Brian Fitzpatrick raised $1.22 million this quarter as Democrats plan to target his Pa. district in the 2026 midterms
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Republican incumbent congressional lawmakers have dominated fundraising in the first quarter of 2025, according to campaign finance reports, likely preparing to protect their seats and the House majority in the 2026 midterms. Leading the pack is U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa, a moderate Republican representing Bucks County...
Supreme Court appears likely to uphold Obamacare’s preventive care coverage mandate
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed likely to uphold a key preventive-care provision of the Affordable Care Act in a case heard Monday. Conservative justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, along with the court’s three liberals, appeared skeptical of arguments that Obamacare’s process for deciding which services must be...
Harvard sues Trump administration to stop freeze of more than $2 billion in grants
BOSTON — Harvard University announced Monday that it was suing the Trump administration to halt a freeze on more than $2.2 billion in grants after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus. In a letter to Harvard earlier this month, the Trump...
Wife of former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez convicted in bribery scheme
NEW YORK — Nadine Menendez, the wife of former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, was convicted Monday of teaming up with her husband to accept bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car from three New Jersey men looking for help with their business dealings or legal troubles. The jury...
Student loans in default to be referred to debt collection, Education Department saysVideo
WASHINGTON — The Education Department will begin collection next month on student loans that are in default, including the garnishing of wages for potentially millions of borrowers, officials said Monday. Currently, roughly 5.3 million borrowers are in default on their federal student loans. The Trump administration ’s announcement marks an...
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse stolen at D.C. restaurant, officials say
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse was stolen at a Washington, D.C. restaurant Sunday night, according to department officials. The department in an email said Noem had money in her purse to buy gifts for her children and grandchildren and to pay for Easter dinner and other activities....
Recently retired Cardinal O’Malley — who grew up in Western Pa. — is headed to the Vatican. Could he be the next pope?
BOSTON — Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, who recently retired as Archbishop of Boston, will attend Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican but will not vote for the next pope. O’Malley, who turns 81 in June, lost his coveted voting rights once he turned 80, an aide close to O’Malley tells...
60,000 Americans to lose their rental assistance and risk eviction unless Congress acts
Moments after Daniris Espinal walked into her new apartment in Brooklyn, she prayed. In ensuing nights, she would awaken and touch the walls for reassurance — finding in them a relief that turned to tears over her morning coffee. Those walls were possible through a federal program that pays rent...
U.S. Supreme Court won’t revive a Minnesota ban on gun-carry permits for young adults
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Minnesota asking to revive the state’s ban on gun-carry permits for young adults. The justices also left in place a ban on guns at the University of Michigan, declining to hear an appeal from a man who argued he...
JD Vance was among the last leaders to meet with Pope Francis
WASHINGTON — One of Pope Francis’ final encounters before his death was with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who visited the Vatican over the weekend. The meeting took place on Easter Sunday. Vance, a Catholic convert, entered the room and reached down for the pope’s hand. “Hello,” the vice president...
Gunman who killed 23 in a racist attack at a Walmart in El Paso pleads guilty to capital murderVideo
EL PASO, Texas — The gunman who killed 23 people when he targeted Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in Texas in 2019 pleaded guilty Monday to capital murder and was scolded by a judge over the racist attack in El Paso near the U.S.-Mexico border. Patrick Crusius, a white 26-year-old...
Duquesne President Ken Gormley on Pope Francis’ death
The following statement is from Duquesne University President Ken Gormley: I had the rare opportunity to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican in February 2018, early in my presidency. It was the honor of a lifetime. Bishop David Zubik had arranged for me to attend a large gathering and Mass...
Trump renews attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Powell, accelerating U.S. market slide
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump repeated his attacks Monday against the chair of the Federal Reserve, demanding that the central bank lower its key interest rate to boost the economy. Trump called Powell “a major loser” and said that energy and grocery prices are “substantially lower” and “there is virtually...
White House voices support for Hegseth as a new Signal chat revelation stirs fresh Pentagon turmoil
WASHINGTON — The White House expressed support Monday for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following media reports that he shared sensitive military details in another Signal messaging chat, this time with his wife and brother. Neither the White House nor Hegseth denied that he had shared such information in a second...
Google faces off with U.S. government in attempt to break up company in search monopoly case
Google is confronting an existential threat as the U.S. government tries to break up the company as punishment for turning its revolutionary search engine into an illegal monopoly. The drama began to unfold Monday in a Washington courtroom as three weeks of hearings kicked off to determine how the company...
Photo gallery: Pope Francis through the years
A look at Pope Francis through the years, a pontiff who charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change. He was 88....
Which cardinals are seen as contenders to be the next pope?
VATICAN CITY — A popular saying in Vatican circles is that if you “enter a conclave as pope, you leave as a cardinal.” It implies the sacred and secretive process is no popularity contest or campaign, but rather the divinely inspired election of Christ’s Vicar on Earth by the princes...
Conservative Poilievre seemed poised to be Canada’s next leader. Then Trump declared economic war
TORONTO — Until a few months ago, Pierre Poilievre was seen as a shoo-in to become Canada’s next prime minister and shepherd his Conservative Party back into power for the first time in a decade. Then President Donald Trump declared economic war on the U.S.’s neighbor to the north and...
Trump’s tough talk might help Liberal Mark Carney win a full term as Canada’s prime minister
TORONTO — Mark Carney’s political career is only months old, and it’s already been a roller-coaster ride. The former central banker appeared destined to become one of Canada’s shortest-serving prime ministers until President Donald Trump picked a fight with the U.S.’s northern neighbor. Carney, who was sworn in on March...
Drones pose increasing risk to airliners near major U.S. airports
WASHINGTON — A commercial airliner was on final approach to San Francisco’s international airport in November when the crew spotted a drone outside the cockpit window. By then it was too late “to take evasive action,” the pilots reported, and the quadcopter passed by their windshield, not 300 feet away....
Trump administration reverses long-held guidance on ‘road diets’ for traffic safety
A stylist was just starting her shift at a salon in Kansas City, Missouri, when a car smashed through the storefront window and landed in the waiting area a few feet away. Such crashes were so common along 31st Street that business owners regularly texted one another photos showing the...
From Buenos Aires to Rome: Key dates in the life of Pope Francis
VATICAN CITY — Key events in the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who became Pope Francis and died on Monday: Dec. 17, 1936: Jorge Mario Bergoglio is born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the eldest of five children to Mario Jose Bergoglio, an accountant from Italy, and Regina María Sívori, the...
Pope Francis changed church policy on the death penalty and nuclear weapons but upheld it on abortion
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church’s teaching in areas such as the death penalty and nuclear weapons, upheld it in others such as abortion, and made inroads with Muslims and believers who long felt marginalized. Where Francis, who died on Monday, stood on key issues: Abortion Francis...
‘Who am I to judge?’ Pope Francis had an informal, lighthearted speaking style
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, who died on Monday, had an informal, lighthearted speaking style, and sometimes he even created words in a combination of his native Spanish with the Italian that he spoke as pope. Some of his memorable quotes: A simple, initial greeting “Brothers and sisters, good evening!”...
Global tributes pour in to honor Pope Francis after his death
LYON, France — Tributes to Pope Francis instantly poured in from around the world from presidents to people of all walks of like on Monday after the Vatican announced the pontiff’s death at age 88. President Emmanuel Macron of France, a country that is largely Roman Catholic, focused on the...
