Search results for

Judges push back on lawyers who say Trump should be immune from prosecution for Jan. 6 charges. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized for complications from a prostate cancer procedure.

The Labor Department is issuing its monthly report card on jobs and unemployment. The job market has been unusually tight, which is pushing up both wages and prices.

Congress returns to work for a lame duck session. Democrats try to advance their agenda while they have control of both chambers. Republicans plan for control of the House in the new year.

The Nkamira Transit Camp is home to more than 6,000 refugees fleeing violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The decades-long conflict is a legacy of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Across Pennsylvania, 49 projects received Multi-Purpose Community Facilities grant totaling $45 million from the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority. The funding is from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. In Northeast and Central PA, five organizations received a total of $6.8 million.

A former Scranton Police Officer will serve jail time after being paid for overtime shifts he claimed he worked. Paul Helring, who was at one-time the president of the city’s police union, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani to 6 months imprisonment and two years supervised release. From March 2021 to May 2022 Helring served as coordinator of Scranton Police Department’s extra duty overtime program, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. During that time, he reported that he worked an extra 526 hours patrolling lower-income housing complexes — but he did not. Helring pleaded guilty in January for theft concerning programs receiving federal funds. The Scranton Housing Authority used federal funding to pay for the extra-duty police patrols. The former cop, who retired on a disability pension in 2022, was ordered to pay almost $18,000 in restitution and a $5,000 fine. Helring was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service as a condition of his supervised release. The case was investigated by the FBI with assistance by the Office of Inspector General within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Assistant United States Attorneys Jeffery St John and Phillip J. Caraballo prosecuted the case. Former Scranton Police Sgt. Jeffrey Vaughn was also charged and sentenced for the same crime.

Environmental advocates say the new $47.6 billion state budget is a bipartisan agreement that takes some positive steps for the environment.

In a 6-to-3 vote — along ideological lines — the court overturned limits on how much political parties can raise and spend in coordination with candidates.

The former representative says a second Trump presidency would be an "existential threat" to democracy: "There's simply no defense, no excuse for putting that power back in the hands of Donald Trump."

The jury ordered the companies to pay $6 million in damages over defective design. The landmark verdict may influence the outcome of 2,000 other pending lawsuits.