8 hurt in fire at NYPD warehouse where evidence is storedVideo
NEW YORK — Eight people suffered minor injuries Tuesday in a fire at a New York Police Department warehouse that houses DNA evidence from crime scenes as well as cars, e-bikes and motor scooters, police and fire officials said. The fire at the Erie Basin Auto Pound, a low warehouse...
Some Penn State Law faculty say main campus presence needed in possible law schools merger
Dozens of Penn State Law faculty are urging those weighing their school’s reunification with Dickinson Law in Carlisle to consider what Penn State University would lose if the combined entity lacks a significant University Park presence. A statement endorsed by 42 of Penn State Law’s 51 fulltime faculty stopped short...
U.S. poised to approve Patriot missile battery for Ukraine
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is poised to approve sending a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, finally agreeing to an urgent request from Ukrainian leaders desperate for more robust weapons to shoot down incoming Russian attacks, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The approval is likely to come later this week and could...
Huge U.S. study starts sharing gene findings with volunteers
More than 155,000 Americans who shared their DNA for science are about to learn something in return: Do they have some particularly worrisome genes? It’s part of a massive project to unravel how people’s genetics, environments and habits interact to determine their overall health. The National Institutes of Health said...
Fusion breakthrough is a milestone for climate, clean energy
WASHINGTON — Scientists announced Tuesday that they have for the first time produced more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it — a major breakthrough in the decades-long quest to harness the process that powers the sun. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California...
Shapiro says Pennsylvania Taylor Swift fans will have another chance to get tour tickets
Pennsylvania fans of pop singer Taylor Swift will have another opportunity to purchase tickets to shows within the state, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said on Tuesday. Tickets for Swift’s “Eras Tour” received such high demand when pre-sales began in November that Ticketmaster canceled sales, leading to a national fiasco. Politicians...
At least 100 people killed by floods in capital of CongoVideo
KINSHASA, Congo — At least 100 people have been killed and dozens injured on Tuesday by widespread floods and landslides caused by heavy rain in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa. Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde said officials were still searching for more bodies. “We came to assess the damage and the primary...
With success of Artemis I, when will NASA fly Artemis II?
ORLANDO, Fla. — With Orion safe back on Earth, the last and most important tests of the Artemis I mission have been completed, but there are still miles to travel and months of data sifting to go before NASA will target an Artemis II launch date. While the latest announced...
Netanyahu inches closer to power with new parliament speaker
JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament on Tuesday elected a new speaker closely allied to the country’s likely next prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, setting the stage for a flurry of contentious new legislation to appease the former leader’s expected coalition partners. Lawmaker Yariv Levin’s election as speaker comes as Netanyahu continues negotiations...
Feds report big jump in people coming to Florida from Cuba
MIAMI — Border Patrol agents in the Florida Keys are responding to almost nonstop migrant landings this week that continued through Tuesday morning. On Monday, the federal agency reported that arrivals in South Florida are up five times what they were this time last year. “Agents are responding to multiple...
FTX’s Bankman-Fried charged by U.S. for scheme to defraud
NEW YORK — U.S. prosecutors charged Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, with a host of financial crimes and campaign finance violations on Tuesday, alleging he played a central role in the rapid collapse of FTX and hid its problems from the public and investors....
China students return home amid fears of covid-19 spread
BEIJING — Some Chinese universities say they will allow students to finish the semester from home in hopes of reducing the potential for a bigger covid-19 outbreak during the January Lunar New Year travel rush. It wasn’t clear how many schools were participating, but universities in Shanghai and nearby cities...
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander readied for 2023 touchdown
A lunar lander built by Astrobiotic in Pittsburgh has passed a battery of critical tests, moving one step closer to touching down on the moon early next year. The Peregrine lunar lander, which stands a bit more than 6 feet tall and is about 8 feet in diameter, is expected...
China urges citizens to leave Afghanistan after Kabul attack
ISLAMABAD — China on Tuesday advised its citizens in Afghanistan to leave the country “as soon as possible,” following a coordinated attack by Islamic State militants the previous day on a Chinese-owned hotel in the heart of Kabul. The Chinese advisory appeared to be a setback for Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers...
Cornered in Ukraine, Putin ditches annual news conference
President Vladimir Putin has ditched his annual marathon news conference following a series of battlefield setbacks in Ukraine — a tacit acknowledgment that the Russian leader’s war has gone badly wrong. Putin typically uses the year-end ritual to polish his image, answering a wide range of questions on domestic and...
Biden signs gay marriage bill at White House ceremony
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed gay marriage legislation into law Tuesday before a crowd of thousands, a ceremony that reflected growing acceptance of same-sex unions. “This law and the love it defends strike a blow against hate in all its forms,” Biden said on the South Lawn of the...
Massive U.S. storm brings tornado warnings, blizzard threatVideo
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A massive storm blowing across the country spawned tornadoes that wrecked homes and injured a handful of people in parts of Oklahoma and Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as much of the central United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest braced Tuesday for...
Donors meet in Paris to get Ukraine through winter, bombing
PARIS — Dozens of countries and international organizations threw their weight and hundreds of millions of dollars behind a fresh and urgent push Tuesday to keep Ukraine powered, fed, warm and moving this winter, responding defiantly to sustained Russian aerial bombardments that have plunged millions into the cold and dark...
Libyan accused in Lockerbie bombing appears in U.S. courtVideo
WASHINGTON — More than three decades after a bomb brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone aboard, a former Libyan intelligence official accused of making the explosive appeared Monday in federal court, charged with an act of international terrorism. The extradition of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud...
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene claims she was only joking about ‘winning’ Jan. 6 attack on Capitol and carrying gunsVideo
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Monday she was only joking when she boasted that extremists would have been armed and would have “won” the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol if she had led the attempted insurrection. The far right-wing firebrand said critics should “learn how sarcasm works” after she...
Explainer: Why fusion could be a clean-energy breakthrough
The Department of Energy is planning an announcement Tuesday about a “major scientific breakthrough” at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of several sites worldwide where researchers have been trying to develop the possibility of harnessing energy from nuclear fusion. It’s a technology that has the potential to one day...
PLCB’s high-end liquor lotteries now off limits to its employees and families
Competition for the limited-release of high-end Pappy Van Winkle products offered by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board last month in a lottery didn’t include any bourbon enthusiasts who work for the agency. Neither did it include any of those 6,800 employees’ spouses, agency board members, their children regardless of where...
DOJ subpoenas Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office as Trump investigation continues
ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Justice has subpoenaed the Georgia secretary of state’s office and at least one metro Atlanta county as it continues to investigate former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. A copy of the Dec. 9 subpoena obtained by The Washington Post...
Despite midterm losses, Pa. Republicans appear unlikely to abandon combative agenda
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 — Republicans inside and outside Pennsylvania government say that despite a disastrous midterm election, they don’t see signs that the...
Millions in central U.S. brace for snow, rain and floodsVideo
DALLAS — A massive storm blowing across the country spawned tornadoes in parts of Oklahoma and Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as much of the central United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest braced Tuesday for blizzard-like conditions. An area stretching from Montana into western Nebraska and...