Donut painting sparks free speech debate for bakery, town
CONWAY, N.H. — Bakery owner Sean Young was thrilled when high school art students covered the big blank wall over his doorway last spring with a painting of the sun shining over a mountain range made of sprinkle-covered chocolate and strawberry donuts, a blueberry muffin, a cinnamon roll and other...
Poland building electronic barrier on border with Russia
WARSAW, Poland — Poland has begun building a state-of-the-art electronic barrier at its land border with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to monitor and counteract any illegal activity, the Polish interior minister said Tuesday. The barrier, which will be equipped with 24-hour monitoring cameras and motion detectors, will run for 130 miles...
Biden signs executive order to improve access to child care
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has signed an executive order containing more than 50 directives to increase access to child care and improve the work life of caregivers, the White House said Tuesday. But the directives would be funded out of existing commitments, likely meaning their impact would carry more...
How some White House hopefuls inflate their fundraising success
WASHINGTON — Long before ballots are tallied and reliable polls are conducted, one of the earliest ways to gauge the popularity of presidential candidates is with dollars. Getting donors to part with their money is a key measure of viability, especially in the early stages of a White House campaign....
Fox, Dominion reach settlement over false election claimsVideo
WILMINGTON, Del. — Fox and Dominion Voting Systems reached a settlement Tuesday in the voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit, averting a trial in a case that exposed how the top-rated network chased viewers by promoting lies about the 2020 presidential election. An attorney for Dominion said the settlement was for...
Wall Street Journal reporter held by Russia on spying charges denied release
A Russian judge ruled Tuesday that American journalist Evan Gershkovich must remain behind bars on espionage charges in a case that is part of a crackdown the Kremlin has intensified on dissent and press freedom since invading Ukraine. Appearing in public for the first time in weeks, the 31-year-old Wall...
Printing error forces Pennsylvania county to replace ballots
HARRISBURG — Elections officials in a central Pennsylvania county were scrambling on Monday to fix an error on more than 18,000 mail-in ballots for the spring primary, when voters will elect judges for the state Supreme Court and other positions. Late last week someone noticed that the ballot for Superior...
Coast Guard, Mexican Navy searching for missing Murrysville native, 2 others
MEXICO CITY — The Mexican Navy said Monday it is using ships and a plane to search for three Americans, one of which is a Murrysville native, who went missing along with their sailboat off Mexico’s northern Pacific coast. The Navy said it is using four patrol boats and a...
Florida Gov. DeSantis seeks to control Disney with state oversight powersVideo
ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers ratcheted up pressure on Walt Disney World on Monday by announcing legislation that will use the regulatory powers of Florida government to exert unprecedented oversight on the park resort’s rides and monorail. Lawmakers will introduce a bill in coming weeks that...
New York woman driven to wrong address fatally shot by homeowner
HEBRON, N.Y. — A woman looking for a friend’s house in upstate New York was shot to death when the car she was riding in mistakenly went to the wrong address and was met with gunfire in the driveway, authorities said Monday. Kaylin Gillis, 20, was traveling through the rural...
Court tosses Gov. Wolf suit against voter ID, abortion amendments
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania court on Monday dismissed a challenge to how lawmakers have bundled together five potential state constitutional amendments, including one regarding abortion, on grounds the legal dispute was not ripe for the judges’ review. The five-judge Commonwealth Court panel said judges were not passing judgment on the...
Fox News-Dominion libel case set to begin after brief delayVideo
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware judge overseeing a voting machine company’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News delayed the opening of the trial Monday, raising the prospect that the two sides might attempt to settle before the eagerly watched case goes before a jury. Superior Court Judge Eric Davis...
Oklahoma officials accused of talk of killing journalists
Oklahoma’s governor is seeking the resignation of four county officials after a newspaper’s audio recording apparently captured some of them complaining about two of the paper’s journalists and knowing hit men and where two holes are dug. A portion of the recording was released by the paper, and it also...
‘It’s great to be back’: John Fetterman returns to the Senate
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Fetterman made his highly anticipated return to the Senate on Monday, following a six-week hospital stay for depression, which put mental health challenges under a spotlight that had already been trained on him and his health for months. Fetterman, D-Braddock, climbed out of a black SUV...
Trump’s House GOP allies take fight to Manhattan DA’s turfVideo
NEW YORK — Republicans upset with Donald Trump’s indictment are escalating their war on the prosecutor who charged him, trying to embarrass Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on his home turf partly by falsely portraying New York City as a place overrun by crime. The House Judiciary Committee, led by...
Ohio officers won’t be charged in shooting of Jayland Walker
AKRON, Ohio — Eight police officers who fired dozens of rounds at Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old Black man, following a car and foot chase will not face criminal charges in his death because a grand jury declined to indict them, Ohio’s attorney general announced Monday. Walker’s death last June sparked...
Kansas City man charged in shooting of Black teen at his front doorVideo
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An 85-year-old white man who shot a Black teen at his front door in Kansas City, Missouri, last week has been charged with armed assault, the Clay County prosecutor said Monday. Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said at a news conference that Andrew Lester shot 16-year-old Ralph...
Alabama police searching for clues in shooting that killed 4
DADEVILLE, Ala. — Students at a small-town Alabama school, its flag flying at half-mast Monday, returned to class as investigators worked to piece together what happened at a Saturday night shooting that killed four people, including two Dadeville High School students. The 485-student school is a center of civic life...
Secret Chinese police station in New York leads to arrests
NEW YORK — Two men were arrested Monday on charges that they helped establish a secret police station in New York City on behalf of the Chinese government, and about three dozen officers with China’s national police force were charged with using social media to harass dissidents inside the United...
Supreme Court to deliver answer in religious mailman’s case
LANCASTER — Gerald Groff liked his work as a postal employee in Pennsylvania’s Amish Country. For years, he delivered mail and all manner of packages: a car bumper, a mini refrigerator, a 70-pound box of horseshoes for a blacksmith. But when an Amazon.com contract with the Postal Service required carriers...
Italian police scoop up 2 tons of cocaine bobbing in sea
ROME — Italian police scooped up two tons of cocaine, wrapped in protective plastic and bobbing in the sea off eastern Sicily, authorities said Monday. The financial police squad estimated that the recent “catch” would have fetched about $450 million in street sales. The packages of cocaine were strung together...
U.S., allies stage drills as North Korea warns of security crisis
SEOUL, South Korea — The United States, South Korea and Japan conducted a joint missile defense exercise on Monday aimed at countering North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal, as a top North Korean army official warned the U.S. that it risks “a clearer security crisis and insurmountable threats.” Last week, North...
Sudan battles intensify on 3rd day; civilian deaths reach 97
KHARTOUM, Sudan — As explosions and gunfire thundered outside, Sudanese in the capital Khartoum and other cities huddled in their homes for a third day Monday, while the army and a powerful rival force battled in the streets for control of the country. At least 97 civilians have been killed...
FBI cautions about phone ‘spoofing’ scam
Pittsburgh FBI officials said there is an ongoing telephone scam in which a caller portrays themselves as a special agent and the phone number shows up on caller ID as the FBI. The scam caller tells victims their identity has been compromised and used to open fraudulent bank accounts and...
Pa. Medicaid reenrollment: What you need to know to keep your health insurance or find other options
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 — If you’re one of the nearly 3.7 million Pennsylvanians who use Medicaid for health insurance, you’ll need to requalify...
