Judge shields Texas clinics from anti-abortion group’s suits
AUSTIN, Texas — A state judge has shielded, for now, Texas abortion clinics from lawsuits by an anti-abortion group under a new state abortion law in a narrow ruling handed down Friday. The temporary restraining order Friday by state District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin in response to the...
Butler County parents among those in lawsuit challenging Pa.’s new school mask mandate
The Republican leader of the state Senate and a group of parents — some of which are from the Butler Area School District — filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to overturn the Wolf administration’s new mask mandate for Pennsylvania schools. Gov. Tom Wolf’s spokesperson dismissed what she called the GOP’s...
Arizona man who wore horns in Capitol riot pleads guilty to felony
PHOENIX — An Arizona man who sported face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns when he joined the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 pleaded guilty Friday to a felony charge and wants to be released from jail while he awaits sentencing. Jacob Chansley,...
U.S. to bolster firefighter ranks as wildfires burn year-round
BOISE, Idaho — U.S. wildfire managers have started shifting from seasonal to full-time firefighting crews to deal with what has become a year-round wildfire season as climate change has made the American West warmer and drier. The crews also could remove brush and other hazardous fuels when not battling blazes....
U.S. building ‘small cities’ at bases for Afghans
WASHINGTON — U.S. military bases housing Afghanistan evacuees are building their own city-type leadership organizations to deal with sanitation, food and other challenges as the numbers of Afghans coming into the U.S. grows. Air Force General Glen VanHerck, who heads U.S. Northern Command, said there were more than 25,000 Afghan...
Pa. to refund $19M to 109,000 people it overcharged in unemployment error
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 — The state Department of Labor and Industry will pay out more than $19 million in refunds after it overcharged...
U.S. booster plan faces complications, some may miss Sept. 20
President Joe Biden’s plans to start delivery of booster shots by Sept. 20 for most Americans who received the covid-19 vaccines are facing new complications that could delay the availability of third doses for those who received the Moderna vaccine, administration officials said Friday. Biden announced last month that his...
Deal with OxyContin maker leaves families angry, conflicted
Among the families who lost children and other loved ones in the nation’s opioid crisis, many had held out hope of someday facing OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and its owners in a courtroom. That prospect all but vanished Wednesday after a bankruptcy judge conditionally approved a settlement worth an estimated...
Collectible prices skyrocket, to the dismay of hobbyists
Americans have become obsessed with collectibles, bidding up prices for trading cards, video games and other mementos of their youth. The frenzy has brought small fortunes to some, but a deep frustration for those who still love to play games or trade cards as a hobby. Among the items most...
Sen. Toomey says it’s ‘completely unacceptable’ for GOP to pick Trump in 2024
Don’t make the same mistake twice, GOP. U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania conservative who is retiring next year, said that Republicans must not back Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee in 2024 because of his “completely unacceptable” effort to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden. “After what...
In Ida’s miserable wake, New Orleans to get power next week
NEW ORLEANS — Power should be restored to New Orleans by the middle of next week, utility officials said Friday, and sheriff’s deputies warned people returning to communities outside the city to come equipped like survivalists because of the lack of basic services in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. The...
Cleanup and mourning continue after Ida soaks Northeast
The cleanup — and mourning — continued Friday as the Northeast U.S. recovered from record-breaking rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Ida. At least 48 people in five states died as storm water cascaded into people’s homes and engulfed automobiles, overwhelming urban drainage systems never meant to handle so much...
Ex-Cardinal McCarrick, 91, pleads not guilty to sex assault
DEDHAM, Mass. — Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the once-powerful American prelate who was expelled from the priesthood for sexual abuse, pleaded not guilty Friday to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy during a wedding reception in Massachusetts nearly 50 years ago. McCarrick, 91, wore a mask and entered suburban...
Afghanistan’s arc from 9/11 to today: once hopeful, now sad
ISLAMABAD — It was Nov. 13 , 2001. The sun had just begun to rise over the Hindu Kush Mountains when the Taliban disappeared from Kabul, the battered capital of Afghanistan. The bodies of foreign Arabs who had stayed behind were mutilated and bloodied. They had been found and killed...
Ex-prosecutor indicted for misconduct in Ahmaud Arbery death
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A former Georgia prosecutor was indicted Thursday on misconduct charges alleging she used her position to shield the men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery from being charged with crimes immediately after the shootings. A grand jury in coastal Glynn County indicted former Brunswick Judicial Circuit District...
Data shows Florida’s latest covid surge the deadliest yet
MIAMI — Florida is reporting its deadliest peak in daily death rates since the pandemic began, surpassing previous coronavirus surges in the state, according to federal data published Thursday. Data provided by the state to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now reveals that at least eight days in...
Jan. 6 riot defendant returned to jail for using internet
IOWA CITY, Iowa — A federal judge on Thursday ordered a prominent participant in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to return to jail after he was caught accessing the internet to watch false conspiracy theories about the presidential election. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said that Doug...
4 passengers on small jet dead after it crashes into Connecticut building
All four people aboard a small jet were killed Thursday morning when it crashed shortly after taking off from a small airport in Connecticut, officials said. The jet took off just before 10 a.m. from the Robertson Airport before crashing into the building at Trumpf Inc., a manufacturing company, Farmington...
Florida group distributes ‘trauma kits’ to temples ahead of holidays
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — For the first time, an organization in South Florida is distributing “trauma kits” to Jewish houses of worship that help treat life-threatening injuries before first responders can arrive. The kits being distributed this week by the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County contain bandages, gloves,...
Twin infant boys found dead inside car at South Carolina daycare
BLYTHEWOOD, S.C. — Twin 20-month-old boys found dead inside a car in the parking lot of a South Carolina daycare were likely in the hot SUV for more than nine hours, authorities said Thursday. A parent discovered the toddlers in rear-facing seats shortly after arriving around 5:40 p.m. Wednesday at...
California teacher who told students to pledge allegiance to gay pride flag instead of U.S. removedVideo
A teacher in California garnered national attention after she recorded herself instructing her students to pledge allegiance to the LGTBQIA flag instead of the United States’. The teacher has now been removed for her actions, and the district has confirmed that the matter is currently under investigation. Newsweek reports how...
Explainer: How Ida can be so deadly 1,000 miles from landfall
Natural and some man-made ingredients came together, causing the weakened but still soggy remnants of Hurricane Ida to devastate the Northeast more than 1,000 miles away from its landfall. This sort of distant and deadly flooding from hurricanes has happened before, and meteorologists had warned that Ida could cause it....
Death toll tops 40 after Ida’s remnants blindside Northeast
NEW YORK — A stunned East Coast faced a rising death toll, surging rivers, tornado damage and continuing calls for rescue Thursday after the remnants of Hurricane Ida walloped the region with record-breaking rain, drowning more than 40 people in their homes and cars. In a region that had been...
Gen. Lee statue can be removed, Virginia Supreme Court rules
RICHMOND, Va. — The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled Thursday that the state can take down an enormous statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that became a symbol of racial injustice as it towered over Monument Avenue in the state’s capital for more than a century. The high court’s...
Intel shows extremists to attend Capitol rally
WASHINGTON — Far right extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are planning to attend a rally later this month at the U.S. Capitol that is designed to demand “justice” for the hundreds of people who have been charged in connection with January’s insurrection, according to three people...
