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Senate candidate loses bid to seal custody case

HARRISBURG (AP) — A judge on Thursday refused to seal records and proceedings in the ongoing custody battle involving Sean Parnell, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, or grant Parnell’s request to bar his wife from talking about past restraining orders she had sought against him. Parnell had made the requests after a rival for the Republican nomination, Jeff Bartos, and an associated super PAC attacked Parnell over the matter, calling him “unelectable.” Bartos and his allies aired the attacks in September, days after former President Donald Trump endorsed ...

Artist sues newly freed Cosby over 1990 encounter

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A prominent Bill Cosby accuser filed suit Thursday against the actor over a 1990 hotel room encounter in Atlantic City, New Jersey, before the state’s two-year window to file older sexual assault claims expires. Los Angeles artist Lili Bernard told The Associated Press she was prompted in part by Cosby’s recent release from prison. The 84-year-old Cosby has been free since June, when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his 2018 sexual assault conviction in another case on procedural grounds. He had served more than two years of a potential 10-year ...

Josh Shapiro declares candidacy for governor

Launching his gubernatorial campaign Wednesday, Pennsylvania’s Democratic attorney general sought to tie the crowded Republican field to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn last year’s election. Josh Shapiro, who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary so far, said Republican gubernatorial candidates are ”peddling the Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump and are “doing real damage to our democracy.” “They’re passing far-right litmus tests, and they’re pandering to the special ...

Accused synagogue shooter spoke about ‘killing Jews’

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh police officers who responded to the synagogue building during a shooting three years ago that killed 11 people told a judge Tuesday that defendant Robert Bowers made several references to killing Jews. Officer Stephen Mescan was the first to testify in what is expected to be a two-day hearing into whether prosecutors will be allowed to use at trial certain statements made by Bowers the day of the October 2018 massacre. Federal prosecutors played dozens of snippets from police radio transmissions from the scene, including one in which Mescan said: ...

Pa. attorney general jumps into gov. race

HARRISBURG (AP) — Pennsylvania’s high-profile attorney general, Josh Shapiro, will formally announce his candidacy for governor on Wednesday, entering the 2022 race months after making his intentions known and effectively clearing the field of potential rivals for the Democratic nomination. Shapiro, a familiar presence on cable TV news who has spent nearly two decades in elective office, will launch a bid to become the state’s chief executive with a speech in Pittsburgh, campaign communications director Will Simons confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday. The 48-year-old ...

Gun violence and kids: Shattered dreams, devastated families

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Gun violence is killing an increasing number of children and teenagers across America, leaving behind shattered dreams and devastated families. Here are three of their stories: ¯¯¯ Shineka and Joseph Barbour, of Philadelphia, laugh as they recall what a hurry their son was in to grow up, how he would draw a mustache on his face with eyeliner when he was younger, how he sometimes spoke in a fake deep voice. They knew when the 11-pound boy was born that he was going to be a giant, so the couple named him after basketball star Shaquille O’Neal. Their ...