French Senate says Notre-Dame must be restored exactly how it was
The French Senate says Notre-Dame cathedral must be rebuilt as it appeared prior to the blaze that destroyed the roof of the popular Paris landmark. French Senators on Monday approved the government’s Notre-Dame restoration bill but added a clause that it must be restored as it was before the fire,...
Planned Parenthood: Missouri’s last abortion clinic may shut
ST. LOUIS — Missouri’s only abortion clinic could be closed by the end of the week because the state is threatening to not renew its license, Planned Parenthood officials said Tuesday. Planned Parenthood officials said in a teleconference that the current license for the St. Louis facility expires Friday. If...
GOP counters Gov. Tom Wolf’s capital plan with drilling, not taxes
HARRISBURG — Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s Senate are preparing an alternative to Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal for a multibillion-dollar capital plan, funding it by allowing more natural gas drilling in state-owned forests rather than by taxing natural gas production. A sponsor, Sen. Pat Stefano of Fayette County, said Tuesday he...
Parents sue hospital for ‘wrongful pregnancy’Video
A hospital forgot to perform a sterilization procedure so the family wants them to pay for raising the resulting child. An Ontario couple in 2011 decided that three children was just the right number and requested the mother’s tubes be tied following the birth of their twins at Mount Sinai...
Emails show ex-Cardinal McCarrick, Wuerl others flouted 2008 restrictions
VATICAN CITY — Email correspondence shows disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was placed under Vatican travel restrictions in 2008 for sleeping with seminarians, but regularly flouted those rules with the apparent knowledge of Vatican officials under Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. The email excerpts, released Tuesday by a former aide,...
Disaster aid bill blocked in House by GOP conservative Thomas MassieVideo
WASHINGTON — A second conservative Republican on Tuesday blocked another attempt to pass a long-overdue $19 billion disaster aid bill, delaying again a top priority for some of President Trump’s most loyal allies on Capitol Hill. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said that if Democratic leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi...
‘Guardian angel’ pigeon gets driver out of speeding ticket
Police in western Germany say divine intervention saved a speeding driver from getting a ticket, after a pigeon photobombed a traffic enforcement camera at just the right moment. Perhaps inspired by this week’s Ascension Day national Christian holiday, Viersen police said “the Holy Ghost must have had a plan” to...
This date in history: Ian Fleming, Phil Hartman and California baseball
The Dionne quintuplets, Ian Fleming, Phil Hartman and California baseball all made news on this date in history....
Man traveling from Colombia ingests 246 bags of cocaine, dies midflight
A passenger of Japanese origin died midflight from Colombia to Japan after ingesting hundreds of bags of cocaine, authorities said. The man, identified only as Udo N., 42, began suffering seizures Friday on the flight, prompting an emergency landing in Hermosillo, a city in Sonora, Mexico, authorities said. Upon landing,...
Service members wear ‘Make Aircrew Great Again’ patches at Trump rally
President Donald Trump visited service members abroad the USS Wasp docked in Japan on Tuesday at the end of his 4-day trip to the country. He wished “Happy Memorial Day” to 1,000 sailors and Marines and service members from other branches at the address. “I have to wish you all...
Chicago officer recorded asking teen for sex is fired
CHICAGO — A Chicago police officer who allegedly asked a 17-year-old girl for sex in return for getting her mother’s impounded car released by the city has been fired. The Chicago Tribune reports that the city’s police board agreed with Superintendent Eddie Johnson’s recommendation to fire Officer Darius Alexander in...
Petition launched to bring back Heinz ketchup to Kennywood
Sometimes, you just have to take a stand. In an effort to get Heinz ketchup back at Kennywood Park, Will Koz — at least that’s the username — is doing just that. Koz launched a Change.org petition to restore the park’s condiment situation. “In the past few months Kennywood Park...
