New year brings a grim wave of mass killings across America
Eleven people killed as they welcomed the Lunar New Year at a dance hall popular with older Asian Americans. Seven Chinese and Latino farmworkers killed amid the serene beauty of California’s Half Moon Bay. A 17-year-old mother and her baby shot dead in an attack that killed six people across...
Bedford County man charged with threatening to blow up courthouse and eat sheriff
Authorities said a Schellsburg man is behind bars with a million-dollar bail after threatening to kill the Bedford County Sheriff by blowing up the Bedford County Courthouse, according to reports from WTAJ and 6WJAC. State police said 39-year-old Luke Bartholow has been charged with misdemeanor bomb threats: threatening the placement...
Don’t release Georgia grand jury report now, prosecutor says
ATLANTA — A Georgia prosecutor argued Tuesday in court that a judge should not immediately release a report by a special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies broke the law by seeking to overturn his 2020 election loss. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said disclosure...
Treasury takes another extraordinary step on debt limit
WASHINGTON — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a letter Tuesday to congressional leaders saying she’s suspending the reinvestment of federal bonds in a government workers’ savings plan — an additional “extraordinary” measure to buy time for President Joe Biden and Congress to raise the nation’s debt limit. The government...
Suspect sought after 3 killed in Washington state convenience store shootingVideo
SEATTLE — At least three people were killed in a random shooting early Tuesday in Yakima, Washington, and police are still searching for the suspect. Yakima police Chief Matt Murray said the shooting was reported at a Circle K convenience store about 3:30 a.m., and responding officers found three people...
Classified documents at Mike Pence’s home, too, his lawyer saysVideo
NEW YORK — Documents with classified markings were discovered in former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home last week, his lawyers says, the latest in a string of recoveries of confidential information from the homes of current and former top U.S. officials. The records “appear to be a small number...
Before Alex Murdaugh testimony starts, judge has key rulings
WALTERBORO, S.C. — Before testimony begins in South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial, defense lawyers will ask the judge to make a pair of key rulings this week that could strike a massive amount of evidence from the case. Prosecutors want to present voluminous evidence of Murdaugh’s bad behavior...
Paris rushing to finish 2024 Olympics construction work
PARIS — Paris is rushing to finish construction work in time for the 2024 Olympics with just 18 months to go. Delays are being experienced in part because of the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine on the steel industry. A venue, which was due to be finished this summer,...
Finland’s top diplomat hints at joining NATO without Sweden
HELSINKI — Finland’s foreign minister suggested Tuesday that the country may consider joining NATO without neighboring Sweden if Turkey continues to block their joint bid to enter the military alliance. Pekka Haavisto later backpedaled, but his comments were the first time a leading government official in either Nordic country appeared...
Trump posed for picture with former Philly mob boss Joey Merlino at South Florida golf club
They share an affinity for golf and an aversion to cooperating witnesses who “flip” to help federal investigators. But former President Donald Trump and former Philly mob boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino don’t have much to say about how they wound up in a photo together at a South Florida...
Shooting that killed 2 at Iowa youth program was targeted
DES MOINES, Iowa — An 18-year-old who police say was involved in an ongoing gang dispute walked into the common area of an alternative education program for at-risk students and fatally shot two teenagers in a premeditated attack — chasing one of them down and shooting him several more times...
Bipartisan Senate bill would change how Pa. charges children as adults
A bipartisan trio of state Senate lawmakers want to change the circumstances under which children can be charged as adults by requiring judicial review before juvenile cases can be moved to adult court. Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Westmoreland, joined by Sens. Vincent Hughes and Anthony Williams, both Philadelphia Democrats, began seeking...
No more nuggets? School lunch goes farm-to-table — for some
CONCORD, Calif. — As the fine-dining chef at her high school served samples of his newest recipes, Anahi Nava Flores gave her critique of a baguette sandwich with Toscano salami, organic Monterey Jack, arugula and a scratch-made basil spread: “This pesto aioli is good!” Classmate Kentaro Turner devoured a deli-style...
