March 21, 2022 4:17 am
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian officials have defiantly rejected a Russian demand that their forces in Mariupol lay down arms and raise white flags in exchange for safe passage. Russian troops have surrounded and are barraging the strategic southern port city. Ukrainian officials say the Russian military hit an art school sheltering some 400 people only hours before offering to open two corridors out of Mariupol in return for the capitulation of its defenders. Fighting for Mariupol has been intense, even as the Russian offensive in other areas has floundered to the point where Western governments and analysts see the broader conflict grinding into a war of attrition. Shelling also continued in Kyiv as Russian forces work to surround the Ukrainian capital.
March 21, 2022 4:15 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – A man was killed after being shot in Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood late Saturday night. Officers arrived at the 1000 block of Freyburg Street around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night and found one male victim with gunshot wounds to his chest. The victim has been identified as 29-year-old Adam Cloud of New Kensington. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A Pittsburgh Public Information Officer says the shooting stemmed from an altercation outside of a skate club. Police were talking to people who were inside the skate club at the time of the shooting, to see if they witnessed anything. Police have not made any arrests yet.
March 21, 2022 4:05 am
DENVER (AP) – The surprising advantage Democrats gained during the torturous process of rewriting the nation’s congressional maps may be short lived. Two major states – North Carolina and Ohio – are already poised to redraw their maps in the next few years. Several cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, could dramatically alter the rules that govern mapmaking nationwide. Those twists could ultimately transform the redistricting process from a once-a-decade process into a regular political brawl that consumes state capitals already gripped by partisan tensions.
March 21, 2022 2:27 am
The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources stopped by Rolling Hills Park in Peters Township to officially deliver a grant announced last December. DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn detailed to the group of state and local officials the criteria the department considered in awarding Rolling Hills Park and its aquatic facility the $631,000 Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund grant. Dunn said that the department is looking to try and achieve park availability within a 10 minute walk or bicycle ride from every residence in Pennsylvania. The open and green design of the park and aquatic facility lends itself to residents enjoying a climate friendly activity and teaching youngsters how to swim. The aquatic facility has yet to be authorized by township officials. Bids for the project have come in over budget and redesigns and revenue projections have been restudied. If approved, the aquatic center is expected to open on Memorial Day weekend 2024.
March 21, 2022 2:22 am
The Washington County District Attorney’s office has announced the arrests of three individuals in connection with an investigation of suspected heroin/fentanyl by 47 year old John Beebe III of Fallowfield Township. Members of the District Attorney’s Drug Task Force and Charleroi Regional Police served the arrest warrant and search warrant on Saturday. Beebe was taken into custody without incident. Also, 26 year old Jobe Franks and Donald Franks of Charleroi were both arrested as being fugitives on outstanding felony drug warrants, which were the result of a previous investigation. All three were arraigned before District Justice Kelly Stewart and lodged in the Washington County Jail after failing to post bond. Preliminary hearings are scheduled for March 31. Task Force detectives seized a large bulk quantity of suspected fentanyl/heroin, repackaging material, numerous firearms and more than $40,000 in cash. Additional charges are expected to be filed in the near future.
March 20, 2022 8:01 am
DUMAS, Ark. (AP) — At least one person was killed and 20 others wounded, including children, in a shooting outside a car show in southeast Arkansas on Saturday evening, local police said. Dumas Police Chief Keith Finch provided the number of casualties but said it wasn’t immediately clear how many kids had been hurt. Additional information, including conditions of the wounded, wasn’t immediately available. One person was in custody, although there may have been multiple shooters, Finch told reporters. State troopers were dispatched at around 7:25 p.m. to Dumas, located about 90 miles south of Little Rock, following a report of gunfire outside a local business where the car show was underway, Arkansas State Police spokesperson Bill Sadler said. The car show is part of a community event held each spring to raise funds for scholarships and school supplies, according to the website of the Delta Neighborhood Empowerment Youth Organization.
March 20, 2022 8:00 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired suspected artillery pieces into the sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, days after the North’s latest missile launch ended in failure amid the country’s recent burst of weapons testing activity. There is speculation that North Korea could soon try to launch its developmental longest-range ballistic missile to bolster its arsenal and dial up pressure on the United States to wrest concessions as negotiations remain stalled. South Korea’s military suggested North Korea’s midair missile explosion last Wednesday involved parts of the Hwasong-17 missile, its biggest weapon. On Sunday, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it detected firings likely from multiple rocket launch systems off North Korea’s west coast. The ministry said the military closely monitors North Korean moves and maintains its readiness. South Korea’s presidential office said in a separate statement it held an emergency national security council meeting to discuss what it called the North’s “short-range projectile launches.”
March 20, 2022 7:59 am
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Lagging behind Russia in developing hypersonic weapons, the U.S. Navy is rushing to field its first, with installation on a warship starting as soon as late next year. The United States is in a race with Russia and China to develop these weapons, which travel at speeds akin to ballistic missiles but are difficult to shoot down because of their maneuverability. The Russian military says it already deployed hypersonic missiles and claimed Saturday to have used one for the first time in combat against a target in Ukraine. The Pentagon couldn’t confirm a hypersonic weapon was used in the attack. The American military is accelerating development to catch up. The U.S. weapon would launch like a ballistic missile and would release a hypersonic glide vehicle that would reach speeds seven to eight times faster than the speed of sound before hitting the target. In Maine, General Dynamics subsidiary Bath Iron Works has begun engineering and design work on changes necessary to install the weapon system on three Zumwalt-class destroyers.
March 20, 2022 7:57 am
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities said Sunday that Russia’s military bombed an art school sheltering some 400 people in the embattled port city of Mariupol, where Ukraine’s president said an unrelenting Russian siege would be remembered for centuries to come. It was the second time in less than a week that city officials reported a public building where residents had taken shelter coming under attack. A bomb hit a Mariupol theater with more than 1,300 believed to be inside on Wednesday, local officials said. There was no immediate word on casualties from the reported strike on the art school, which The Associated Press could not independently verify. Ukrainian officials have not given an update on the search of the theater since Friday, when they said at least 130 had been rescued. Mariupol, a strategic port on the Azov Sea, has been under bombardment for at least three weeks and has seen some of the worst horrors of the war in Ukraine. At least 2,300 people have died, some of whom had to be buried in mass graves, and food, water and electricity have run low.
March 20, 2022 7:55 am
WASHINGTON DC (WPXI) — A Cranberry man is among the latest person charged for allegedly breaching the United States Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021. Jordan Bonenberger reportedly turned himself in Friday morning, and later appeared before a federal judge. Court documents that were unsealed late Friday afternoon claim Bonenberger was caught on camera within the Capitol building. Witnesses reportedly assisted agents in identifying him. According to the criminal affidavit, one tipster who knew Bonenberger “from college-age” saw videos of him on Snapchat, and provided the FBI with his cell phone number. Cell records revealed that Bonenberger’s phone was within the Capitol building for about 15 minutes on Jan. 6, according to court documents. Bonenberger was issued a $10,000 unsecured bond. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Washington D.C. next week.
