May 25, 2022 4:25 pm
Officials from 9-1-1 say that a SWAT situation that occurred in Smith Township has come to a close. A man allegedly shot another man on Loffert Road and State Police and several local police departments took to the scene. The standoff ended with the alleged shooter surrendering to police peacefully. The victim was injured but officials state that they do not believe he was transported from the scene by ambulance. Details about the event are still evolving.
May 25, 2022 3:39 pm
UVALDE, Texas (AP) – The governor of Texas says the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school had warned on social media minutes before the attack that he was going to shoot up a school. Gov. Greg Abbott says the shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, used an AR-15 in the attack Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. About 30 minutes before the shooting, Ramos made three social media posts. According to the governor, Ramos posted that he was going to shoot his grandmother, then that he had shot the woman, and finally that he was going to shoot an elementary school. Abbott says Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history. “Evil swept across Uvalde yesterday,” Abbott said.
May 25, 2022 3:37 pm
WOODSTOCK, Ga. (AP) – Donald Trump began May with a decisive win for a favored candidate in Ohio, catapulting a Senate hopeful to a primary victory. But the month ended in stinging defeat for Trump as one of his top targets for retribution walloped the Trump-endorsed challenger by more than 50 percentage points in the Georgia governor’s GOP primary. As the first round of primaries comes to a close, the month has laid bare Trump’s diminished grip on the Republican Party. But the races have also made clear the extent to which the party has been transformed in Trump’s image. And they’ve shown that his “MAGA” movement isn’t going anywhere, whether he decided to run again or not.
May 25, 2022 3:30 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Congressional Budget Office says that high inflation will persist into next year. This will likely cause the federal government to pay higher interest rates on its debt. The nonpartisan agency expects that the consumer price index will rise 6.1% this year and 3.1% in 2023. This forecast suggests that inflation will slow from current annual levels of 8.3%, yet it would still be dramatically above a long term baseline of 2.3%. The 10-year estimates do contain positive news as this year’s annual budget deficit will be $118 billion lower than forecast last year. That’s a byproduct of the end of pandemic-related spending and the solid job growth it helped to spur.
May 25, 2022 3:28 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal Reserve officials agreed when they met earlier this month that they might have to raise interest rates to levels that would weaken the economy as part of their drive to curb inflation, which has reached a four-decade high. At the same time, many of the policymakers also agreed that after a rapid series of rate increases in the coming months, they could รก”assess the effects” of their rate hikes and, depending on the economy’s health, adjust their policies. According to minutes from the Fed’s May 3-4 meeting, most of the officials agreed that half-point increases to the Fed’s benchmark short-term rate “would likely be appropriate” at the central bank’s next two meetings, in June and July.
May 25, 2022 4:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – An anguished and angry President Joe Biden is calling for new restrictions on firearms after a gunman massacred 18 children at a Texas elementary school. “We have to act,” Biden told the nation Tuesday night from the White House, after years of failure to pass new laws. He spoke after arriving home from a five-day trip to Asia that was bookended by “horrific” mass tragedy. Just two days before he left on his trip, he met with victims’ families after a hate-motivated shooter killed 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
May 25, 2022 4:24 am
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Alabama’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate is going to a June runoff between Katie Britt and U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks. The Republicans are seeking the nomination for the Senate seat now held by U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby who is retiring. Britt is Shelby’s former chief of staff and the former leader of the Business Council of Alabama. Brooks overcame a feud with former President Donald Trump to secure a runoff spot. Trump initially endorsed Brooks in the race but withdrew that endorsement in March. The two edged out businessman Mike Durant, who is best known as the helicopter pilot held captive in the events chronicled in “Black Hawk Down.”
May 25, 2022 4:22 am
ATLANTA (AP) – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has won the Republican primary in a bid to keep his job. He defeated three challengers, including U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Raffensperger became a top target for Trump after the secretary of state refused to bow to pressure to take steps to overturn the former president’s narrow loss in Georgia. Hice had embraced false claims about the 2020 election being stolen and objected to Georgia’s electoral votes being counted for President Joe Biden.
May 25, 2022 4:21 am
ATLANTA (AP) – Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia has easily dispatched Donald Trump’s hand-picked challenger in a Republican primary that demonstrated the limits of the former president and his conspiracy-fueled politics in a critical swing state. The results, combined with the loss of the Trump-backed candidate for secretary of state, serve as a stinging rebuke in a race Trump prioritized above almost all others. Angered by Kemp’s refusal to go along with his extraordinary effort to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, Trump recruited former Sen. David Perdue. But Kemp ultimately emerged as a powerful candidate. He will face Democrat Stacey Abrams this fall in one of the nation’s most consequential governor’s races.
May 25, 2022 4:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The head of the Food and Drug Administration is preparing to tell lawmakers about events that led to a months-long gap before inspecting the plant at the center of a nationwide baby formula shortage. FDA Commissioner Robert Califf is scheduled to answer questions Wednesday from House lawmakers probing the formula shortage. According to prepared testimony, Califf will tell lawmakers that a COVID-19 outbreak at Abbott’s formula plant led regulators to delay their inspection from late December to January. Califf will also discuss delays in interviewing an Abbott whistleblower who alleged serious violations at the baby formula plant last October.
