlights Putin’s stark isolation
TALLINN, Estonia — While the world awaits Ukraine’s spring battlefield offensive, its leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has launched a diplomatic one. In the span of a week, he’s dashed to Italy, the Vatican, Germany, France and Britain to shore up support for defending his country. On Friday, he was in Saudi...
Fed Chair Powell hints at a pause in rate hikes when central bank meets next month
WASHINGTON — Chair Jerome Powell indicated Friday that the Federal Reserve will likely forgo an increase in its benchmark interest rate when it meets in June for the first time since it began raising its key rate 14 months ago to fight high inflation. In signaling so, Powell provided some...
Sen. Tim Scott makes it official: He’s a GOP candidate for president
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina made it official Friday: He’s running for president. Scott, the Senate’s only Black Republican, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring his intention to seek his party’s nomination in 2024. His candidacy will test whether a more optimistic vision of...
German surgeon fired after getting hospital cleaner to assist amputation
BERLIN — Officials at a hospital in western Germany have expressed regret after it emerged that one of their surgeons got a cleaner to assist in a toe amputation. Public broadcaster SWR reported Friday that the incident at the Mainz University Hospital, which happened in 2020, didn’t result in any...
NYC subway choking victim to be mourned at Manhattan church
NEW YORK — Jordan Neely, whose chokehold death on the New York City subway set off a debate about vigilantism, homelessness and public safety, will be mourned by his family Friday at a church in Harlem. A former Michael Jackson impersonator who had been struggling with mental illness and homelessness...
Any indictments in Trump election investigation would likely come in August
ATLANTA — The Atlanta prosecutor investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others broke the law while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia seems to be suggesting that any grand jury indictments in the case would likely come in August. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent a...
Former Italian Premier Berlusconi leaves hospital after 45 days
MILAN — Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was discharged on Friday from a Milan hospital, nearly a month and a half after he was admitted with a lung infection. Berlusconi waved at journalists from behind a closed window as his car drove away from the San Raffaele Hospital. He arrived...
Ukrainian president attends Arab summit in Saudi Arabia
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of an Arab summit on Friday, where he was set to address leaders who have remained largely neutral on Russia’s invasion of his country, including many who maintain warm ties with Moscow. Among those in attendance is...
Michigan boy who used slingshot to save sister says he ‘was just lucky’Video
ALPENA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A 13-year-old Michigan boy who used a slingshot to save his 8-year-old sister from an attempted kidnapping said he was “freaking out” and simply reached for something that could stop the attack. “So I grab my slingshot and open the window and I grab two things...
Incredible shrinking lakes: Humans, climate change, diversion costs trillions of gallons annually
WASHINGTON — Climate change ‘s hotter temperatures and society’s diversion of water have been shrinking the world’s lakes by trillions of gallons of water a year since the early 1990s, a new study finds. A close examination of nearly 2,000 of the world’s largest lakes found they are losing about...
7 dead in vehicle crash on Interstate 5 in Oregon
ALBANY, Ore. — Seven people were killed and multiple others hurt in a crash involving several vehicles Thursday on Interstate 5 in an agricultural area of western Oregon, police said. Officers responded at about 2:05 p.m. to the crash involving two semi trucks and a passenger vehicle in the northbound...
