December 15, 2022 9:18 am
Only minor injuries were reported following a one-vehicle, rollover crash early Thursday morning in Morris Township. Washington County 9-1-1 says it happened just after 5:30 a.m. in the 53-hundred block of Prosperity Pike Road. Initial reports were that the driver was entrapped but emergency crews found the unidentified man walking around when they arrived.
December 15, 2022 4:15 am
KEITHVILLE, La. (AP) – Authorities say three people are dead in Louisiana and several others have been hurt as a destructive storm system has kicked up tornadoes in the South. Sheriff’s deputies found a young boy and his mother dead near Shreveport, Louisiana, after a tornado on Tuesday and a woman was found dead Wednesday west of New Orleans after an apparent twister there. The vast and volatile storm system is crossing from coast to coast, and hundreds of miles to the north, the system has delivered blizzard-like conditions to the Great Plains. The storms are expected to hobble the Midwest with snow and ice for days and push up the East Coast into New England.
December 15, 2022 4:12 am
LONDON (AP) – Elon Musk’s more unfettered version of Twitter could collide with new rules in Europe. Officials warn the social media company will have to comply with some of the world’s toughest laws targeting toxic content. The new digital rulebook means the European Union is likely to be a global leader in cracking down on Musk’s reimagined platform. But the 27-nation bloc will face its own challenges forcing Twitter and other online companies to comply. The law doesn’t fully take effect until 2024, and EU officials are scrambling to recruit enough workers to hold Big Tech to account.
December 15, 2022 4:11 am
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) – Business is bouncing back in Bethlehem after two years in the doldrums during the coronavirus pandemic, lifting spirits in the traditional birthplace of Jesus ahead of the Christmas holiday. Streets are bustling with tour groups. Hotels are fully booked, and months of deadly Israeli-Palestinian fighting appears to be having little effect on the vital tourism industry. Christmas is normally peak season for tourism in Bethlehem, located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank just a few miles southeast of Jerusalem. In pre-pandemic times, thousands of pilgrims and tourists from around the world came to celebrate. But those numbers plummeted during the pandemic. Although tourism hasn’t fully recovered, the hordes of visitors are a welcome improvement and encouraging sign.
December 15, 2022 4:07 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Five weeks after Election Day, winning candidates in Pennsylvania from governor to Congress are waiting for their victories to become official. An effort that appears to be at least partially coordinated among conservatives has inundated counties with ballot recount requests even though no races are close enough to require a recount and there has been no evidence of any potential problems. Recounts have been sought in 172 voting precincts across 40% of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. That led to nine counties missing their Nov. 29 certification deadline, though all but one has since certified. The Pennsylvania Department of State, in a response to The Associated Press on Wednesday, gave no date for certifying the results statewide but said it planned to comply with a request from the clerk of the U.S. House to send certification documents to Congress by mid-December. Judges authorized at least 19 precinct recounts in six counties. Those requesting the recounts said they wanted to check the accuracy of the state’s election equipment and processes, echoing the conspiracy claims of voting machine manipulation for which there is no evidence.
December 15, 2022 3:25 am
JACKSON, Mich. (AP) – A judge has handed down the longest prison terms so far in the plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor. Joe Morrison, Pete Musico and Paul Bellar were not charged with having a direct role in the conspiracy. But they were members of a paramilitary group that trained with Adam Fox, the leader of the scheme. Musico was sentenced to at least 12 years in prison. Morrison got 10 years and Bellar received seven. They had forged an early alliance with Fox before the FBI broke up the scheme in 2020. The three were convicted of providing material support for a terrorist act. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wanted stiff sentences, saying they’d threatened democracy.
December 15, 2022 2:52 am
A Washington man accused of shooting and killing a Tennessee teenager was arraigned in Washington County Court on Wednesday. Jamil Carr, 23 appeared via video from the Allegheny County Jail to be charged with felony homicide and weapons possession charges. Carr is accused of killing 18-year-old Antonio Martinez of Clarksville, Tennessee. Carr and Martinez got into a fight before Carr pulled a handgun and shot Martinez in the chest in front of a Jollick Manor apartment in July. Carr will remain in jail without bond. He is scheduled for a status conference hearing on February 27.
December 14, 2022 4:31 am
DALLAS (AP) – A destructive winter storm is marching across the United States. It delivered blizzard-like conditions to the Great Plains on Wednesday, just hours after tornadoes touched down in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The National Weather Service said five tornadoes were confirmed across north Texas as of Tuesday afternoon, but potentially a dozen may have occurred. Forecasters expect the storm system to hobble the upper Midwest with ice, rain and snow for days, as well as move into the Northeast and central Appalachians. Minnesota was expecting a lull Wednesday, followed by a second round of snow.
December 14, 2022 4:29 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden has signed gay marriage legislation into law. A celebratory crowd of thousands bundled up on a chilly Tuesday afternoon on the South Lawn of the White House to watch the joyful ceremony, which was tempered by the backdrop of an ongoing conservative backlash over gender issues. Biden says, “This law and the love it defends strike a blow against hate in all its forms.” Singers Sam Smith and Cyndi Lauper performed. Vice President Kamala Harris recalled officiating at a lesbian wedding in San Francisco. Lawmakers from both parties attended the ceremony, reflecting the growing acceptance of same-sex unions, once among the country’s most contentious issues.
December 14, 2022 4:29 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Lawmakers leading the negotiations on a bill to fund the federal government for the current fiscal year say they’re reached agreement on a “framework” that should allow them to complete work on the bill over the next week and avoid a government shutdown. Congress faces a midnight Friday deadline to pass a spending bill to prevent a partial government shutdown. The two chambers are expected this week to pass a short-term measure to keep the government running until Dec. 23, which should give negotiators time to complete work on the full-year spending bill.