Debt ceiling: 2011 showdown leaves lessons for Biden, GOP
WASHINGTON — The debate around raising the debt ceiling sounds eerily similar: Newly elected House Republicans, eager to confront the Democratic president in the White House, refused to raise the debt limit without cuts to federal spending. Negotiations over the debt ceiling consumed Washington in 2011, a high-stakes showdown between...
Shootout at California gas station kills 1, wounds 8 people
OAKLAND, Calif. — A shootout at an Oakland gas station killed one person and wounded seven others in the second shooting involving several people on Monday night in the San Francisco Bay Area, police said. Officers were sent to the scene on Macarthur Boulevard just after 6 p.m. and learned...
Former Penn State President Graham Spanier to promote his book on Sandusky scandal in campus appearance
In the prologue to his memoir, Graham Spanier summed up his life as Penn State University president until his world came crashing down around him in November 2011. “I was all in,” he said. “And it should be no secret that I miss my job.” Not that he’s become a...
Youth pastor, teacher among 46 arrested in North Texas prostitution sting
A youth pastor. A high school teacher and football coach. And an operations director of a large hospital network. These were among the 46 men arrested in a massive undercover prostitution sting this month in Southlake and Frisco, local and federal authorities announced. Roughly a dozen law enforcement agencies participated...
7 dead as California mourns 3rd mass killing in 8 daysVideo
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — The suspect in two shootings at Northern California farms that left seven dead was an employee at one of the locations, authorities said. San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said Tuesday that 67-year-old Chunli Zhao was an employee at Mountain Mushroom Farm. She says the...
PSU President Neeli Bendapudi: ‘What is good for Penn State is good for Pennsylvania’Video
HARRISBURG — With a new governor and newly-seated Legislature to hear it, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi made a pitch for more state aid for Penn State, in particular, and higher education generally in remarks Monday before the Pennsylvania Press Club. Now seven months into her tenure as president and...
Suspect killed, 3 deputies wounded in Kansas firefightVideo
DODGE CITY, Kan. — A wanted man was killed and three deputies were wounded Monday morning in an exchange of gunfire in western Kansas, authorities say. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said in a news release that it started around 9 a.m. when the sheriff’s office in Clark County attempted...
Democrats defy Kevin McCarthy with 2 selections for Intel panel
WASHINGTON — Democrats are picking an early fight with the House Republican majority over committee seats, nominating two California lawmakers for the Intelligence Committee in open defiance of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s vow to block them. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a letter sent to McCarthy over the weekend, asked...
Refusal to release inaugural donors exposes gap in Pennsylvania law
HARRISBURG — The refusal thus far of Gov. Josh Shapiro to disclose who paid for his glitzy inaugural bash has exposed the gap in state law that lets governors in Pennsylvania escape the kind of transparency that is sometimes required elsewhere. Presidential inaugural committees are required by federal law to...
The senator’s spouse: Gisele Fetterman finds new role, larger platform for change
Gisele Fetterman loves that people talk about the way she dresses. It has nothing to do with vanity and all to do with advocacy. In November, while accompanying husband, newly elected member of the U.S. Senate John Fetterman, she sent social media abuzz when she wore a $12 thrifted dress...
Police: 2 students dead, teacher hurt in Des Moines shooting
DES MOINES, Iowa — Police say two students were killed Monday and a teacher was injured in a shooting at a Des Moines school on the edge of the city’s downtown. The shooting was at an educational program called Starts Right Here that is affiliated with the Des Moines school...
4 Oath Keepers convicted of Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy
WASHINGTON — Four members of the Oath Keepers were convicted Monday of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack in the second major trial of far-right extremists accused of plotting to forcibly keep President Donald Trump in power. The verdict against Joseph Hackett of Sarasota, Fla.; Roberto Minuta...
