Sheriff: Suspect in California dance club shooting killed self in van
MONTEREY PARK, Calif. — The hunt for a gunman who killed 10 people at a Los Angeles-area ballroom dance club ended Sunday when authorities found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the van he used to flee after people thwarted his attempt at a second shooting. Los Angeles County...
FBI searched Biden home, found items marked classified
WASHINGTON — The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday and located additional documents with classified markings and also took possession of some of his handwritten notes, the president’s lawyer said Saturday. The president voluntarily allowed the FBI into his home, but the lack of a...
Top Biden aide Ron Klain expected to soon leave White House
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who has spent more than two years as President Joe Biden’s top aide, is preparing to leave his job in the coming weeks, according to a person familiar with Klain’s plans. Klain’s expected departure comes not long after the...
Prosecutors: Convicted CEO Elizabeth Holmes is a flight risk
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Elizabeth Holmes is a flight risk and shouldn’t be allowed to stay out of prison while she appeals her 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors, federal prosecutors said in court documents. Holmes had a one-way plane ticket to Mexico booked for Jan. 26, 2022, three weeks...
White House to McCarthy: No negotiations on debt limit
WASHINGTON — The White House says President Joe Biden “looks forward” to sitting down with new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to discuss a range of topics, including perhaps the thorniest challenge confronting Washington this year: raising the nation’s debt limit. One hitch: That statement Friday came with no actual invitation...
Schools face pressure to take harder line on discipline
As kids’ behavior reaches crisis points after the stress and isolation of pandemic shutdowns, many schools are facing pressure from critics to rethink their approaches to discipline — including policies intended to reduce suspensions and expulsions. Approaches such as “restorative justice” were adopted widely in recent decades as educators updated...
Prosecutors seek justice in Baldwin case, regardless of fame
SANTA FE, N.M. — Alec Baldwin faces two types of manslaughter charges in a reckoning on gun safety and the film industry, with two potential standards for proof and possible sanctions of up to five years in prison. Prosecutors have vowed to file those charges before February against the 64-year-old...
Illegal border crossings surge to highest of Biden’s term
WASHINGTON — A surge in Cuban and Nicaraguan arrivals at the U.S. border with Mexico in December led to the highest number of illegal border crossings recorded during any month of Joe Biden’s presidency, authorities said Friday. The extraordinary influx came shortly before Biden introduced measures on Jan. 5 to...
Elon Musk takes witness stand to defend Tesla buyout tweets
SAN FRANCISCO— Elon Musk took the witness stand Friday to defend a 2018 tweet claiming he had lined up the financing to take Tesla private in a deal that never came close to happening. The tweet resulted in a $40 million settlement with securities regulators. It also led to a...
Supreme Court: Justices interviewed as part of leak probe
WASHINGTON — Eight months, 126 formal interviews and a 23-page report later, the Supreme Court said it has failed to discover who leaked a draft of the court’s opinion overturning abortion rights. The report released by the court Thursday is the apparent culmination of an investigation ordered by Chief Justice...
Point Park University president steps down
Point Park University President Donald Green is stepping down after 18 months on the job. The 58-year-old notified the university’s board of trustees that his decision “is for private, personal and family reasons,” officials said in a statement Friday. Green’s resignation was effective immediately. Green follows at least three other...
Unemployment rate in Pennsylvania hits record low of 3.9%, but Duquesne prof says that comes with a caveat
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate fell to a record low in December, dropping below 4% for the first time since record-keeping began, according to figures released Friday. Payrolls and the workforce grew but remain below pre-pandemic
record levels. The rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 3.9% from November’s rate, the state...
Confidential document reveals key human role in ShotSpotter gunshot technology
CHICAGO — In more than 140 cities across the United States, including Pittsburgh, ShotSpotter’s artificial intelligence algorithm and intricate network of microphones evaluate hundreds of thousands of sounds a year to determine if they are gunfire, generating data now being used in criminal cases nationwide. But a confidential ShotSpotter document...
Ex-convict who abused college women gets 60 years in prison
NEW YORK — An ex-convict who obtained millions of dollars by subjecting his daughter’s ex-college roommates to forced labor and prostitution was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison by a judge who labeled him an “evil genius” who used sadism and psychological torture to control every aspect of his...
More bodies found in Tibet avalanche; death toll rises to 28
BEIJING — More bodies were found Friday following an avalanche that buried vehicles outside a highway tunnel in Tibet, raising the death toll to 28, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported. Images from the scene at the exit of the tunnel connecting the city of Nyingchi in Tibet’s southwest with an...
What older Americans need to know about taking Paxlovid
A new coronavirus variant is circulating, the most transmissible one yet. Hospitalizations of infected patients are rising. And older adults represent nearly 90% of U.S. deaths from covid-19 in recent months, the largest portion since the start of the pandemic. What does that mean for people 65 and older catching...
First Native American woman in space steps out on spacewalk
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The first Native American woman in space ventured out on a spacewalk Friday to prep the International Space Station for more solar panels. NASA astronaut Nicole Mann emerged alongside Japan’s Koichi Wakata, lugging an equipment bag. Their job was to install support struts and brackets for...
March for Life eyes Congress for post-Roe abortion limits
WASHINGTON — A half century after Roe v. Wade, March for Life supporters on Friday celebrated the dismantling of that constitutional right to abortion and the return of “abortion policymaking to the people.” President Joe Biden pledged to do all in his power to restore that right. The first March...
Google axes 12,000 jobs, layoffs spread across tech sector
LONDON — Google is laying off 12,000 workers, or about 6% of its workforce, becoming the latest tech company to trim staff as the economic boom that the industry rode during the COVID-19 pandemic ebbs. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who also leads its parent company Alphabet, informed staff Friday at...
Scientists say pollution not cause of U.K. mass crab deaths
LONDON — British scientists said Friday they don’t think pollution killed thousands of crabs that washed up on beaches in northeast England, though they are unsure what did cause the unusual die-off. The crustaceans were found dead or dying along more than 44 miles of coastline in late 2021, with...
Police: Heroic actions kept Indiana Walmart shooter from doing more harm
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Police in Indiana said Friday that heroic actions by a Walmart employee and law enforcement officers kept a gunman who shot and injured one female employee from doing more harm. The woman was the only person injured late Thursday when 25-year-old Ronald Ray Mosley II walked into...
Russia claims progress in eastern Ukraine; Kyiv craves tanks
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia claimed Friday to have captured a village in its intense, monthslong push toward the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut, as military analysts cautioned that tanks that may be sent by Kyiv’s Western allies wouldn’t be a magic wand in the almost 11-month war. Russian Defense Ministry...
Trump, lawyer hit with $1 million sanctions in Clinton case
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump and one of his top lawyers were ordered by a judge to pay a total of almost $1 million in sanctions to Hillary Clinton, her 2016 campaign and more than a dozen political operatives who he accused of running a vast conspiracy to...
Settlement sets up education fund in Pa. school abuse case
PHILADELPHIA — A $3 million settlement will establish a fund for former students as part of a lawsuit alleging abuse and deprivation of education at a now-shuttered Pennsylvania juvenile justice facility. Former Glen Mills Schools students could receive both cash payments for those who experienced or witnessed abuse and funds...
House GOP rewards hard-liners, George Santos with committee seatsVideo
WASHINGTON — The most far-right House Republicans, early opponents of Speaker Kevin McCarthy and even embattled new Rep. George Santos all are in line for coveted committee assignments. Some are set to serve on the high-profile oversight committee investigating President Joe Biden’s administration. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and...
