London police officer admits multiple counts of rape
LONDON — A London police officer on Monday admitted raping and sexually assaulting a dozen women over a 17-year period, in what prosecutors described as one of the most shocking cases involving a serving police officer. David Carrick, 48, pleaded guilty to 49 offenses, including 24 counts of rape and...
Elon Musk’s next drama: a trial over his tweets about Tesla
SAN FRANCISCO — While still grappling with the fallout from a company he did take private, beleaguered billionaire Elon Musk is now facing a trial over a company he didn’t. Long before Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October, he had set his sights on Tesla, the electric automaker...
Ukraine strike deaths hit 40; Russia seen preparing long war
KYIV, Ukraine — The death toll from a weekend Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 40, authorities said Monday, as Western analysts pointed to indications the Kremlin was preparing for a drawn-out war in Ukraine after almost 11 months...
Experts: LAPD’s repeated tasing of teacher who later died appears excessive
LOS ANGELES — Videos released this week of a teacher who died after Los Angeles police discharged a Taser on him at least six times on a Venice street raises serious concerns about the officers’ tactics, law enforcement experts who reviewed the tapes said. The LAPD’s actions have sparked alarms...
California gets more rain and snow, but dry days are aheadVideo
LOS ANGELES — More rain and snow fell during the weekend in storm-battered California, making travel dangerous and prompting evacuation warnings over flooding concerns along a swollen river near Sacramento. Bands of gusty thunderstorms started Saturday in the north and spread south, with yet another atmospheric river storm following close...
House GOP demands visitor logs in Biden classified docs caseVideo
WASHINGTON — Newly empowered House Republicans on Sunday demanded the White House turn over all information related to its searches that have uncovered classified documents at President Joe Biden’s home and former office in the wake of more records found at his Delaware residence. “We have a lot of questions,”...
University: Student stabbed on bus because she is Asian
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A 56-year-old woman has been charged after an 18-year-old Indiana University student repeatedly was stabbed in the head on a public bus in an attack the school says was because the victim is Asian. The victim told investigators she was standing and waiting for the exit doors...
Biden: Americans should ‘pay attention’ to MLK’s legacy
ATLANTA — President Joe Biden made a historical pilgrimage Sunday to “America’s freedom church” to mark Martin Luther King’s birthday, saying democracy was at a perilous moment and that the civil rights leader’s life and legacy “show us the way and we should pay attention.” As the first sitting president...
Deaths from strike on Ukraine apartment building rise to 25
DNIPRO, Ukraine — The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro rose to 25 Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported as rescue workers scrambled to pull survivors from the rubble. Emergency crews worked through the frigid night at the wrecked...
68 dead, 4 missing after plane crashes in Nepal resort town
POKHARA, Nepal — As search efforts ended for the day, 68 people were confirmed dead after a regional passenger plane with 72 aboard crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in the resort town of Pokhara Sunday, according to Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority. It’s the country’s...
Wealth looms big as ever in post-scandal college admissions
Celebrities wept in court. Coaches lost their jobs. Elite universities saw their reputations stained. And nearly four years later, the mastermind of the Varsity Blues scheme was sentenced this month to more than three years in prison. But there’s little belief the college bribery scandal has stirred significant change in...
Lawyers found more classified documents at Joe Biden’s home
WASHINGTON — Lawyers for President Joe Biden found more classified documents at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, than previously known, the White House acknowledged Saturday. White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement that a total of six pages of classified documents were found during a search of Biden’s...
Maine gets 1st Mega Millions jackpot with $1.35B grand prize
Maine scored its first Mega Millions jackpot — and someone beat the ill fortune of Friday the 13th — when a ticket purchased in the state matched the winning numbers for the lottery’s estimated $1.35 billion grand prize. The lucky combination of numbers drawn late Friday night were: 30, 43,...
Special elections to fill Pa. House seats vacated by Democrats should be held Feb. 7, court rules
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 — Special elections to fill Pennsylvania House seats vacated by Democrats should be held on Feb. 7, Commonwealth Court has...
Court greenlights holding Pa. House special elections Feb. 7
A Pennsylvania court ruled Friday that special elections to fill three vacancies in Democratic-leaning state House districts will be held together next month, with partisan control of the chamber at stake. A three-judge Commonwealth Court panel sided with the House’s Democratic floor leader, Rep. Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia, who had...
Afghan rulers urged to reverse ban on women aid workers
UNITED NATIONS — A strong majority of the U.N. Security Council urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers Friday to immediately reverse all “oppressive” restrictions on girls and women. The council then went into a closed meeting to discuss the Taliban’s latest ban on woman working for humanitarian groups, a move that is...
Biden and Kishida discuss Japan stepping up security
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were holding wide-ranging talks at the White House on Friday as Japan looks to build security cooperation with allies in a time of provocative Chinese and North Korean military action. The two administrations were also ready to seal an...
Biden special counsel deepens Justice Dept. in politics fray
WASHINGTON — In naming a special counsel to investigate the presence of classified documents at President Joe Biden’s Delaware home and former Washington office, Attorney General Merrick Garland described the appointment as underscoring the Justice Department’s commitment to independence and accountability in particularly sensitive investigations. If those words sounded familiar,...
Trump Organization fined $1.6 million for tax fraud
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s company was fined $1.6 million Friday for a scheme in which the former president’s top executives dodged personal income taxes on lavish job perks — a symbolic, hardly crippling blow for an enterprise boasting billions of dollars in assets. A fine was the only penalty...
Whale entangled in fishing gear off Outer Banks fights for its life, NOAA says
A struggling right whale is “heavily entangled” in fishing gear off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and likely won’t survive, according to NOAA Fisheries biologists. The whale’s predicament was discovered Jan. 8, as an aerial team from Florida’s Clearwater Marine Aquarium flew 20 miles off Rodanthe, according to a NOAA Fisheries...
Sociologist sees ‘haunting’ similarities between 20th, 21st century pandemic responses in U.S.
The last time Tom Soltis spoke to the American Association of University Women’s Murrysville chapter, it was during the emergence of the omicron variant of the covid-19 virus. Soltis recently retired after a career teaching sociology and anthropology at Westmoreland County Community College. He also is the author of “An...
Biden’s Delaware home is now a player in document drama
WASHINGTON — It’s President Joe Biden’s refuge from Washington — a place that’s part home office, part Sunday family dinner venue, a safe place for his treasured 1967 Corvette and a makeshift campaign studio during the covid-19 pandemic. Now, Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, is coming under fresh scrutiny as...
Rifts in Russian military command seen amid Ukraine fighting
As Russian troops wage a ferocious house-to-house fight for control of strongholds in eastern Ukraine, a parallel battle is unfolding in the top echelons of military power in Moscow, with President Vladimir Putin reshuffling his top generals while rival camps try to win his favor. The fighting for the salt...
MLK weekend to feature tributes, commitments to race equity
Annual tributes and commemorations of the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which begin nationwide on Friday, typically include a mix of politics, faith and community service. For this year’s celebration, the 37th since its federal recognition in 1986, a descendant of King hopes to spur...
State employees’ off for Shapiro inauguration
Some 1,200 state government employees who report to the Capitol Complex to work have an extra long weekend ahead of them. Not only do they have Martin Luther King Day off on Monday, these non-essential employees have Tuesday off to reduce traffic and free up parking for Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro...
