December 30, 2021 4:20 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted of helping lure teenage girls to be sexually abused by the late Jeffrey Epstein. The verdict announced Wednesday capped a month-long trial featuring accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14. Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of every count except one. She faces years in prison. It’s an end long sought by women who spent years fighting to hold Maxwell accountable for abusing them. Her lawyers said she’s being used as a scapegoat for crimes committed by Epstein, who killed himself in 2019.
December 30, 2021 4:18 am
CHICAGO (AP) – More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average. The surge has been driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. The previous mark was 250,000 cases per day, set in mid-January. The number of Americans now in the hospital with COVID-19 is running at around 60,000, or about half the figure seen last January. With New Year’s Eve approaching, Dr. Anthony Fauci says there is no need to cancel small home gatherings among vaccinated and boosted family and friends. But he is strongly recommending against 40- and 50-person parties with lots of hugging and kissing.
December 30, 2021 4:17 am
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin are set to discuss the Russian troop buildup at the Ukraine border. The call scheduled for Thursday afternoon would be their second in recent weeks amid little progress toward ending the smoldering crisis. The White House indicates that Biden will make clear to Putin that a diplomatic path remains open. The Russians have moved an estimated 100,000 troops toward Ukraine, and Putin has stepped up his demands for security guarantees in Eastern Europe. The call requested by Russian officials comes as senior U.S. and Russian officials are to hold talks on Jan. 10 in Geneva.
December 30, 2021 4:12 am
One person is in police custody following a crash early Thursday morning in North Strabane Township. Washington County 9-1-1 tells us it happened just before 3 a.m at the intersection of Route 19 and Weavertown Road. Dispatchers tell us the vehicle struck a utility pole near the entrance to the Sheetz store. The pole and wires came down. Dispatchers say a fire hydrant was also struck. As of 4 a.m. Weavertown Road remains closed in that area as crews will be making repairs. No other vehicles were involved. There is no word on the identity of the person taken into custody. (PHOTO: WPXI)
December 30, 2021 4:03 am
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) – A county coroner says autopsy results in the death of three siblings at a home near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, indicate they all died from COVID-19. Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees said Wednesday the two men and a woman found in different locations on the property had died about five days before they were found in late October. They are 68-year-old Ruth Kinsey, 70-year-old Richard Kinsey and 72-year-old Donald Kinsey. They were found in the kitchen, the living room and in a camper on the property. Lees says he concluded they died of COVID-19 after toxicology and other test results.
December 29, 2021 3:33 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Hundreds of flights are being cancelled as the omicron variant creates havoc both for travelers and for airlines who are having to cobble together flight crews as infections rise among pilots and flight attendants. According to data from the flight-tracking website FlightAware, 832 flights were cancelled by midday Wednesday and that number has ticked higher throughout the day. There were nearly 1,300 cancellations for flights entering, leaving or inside the U.S. on Tuesday, and about 1,500 Monday. Cancellations began to spike the day before Christmas during what is typically an already buzzing pace for airlines.
December 29, 2021 3:33 pm
MIAMI (AP) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating more cruise ships due to new COVID-19 cases aboard. The agency says 88 vessels are now either under investigation or observation, but it does not specify how many cases have been reported. None of the ships appear to have so many cases they would overwhelm medical resources on board and require a return to port. But some have been denied entry at some foreign ports. Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling for the CDC and cruise lines to again halt cruise travel, six months after the industry mounted its comeback.
December 29, 2021 12:53 pm
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) – Virginia’s attorney general says a retired priest who once oversaw children’s safety in a Catholic diocese in the Washington suburbs has been charged with sexually assaulting a child. The Washington Post reports that a Fairfax County grand jury indicted 68-year-old Terry Specht of Donegal, Pennsylvania, on two felony counts related to sexual abuse of a child under 13. According to the indictment, the assault took place in 2000, when Specht was chaplain and assistant principal at St. Paul VI Catholic High School. Public defender Dawn Butorac says Specht “maintains his innocence.” A diocese spokesperson says Specht was responsible for policy and instruction for the Arlington Diocese Office of Child Protection and Safety, but didn’t oversee abuse investigations.
December 29, 2021 7:48 am
(WPXI) – Three people were killed in a house fire early Wednesday morning in Lawrence County. One adult and two minors were found dead inside a home on West Clayton Street in New Castle after the home caught fire around 5:30 a.m., according to firefighters. When firefighters arrived there was fire on the right side of the house advancing to the second floor. The fire was put out rapidly, according to New Castle Fire Department Chief Michael Kobbe, but that is when the three victims were found. The Lawrence County Coroner’s Office has identified the victims as 41-year-old Courtney Payne, 17-year-old Terianna Payne-Hicks and 18-year-old Xzavia Booker. Courtney and Terianna are mother and daughter. Xzavia was a friend of Terianna. Kobbe said the fire appears to have started in the area of the kitchen, and one high-school aged victim was found on the first floor, another victim on the staircase and an adult victim was found in an upstairs bedroom. The adult victim upstairs called 911. Pennsylvania State Police are investigating, but the fire chief does not believe the fire was suspicious.
December 29, 2021 4:12 am
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader and Nevada’s longest-serving member of Congress, has died at home in Henderson, Nevada. He was 82. Landra Reid says her husband died peacefully Tuesday after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer. The combative former boxer-turned-lawyer was widely-acknowledged as one of toughest dealmakers in Congress. Over a 34-year career in Washington, Reid thrived on behind-the-scenes wrangling and kept the Senate controlled by his party through two presidents, a crippling recession and the Republican takeover of the House after the 2010 elections. He retired in 2016. President Joe Biden said in a statement after the death of his longtime Senate colleague: “If Harry said he would do something, he did it.”
