White House describes probe: Investigation? Nope, review
WASHINGTON — When Hillary Clinton was running for president, her campaign wanted a gentler way to talk about the criminal investigation into her private email server, so they called it a “security review.” Now President Joe Biden’s team is using similar language when talking about the discovery of classified documents...
Cecilia Vega leaves ABC News to join CBS and ’60 Minutes’
Cecilia Vega, a White House correspondent and weekend anchor for ABC News, is joining the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes.” CBS News announced Thursday that Vega will be a correspondent on the venerable franchise, the most watched news program on television. Openings for full-time roles on “60 Minutes” are rare...
Public memorial planned for Parkland school school victims
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A nonprofit organization in Florida is planning a public memorial dedicated to the 17 people who died during a 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The Parkland 17 Memorial Foundation said the memorial will be built on a nature preserve on the edge of...
President Biden at the 2-year mark
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden notches two years in office on Friday. That represents 730 days since his inauguration — and a whole lot of other numbers as well. The story of the first half of Biden’s term, at least by the numbers, is a mixed bag. It includes a...
Lawyer: Gun used by child who shot teacher was secured
NORFOLK, Va. — The family of a 6-year-old boy who shot and wounded his teacher in Virginia said Thursday that the gun he used had been “secured” and that one of his parents usually accompanied him in class but did not the week the shooting occurred. The family’s statement was...
Pa. woman accused of killing parents, living with their dismembered bodies
A Montgomery County woman found at home with her parents’ dismembered bodies was charged Wednesday with killing them, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office. Police found the bodies of a 73-year-old man and a 72-year-old woman in a home in the 1100 block of Beverly Road with their...
U.S. Treasury buys time for Biden, GOP on debt limit deal
WASHINGTON — The countdown toward a possible U.S. government default began Thursday with Treasury implementing accounting measures to buy time as frictions between President Joe Biden and House Republicans raise alarms about whether the United States can sidestep a potential economic crisis. The Treasury Department said in a letter to...
Gov. Shapiro signs order moving state’s hiring emphasis from degrees to experience, skills
Trying to deliver on a 2022 campaign promise, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order Wednesday designed to encourage more people without college degrees to seek out employment opportunities within state government. The order flatly declares that 92% of all executive branch jobs don’t require four-year degrees, though in reality,...
Lunar New Year tourism hopes fizzle as Chinese stay home
BANGKOK — A hoped-for boom in Chinese tourism in Asia over next week’s Lunar New Year holidays looks set to be more of a blip as most travelers opt to stay inside China if they go anywhere. From the beaches of Bali to Hokkaido’s powdery ski slopes, the hoards of...
Cardinal says book by Benedict XVI’s secretary unseemly
ROME — The archbishop of Vienna, a longtime friend and former student of Pope Benedict XVI, has confirmed that it was he who wrote a letter to his former teacher urging him to accept election as pontiff in 2005 if the votes went his way. Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn issued a...
Alec Baldwin to be charged with manslaughter in set shooting
SANTA FE, N.M. — Actor Alec Baldwin and a weapons specialist will be charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on a New Mexico movie set, prosecutors announced Thursday, citing a “criminal disregard for safety.” Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies issued a statement announcing the...
Flavored cannabis marketing is criticized for targeting kidsVideo
NEW YORK — When New York’s first licensed recreational marijuana outlet opened last month, the chief of the state’s Office of Cannabis Management, Chris Alexander, proudly hoisted a tin of watermelon-flavored gummies above the crowd. Outside the Manhattan shop, he displayed another purchase — a jar containing dried flowers of...
U.S. Treasury buys time for Biden and GOP on debt limit deal
WASHINGTON — The countdown toward a possible U.S. government default began Thursday with Treasury implementing accounting measures as a stopgap, while frictions between President Joe Biden and House Republicans raise alarms about whether the U.S. can sidestep a potential economic crisis. The Treasury Department said in a letter to congressional...
‘The real McCoy’: Greensburg native appointed acting Pa. attorney general
More than three decades ago, Michelle Henry was walking the halls of Greensburg Salem High School with her classmates. This week, the 53-year-old Greensburg native was named acting Pennsylvania attorney general. After graduating from high school and Allegheny College, Henry headed east to attend the Widener University School of Law,...
Battery charge for San Francisco man who sprayed homeless woman with hoseVideo
SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco art gallery owner who was recorded on video spraying a homeless woman with a water hose earlier this month was arrested Wednesday and charged with misdemeanor battery, authorities said. Collier Gwin, the owner of Foster Gwin Gallery, was taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon...
Donald Trump says he never read book accusing him of rape
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump said he has never read any part of a book in which the columnist E. Jean Carroll accused him of raping her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, according to court records unsealed Wednesday. Trump was questioned under oath in...
New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, an icon to many, to step downVideo
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who became a global icon of the left and exemplified a new style of leadership, said Thursday that she would leave office. Just 37 when she became leader, Ardern was praised around the world for her handling of the nation’s...
Florida congressman Steube injured in accident at home
SARASOTA, Fla. — A Florida congressman was injured in an accident at his home Wednesday afternoon, his office said. U.S. Rep. Greg Steube’s office released a short statement saying that he had been involved in an accident on his property and had sustained several injuries. The statement didn’t include details...
West Virginia’s New River Gorge National Park adds 45 acres
GLEN JEAN, W.Va. — America’s newest national park just got bigger. The New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia has added 45 acres to the area designated as a preserve, the National Park Service said in a news release. The tract, on Beury Mountain east of the...
Alabama secretary of state announces withdrawal from voter registration group
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama’s new secretary of state announced the state’s withdrawal from a 32-state voter registration partnership, a data-sharing effort that was designed to maintain accurate voter rolls but has sometimes become the target of conservative ire and conspiracy theories. A day after being sworn in, Secretary of State...
Kathy Hochul’s pick for New York top judge rejected by legislative panel
ALBANY — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s nominee to lead the state’s highest court was rejected by a state Senate panel Wednesday, dealing the governor a high-profile setback after weeks of criticism from progressive activists and union officials about the judge’s record. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted not...
Indiana man charged after son in diaper points gun at people
INDIANAPOLIS — The father of diaper-clad 4-year-old boy seen last weekend pointing a loaded handgun at people outside their Indiana apartment now faces felony charges. The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office said Wednesday that the 45-year-old man was charged Tuesday with two counts of neglect of a dependent and one count...
Report: Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger messaged victim on Instagram weeks before slaying
In the weeks before four students were found dead inside a residence near the University of Idaho, suspect Bryan Kohberger messaged one of the victims on Instagram — and then kept reaching out after she did not respond, according to a new report. Kohberger, a criminology graduate student at Washington...
Explainer: Biden inaction, mixed signals on death penalty
In Boston, the Justice Department is pressing judges to uphold Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence. In New York, it’s asking jurors to impose the death penalty on a man who killed eight people in an attack on a bicycle path. President Joe Biden campaigned on a pledge to work...
Prosecutor: Brian Walshe looked up how to dispose of body
The husband of a Massachusetts woman who has been missing since New Year’s Day went online to look up ways to dismember and dispose of a body, and items belonging to the woman with her DNA were found at a trash processing facility, a prosecutor said at his arraignment Wednesday...
