August 7, 2024 5:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that around 7 in 10 Americans say extreme heat has had a major or minor impact on their electricity bills in the past year, and a majority have seen a similar impact on their outdoor activities. Around 4 in 10 also report that extreme heat has had a major or minor impact on their sleep, pets, or exercise routine. The results came at a time when several regions of the U.S. set all-time temperature records, including Las Vegas reaching a scorching 120 F on July 7.
August 7, 2024 4:57 am
NEW SEWICKLEY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – A local police sergeant has been charged with driving under the influence. On July 18, Beaver Valley Regional Police said an officer saw a man, later identified as Sgt. Timothy Gatehouse for the New Sewickley Township Police Department, driving abnormally slow on Route 65. Police say that the officer saw Gatehouse then turn into the Marathon parking lot where he tried several times to park his truck. The officer went up to the truck and saw Gatehouse passed out in the driver’s seat while the engine was still running. The officer woke him up and Gatehouse told police he was coming from his mother’s house and was not drinking. However, the officer said he smelled of alcohol, was unsteady on his feet and was slow to respond. Police took him to get his blood drawn and said Gatehouse’s blood alcohol level was 0.28 %, which is between 3 to 4 times over the legal limit. Gatehouse faces DUI charges and has a preliminary hearing scheduled at the end of August.
August 6, 2024 4:56 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate. Harris said in a post on social media Tuesday that Walz has “delivered for working families.” The two will appear together in Philadelphia at an evening rally. The Midwestern governor, military veteran and union supporter has helped enact an ambitious Democratic agenda for his state, including sweeping protections for abortion rights and aid to families. Walz has taken on greater national visibility since a 2023 legislative session that he calls one of the most consequential in state history. He was elected chair of the Democratic Governors Association in December.
August 6, 2024 2:43 am
Attorneys representing seven disenfranchised voters, the Washington Branch of the NAACP and the Center for Coalfield Justice squared off against special counsel appointed by Washington County Commissioners to defend their policy to prohibit notice to mail in voters that there are defects in their ballots and not allow curing of ballots. This policy segregated 259 votes from being counted in the April 2024 primary election, even though in 2023, those voters with ballots in similar condition could have been notified and offered the opportunity to cure the violating condition. Vic Walczak, Legal Director of the ACLU of PA says that their argument is based on the Pennsylvania Constitution under the due process clause. Not notifying the voters of the problematic ballot denied them the due process to be able to have their vote count and thus robbed them of their right to vote. David Berardinelli, Special Counsel appointed by commissioners to defend their decision to not allow notice and curing stood behind the Pennsylvania Election Code, stating that no language exists covering ballot curing. He called it a legislative issue and those decisions on ballot curing should be made by state representatives and senators. They argue that notice has been given in mail in ballot directions that state that if the envelopes are not filled out precisely, that ballot will not be counted. He cautioned the judge that deciding against the policy in place may put him in the position of legislating from the judicial bench. The judge took the matter under advisement for further review. A decision is expected in the coming weeks.
August 6, 2024 2:41 am
Activists gathered on the steps of the Washington County Courthouse to air their feelings about notification of deficient mail in ballots and ballot curing in upcoming elections in Washington County. The Center for Coalfield Justice hosted the rally about a hearing on arguments regarding the Washington County Board of Elections decision to not give mail in ballot users notice that their ballot contains errors and disallowing ballot curing in total. They want to make sure voters are aware that clerical errors may cause their vote not to count. Bracken Burns spoke on behalf of the Washington Branch of the NAACP in an address that went through the alphabet describing how the commissioner’s decision was unamerican, unpatriotic and unrepublican. Bruce Jacobs is one of those mail in ballot users that weeks after the April primary election, found out that his ballot was not counted and he considers himself disenfranchised. He said that the commissioner’s decision to not notify mail in voters of defects in their ballot was a deliberate act to disenfranchise. After the rally, the two dozen activists filled the courtroom of Judge Brandon Neuman to hear arguments in the case.
August 6, 2024 4:51 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris’ coronation as the Democrats’ standard-bearer for the 2024 presidential election is now official after the Democratic National Committee announced the formal results of the online voting by delegates on Monday night. It caps a tumultuous period for the party prompted by President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance and his subsequent withdrawal from the race. Harris is a daughter of immigrants who rose through the California political and law enforcement ranks to become the first female vice president in U.S. history. She is clinching the nomination more than four years after her first attempt at the presidency collapsed.
August 6, 2024 4:47 am
GREENE COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) – The Greene County Regional Police Department is searching for a man they think could be tied to a drug cartel. Police say the search for a stolen motorcycle led them to Jimmy Butterfield’s Morris Township home. At the house, police say they found more stolen bikes, a sawed-off shotgun, an assault rifle and a pound of meth they believe came from a drug lab across the southern United States border. “These are staging areas for a lot of the dealers to network their narcotics throughout the areas and into major cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia,” said Greene County Regional Police Department Chief William DeForte. Anyone with information on Butterfield’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Greene County Regional Police Department.
August 6, 2024 4:57 am
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Tropical Storm Debby has drenched coastal cities in Georgia and South Carolina and is not finished bringing heavy rain to region. Debby was centered just south of Savannah on Tuesday afternoon. The system has already stirred up tornadoes and submerged streets in waist-high floodwaters. The storm was forecast to move relatively slowly across southern states, with staggering totals of rain possible in some areas. The latest forecast says Debby could restrengthen over the Atlantic Ocean and then move inland again near Charleston, South Carolina, by Thursday. Debby made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast early Monday as a hurricane. At least five people have died.
August 6, 2024 4:58 am
Five Palestinians have been killed and seven wounded by Israeli fire during military raids in the occupied West Bank. World leaders are trying to stop tensions in the Middle East from boiling over into a regional war after the killings of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says it launched a drone attack early Monday on northern Israel that the Israeli military said wounded two Israeli troops. Leaders in Egypt and Turkey say they are exhausting all avenues possible to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from becoming a wider regional conflict. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet over the weekend that Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies.
August 6, 2024 4:49 am
(AP) – Boeing factory workers say they were pressured to work too fast and asked to perform jobs that they weren’t qualified for, including opening and closing the door plug that later blew off an Alaska Airlines jet. Those accounts from inside the company were disclosed Tuesday, as federal investigators opened a two-day hearing into the blowout, which further tarnished Boeing’s safety reputation and left it facing new legal jeopardy. A Boeing door installer said he was never told to take any shortcuts but everyone faced pressure to keep the assembly line moving.
