August 18, 2024 8:12 am
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly swerved from a message focused on the economy into non-sequiturs and personal attacks, including thrice declaring that he was better looking than Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump, on Saturday, wound back and forth between hitting his points on economic policy and delivering a smattering of insults and impressions of President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron at a rally in northeastern Pennsylvania. Trump’s rally was in a swath of the pivotal battleground state where he hopes conservative, white working-class voters near Biden’s hometown will boost the Republican’s chances of winning back the White House.
August 17, 2024 4:53 am
Vice President Kamala Harris has proposed a ban on “price gouging” by food suppliers and grocery stores, as part of a broader agenda aimed at lowering the cost of housing, medicine, and food. The proposal, introduced Friday, is an attempt to tackle a clear vulnerability of Harris’ head-on: Under the Biden-Harris administration, grocery prices have shot up 21%, part of an inflation surge that has raised overall costs about 19% and soured many Americans on the economy, even as unemployment fell to historic lows. Wages have also risen sharply since the pandemic, and have outpaced prices for more than a year. Still, surveys find Americans continue to struggle with higher costs.
August 17, 2024 4:50 am
SUDZHA, Russia (AP) — A trail of destruction lies in the path that Ukrainian forces carved on their risky incursion into Russia, blasting through the border and into the Russian town of Sudzha. Associated Press journalists traveled on Friday on a Ukrainian government-organized trip to the town. Artillery fire has blown chunks out of a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin in a central square. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday the town was fully under his troops’ control. Ukrainian forces overran one Russian settlement after another in the surprise operation that Kyiv hopes will change the dynamic of the 2 ½-year-old conflict. Sudzha is the biggest town to fall since the attack began on Aug. 6.
August 17, 2024 4:47 am
CAIRO (AP) — The threat of polio is rising fast in Gaza, prompting aid groups to call for an urgent pause in the war so they can ramp up vaccinations and head off a full-blown outbreak. One case has been confirmed and others are suspected. Polio had been eradicated in Gaza 25 years ago, but vaccinations plunged after the war began 10 months ago. Now, the territory is a breeding ground for the virus. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crowded into tent camps lacking clean water or proper disposal of sewage. Health authorities are preparing to vaccinate 640,000 children in the coming weeks.
August 17, 2024 4:45 am
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon has killed at least 10 Syrian nationals. The strike early Saturday in Wadi al-Kfour in the Nabatieh province is among the deadliest in Lebanon since the Hezbollah militant group and Israeli military started trading strikes on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel and sparked the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Hezbollah maintains that it will stop it attacks once a ceasefire is reached in the Gaza Strip. Among the dead are a woman and her two children. Five others were wounded, of whom two are in critical condition, the ministry said. An Israeli military spokesperson said the strike in the southern province targeted a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah.
August 17, 2024 4:33 am
OHIO TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Two men arrested this week for separate crime sprees in Washington and Allegheny Counties, Emmanuel Houghton and Tyler Stewart, are now charged with the murder of 18-year-old Jordan Geiger. Geiger was found in a crashed car with a single gunshot wound under his arm near the intersection of Gass Road and Ben Avon Heights Road in Ohio Township on Aug. 2. Allegheny County Police say Geiger met up with Houghton and Stewart on August 2 in the Giant Eagle parking lot off Ben Avon Heights Road to sell Houghton a tan Glock handgun. Investigators say Houghton and Stewart both arrived in stolen cars before Stewart got out of his and into Houghton’s and they approached Geiger’s car together. Stewart told police that Geiger handed Houghton the gun, Houghton told him, “You’re burnt,” and then a fight ensued. Police paperwork reveals Stewart told investigators he heard Houghton fire one shot before driving off. Houghton is the same man who eventually surrendered to police in Monongahela, Washington County on Wednesday night after a lengthy standoff. Stewart was caught on camera leading Pittsburgh police and Allegheny County Sheriff’s deputies on a chase before crashing into a car on Banksville Road in Pittsburgh’s Banksville neighborhood Wednesday night. Police say he was driving a stolen Jeep Cherokee. Houghton is at the Washington County Jail and Stewart is at the Allegheny County Jail. Both were already being held without bail for their prior charges.
August 17, 2024 4:36 am
WASHINGTON — The Secret Service will use bulletproof glass to protect former President Donald Trump during outdoor campaign events, NBC News reports. NBC News reports that ballistic glass is already available to sitting presidents and vice presidents. The glass is transported using military aircraft when the president travels.The addition of ballistic glass is one of several security measures being used to protect Trump after the assassination attempt on him in Butler on July 13.
August 17, 2024 4:41 am
PITTSBURGH — More mosquito samples in several Pittsburgh neighborhoods and Allegheny County communities have tested positive for West Nile Virus. The Allegheny County Health Department said crews will spray several communities next week. The first human case of West Nile Virus in Allegheny County this year was reported earlier this month. The person who tested positive lives in the area of Baldwin Borough. In addition to being the first reported case in Allegheny County in 2024, it was also the first case in Pennsylvania this year. According to the Health Department, There have been two human cases of West Nile Virus within Allegheny County as of Aug. 16. The pesticide is used to lower mosquito and minimize the risk of human transmission. The pesticide is classified by the EPA as low-risk and is not harmful to humans or pets.
August 16, 2024 4:51 pm
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has announced a sweeping set of economic proposals meant to cut taxes and lower the cost of groceries, housing and other essentials for many Americans. She’s aiming to address the financial concerns that are at the top of the minds of voters and that Republican Donald Trump is attempting to blame on her. During a speech Friday in the battleground state of North Carolina, Harris said that “building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.” She endorsed a proposal for a federal ban on price gouging by food producers and grocers, and proposed $25,000 in down payment assistance for certain first-time home-buyers. (Photo: AP)
August 16, 2024 1:58 pm
The Smith Township Police Department is investigating the death of a Midway man Friday morning. Washington County Coroner Tim Warco says 40-year-old Stephen Pasquale was operating an all-terrain vehicle along the Panhandle Trail in Smith Township, just before nine o’clock, when he lost control of the vehicle and was ejected. Warco says the ATV rolled on top of him. He was found by a passerby who called 911. Warco says he was not wearing a helmet and the vehicle did not have safety belts. An autopsy is pending.
