August 11, 2022 4:22 am
Gasoline prices are dropping back toward the $4 a gallon mark, their lowest point in more than five months. AAA said the national average stood at $3.99 on Thursday. That’s down 15 cents in just the last week, and 68 cents in the last month. Gasoline peaked at around $5.02 a gallon on June 14. Motorists in California and Hawaii are still paying above $5, and other states in the West are paying close to that. The cheapest gas is in Texas and several other states in the South and Midwest.
August 11, 2022 4:20 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A judge has reinstated third-degree murder charges against a woman in a crash on a Philadelphia interstate that claimed the lives of two Pennsylvania troopers and a civilian earlier this year. Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian Ransom’s decision Wednesday comes more than a month after a municipal court judge dismissed the charges against 22-year-old Jayana Tanae Webb of Eagleville, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Ransom cited previous witness testimony and tweets Webb is alleged to have sent that night along with video footage played in a previous hearing of the time-frame of the early morning crash on March 21 on Interstate 95. Police said Troopers Martin Mack III and Branden Sisca were trying to get a man to safety after he was reported walking in the southbound lanes of I-95 near the sports stadiums in south Philadelphia. Police said a vehicle “traveling at a high rate of speed” struck all three, and all died at the scene. Mack enlisted in 2014 and Sisca did so last year. The other victim was identified as 28-year-old Reyes Rivera Oliveras of Allentown. Defense attorney Michael Walker said he would seek reconsideration of the ruling, which he said had “deeply saddened” his client’s family.
August 11, 2022 4:12 am
A Burgettstown man was killed in a motorcycle crash early Thursday morning in Robinson Township. The Washington County Coroner’s office says 51 year old James Jancart was traveling on Beech Hollow Road just after 11:30 p.m. when he lost control, left the roadway and traveled up an embankment and struck a utility pole near the Route 576 Westbound on-ramp. He was wearing a helmet. A cause and manner of death are pending. McDonald Police are investigating.
August 11, 2022 2:25 am
(WPXI) – American Airlines announced it’s reducing its flight schedule this holiday season by cutting almost a third of its outgoing flights this November out of Pittsburgh. The cuts affect more than 300 flights, including the flights from here to Philadelphia and the New York city routes to JFK and La Guardia. The direct flight to Phoenix is also impacted. As a result, experts are urging people to book their holiday trips sooner rather than later. American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the company is taking proactive steps to build an additional buffer into the schedule for the remainder of the year.
August 10, 2022 5:51 pm
Washington County Sheriff Tony Andronas told WJPA News that a veteran sheriff’s deputy died in the line of duty Wednesday after suffering a medical emergency. Andronas says the deputy, whose name has not yet been released pending notification of all family members, was with the department’s Fugitive Unit and was assisting South Strabane Police with a warrant at the Target Department Store, and had just gotten back into the passenger seat of his cruiser when he became unconscious. Andronas says there was an ambulance on the scene and they immediately began trying to revive him. He was taken to the emergency room of Washington Hospital where efforts to revive him failed. Andronas says the entire department sends its thoughts and prayers out to his family.
August 10, 2022 10:33 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump says he invoked the Fifth Amendment and wouldn’t answer questions under oath in the long-running New York civil investigation into his business dealings. Trump arrived at New York Attorney General Letitia James’ offices Wednesday morning, but sent out a statement more than an hour later saying he declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution.” Anything he said during the deposition could have been used against him in a criminal case. While James’ investigation is civil in nature, the Manhattan district attorney is running a parallel criminal probe.
August 10, 2022 8:40 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Falling gas prices gave Americans a slight break from the pain of high inflation last month, though the surge in overall prices slowed only modestly from the four-decade high it reached in June. Consumer prices jumped 8.5% in July compared with a year earlier, the government said Wednesday, down from a 9.1% year-over-year jump in June. On a monthly basis, prices were unchanged from June to July, the smallest such rise more than two years. Still, prices are spiking across a wide range of goods and services, leaving most Americans worse off. Average paychecks are rising faster than they have in decades – but not fast enough to keep up with accelerating costs.
August 10, 2022 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. has renewed credibility on global climate issues and will be able to inspire other nations in their own efforts, experts say, after the Democrats pushed their big economic bill through the Senate on Sunday. The legislation is the single biggest investment in climate change in U.S. history, putting about $375 billion towards climate change-fighting strategies such as investments in renewable energy production and tax rebates for consumers to buy new or used electric vehicles. The impending passage of the first ever significant climate legislation in the U.S. changes the outlook internationally, including in China, India and other high-emitting nations, several experts said.
August 10, 2022 4:12 am
BEIJING (AP) – China has reaffirmed its threat to use military force to bring self-governing Taiwan under its control. The statement issued by the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office and its news department Wednesday followed almost a week of threatening Chinese military exercises near the island that have disrupted flights and shipping in a region crucial to global supply chains. The Chinese statement said Beijing seeks “peaceful unification” with Taiwan but “does not pledge to relinquish the use of military force and retains all necessary options.” China says the threatening moves were prompted by a visit to Taiwan last week by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Taiwan says China used that merely as a pretext to up its threats.
August 10, 2022 4:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden has signed veterans health care legislation that ends a long battle to expand benefits for troops who served near toxic “burn pits.” The ceremony Wednesday at the White House was a personal matter for Biden. His son Beau was a major in the Delaware Army National Guard, and he died of cancer after his service in Iraq. Burn pits were used in Iraq and Afghanistan to dispose of chemicals, cans, plastics, medical equipment and human waste. The legislation will help veterans get disability payments without having to prove their illness was the result of their service. Other health care services will be expanded as well.
