June 20, 2022 4:27 am
DALLAS (AP) – A year after Juneteenth became a federal holiday in the U.S., people gathered this weekend at events filled with music, food and fireworks. Celebrations also included an emphasis on learning about the past and addressing racial disparities. President Joe Biden signed legislation last year making June 19 the nation’s 12th federal holiday. June 19, 1865, was the day that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to order freedom for the enslaved Black people in the state. It was two months after the Confederacy had surrendered in the Civil War and about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in the Southern states.
June 20, 2022 4:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Police in Washington, D.C., say a 15-year-old boy was shot to death and three adults, including a police officer, were wounded after a musical event lacking a permit erupted into chaos. The shooting took place Sunday night near 14th and U Streets NW, about 2 miles north of the White House. Metropolitan Police Chief Robert J. Contee III says the wounded police officer and the other adults were recovering at hospitals. Contee says officials will be speaking to event organizers and considering what legal action can be taken because the event lacked a permit.
June 20, 2022 4:23 am
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – Colombia will be governed by a leftist president for the first time after former rebel Gustavo Petro narrowly defeated a real estate millionaire in a runoff election that underscored people’s disgust with the country’s traditional politicians. Petro’s third attempt to win the presidency earned him 50.48% of the votes Sunday. That’s according to results released by election authorities. Political outsider Rodolfo Hernández got 47.26% of the votes. The election came as Colombians struggle with rising inequality, inflation and violence. Those factors led voters in the election’s first round last month to punish long-governing centrist and right-leaning politicians and pick the two outsiders for the runoff.
June 20, 2022 4:22 am
(AP) – The nation’s youngest children are getting their chance at vaccines for COVID-19. Shots began Monday at a few locations, though they were expected to ramp up after the Juneteenth federal holiday. The Food and Drug Administration cleared vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer last week and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave the final signoff over the weekend. áRoughly 18 million youngsters under 5 are eligible. For the little kids, Pfizer’s vaccine is three shots and Moderna’s is two shots. Getting some parents on board may be a challenge given disappointing vaccination rates in school-age kids.
June 20, 2022 4:20 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The fate of the Democratic Party is intertwined in a pair of Pennsylvania elections that’ll be closely watched this year. John Fetterman could help the party keep control of the U.S. Senate. Josh Shapiro faces a Republican rival for governor who has embraced conspiracies about the last presidential election. With the stakes so high, Fetterman and Shapiro are participating in a coordinated campaign funded and run by party organizations. But they’re already facing big challenges. Fetterman suffered a stroke last month and hasn’t returned to the campaign trail. And both candidates will be running in a difficult environment for Democrats, weighed down by inflation and President Joe Biden’s unpopularity.
June 20, 2022 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court seems poised to take on a new elections case being pressed by Republicans. It could increase the power of state lawmakers over races for Congress and the presidency, as well as redistricting. It also could cut state courts out of the equation. The issue has arisen repeatedly in cases from North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where Democratic majorities on the states’ highest courts have invoked voting protections in their state constitutions to frustrate the plans of Republican-dominated legislatures. Already, four conservative Supreme Court justices have noted their interest in deciding whether state courts that find violations of their state constitutions can order changes to federal elections and the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional districts.
June 20, 2022 4:14 am
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) – A fatal car accident in Westmoreland County shut down a portion of Interstate 70 early Sunday. According to Westmoreland County 911, the interstate was shut down for a few hours because of the crash. According to police, the head-on crash happened at mile marker 53 at the Yukon exit at 12:05 a.m. Dispatch said one person, later identified as 25-year-old David Ott from Perryopolis, was killed and another person, a 28-year-old woman, was flown to UPMC Presbyterian. Police said the other driving was going the wrong way down the eastbound land and crashed into Ott’s car. Pennsylvania State Police said Ott wasn’t wearing his seatbelt at the time of the crash. Pennsylvania State Police also said this is being investigated as DUI and charges are pending BAC results.
June 20, 2022 4:11 am
CUMBERLAND TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – A 21-year-old woman was killed in a car crash in Cumberland Township. According to the Greene County Coroner’s Office, the one-vehicle crash happened around 3:06 a.m. Sunday. Jennah Whipkey, 21, from Carmichaels, was pronounced dead an hour after the accident. The cause and manner of death are pending investigation.
June 19, 2022 8:05 am
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An anonymous bidder has shelled out a record $19 million for a private lunch with billionaire Warren Buffet at a steakhouse in New York City. The meal with the Berkshire Hathaway CEO was offered on an eBay auction to benefit the San-Francisco-based charity GLIDE, which helps homeless people and those in poverty. The winner can bring up to seven guests. Buffett has raised $53 million for GLIDE since the auction began in 2000. The charity earned the philanthropist billionaire’s support when his first wife, Susie, introduced him to it after she started volunteering there. She died in 2004. This year’s event will be the first private lunch offered with the 91-year-old billionaire since the previous record-setting bid of $4.5 million by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun in 2019. The past two auctions were called off due to COVID-19 concerns and Buffett has said this will be the last. Like the winner this year, some other past winners have chosen to remain anonymous. One past winner, Ted Weschler, received a job offer from Buffett’s company after he spent nearly $5.3 million on two auctions in 2010 and 2011. Weschler now works as an investment manager for the Omaha, Nebraska, conglomerate, Berkshire.
June 19, 2022 8:03 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. on Saturday opened COVID-19 vaccines to infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The shots will become available this week, expanding the nation’s vaccination campaign to children as young as 6 months. Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccines for the littlest children, and the final signoff came hours later from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the agency’s director. While the Food and Drug Administration approves vaccines, it’s the CDC that decides who should get them. The shots offer young children protection from hospitalization, death and possible long-term complications that are still not clearly understood, the CDC’s advisory panel said. The government has already been gearing up for the vaccine expansion, with millions of doses ordered for distribution to doctors, hospitals and community health clinics around the country. Roughly 18 million kids will be eligible, but it remains to be seen how many will ultimately get the vaccines. Less than a third of children ages 5 to 11 have done so since vaccination opened up to them last November.
