High court rules against Arizona GOP leader in records fight
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to get phone records belonging to the leader of the Arizona Republican Party. The high court on Monday rejected GOP state chair Kelli Ward’s request to halt...
School bus crash in Kentucky sends 18 children, driver to hospitals
SALYERSVILLE, Ky. — A school bus crashed and ended up over an embankment Monday in Kentucky, with 18 children and the driver taken by helicopter or ambulance to hospitals with varying degrees of injury, officials said. Kentucky State Police were on the scene, and “we are responding swiftly,” Gov. Andy...
Biden: Still not enough votes to codify abortion rights
NUSA DUA, Indonesia — President Joe Biden said Monday that Democrats still lack the power to codify abortion rights into law despite his party’s stronger-than-expected performance in the midterm elections. “I don’t think there’s enough votes,” he said at a press conference during the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia....
Thousands of experts hired to aid public health departments are losing their jobs
As covid-19 raged, roughly 4,000 highly skilled epidemiologists, communication specialists and public health nurses were hired by a nonprofit tied to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to plug the holes at battered public health departments on the front lines. But over the past few months, the majority of...
CIA director warns Russian spy chief against deploying nukes
WASHINGTON — CIA Director Bill Burns met on Monday with his Russian intelligence counterpart to warn of consequences if Russia were to deploy a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, according to a White House National Security Council official. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the...
Zelenskyy calls liberation of Kherson ‘beginning of the end’
KHERSON, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a triumphant visit to the newly liberated city of Kherson on Monday, hailing the Russian withdrawal as the “beginning of the end of the war” but also acknowledging the heavy price Ukrainian soldiers are paying in their grinding effort to push back...
Biden discusses Taiwan with Xi in effort to avoid ‘conflict’
NUSA DUA, Indonesia — President Joe Biden objected to China’s “coercive and increasingly aggressive actions” toward Taiwan and raised human rights concerns about Beijing’s conduct in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong during his first in-person meeting on Monday with President Xi Jinping , the White House said. In a news...
Suspect in deadly U.Va. shooting taken into custody
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Authorities say the suspect in the shooting at the University of Virginia that killed three members of the football team has been taken into custody. The suspect in the Sunday night shooting was identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. Two others were wounded in the shooting, which...
After pandemic plunge, international enrollment on nation’s campuses rebounds
A year after absorbing historic pandemic-driven losses, international enrollment at colleges in Pennsylvania and nationwide has rebounded, spurred by an 80% jump in new students and other gains, a new report says. The New York-based nonprofit Institute of International Education, in a survey released Monday, says the nation’s total international...
1 dead in commercial vehicle crash on I-80 in Centre County
One person died Sunday in a commercial vehicle crash that led to extended delays on a major highway in Centre County, state police at Rockview said. The crash occurred about 3 p.m. Sunday along Interstate 80 eastbound in Snow Shoe Township, trooper Christopher Fox said. No other details were immediately...
Mastriano breaks silence on election results, uses social media to concede governor’s race to Josh Shapiro
Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano conceded to his Democratic challenger Josh Shapiro in a letter posted on social media Sunday evening. “The results of the 2022 mid-term elections are not what we hoped, prayed and fought so hard for, and yet there is so much for which I am...
The Pa. GOP’s no good, very bad, terrible election is forcing a reckoning in the state party
Republicans had a lousy night nationwide Tuesday. In Pennsylvania, it was an unmitigated disaster. Within the state Republican Party, some insiders are already maneuvering for change. Ted Christian, a former Trump adviser in the state, and Andy Reilly, the Pennsylvania GOP national committeeman, are both making moves toward potentially replacing...
Doug Mastriano concedes Pa. governor’s race in statementVideo
State Sen. Doug Mastriano has formally conceded his defeat to Attorney General Josh Shapiro in the Pennsylvania governor’s race. “Difficult to accept as the results are, there is no right course but to concede, which I do, and I look to the challenges ahead,” Mastriano wrote in a statement released...
In Arizona, election fraud conspiracy theories rage on as the vote count continuesVideo
PHOENIX — Republican Kari Lake could still catch up to Democrat Katie Hobbs in Arizona’s contentious race for governor. Election workers continue to tabulate ballots in several counties, including Maricopa, the state’s most populous and vote-rich. Officials have asked for patience, stressing in daily news conferences that the process is...
Flight diverted after person made threats with a box cutter
ATLANTA — A commercial flight from Cincinnati to Tampa was diverted to Atlanta on Friday night after a disruptive passenger was seen with a box cutter. The Frontier Airlines flight made an unplanned landing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where one person, not identified by police, was taken into custody....
Why Pa. Democrats being inches from controlling the state House is significant — win or lose
Pennsylvania Democrats are inches from taking control of the state House for the first time in 12 years and even if they fall short, strategists and officials say, the party defied political gravity. That’s because Harrisburg observers didn’t expect 2022 to be the year. With inflation at generational highs and...
Pat Toomey points to Trump for GOP losses in midtermsVideo
Outgoing U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey this week placed blame for the Republican Party’s midterm election failures squarely on the shoulders of former President Donald Trump. And despite Toomey and many other Republican leaders agreeing that Trump is to blame for the less-than-red wave last Tuesday, Trump apparently remains determined to...
Hundreds of Penn State faculty are publicly and privately questioning university leadership
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for our regional newsletter, Talk of the Town. STATE COLLEGE — Hundreds of Penn State employees are challenging the university president’s leadership and...
Investigation underway over midair crash at Dallas air showVideo
DALLAS — National transportation officials are in Dallas on Sunday investigating the cause of the midair crash of two historic military planes during an air show that left six people dead. A World War II-era bomber and a fighter plane collided and crashed to the ground in a ball of...
In election, support for abortion rights was about much more
WASHINGTON — To Mona Cohen, a lifelong Philadelphia Democrat, democracy is under attack in the United States. In the midterm elections, she lists a woman’s right to abortion as one of many fleeting freedoms she voted to defend. Cohen, 68, feared the Supreme Court’s decision in June to eliminate women’s...
Sandy Hook memorial opens nearly 10 years after 26 killed
NEWTOWN, Conn. — A memorial to the 20 first graders and six educators killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting opened to the public Sunday, a month before the 10th anniversary of the massacre. No ceremony was planned at the site a short distance from the school. It has...
‘Here comes the bride’: White House to host its 19th wedding
WASHINGTON — “Here Comes the Bride” will be heard at the White House very soon. Again. Naomi Biden, the granddaughter of President Joe Biden, and Peter Neal are getting married on the South Lawn on Saturday in what will be the 19th wedding in White House history. It will be...
Rare disciplinary case against Pa. doctor offers glimpse into the big business of medical marijuana cards
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 — When Bette Grey considered using cannabis to help with chronic pain last year, she turned to the nationwide medical...
Election Day saw few major problems, despite new voting laws
WASHINGTON — Heading into this year’s midterms, voting rights groups were concerned that restrictions in Republican-leaning states triggered by false claims surrounding the 2020 election might jeopardize access to the ballot box for many voters. Those worries did not appear to come true. There have been no widespread reports of...
Abortion rights wins in Kentucky, elsewhere stoke supporters
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Lexie Overstreet logged plenty of miles on foot, knocking on doors to try to persuade Kentuckians not to take away one of the last legal paths to restoring abortion rights in the state. Now she’s hoping her side’s win at the ballot box Tuesday will convince the...