Box covering Columbus statue sports colors of Italian flag
PHILADELPHIA — A statue of Christopher Columbus in Philadelphia remains hidden by a plywood box while its fate is decided in the courts, but the box has now been painted with the colors of the Italian flag. City officials told the news station KYW that they painted the box covering...
Search for victims done, Florida coast aims for Hurricane Ian recovery
FORT MYERS, Fla. — An army of 42,000 utility workers has restored electricity to more than 2.5 million businesses and homes in Florida since Hurricane Ian’s onslaught, and Brenda Palmer’s place is among them. By the government’s count, she and her husband Ralph are part of a success story. Yet...
As suicides rise, U.S. military seeks to address mental health
WASHINGTON — After finishing a tour in Afghanistan in 2013, Dionne Williamson felt emotionally numb. More warning signs appeared during several years of subsequent overseas postings. “It’s like I lost me somewhere,” said Williamson, a Navy lieutenant commander who experienced disorientation, depression, memory loss and chronic exhaustion. “I went to...
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene rises from GOP fringe to frontVideo
WASHINGTON — Marjorie Taylor Greene took her seat directly behind Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, a proximity to power for the firebrand congresswoman that did not go unnoticed, as he unveiled the House GOP’s midterm election agenda in Pennsylvania. Days later, she appeared on stage warming up the crowd for...
Social Security boost will help millions of kids, too
WASHINGTON — Seventy-year-old Cassandra Gentry is looking forward to a hefty cost-of-living increase in her Social Security benefits — not for herself but to pay for haircuts for her two grandchildren and put food on the table. The three live in a Washington apartment building that houses 50 “grandfamilies” —...
Analysts: Russian missiles seek to levy pain, could backfire
LONDON — The Russian missiles that rained down Monday on cities across Ukraine, bringing fear and destruction to areas that had seen months of relative calm, are an escalation in Moscow’s war against its neighbor. But military analysts say it’s far from clear whether the strikes mark a turning point...
Los Angeles Council President Nury Martinez resigns after racist remarks
LOS ANGELES — The president of the Los Angeles City Council resigned from the post Monday after she was heard making racist comments and other coarse remarks in a leaked recording of a conversation with other Latino leaders. Council President Nury Martinez issued an apology and expressed shame. “In the...
Why doesn’t James Franklin show up on Penn State’s list of highest-paid employees?
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. The Penn State Transparency Tracker is an ongoing effort by Spotlight PA to document and...
28 dead as Julia drenches Central America with rainfallVideo
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Former Hurricane Julia has dissipated, but is still drenching Guatemala and El Salvador with torrential rains Monday after it reemerged in the Pacific following a pounding of Nicaragua. At least 28 people were reported dead as a direct or indirect result of the storm. Guatemala’s...
A look at the Kevin Spacey-Anthony Rapp trial
NEW YORK — The second week of Kevin Spacey’s #MeToo-era trial starts Tuesday in New York — but no criminal charges are involved. Stage and screen star Anthony Rapp has sued Spacey, accusing him of assault, battery and intentionally inflecting emotional distress when Rapp was 14. The trial opened with...
Former Fed Chair Bernanke shares Nobel for research on banks
STOCKHOLM — Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, who put his academic expertise on the Great Depression to work reviving the American economy after the 2007-2008 financial crisis, won the Nobel Prize in economic sciences along with two other U.S.-based economists for their research into the fallout from bank...
Airbus, Air France face criminal trial over Rio-Paris crash
PARIS — Airbus and Air France went on trial on manslaughter charges Monday over the crash of a Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight in 2009 that plunged into the Atlantic amid thunderstorms, killing all 228 people aboard and leading to changes in air safety regulations. The worst plane crash...
Dutch activists sue government over assisted suicide
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Campaigners calling for the decriminalization of assisted suicide in the Netherlands took the Dutch government to court Monday, arguing that its ban on helping a person end their life breaches human rights norms. The case at The Hague District Court is the latest legal battle in...
Russia unleashes biggest attacks in Ukraine in monthsVideo
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia retaliated Monday for a weekend Ukrainian attack on a critical bridge by unleashing its biggest and most widespread attacks against Ukraine in months. The lethal barrage against multiple cities smashed civilian targets, knocking out power and water, shattering buildings and killing at least 14 people. Ukraine’s...
Roe warriors: Supreme Court abortion ruling spurs increase in women registering to vote
Bethel Park’s Erin Burlew switched her party registration from Republican to Democrat a day after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. “Our parties need to meet in the middle, but instead the (Republicans) have gone extreme,” the former longtime Republican said, explaining that she leans to the left...
North Korea nuclear talks offer still on table, White House says
WASHINGTON — The U.S. remains ready for talks with North Korea on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, while ensuring “that we have also the capabilities in the region and ready to go in case we need them,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. After a week in which a North...
Sen. Tommy Tuberville: Democrats back reparations for those who ‘do the crime’Video
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville asserted that Democrats support reparations for the descendants of enslaved people because “they think the people that do the crime are owed that.” The first-term Alabama Republican spoke at a Saturday evening rally in Nevada featuring former President Donald Trump, a political ally. His...
Biden preaches patience to voters spooked by economic tumult
WASHINGTON — When it comes to reassuring Americans about an economy that’s an election-year challenge for his party, President Joe Biden is telling the country to hold on. It’s a message of patience as voters are buffeted by persistent inflation, fears of a recession and the prospect of rising energy...
Hurricane Julia hits Nicaragua with torrential rainfall
MEXICO CITY — Hurricane Julia hit Nicaragua’s central Caribbean coast on Sunday and dumped torrential rains across Central America before an expected reemergence over the Pacific. Julia hit as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, though its winds had dipped to tropical storm force of...
Putin calls Kerch Bridge attack ‘a terrorist act’ by Kyiv
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called the attack that damaged the huge bridge connecting Russia to its annexed territory of Crimea “a terrorist act” masterminded by Ukrainian special services. The Kerch Bridge, which holds important strategic and symbolic value to Russia in its faltering war in...
Some say radon legislation in Pa. comes down to politics; others say it’s the money
State Sen. Wayne Fontana didn’t mince words. When it comes to getting a law passed requiring radon testing in schools, “I think it’s going to take a tragedy of some sort,” said Fontana, a Democrat from Pittsburgh’s Brookline neighborhood. He was alluding to a 2019 fatal fire at an Erie...
Most Western Pennsylvania schools don’t test for radon, despite high levels in the state
As a father of four, Tim Briggs considered it common sense that schools would test for radon. As a state lawmaker, he was appalled that every school doesn’t, and he has made it his mission to do something about it. A months-long Tribune-Review investigation found that most schools in Southwestern...
These women effected change to spur radon laws in their states
For Gail Orcutt, what began as a cough and a bit of wheezing ended with a baffling diagnosis of lung cancer one day short of her 57th birthday. She never smoked, always watched her diet and never missed a chance to exercise. While recovering from surgery to remove her left...
For children, concerns over radon outweigh that for adults
In Dr. Ned Ketyer’s opinion, there should be no doubt that schools should test for radon — and test regularly. “The way radon works when it gets in the body is it damages DNA, and so that’s why radon is associated with cancer, especially lung cancer,” said Ketyer, a pediatrician...
Serial ‘jogger rapist’ to be released from Oregon prison
PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon serial rapist is set to be released from prison in mid-December after serving nearly 36 years behind bars, almost all of his maximum sentence. Richard Gillmore, arrested in 1986 and called the “jogger rapist” because he staked out victims as he ran by their homes,...
