December 27, 2022 4:21 am
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) – The co-leader of a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. Adam Fox’s sentence is the longest of anyone convicted in the plot so far, though it’s significantly shorter than the life sentence that prosecutors sought. Fox returned to federal court Tuesday, four months after he and Barry Croft Jr. were convicted of conspiracy charges. They were accused of organizing a wild plot to whip up anti-government extremists just before the 2020 presidential election. Whitmer wasn’t physically harmed. The FBI was secretly embedded in the group and broke things up with 14 arrests. The government said Fox urged recruits to take up arms and kidnap the governor.
December 27, 2022 4:19 am
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) – A fourth electrical substation was vandalized late on Christmas Day in Washington state, leaving homes in Kapowsin and Graham temporarily without power. By 7 a.m. Monday, more than 10,500 Puget Sound Energy customers were without electricity across the region. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office says the suspects broke into a fenced area and vandalized equipment, causing a fire. The fire was extinguished and power was later restored, but no suspects are in custody. The attacks come as federal officials are warning that the U.S. power grid needs better security to prevent domestic terrorism and after a large outage in North Carolina earlier this month that took days to repair.
December 27, 2022 4:18 am
The holiday shopping season – for Mega Millions lottery ticket buyers, at least – is ramping up as officials say the estimated jackpot for Tuesday night’s drawing has surpassed half a billion dollars. As of late Monday, lottery officials estimate Tuesday’s prize at $565 million – or more than $293 million if delivered in cash – after there were no lucky winners holding a ticket that matched all six numbers in the last drawing held on Friday. áTickets sold in California and Florida for an Oct. 14 drawing shared the last Mega Millions jackpot of $502 million. The Mega Millions lottery’s top prize has been building anew over 20 drawings held since then.
December 27, 2022 4:17 am
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – Officials in New York say state and military police were sent to keep people from driving in snow-choked Buffalo. The Erie County executive said Tuesday that police are being positioned at entrances to Buffalo and at major intersections to enforce a ban on driving. Officials say more than 30 people died in the region. That’s in addition to about two dozen other deaths the huge storm caused around the country. And an emergency services commissioner in the Buffalo area says crews are keeping an eye on warmer weather forecast for later in the week that could bring a threat of flooding as the snow melts.
December 27, 2022 4:13 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — When mapmakers reimagined the boundaries of Pennsylvania’s 253 legislative districts, they did it with an eye on the state’s growing racial and ethnic minorities, and officials say that has helped yield the most diverse incoming class of lawmakers yet. The number of state lawmakers who are Black, Latino or of South Asian descent will rise as part of what House Democrats call the “most diverse class of freshmen legislators” in Pennsylvania history after candidates ran in this year’s election in the newly drawn map of districts. Pennsylvania’s Legislature will remain disproportionately white, like nearly every other state’s, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures last gathered in 2020. The state’s newly elected minority lawmakers are all Democrats, further deepening the disparity with Republicans who have long attracted fewer candidates or voters of color in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. There are now more Black, Latino and Asian-American lawmakers than ever, said Rep. Donna Bullock, who chairs the Legislative Black Caucus. The caucus — which includes lawmakers who are Latino or Asian-American — will have more members than ever, rising from 31 to 37, she said.
December 27, 2022 4:07 am
MOUNT LEBANON, Pa. — (WPXI) – This season is tough especially when you are forced to celebrate the holidays without the ones you love. “My mom was the glue to our family, really she was the one who kept everyone together. Over the holidays she was the one who initiated everything with the family,” said Craig Coester, whose mom died in Mt. Lebanon. Coester is having a hard time describing what life is like without his mom, Bonnie. Coester told our news partners at Channel 11 it was the end of June when his 87-year-old mom was walking through downtown Mt. Lebanon in front of Il Pizzaiolo when she tripped on an improperly placed construction cone, falling forward and striking her head on the curb. She died a few months later from those injuries. Coester is now suing the construction company and Mt. Lebanon over the “Vibrant Uptown Plan” project. The lawsuit alleges that there are areas not properly secured like where Bonnie fell. Attorney Matthew Scanlon claims the cones being used were not placed correctly and are not the proper size, according to federal regulations. Channel 11 reached out to all three parties named in the lawsuit, including the engineering and construction companies. We did not hear back from either and Mt. Lebanon said no comment.
December 26, 2022 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Local organizers in Washington say three buses of recent migrant families arrived from Texas near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in record-setting cold on Christmas Eve. Texas authorities have not confirmed their involvement, but the bus dropoffs are in line with previous actions by border-state governors calling attention to the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, says the buses that arrived late Saturday were carrying around 110 to 130 people. Some were wearing T-shirts despite temperatures hovering around 15 degrees Fahrenheit (-9 degrees Celsius). It was the coldest Christmas Eve on record for Washington. Organizers had buses ready to take the migrants to a church where they stayed the night.
December 26, 2022 4:12 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea’s military has fired warning shots and scrambled aircraft after North Korean drones entered the South’s airspace. South Korea’s Defense Ministry says several North Korean drones crossed the inter-Korean border and were detected in the South’s territory on Monday morning. The military broadcast warnings and fired warning shots before it launched fighter jets and attack helicopters to shoot down the drones. It isn’t immediately known if the drones were shot down. It’s the first time for North Korean drones to enter South Korean airspace since 2017, when a suspected North Korean drone was found crashed in South Korea. South Korean military officials said at the time that the drone photographed a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea.
December 26, 2022 4:12 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – The Russian military reported on Monday that it shot down a Ukrainian drone approaching an airbase deep inside Russia, the second time the airbase has been targeted this month. Even though the drone was shot down, it raises questions about the effectiveness of Russia’s air defenses if drones can fly that far into the country. Russia’s Defense Ministry said three servicemen were killed by debris at the Engels airbase that houses nuclear-capable strategic bombers that have been involved in launching strikes on Ukraine. It is located more than 370 miles east of the border with Ukraine. No damage was inflicted on the aircraft, the ministry said.
December 26, 2022 4:11 am
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – The deep freeze from a deadly winter storm that walloped much of the United States will continue into the week as people in western New York deal with massive snow drifts that snarled emergency vehicles and travelers across the country see cancelled flights and dangerous roads. The massive storm has killed at least 34 people across the U.S. and is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside houses and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. The extreme weather stretched from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. Temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians.
