Next act for Sarah Palin unclear after Alaska House losses
JUNEAU, Alaska — Republican Sarah Palin re-emerged in Alaska politics over a decade after resigning as governor with hopes of winning the state’s U.S. House seat. She had a lot going for her: unbeatable name recognition, the backing of former President Donald Trump in a state he carried twice, an...
High-flying balloon characters star in Macy’s Thanksgiving paradeVideo
NEW YORK — Throngs of spectators lined the streets of New York on Thursday as colorful, high-flying balloons helped usher in the holiday season during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The annual tradition, which dates back nearly a century, packed streets as a procession of giant inflatables and floats streamed...
Gone in 9 minutes: How Celtic gold heist unfolded in Germany
BERLIN — Thieves who broke into a southern German museum and stole hundreds of ancient gold coins got in and out in nine minutes without raising the alarm, officials said Wednesday, in a further sign that the heist was the work of organized criminals. Police have launched an international hunt...
Murkowski wins reelection in Alaska Senate race
JUNEAU, Alaska — Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has won reelection, defeating Donald Trump-endorsed GOP rival Kelly Tshibaka. Murkowski beat Tshibaka in the Nov. 8 ranked choice election. The results were announced Wednesday, when elections officials tabulated the ranked choice results after neither candidate won more than 50% of...
Mastriano supporters are flooding Pa. courts with baseless recount petitions in governor’s race
PHILADELPHIA — Doug Mastriano lost by a lot. But some of his supporters wrongly believe the results are inaccurate, and they think they’ve found a way to do something about it. So now election denial groups are flooding Pennsylvania courts with petitions seeking to force hand recounts under a little-known...
NYPD: No known threats to Macy’s parade, but tight security
NEW YORK — New York is planning tight security around the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the wake of mass shootings elsewhere in the U.S., police said Wednesday, while stressing that there’s no known, credible threat to the famed event itself. The holiday tradition, which draws throngs of participants and...
10 days in, no suspect, no weapon in Idaho student slayings
MOSCOW, Idaho — Ten days after four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their rooms, police said Wednesday they still have not identified a suspect or found a murder weapon, and they continued asking for tips and surveillance video. Moscow Police Capt. Roger Lanier told a news...
Colorado gay club shooting suspect held without bail
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The alleged shooter facing possible hate crime charges in the fatal shooting of five people at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub was ordered held without bail in an initial court appearance Wednesday as the suspect sat slumped over in a chair. Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, could...
Officials say 4 Philly high school students shot near school
PHILADELPHIA — Four students were injured in an apparent drive-by shooting shortly after their Philadelphia high school let out early for the day late Wednesday morning, a city schools spokesperson said. City police said a 15-year-old girl was shot in the shoulder and thigh, a 15-year-old girl was shot in...
Doubts about candidates tipped the scales in tightest races
ATLANTA — Casting his vote this month in one of the most politically competitive states in the U.S., Seung Lee happily backed Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s reelection. But when it came to the other top Republican on the ballot, Senate candidate Herschel Walker, he was uneasy. Walker “doesn’t know...
7 Michigan State football players charged in Michigan tunnel melee
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Seven Michigan State football players are charged in the postgame melee in Michigan Stadium’s tunnel last month, according to a statement Wednesday from the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office. The most serious charge is against Khary Crump, who faces a felony count of felonious assault. The charges...
Dominican Republic expels 1,800 children to Haiti: UNICEF
HAVANA — Dominican authorities have expelled at least 1,800 unaccompanied Haitian migrant children this year, sending them back to their crisis-stricken country, UNICEF said. The Dominican Republic denied the claim, which came Tuesday amid the government’s intensifying crackdown on migration in response to a cholera outbreak and ongoing gang violence...
High mortgage rates send homebuyers scrambling for relief
LOS ANGELES — Mortgage rates are more than double what they were a year ago, so many homebuyers are looking for ways to put off some of the pain for a few years. The trend has driven adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, to the highest usage in over a decade. A...
U.S. sending Ukraine $400 million in ammunition, generators
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is sending another $400 million in ammunition and generators to Ukraine, the White House announced Wednesday, and is pulling the gear from its own stockpiles to get the support to Kyiv as fast as possible as Russia continues to target Ukraine’s energy sources and winter sets...
Twin blasts shake Jerusalem, killing teen and wounding 18
JERUSALEM — Two blasts went off near bus stops in Jerusalem at the height of morning rush hour on Wednesday, killing a Canadian-Israeli teenager and injuring at least 18, in what police said were attacks by Palestinians. The first explosion occurred near a typically crowded bus stop on the edge...
Taliban lash 12 people before stadium crowd in Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban lashed three women and nine men in front of hundreds of spectators in a provincial sports stadium Wednesday, signaling the religious extremist group’s resumption of a brutal form of punishment that was a hallmark of their rule in the 1990s. The office of the governor of...
Power outages in Ukrainian cities
KYIV, Ukraine — Authorities reported power outages in multiple cities of Ukraine, including parts of Kyiv, and in neighboring Moldova after renewed strikes on Wednesday struck Ukrainian infrastructure facilities. Multiple regions reported attacks in quick succession, suggesting a barrage of strikes. In several regions, authorities reported strikes on critical infrastructure....
Report: Explosion near Syrian capital kills Iranian colonel
BEIRUT — An explosion in Syria has killed an official with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the force said on its website Wednesday, blaming Israel for the killing. The force identified the officer killed as Col. Davoud Jafari, who it said was working for the Guard’s aerospace division. The statement warned...
‘Bodies drop’ as Walmart manager kills 6 in Virginia attack
CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A Walmart manager pulled out a handgun before a routine employee meeting and began firing wildly around the break room of a Virginia store, killing six people in the nation’s second high-profile mass shooting in four days, police and witnesses said Wednesday. The gunman was dead when...
Supreme Court OKs handover of Trump tax returns to Congress
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the imminent handover of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns to a congressional committee after a three-year legal fight. The court, with no noted dissents, rejected Trump’s plea for an order that would have prevented the Treasury Department from...
Biden to extend student loan pause as court battle drags on
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that his administration will extend the pause on federal student loan payments while the White House fights a legal battle to save his plan to cancel portions of the debt. “It isn’t fair to ask tens of millions of borrowers eligible for relief...
Protected bike lane bill named for Pittsburgher vetoed over late GOP amendments
Pittsburgh officials have tried for years to make streets safer for cyclists by installing bike lanes protected by parked cars. Those efforts recently hit a snag after Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed a road safety bill because of an amendment added to it. After cyclist and University of Pittsburgh staffer Susan...
Slippery Rock University narrows presidential search to 4 finalists
Four finalists have emerged in the search for Slippery Rock University’s next president, with the short list including current and former campus leaders in Colorado, Minnesota, Texas and West Virginia. A panel seeking a successor to President William Behre identified the four finalists Tuesday and said each will be on...
Russia’s Gazprom threatens Europe’s natural gas supply
Russian energy giant Gazprom has threatened to reduce natural gas supplies through the last pipeline heading to Europe via Ukraine, saying the amount it’s supplying for Moldova is not ending up in the former Soviet republic. Gazprom says the gas company of Europe’s poorest country, Moldovagaz, paid for part of...
Inflation gives pay raise gift to top Pennsylvania officials
HARRISBURG — Inflation is gift-wrapping another big salary increase for hundreds of Pennsylvania state lawmakers, judges and top executive branch officials in 2023, including boosting rank-and-file lawmakers and district judges into six-figure territory. For many of these positions, it’s the biggest increase since the 1990s, when lawmakers passed legislation to...
