September 5, 2022 4:17 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — It’s Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer, and more travelers are celebrating with one last road trip despite high gas prices. Gas prices have been dropping for more than two months but are still 74 cents more than a year ago. The national average for gas is $3.90 per gallon. Gas prices could play a factor in why flight numbers are starting to rise again. The Pittsburgh International Airport is expected to have its busiest Labor Day travel period since 2019, according to its publication “Blue Sky News.” Despite rising flight numbers, AAA said more people are taking road trips rather than the air, with the highest number of trips since before the COVID-19 pandemic. AAA said the best way to avoid traffic if you are traveling for Labor Day is to travel during off-peak hours.
September 5, 2022 4:15 am
MCKEESPORT, Pa. (WPXI) — A 68-year-old woman was shot while sitting on her porch in McKeesport, authorities said. Allegheny County dispatchers said police and medics were called to the 1100 block of Craig Street at approximately 5:26 p.m. Sunday. When police arrived at the scene, they found the woman who had been shot in the arm. Police do not believe the shooters were aiming for the victim’s house. Two homes and three vehicles were hit by bullets during the shooting. 30 shot casings were found by authorities, some fired from a rifle and others from a handgun. There is no further information on the woman’s condition. Anyone with information on this shooting is asked to call 1-833-ALL-TIPS.
September 5, 2022 4:13 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — Pittsburgh emergency crews came together Sunday morning to rescue an elderly man from a hillside in South Side Slopes. Pittsburgh Public Safety said that around 7:40 a.m., police, fire and EMS crews responded to the 3000 block of Oakley Way for reports of an older man who had fallen down a hillside. He was also reported missing overnight. EMS Rescue and Fire performed a rope rescue where they rappelled down the rock wall to get the man to safety on the ground. The man was taken to the hospital in stable condition.
September 5, 2022 4:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is beginning his Labor Day celebrations with a trip to one battleground state, Wisconsin, before making his third trip in less than a week to another, Pennsylvania. The White House says Biden will be celebrating “the dignity of American workers.” The unofficial start of fall, Labor Day also traditionally kicks off political crunch time, with campaigns scrambling to excite voters ahead of Election Day on Nov. 8. Biden’s trips on Monday will see him return to a theme that was a centerpiece of his 2020 campaign — that labor unions burnished a middle class that built and strengthened modern American society. Biden will visit the Steelworkers Union Hall on Phillip Murray Road in West Mifflin during his visit. The president is expected to begin speaking at around 5:30 p.m.
September 4, 2022 8:02 am
WEED, Calif. (AP) — The fire-stricken Northern California town of Weed has long been seen by passersby as a whimsical spot to stop and buy an ironic T-shirt, but residents say they’ve grown edgy in recent years due to a new danger: Dark skies, swirling ash and flames that race so quickly they leave little time for escape. Their fears exploded to life again in recent days as California’s latest inferno burned homes and buildings and forced evacuations in the small community. The Mill Fire had spread to more than 6.6 square miles by Saturday evening and was 25% contained. At least two people were injured in the fire.
September 4, 2022 8:01 am
NICE, France (AP) — Eight people go on trial in France on Monday accused of helping the attacker who drove a truck into a crowded beachfront in Nice on Bastille Day, killing 86 people. The attacker was shot dead by police on the same night, July 14, 2016. He had driven a 19-tonne truck through holiday crowds like a snow plow, leaving a two-kilometer trail of crushed and mangled bodies in his wake. During the proceedings in a special terrorist court in Paris, survivors and those mourning loved ones will recount the horrors inflicted that night. The verdict is expected in December.
September 4, 2022 8:00 am
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has beatified one of his predecessors, John Paul I, a briefly serving pontiff who was distinguished for his humility and cheerfulness. The ceremony in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday constitutes the last formal step in the Vatican before possible sainthood for Albino Luciani, an Italian who died in 1978, 33 days after being elected. Last year, Francis approved a miracle attributed to John Paul I — that of the recovery of a critically ill 11-year-old girl in 2011 in Buenos Aires. Seated under a canopy outside St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis led the ceremony, punctuated by thunder and lightning. Francis encouraged the faithful to pray to Luciani to obtain “the smile of the soul.”
September 4, 2022 7:59 am
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Officials in Pakistan are warning that more flooding is expected as Lake Manchar in southern Pakistan swells from unprecedented monsoon rains that began in mid-June and have killed nearly 1,300 people. Meteorologists predicted more rain in the region in the coming days and authorities urged villagers in the Jamshoro and Dadu districts of Sindh province near the lake to evacuate. They said the rising waters reached dangerous levels and posed a threat to a protective dyke and embankment. The water body, located west of the Indus River, is the largest natural freshwater lake in Pakistan and one of the largest in Asia.
September 4, 2022 7:58 am
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has called off a second launch attempt for its new moon rocket because of yet another fuel leak. The test flight is now off for at least a few weeks, if not months. Mission managers decided after Saturday’s scrub to haul the 322-foot rocket back into the hangar for further repairs and system updates. It’s the second delay this week for the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA. The first failed launch attempt on Monday was also troubled by escaping hydrogen. NASA has been waiting years to send the crew capsule atop the rocket around the moon with test dummies before astronauts take the next flight.
September 4, 2022 7:50 am
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — It’s Donald Trump’s first rally of the general election season, a Saturday night event in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, with Republican candidates in the pivotal state. While the former president’s endorsed picks won many Republican primaries this summer, many of those he backed were inexperienced and polarizing figures now struggling in their November races. That’s putting Senate control on the line after it was once assumed to be a lock for Republicans. The stakes are particularly high for Trump as he lays the groundwork for an expected 2024 presidential run amid a series of escalating legal challenges. Chief among them is the FBI’s recent seizure of classified documents from his Florida home.
