July 15, 2022 3:51 am
NEW YORK (AP) — A four-paragraph anecdote in a regional newspaper ignited a media fire over abortion that engulfed President Joe Biden, the partisan press and some of the nation’s top news organizations. The story about an alleged rape of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who had to travel to Indiana for an abortion touched on a white-hot issue due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion. The speed at which the story moved also raised questions about journalist’s sourcing in stories and how stories can be quickly taken over by political pundits. The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post issued corrections or clarifications to what they had written about the case.
July 15, 2022 3:50 am
VINNYTSIA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials say Russian missiles that struck a city in central Ukraine killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 100 others, including children, while dozens were missing. Officials say cruise missiles fired from a Russian ship in the Black Sea struck a medical center, stores and residential buildings in Vinnytsia, a city southwest of Kyiv, the capital. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is accusing Russia of intentionally aiming missiles at civilians and repeating his call for Russia to be declared a state sponsor of terrorism. One military analyst thinks Thursday’s attack mirrors previous ones on residential areas that Moscow has launched “to try to pressure Kyiv to make some concessions.”
July 15, 2022 3:49 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House has voted to restore abortion access nationwide. It’s Democrats’ first legislative response to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion. But the House bill approved Friday has little chance of becoming law, with the necessary support lacking in the 50-50 Senate. But the vote marks the beginning of a new era in the abortion debate as lawmakers, governors and legislatures grapple with the impact of the Supreme Court decision. The House also passed a separate bill to prohibit punishment for a woman or child who decides to travel to another state to get an abortion.
July 15, 2022 3:47 am
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – A crucial effort to repair one of the world’s most important diplomatic relationships began with a fist bump. President Joe Biden held a carefully choreographed meeting Friday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man he had once shunned for human rights abuses. Biden said he raised the issue of the murder of writer Jamal Khashoggi, which U.S. intelligence has said the crown prince approved. This was Biden’s first meeting with the Saudi crown prince, who is the presumed heir to the throne held by his father, King Salman. Biden vowed as a Democratic presidential candidate to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for its human rights record
July 15, 2022 3:46 am
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the northwestern Xinjiang region this week amid concerns over China’s detention of a million or more members of primarily Muslim ethnic native minorities. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that Xi called Xinjiang a “core area and a hub” in China’s program of building ports, railways and power stations connecting it to economies reaching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe. Under Xi, authorities have carried out a sweeping crackdown on Xinjiang’s native Uygur and Kazakh communities following an outburst of separatist violence. Critics have described the crackdown that placed thousands in prison-like indoctrination camps as a form of cultural genocide. The U.S. and others have placed officials responsible under visa bans.
July 15, 2022 3:41 am
ELLSWORTH, Pa. — Multiple crews were called to the scene of a fire overnight in Ellsworth, but were not there very long. According to reports, Ellsworth and Bentleyville Fire Departments were sent to Walnut Street for a possible house fire just after midnight. Crews say no fire was showing from the outside of the home, but a small couch fire was contained quickly inside the structure. Crews were on scene for about 30 minutes to take care of ventilation issues. No one was injured. Cokeburg and Marianna fire crews along with Ambulance and Chair EMS were also initially dispatched to the scene.
July 15, 2022 3:23 am
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. (WPXI) — Emergency crews responded to an incident involving a plane that left the runway at Rostraver Airport on Thursday afternoon. Westmoreland County 911 confirmed that police, fire and EMS crews were called to the airport at 3:54 p.m. According to Rostraver Central Fire Department, units responded to a twin-engine aircraft that left the runway while landing. Fire crews contained a minor fuel leak from the aircraft. (Photo: Rostraver Central Fire Department Facebook Page)
July 15, 2022 1:41 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The Trump family says the former president’s first wife, Ivana Trump, has died in New York City. Trump posted on social media Thursday that “I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away.” The skier-turned-businesswoman formed half of a publicity power couple in the 1980s as Trump’s wife and mother of his oldest children. They had an equally public, and messy, divorce after Donald Trump met his next wife, Marla Maples. But in recent years, Ivana Trump had been on good terms with her former husband. (Photo: ABC)
July 14, 2022 9:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week hit its highest level in nearly 8 months, but the total number of those collecting benefits fell. Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 9 rose by 9,000 to 244,000, up from the previous week’s 235,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications generally reflect layoffs. Analysts had expected the number to remain flat from the previous week. The four-week average for claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, rose from the previous week. The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week ending June 25 fell.
July 14, 2022 4:19 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – New omicron variants are again driving hospital admissions and deaths higher in recent weeks, causing states and cities to rethink their responses to COVID-19 and the White House to step up efforts to alert the public. Some experts say the warnings are too little, too late. The highly transmissible variants have shown a remarkable ability to get around the protection offered by vaccination. Health officials say Los Angeles County, home to 10 million residents, is facing a return to a broad indoor mask mandate later this month if current trends in hospital admissions continue.
