Virginia teacher shot by 6-year-old known as devoted to students
RICHMOND — The Virginia teacher who authorities say was shot by a 6-year-old student is known as a hard-working educator who is devoted to her students and enthusiastic about the profession that runs in her family, according to fellow teachers and city officials. John Eley III, a former member of...
‘Crisis and confusion’: 4 days of GOP barbs, chaos and cigarsVideo
WASHINGTON — It was a near-fist fight on the House floor. It was four days of name-calling, late-night huddles, rush deliveries of pizzas and burritos. It was cigar smoke wafting through the hallways, diaper changes and a dog on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Establishment Republicans were...
Lauren Boebert’s backers urge her to ‘tone down the nasty rhetoric’Video
RIFLE, Colo. — Debbie Hartman voted for Lauren Boebert for Congress in 2020 and again in 2022, delighted by Boebert’s unequivocal defense of cultural issues that animate the Republican Party’s far right flank. But as Hartman shopped recently at a supermarket in this Rocky Mountain ranching outpost, she had one...
Man pleads to charge in Pennsylvania coffee shop fire amid protests
ERIE — A man accused of setting fire to a northwestern Pennsylvania coffee shop during 2020 demonstrations following the death of George Floyd has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of malicious destruction of property by fire. Melquan Barnett, 30, entered the plea Wednesday as part of a deal with...
Pro-Bolsonaro rioters storm Brazil’s top government officesVideo
RIO DE JANEIRO — Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his election defeat stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace in the capital on Sunday, a week after the inauguration of his leftist rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Thousands of demonstrators bypassed...
Biden inspects U.S.-Mexico border in face of GOP criticismVideo
EL PASO, Texas — President Joe Biden walked a muddy stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border and inspected a busy port of entry Sunday on his first trip to the region after two years in office, a visit shadowed by the fraught politics of immigration as Republicans blame him for record...
New year brings new faces and new politics to Western Pa.
After a midterm election with several surprising results, Southwestern Pennsylvania is poised to see a new class of politicians and a different political makeup beginning this year. Some well-known incumbents and familiar names are out, and some political upstarts are in, including progressives who are left of the region’s prior...
Mega Millions jackpot rises to $1.1 billion after no winner
DES MOINES, Iowa — Another Mega Millions drawing, another night without a big winner. No one hit all six numbers and won the estimated $940 million jackpot, pushing the lottery prize to an estimated $1.1 billion ahead of the next drawing Tuesday night. The prize is now the third-largest in...
Pa. state system schools look to outfit police with body cameras
Slippery Rock University is seeking grants to begin outfitting its 11 police officers and five patrol cars with body and vehicle cameras that can record interactions with students, employees and the general public. The school with 8,200 students isn’t the only state-owned university poised to take that step. Campuses across...
Police: 6-year-old shoots teacher in Virginia classroom
NORFOLK, Va.— A 6-year-old student shot and wounded a teacher at his school in Virginia during an altercation inside a first-grade classroom Friday, police and school officials in the city of Newport News said. Experts said a school shooting involving a 6-year-old is extremely rare, although not unheard of, while...
Global food prices in 2022 hit record high amid drought, war
ROME — Global prices for food commodities like grain and vegetable oils were the highest on record last year even after falling for nine months in a row, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said, as Russia’s war in Ukraine, drought and other factors drove up inflation and worsened hunger...
U.S. approves Alzheimer’s drug that modestly slows disease
WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials on Friday approved a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug that modestly slows the brain-robbing disease, albeit with potential safety risks that patients and their doctors will have to carefully weigh. The drug, Leqembi, is the first that’s been convincingly shown to slow the decline in memory...
McCarthy elected House speaker in vote 15 after chaotic week
WASHINGTON — Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected House speaker on a historic post-midnight 15th ballot early Saturday, overcoming holdouts from his own ranks and floor tensions boiling over after a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern. After four days of grueling ballots, McCarthy flipped more...
Majority of 16k canceled Pa. mail-in ballots were from Democrats
HARRISBURG — New data from Pennsylvania’s elections agency shows an early November state court decision that barred mail-in ballots without accurate handwritten dates on their exterior envelopes resulted in otherwise valid votes being thrown out. The Department of State said this week more than 16,000 mail-in ballots were disqualified by...
Biden signs water bills benefiting 3 tribes in Arizona
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A Native American tribe that has one of the largest and most secure rights to Colorado River water now has approval to lease some of it in Arizona, a state that’s been hardest hit by cuts to its water supply and is on a perpetual search for...
Gov. Wolf launches college scholarship program for Pa. state workers, dependents
Gov. Tom Wolf has been a strong advocate for funding for Pennsylvania’s state-owned universities and as his administration winds to a close on Jan. 17, he had one more parting gift for them and certain state government employees. He announced on Thursday the launch of a new $5 million short-lived...
2 years after Jan. 6, speaker scrap paralyzes Congress again
WASHINGTON — Such are the fractures in the country, between the political parties and inside the Republican Party itself, that one time-honored specialty of Washington — memorializing and coming together over national trauma — isn’t what it used to be. Friday’s moment of silence at the Capitol to contemplate the...
The white sedan: How police found suspect in Idaho slayings
The white sedan cruised past the gray, three-story rental home on a dead-end street in Moscow, Idaho. Then again. And again. It was unusual behavior in the residential, hillside neighborhood in the quiet hours before dawn. And according to a police affidavit released Thursday, surveillance videos showing the vehicle that...
As speaker bid falters, mixed views of McCarthy in hometown
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’s political troubles don’t stop at the Washington Beltway. In his Central California hometown of Bakersfield — where oil derricks blanket hillsides and country music fans flock to Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace hall — some voters are asking if what has become an...
As young Gazans die at sea, anger rises over leaders’ travel
JERUSALEM — Khaled Shurrab had been waiting more than half his life to get out of Gaza. The 27-year-old had never left the coastal enclave, which has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since 2007. He couldn’t find a job — the territory’s youth unemployment rate is over 60%. Like...
Violence hits Mexico cartel stronghold as ‘Chapo’ son nabbed
MEXICO CITY — The sun wasn’t yet up in Culiacan when David Téllez and his family began making their way to the city’s airport for a return flight to Mexico City after their vacation. But not long after they set out they encountered the first crude roadblock, an abandoned vehicle...
Explainer: Is China sharing enough covid-19 information?
TAIPEI, Taiwan — As covid-19 rips through China, other countries and the World Health Organization are calling on its government to share more comprehensive data on the outbreak. Some even say many of the numbers it’s reporting are meaningless. Without basic data like the number of deaths, infections and severe...
Kremlin-ordered truce is uncertain amid mutual mistrust
KYIV, Ukraine — The impact of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for his forces in Ukraine to observe a unilateral, 36-hour cease-fire was in doubt Friday after Kyiv officials dismissed the move as a ploy but didn’t clarify whether Ukrainian troops would follow suit. Moscow also didn’t say whether it...
Trump sued over Capitol police officer’s death after Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is being blamed for the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was assaulted during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, in a lawsuit that claims the former president is responsible because he riled up his supporters with false election claims and calls to take action....
‘Bomb cyclone’ brings damaging wind, rain to CaliforniaVideo
SAN FRANCISCO — Damaging hurricane-force wind, surging surf and heavy rain from a powerful “atmospheric river” pounded California on Thursday, knocking out power to tens of thousands, causing flooding, and contributing to the deaths of at least two people, including a child whose home was hit by a falling tree....
