Biden set for critical talks on Ukraine this week with Denmark, UK
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is welcoming Denmark and Britain’s prime ministers this week to Washington for talks that will focus heavily on what lays ahead in the war in Ukraine —including the recently-launched effort to train, and eventually equip, Ukraine with American-made F-16s fighter jets Britain and Denmark are...
U.S. defense secretary discusses upgrading ties with India to counter China
NEW DELHI — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday discussed upgrading partnership with India, a major arms buyer, and set a roadmap for cooperation for the next five years as both countries grapple with China’s economic rise and increased belligerence, officials said. Austin’s visit comes as India strengthens its...
67-year-old killed, toddler injured in Washington County crash
A 67-year-old man was killed and a 1-year-old child was hospitalized Sunday night as a result of a crash on Interstate 70 in Washington County. The Pennsylvania State Police reported the incident happened around 10:50 p.m. along the eastbound lanes of I-70 in Washington. According to a state police report,...
Pa. budget 2023: Your guide to what’s on the table, what comes next and how to follow along
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 — June is budget negotiation month in Pennsylvania, when state lawmakers decide how to direct billions of tax dollars and...
West Virginia man arraigned in fatal shooting of state trooper
WILLIAMSON, W.Va. — A suspect in the fatal shooting of a West Virginia state police officer was arraigned Saturday on a first-degree murder charge. Timothy Kennedy, 29, was arraigned by video in Mingo County Magistrate Court. Kennedy of the Mingo County community of Beech Creek, near Matewan, was being held...
Transgender adults in Florida `blindsided’ that new law also limits their access to health care
TALLAHASSEE — Debate surrounding Florida’s new restrictions on gender-affirming care focused largely on transgender children. But a new law that Republican presidential candidate and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last month also made it difficult — even impossible — for many transgender adults to get treatment. Eli and Lucas, trans men...
California is investigating who sent 16 migrants from Texas to doorstep of Sacramento diocese
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento on Friday received some unexpected visitors: 16 migrants from South America who had been flown in on a private chartered jet from New Mexico after being transported from the border town of El Paso without any coordination with the church or with California authorities....
Unresponsive small plane over Washington causes military jet to scramble, later crashes in VirginiaVideo
WASHINGTON — A wayward and unresponsive business plane that flew over the nation’s capital Sunday afternoon caused the military to scramble a fighter jet before the plane crashed in Virginia, officials said. The fighter jet caused a loud sonic boom that was heard across the capital region. The Federal Aviation...
Utah district bans Bible in elementary and middle schools ‘due to vulgarity or violence’
SALT LAKE CITY — The Good Book is being treated like a bad book in Utah after a parent frustrated by efforts to ban materials from schools convinced a suburban district that some Bible verses were too vulgar or violent for younger children. And the Book of Mormon could be...
Missing man’s body recovered at Iowa apartment collapse site; 2 others still missingVideo
DAVENPORT, Iowa — The body of one of three men who had been missing after the partial collapse of an apartment building in Davenport, Iowa, has been found, a city official confirmed Sunday. Branden Colvin Sr.’s body was recovered Saturday, city spokeswoman Sarah Ott said. Two other men — 51-year-old...
State police: Trooper shot, killed driver during illegal I-95 street racing gathering
PHILADELPHIA — A state trooper shot and killed a man whose vehicle struck two troopers as law enforcement tried to get control of an illegal early morning street racing gathering on a Philadelphia interstate, state police said Sunday. State police say troopers were called to I-95 in the Penn’s Landing...
Biden’s 2024 pitch highlights pragmatism over Trump’s pugilism
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden promised voters in 2020 that he knew how to get things done in Washington and could bring stability to the capital. It seemed like a message out of step with the more combative era brought on by Donald Trump. But Biden prevailed, by more than...
DeSantis hits Trump from the right while the ex-president looks ahead to the general election
NEW YORK — In his first week on the campaign trail as a presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly hit his chief rival, Donald Trump, from the right. “This is a different guy than 2015, 2016,” DeSantis told a conservative radio host before slamming the bipartisan criminal justice reform...