Michigan State chooses Stony Brook president as next leader
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Dr. Samuel Stanley Jr., a medical researcher who has led Stony Brook University in New York for nearly a decade, was named Tuesday as the next president of Michigan State University in the wake of the most extensive sexual abuse scandal in sports history. Stanley was...
MacKenzie Bezos pledges half her fortune to charity
NEW YORK — MacKenzie Bezos, who finalized her divorce from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos earlier this year, is pledging to give away half her fortune to charity. The novelist said Tuesday that she signed The Giving Pledge, a campaign to get the ultra-wealthy to pledge at least half...
Court details woman’s spending spree: $20M at Harrods, $38K on chocolates
LONDON — Court documents reveal that a woman suspected by British authorities of having ill-gotten wealth spent $760,000 in one day at upmarket department store Harrods and once forked out $38,000 on chocolates. Zamira Hajiyeva is the first person subject to an Unexplained Wealth Order, which allows British authorities to...
Supreme Court declines to review Pennsylvania policy supporting transgender students
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to review a Pennsylvania school district’s policy letting transgender students use restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identities. Without comment, the court declined to review an opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit that upheld the...
Supreme Court upholds Indiana abortion law on fetal remains
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is upholding an Indiana law that requires abortion providers to dispose of aborted fetuses in the same way as human remains. But the justices are staying out of the debate over a broader, blocked provision that would prevent a woman in Indiana from having an...
Heat forces South Carolina bridge to close for several hours
SULLIVANS ISLAND, S.C. — The extreme heat that’s been scorching the Deep South prompted the closure of a swinging bridge to a South Carolina beach town for several hours. The state Department of Transportation says the heat caused the steel in the Ben Sawyer Bridge to Sullivans Island to expand,...
3 people die in Pennsylvania ATV wrecks over holiday weekend
ALLENTOWN — Three people died in accidents involving all-terrain vehicles over the Memorial Day weekend in Pennsylvania. A 45-year-old North Wales man died early Monday when his ATV overturned on a road in Foster Township, Luzerne County. On Sunday, a 54-year-old man and a 52-year-old man died in Triumph Township,...
Report: Pennsylvania must do more to help Chesapeake Bay
NORFOLK, Va. — A nonprofit that tracks pollution in the Chesapeake Bay is once again lambasting Pennsylvania for not doing enough to protect the nation’s largest estuary. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation released a report Tuesday that says Pennsylvania’s plan to reduce pollution is “woefully inadequate.” States are tasked with keeping...
City Hall for sale? Scranton might sell municipal building
SCRANTON— Everyone complains that City Hall is for sale but it might soon be the case in a Pennsylvania city. City Hall in Scranton needs a renovation, and the mayor’s administration is considering putting the 130-year-old structure up for sale rather than footing the nearly $11 million bill to fix...
‘Unacceptable state of affairs’ as at least 42 shot in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend
CHICAGO — At least 42 people were shot, five fatally, in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend even as severe storms kept people indoors and 1,200 extra officers patrolled the streets. The toll was slightly higher than last year’s Memorial Day weekend, when 39 people were shot, seven of them...
While you’re sleeping, your iPhone stays busy
It’s 3 a.m. Do you know what your iPhone is doing? Mine has been alarmingly busy. Even though the screen is off and I’m snoring, apps are beaming out lots of information about me to companies I’ve never heard of. Your iPhone probably is doing the same - and Apple...
Commentary: UFOs exist, and everyone needs to adjust to that fact
The term “UFO” automatically triggers derision in most quarters of polite society. One of Christopher Buckley’s better satires, “Little Green Men,” is premised on a George F. Will-type pundit thinking that he has been abducted by aliens, with amusing results. UFOs have historically been associated with crackpot ideas like Big...
Is climate change to blame for booming tick population? Will diseases increase?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the number of tick-borne diseases is increasing at a record pace while the geographic range of ticks continues to expand. Lyme disease is the most commonly-known tick-borne disease, but other diseases, such as ehrlichiosis and STARI, have been discovered and the...
