Philadelphia’s $500K Harriet Tubman statue controversy gets national attention
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia’s controversy over awarding a direct commission for a permanent Harriet Tubman monument has aroused widespread national interest and a split among the city’s own statue advisory committee. During a June 15 public input meeting, critics denounced city arts officials for giving the $500,000 commission to Wesley Wofford,...
In Uvalde, closeness complicates accountability for shooting
UVALDE, Texas — After the massacre at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School in May, Jesse Rizo was worried about his old friend, police chief Pete Arredondo. Blame for the botched police response was being directed heavily at Arredondo when Rizo texted him just days after the shooting: “Been thinking of and...
Russia hits Ukraine’s Black Sea port despite grain deal
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals to allow grain exports to resume from there. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry denounced Saturday’s airstrikes as a “spit in the face” to Turkey and the United Nations, which brokered the agreements....
UN health agency chief declares monkeypox a global emergency
LONDON — The chief of the World Health Organization said the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation that now qualifies as a global emergency, a declaration Saturday that could spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines....
Mega Millions jackpot swells to $790M, nation’s 4th largest prize
DES MOINES, Iowa — Lottery officials on Friday raised the Mega Millions grand prize to $790 million, giving players a shot at what would be the nation’s fourth largest jackpot. The next drawing is on Tuesday. The jackpot has grown so large because there hasn’t been a winner in three...
West Virginia man charged after sister awakens from coma dies in custody
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia man charged with trying to kill his sister, who recently awakened from a two-year coma and identified him as her attacker, has died less than a week after his arrest, authorities said Friday. Daniel J. Palmer III of Cottageville was pronounced dead Thursday at...
New California gun control law mimics Texas abortion measure
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California punched back Friday against two recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a controversial, first-in-the-nation gun control law patterned after a Texas anti-abortion law and urged other states to follow suit. He acted one month after conservative justices overturned the constitutional right...
Officers describe horror they saw after Parkland shooting
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Law enforcement officers who charged into Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School minutes after Nikolas Cruz fatally shot 17 in one of its buildings described for jurors Friday the horrific scene they encountered. Two Coral Springs police officers and a Broward County sheriff’s deputy told of...
East Africa bloc says 50 million face acute food insecurity
KAMPALA, Uganda — More than 50 million people across the East African region are expected to face acute food insecurity this year, a regional bloc said Friday, warning that some 300,000 in Somalia and South Sudan are projected to be under full-blown famine conditions. The assessment by Intergovernmental Authority on...
Airstrikes kill more Ukrainians despite grain export deal
KYIV, Ukraine — Emergency workers recovered three bodies from a school hit by a Russian strike in eastern Ukraine, officials said Friday, one of a string of attacks on the nation. The casualties in the city of Kramatorsk followed a barrage Thursday on a densely populated area of Ukraine’s second-largest...
Steve Bannon convicted of contempt charges in Jan. 6 case
WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was convicted on Friday of contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Bannon, 68, was convicted after a four-day trial in federal court on two...
More charged after 911 operator accused of not sending help for Greene County woman
WAYNESBURG — Authorities have filed charges against three more people in the case of a Pennsylvania 911 operator accused of failing to send an ambulance to the rural home of a woman who died of internal bleeding about a day later. According to a criminal complaint, the three men were...
Jan. 6 probes: What’s next for Congress, criminal cases
WASHINGTON — This isn’t the end of the Capitol riot story. The House committee investigating the deadly events of a fateful, chilly January day — now a year and a half in the past — has wrapped up its hot summer series of televised hearings, each featuring revelatory details about...
Monkeypox virus could become entrenched as new STD in the U.S.
The spread of monkeypox in the U.S. could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, though some health officials say the virus that causes pimple-like bumps might yet be contained before it gets firmly established. Experts don’t agree on the likely path of the disease, with some fearing...
John Fetterman inches back onto campaign trail in Philly with 1st fund-raiser appearances since stroke
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, largely absent from the campaign trail for two months, is slowly resuming his campaign following a stroke that nearly killed him. Fetterman, who suffered the stroke four days before the primary election, has mostly remained out of public view but traveled to the Philadelphia area...
Wall Street opens higher; Twitter, Snap in focus on results
NEW YORK — Stocks are opening slightly higher on Wall Street Friday ahead of data that’s expected to show the manufacturing industry slowed again last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.4% just after the opening bell while the S&P 500 is barely positive and the Nasdaq is...
‘A complete miracle’: The 20th anniversary of the Quecreek Mine rescue
John Unger promised his wife that if something bad ever happened on his job in the coal mine, he’d find a way to survive. For 29 years, he kept that promise, always returning to the rural, century-old Somerset County home where they raised a family and tended to their cattle....
How rescuers saved the trapped Quecreek miners
Brad Hillegass had operated a crane plenty of times but never with the lives of nine men in the balance. That changed July 24, 2002, when nine miners were trapped 240 feet underground at the Quecreek Mine in Somerset County and his job was to safely lift them to freedom...
A Quecreek Timeline
A timeline of events surrounding the Quecreek mine rescue and beyond...
Mission accomplished: How rescuers saved the trapped Quecreek miners
Brad Hillegass had operated a crane plenty of times but never with the lives of nine men in the balance. That changed July 24, 2002, when nine miners were trapped 240 feet underground at the Quecreek Mine in Somerset County and his job was to safely lift them to freedom...
‘A complete miracle’: 20th anniversary of the Quecreek Mine rescueVideo
John Unger promised his wife that if something bad ever happened on his job in the coal mine, he’d find a way to survive. For 29 years, he kept that promise, always returning to the rural, century-old Somerset County home where they raised a family and tended to their cattle....
Jan. 6 hearing dominates top TV networks — except one
NEW YORK — America’s top television networks on Thursday turned prime time over to a gripping account of former President Donald Trump’s actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol — with one prominent exception. The top-rated news network, Fox News Channel, stuck with its own lineup...
Lee Zeldin, GOP nominee for NY governor, assaulted at rally
NEW YORK — U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for New York governor, was assaulted by a man who apparently tried to stab him at an upstate event Thursday but the congressman escaped serious injury. “I’m OK,” Zeldin said in a statement. “Fortunately, I was able to grab his...
Pa.’s unemployment trust fund is broke. The Wolf admin says a long-term fix will save taxpayers millions
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 — Pennsylvania lawmakers have failed to adopt a policy change that supporters say would bolster the state’s pandemic-battered unemployment program...
FBI: No sign of Jimmy Hoffa under New Jersey bridge
DETROIT — The FBI found no evidence of missing Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa during a search of land under a New Jersey bridge, a spokeswoman said Thursday. The Pulaski Skyway now becomes another dead end in the decadeslong mystery that has stretched from a Michigan horse farm to the East...
