Kentucky Christian school asks students to write warning against homosexuality
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A Christian school in Louisville gave an assignment this week asking middle school students to write a letter to a hypothetical friend warning against homosexuality, resulting in public criticism and a review by school leaders. The Christian Academy of Louisville School System assignment calls for a seventh...
Mixed Texas ruling allows trans youth parent investigations
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court on Friday allowed the state to investigate parents of transgender youth for child abuse while also ruling in favor of one family that was among the first contacted by child welfare officials following an order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The court did...
Former national security adviser Robert McFarlane dies at 84
WASHINGTON — Former White House national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane, a top aide to President Ronald Reagan who pleaded guilty to charges for his role in an illegal arms-for-hostages deal known as the Iran-Contra affair, has died. He was 84. McFarlane, who lived in Washington, died Thursday from complications...
Judge refuses to drop elections suit against Trump, media
NEW YORK — A Colorado judge on Friday denied motions to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by an election systems worker against former President Donald Trump’s campaign, two of its lawyers and a handful of conservative media figures and outlets. District Court Judge Marie Avery Moses, in a 136-page decision,...
Candidates for Pa. governor raised $12.8M in April alone
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 — Hollywood personalities, sports magnates, deep-pocketed entrepreneurs, and other high-profile donors poured nearly $12.8 million just last month into propping...
Russia takes losses in failed river crossing, officials say
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces suffered heavy losses in a Ukrainian attack that destroyed a pontoon bridge they were using to try to cross a river in the east, Ukrainian and British officials said in another sign of Moscow’s struggle to salvage a war gone awry. Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, opened...
Ex-nurse sentenced to probation in patient medication death
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A former Tennessee nurse whose medication error killed a patient was sentenced to three years of probation Friday as hundreds of health care workers rallied outside the courthouse, warning that criminalizing such mistakes will lead to more deaths in hospitals. A state judge imposed the sentence on...
Wisconsin chairman rescinds killer’s parole at Evers request
MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Parole Commission’s leader agreed Friday to rescind a convicted murderer’s parole at Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ request after the governor came under criticism from the victim’s family and rival Republicans looking to unseat him in November. Evers sent a letter Friday to John Tate, the...
New York AG’s office says it’s nearing end of Trump probe
NEW YORK — A lawyer for the New York attorney general’s office said Friday that the office is “nearing the end” of its three-year investigation into former President Donald Trump and his business practices. Andrew Amer made the disclosure during a hearing in a federal lawsuit Trump filed against Attorney...
U.S. grappling with Native American boarding school history
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Deb Haaland is pushing the U.S. government to reckon with its role in Native American boarding schools like no other Cabinet secretary could — backed by personal experience, a struggle with losing her own Native language and a broader community that has felt the devastating impacts. The...
UAE’s long-ailing leader Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed dies at 73
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates’ long-ailing ruler and president, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, died Friday, the government announced in a brief statement. He was 73. Sheikh Khalifa oversaw much of the country’s blistering economic growth and his name was immortalized on the world’s tallest...
A million empty spaces: Chronicling covid’s cruel U.S. toll
On the deadliest day of a horrific week in April 2020, covid took the lives of 816 people in New York City alone. Lost in the blizzard of pandemic data that’s been swirling ever since is the fact that 43-year-old Fernando Morales was one of them. Two years and 1...
Does buying sets of lottery balls qualify as an emergency? Allegheny County lawmaker says no
There are balls. Then there are lottery balls. And a set of those balls doesn’t come cheap. The Department of Revenue recently purchased 30 sets of lottery balls totaling 516 in all for $41,280 - or $80 a ball. While it sounds costly, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Lottery says...
Israeli police beat mourners at journalist’s funeral
Israeli police on Friday moved in on a crowd of mourners at the funeral of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, beating demonstrators with batons and causing pallbearers to briefly drop the casket. The crackdown came during a rare show of Palestinian nationalism in east Jerusalem — the part of...
Detention of WNBA’s Brittney Griner in Moscow extended for 1 month
The lawyer for WNBA star Brittney Griner said Friday her pre-trial detention in Russia has been extended by one month. Alexander Boykov told The Associated Press he believed the relatively short extension of the detention indicated the case would come to trial soon. She has been in detention for nearly...
Child malnutrition mounts amid conflict in northeast Nigeria
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Iza Ali’s five children are still waiting to eat at 3 p.m. It’s not the first day that the family has gone without food since they fled extremist violence in northeast Nigeria six years ago. She and her husband scrape together $3 a day, but it’s rarely...
Russian soldier on trial in 1st Ukraine war-crimes case
KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian soldier went on trial in Ukraine on Friday for the killing of an unarmed civilian, marking the first time a member of the Russian military has been prosecuted for a war crime during the 11-week conflict. A 21-year-old captured member of a tank unit is...
Pennsylvania ranks near the top nationally in book-banning activity, report finds
PHILADELPHIA — Amid a wave of challenges nationally to books in school libraries, Pennsylvania experienced more book-banning activity from the second half of last year through this spring than almost any other state, according to a group supporting free expression in literature. A report released last month by PEN America...
North Korea reports 6 deaths after admitting covid-19 outbreak
North Korea said Friday six people died and nearly 190,000 are under quarantine following a rapid spread of fever across the nation in recent weeks, a day after it first acknowledged a covid-19 outbreak in a largely unvaccinated population. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that more than...
Rand Paul stalls quick Senate OK of $40B Ukraine packageVideo
WASHINGTON — Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul defied leaders of both parties Thursday and single-handedly delayed until next week Senate approval of an additional $40 billion to help Ukraine and its allies withstand Russia’s three-month old invasion. With the Senate poised to debate and vote on the package of military...
Pennsylvania covid-19 update: 21,781 cases reported for week
The Pennsylvania Department of Health published its weekly update of data on the covid-19 pandemic, reporting 21,781 additional infections of the last seven days, an average of 3,112 per day. That calculates to a 46% increase in a week, and more than triple the average of 862 daily cases recorded...
Donald Trump questions Kathy Barnette’s electability in Pennsylvania Senate race
PHILADELPHIA — Former President Donald Trump jumped back into Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary, warning that the surging underdog Kathy Barnette “will never be able to win the General Election against the Radical Left Democrats.” Yet in the same statement, Trump, who has endorsed Mehmet Oz for Senate, said Barnette could...
Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Kevin McCarthy, 4 other GOP lawmakersVideo
WASHINGTON — A House panel issued subpoenas Thursday to House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other GOP lawmakers in its probe into the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, an extraordinary step that has little precedent and is certain to further inflame partisan tensions over the 2021 attack. The panel is...
Reports show fatal crashes increased in Pennsylvania in 2021
Traffic crashes in the U.S. are increasing at a record pace, according to the latest data estimates from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. NHTSA estimates of the first nine months of 2021 project that more than 31,700 people died in vehicle crashes from January to September 2021. That’s an...
Spain debates if menstrual leave policy will help or hurt
MADRID — A government proposal that could make Spain the first country in Europe to allow workers to take menstrual leave has sparked debate over whether the policy would help or hinder women in the workplace. A leaked draft of new legislation that the Spanish Cabinet is expected to discuss...
