February 10, 2023 1:21 am
All regular county functions are expected to resume as normal Friday after Washington County officials called for the evacuation of the Courthouse and several adjacent buildings Thursday. Commissioner Chairwoman Diana Irey-Vaughn, in a press conference confirmed that four suspicious packages were delivered to one elected official and three other county offices on Thursday morning. One of those packages was opened and seemed to contain a powder substance. Out of an abundance of caution the person that opened the package was taken to an unnamed hospital. Commissioners immediately evacuated the courthouse, Courthouse Square and Crossroads Commons. The county jail was put on lockdown. Washington County Public Safety was able to perform an initial analysis of the opened package and determined that it did not contain any harmful substances. Another unofficial report indicates that some of those packages may have been delivered to common pleas court judges’ chambers. The incident is under investigation by the FBI and the United States Postal Service Inspector.
February 10, 2023 1:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has been hospitalized after feeling lightheaded while attending a Senate Democratic retreat. Fetterman suffered a stroke last year while campaigning. In a statement Wednesday night, the office of the Pennsylvania Democrat says initial tests do not show evidence of a new stroke. The senator’s communications director, Joe Calvello, says in the statement that doctors are running more tests and that the senator remains at George Washington University Hospital for observation. Fetterman’s defeat of celebrity heart surgeon Mehmet Oz was critical to Democrats maintaining their Senate majority.
February 9, 2023 10:48 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Popular composer Burt Bacharach has died at 94. Working with lyricist Hal David, Bacharach penned a long run of hit songs, many of them for Dionne Warwick. They include “Walk On By” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose.” The Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning Bacharach also helped write the themes for such films as “Arthur” and “What’s New, Pussycat?” Bacharach died Wednesday at home in Los Angeles of natural causes, publicist Tina Brausam said Thursday. Over the past 70 years, only Lennon-McCartney, Carole King and a handful of others rivaled his genius for instantly catchy songs that remained performed, played and hummed long after they were written.
February 9, 2023 9:17 am
More Americans filed for jobless benefits last week, but layoffs remain historically low despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate policy intended to cool the economy and bring down inflation. Applications for jobless aid in the U.S. for the week ending Feb. 4 rose by 13,000 last week to 196,000, from 183,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It’s the fourth straight week claims were under 200,000. Jobless claims generally serve as a proxy for layoffs, which have been relatively low since the pandemic wiped out millions of jobs in the spring of 2020.
February 9, 2023 4:22 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Walt Disney Co. says it will cut about 7,000 jobs as part of a “significant transformation” announced by CEO Bob Iger (pictured). The job cuts amount to about 3% of the entertainment giant’s global workforce and were announced Wednesday after Disney reported quarterly results that topped Wall Street’s forecasts. Iger returned as CEO in November following a challenging two-year tenure by his handpicked successor, Bob Chapek. The company says the job reductions are part of a targeted $5.5 billion cost savings across the company. In its latest results, solid growth at Disney’s theme parks helped offset tepid performance in its video streaming and movie business.
February 9, 2023 4:16 am
Hundreds of thousands of students who have dropped off public school rolls since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic are unaccounted for. An analysis by The Associated Press, Stanford University’s Big Local News project and Stanford education professor Thomas Dee found 240,000 students in 21 states who have gone missing from schools. They did not move out of state, and did not sign up for private school or home-school. Early in the pandemic, school staff went door-to-door to reengage kids, but most such efforts have ended. Dee says the data suggests a need to understand more about the children who aren’t in school and how that will affect their development.
February 9, 2023 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration says the China balloon shot down by the U.S. was equipped to collect intelligence signals as part of a huge, military-linked aerial spy program that has targeted more than 40 countries. In a statement Thursday, the administration cited imagery of the balloon from American U-2 spy planes. Meanwhile, the U.S. House voted unanimously to condemn China’s actions. The administration statement from a senior State Department official offered the most detail to date linking China’s People’s Liberation Army to the balloon that traversed the United States. The public details are meant to refute China’s persistent denials of wrongdoing, including a claim Thursday that U.S. accusations about the balloon amount to “information warfare” against Beijing.
February 9, 2023 4:12 am
BRUSSELS (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is wrapping up a whirlwind tour of his major European backers. Already he will head home with heaps of goodwill, promises of more military aid and France’s highest medal of honor. The European Union’s 27 leaders were awaiting the man in khaki in Brussels on Thursday and hoped to impress on him that the powerful bloc is steadfast in its support of embattled Ukraine as Russia is feared to be making moves for a new offensive around the Feb. 24 one-year anniversary of the war.
February 9, 2023 4:10 am
ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) – Thousands who lost their homes in a catastrophic earthquake huddled around campfires and clamored for food and water in the bitter cold, three days after the temblor and a series of aftershocks hit Turkey and Syria. More than 20,000 were killed. Emergency crews used pick axes, shovels and jackhammers to dig through twisted metal and concrete. They occasionally still pulled survivors out. But in some places, they switched the focus to demolishing unsteady buildings. While stories of miraculous rescues briefly buoyed spirits, the grim reality of the hardship facing tens of thousands who survived the disaster cast a pall.
February 9, 2023 4:00 am
A Washington man accused of selling cocaine laced with fentanyl to two other Washington men pleaded guilty to felony charges of drug delivery resulting in death. Robert Hayes, 41 was charged with selling the fatal doses of cocaine to Brandon Howard, 37 in December of 2019 and then to Joseph Francis, 43 in January of 2020. Hayes’ cases were scheduled for trial beginning on Monday. He avoided trial by pleading guilty to two counts of drug delivery resulting in death and one count of illegal use of a communications device. All three felonies will net him incarceration in state prison for 8½ to 20 years. Hayes avoided a possible sentence of 20 to 40 years in each case if a jury were to find him guilty. He will be responsible for restitution to both families for funeral expenses in an amount more than $21,000. A portion of that restitution could be paid by a co-defendant in the Howard case. Ashley Matthews is facing similar charges as Hayes. Her case is working its way through the court system.