Chuck Todd leaving NBC political panel show ‘Meet the Press’ and being replaced by Kristen Welker
NEW YORK — Chuck Todd said Sunday he’ll be leaving “Meet the Press” after a tumultuous near-decade of moderating the NBC political panel show, to be replaced in the coming months by Kristen Welker. Todd, 51, told viewers that “I’ve watched too many friends and family let work consume them...
What led Capitol Police to stop a youth performance of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’
Video of a children’s choir singing the national anthem in the U.S. Capitol, only to be unceremoniously cut off by police, spread across social media on Friday. Capitol Police say singers from Rushingbrook Children’s Choir from Greenville, South Carolina, were stopped May 26 because of a miscommunication. Musical performances in...
Biden signs debt ceiling bill that pulls U.S. back from brink of unprecedented default
WASHINGTON — With just two days to spare, President Joe Biden signed legislation on Saturday that lifts the nation’s debt ceiling, averting an unprecedented default on the federal government’s debt. It was a decidedly low-key denouement to a monthslong drama that unnerved financial markets at home and abroad and caused...
Key suspect in Natalee Holloway’s case moved to new prison ahead of extradition to U.S.
LIMA, Peru — The chief suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway is being transferred to a prison near Peru’s capital ahead of his pending extradition to the United States to face charges linked to her vanishing, officials said Saturday. The government of Peru, where Dutch...
India train crash kills over 280, injures 900 in one of nation’s worst rail disasters
BALASORE, India — Rescuers found no more survivors in the overturned and mangled wreckage of two passenger trains that derailed in eastern India, killing more than 280 people and injuring hundreds in one of the country’s deadliest rail crashes in decades, officials said Saturday. Chaotic scenes erupted on Friday night...
West Virginia state trooper fatally shot, suspect being sought
BEECH CREEK, W.Va. — A state police officer was fatally shot Friday in southern West Virginia, and a suspect was being sought, authorities said. Sgt. Cory Maynard was killed in the shooting, Gov. Jim Justice said in a statement, adding that he was “absolutely heartbroken.” He and first lady Cathy...
Report: Buffalo’s snow-removal equipment, communications fell short during deadly blizzard
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo’s snow-removal fleet was no match for the historic Christmas week blizzard that left 31 people dead in the city, and officials fell short in issuing warnings and providing shelter, according to a report released Friday. The 175-page review of the city’s response by New York University’s...
Biden orders 20-year ban on oil, gas drilling to protect tribal sites outside New Mexico’s Chaco
SANTA FE, N.M. — Hundreds of square miles in New Mexico will be withdrawn from further oil and gas production for the next 20 years on the outskirts of Chaco Culture National Historical Park that tribal communities consider sacred, the Biden administration ordered Friday. The new order from Secretary of...
CCAC tuition to go up 3.3% next school year
Tuition for full-time students attending the Community College of Allegheny County is going up 3.3% for the 2023-24 school year. Tuition for students from Allegheny County will go from $1,830 to $1,890 per semester. Students from other Pennsylvania counties will pay $3,780 per semester in tuition, up from $3,660. Out-of-state...
Protests erupt outside Los Angeles elementary school’s Pride month assembly
LOS ANGELES — Police officers separated groups of protesters and counterprotesters Friday outside a Los Angeles elementary school that has become a flashpoint for Pride month events across California. People protesting a planned Pride month assembly outside the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Saticoy Elementary School wore T-shirts emblazoned with...
As legal gambling surges, some states want to teach teens about the risks
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — As a high school senior, Nick was blessed with a deadly accurate jump shot from the three-point range — something he was quick to monetize. He and his gym classmates not far from the Jersey Shore would compete to see who could make the most baskets,...
Pa.’s Democratic U.S. Sens. John Fetterman, Bob Casey split votes over debt ceiling bill
Pennsylvania’s Democratic U.S. senators split their votes on the debt ceiling bill Thursday night, with Sen. Bob Casey voting for it and Sen. John Fetterman opposing it. “Last night, I voted for legislation to prevent the nation from defaulting on its debt and to stop extreme MAGA Republicans from gutting...
