August 11, 2022 4:06 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department has asked a court to unseal the search warrant the FBI received before searching the Florida estate of former President Donald Trump, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday. Garland cited the “substantial public interest in this matter” in announcing the request at a hastily scheduled Justice Department news conference. Garland also said that he personally approved the search warrant, which was part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into the discovery of classified White House records recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida earlier this year. (Photo: ABC News)
August 11, 2022 8:43 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans who signed up for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since November, though the U.S. job market continues to show signs of strength. Applications for jobless aid climbed by 14,000 to 262,000 and now have risen five out of the last six weeks, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week average for claims, which smooths out weekly ups and downs, rose by 4,500 to 252,000, also the highest since November. Unemployment applications are a proxy for layoffs and are often seen as an early indicator of where the job market is headed.
August 11, 2022 4:26 am
CINCINNATI (AP) – Authorities say a man has “unknown injuries” after he tried to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati office, fled and exchanged gunfire in a standoff with law enforcement. The Ohio State Highway Patrol said Thursday that no one else was hurt. Officials say the man was wearing body armor and was chased onto Interstate 71. Officials say the man abandoned his car on nearby roads, where he exchanged gunfire with police. The episode came a day after the FBI director warned against threats circulating online against agents and the Justice Department following the agency’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
August 11, 2022 4:25 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared victory over COVID-19 at a national meeting where his sister, in an especially combative speech, said Kim had suffered a fever himself and laid dubious blame against South Korea while vowing deadly retaliation. The North’s official media said Kim ordered preventive measures eased just three months after the country first acknowledged an outbreak, claiming the country’s widely disputed success would be recognized as a global health miracle. There were no details about his supposed fever. Experts say Kim’s sister’s remarks may portend a provocation. Seoul called the comments disrespectful and threatening.
August 11, 2022 4:23 am
The Kremlin has refused to announce a full-blown mobilization as Russia suffers military losses in its invasion of Ukraine which is nearing its sixth month. Such a move could be very unpopular for President Vladimir Putin. Russia is engaged instead in a covert recruitment effort that includes using prisoners to make up for the manpower shortage. This also is happening amid reports that hundreds of soldiers are refusing to fight and are trying to quit the military. Authorities seem to be pulling out all the stops to bolster enlistment although the Defense Ministry denies any “mobilization activities” are happening. Billboards urge men to join up and authorities have set up mobile recruiting centers.
August 11, 2022 4:22 am
Gasoline prices are dropping back toward the $4 a gallon mark, their lowest point in more than five months. AAA said the national average stood at $3.99 on Thursday. That’s down 15 cents in just the last week, and 68 cents in the last month. Gasoline peaked at around $5.02 a gallon on June 14. Motorists in California and Hawaii are still paying above $5, and other states in the West are paying close to that. The cheapest gas is in Texas and several other states in the South and Midwest.
August 11, 2022 4:20 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A judge has reinstated third-degree murder charges against a woman in a crash on a Philadelphia interstate that claimed the lives of two Pennsylvania troopers and a civilian earlier this year. Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian Ransom’s decision Wednesday comes more than a month after a municipal court judge dismissed the charges against 22-year-old Jayana Tanae Webb of Eagleville, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Ransom cited previous witness testimony and tweets Webb is alleged to have sent that night along with video footage played in a previous hearing of the time-frame of the early morning crash on March 21 on Interstate 95. Police said Troopers Martin Mack III and Branden Sisca were trying to get a man to safety after he was reported walking in the southbound lanes of I-95 near the sports stadiums in south Philadelphia. Police said a vehicle “traveling at a high rate of speed” struck all three, and all died at the scene. Mack enlisted in 2014 and Sisca did so last year. The other victim was identified as 28-year-old Reyes Rivera Oliveras of Allentown. Defense attorney Michael Walker said he would seek reconsideration of the ruling, which he said had “deeply saddened” his client’s family.
August 11, 2022 4:12 am
A Burgettstown man was killed in a motorcycle crash early Thursday morning in Robinson Township. The Washington County Coroner’s office says 51 year old James Jancart was traveling on Beech Hollow Road just after 11:30 p.m. when he lost control, left the roadway and traveled up an embankment and struck a utility pole near the Route 576 Westbound on-ramp. He was wearing a helmet. A cause and manner of death are pending. McDonald Police are investigating.
August 11, 2022 2:25 am
(WPXI) – American Airlines announced it’s reducing its flight schedule this holiday season by cutting almost a third of its outgoing flights this November out of Pittsburgh. The cuts affect more than 300 flights, including the flights from here to Philadelphia and the New York city routes to JFK and La Guardia. The direct flight to Phoenix is also impacted. As a result, experts are urging people to book their holiday trips sooner rather than later. American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the company is taking proactive steps to build an additional buffer into the schedule for the remainder of the year.
August 10, 2022 5:51 pm
Washington County Sheriff Tony Andronas told WJPA News that a veteran sheriff’s deputy died in the line of duty Wednesday after suffering a medical emergency. Andronas says the deputy, whose name has not yet been released pending notification of all family members, was with the department’s Fugitive Unit and was assisting South Strabane Police with a warrant at the Target Department Store, and had just gotten back into the passenger seat of his cruiser when he became unconscious. Andronas says there was an ambulance on the scene and they immediately began trying to revive him. He was taken to the emergency room of Washington Hospital where efforts to revive him failed. Andronas says the entire department sends its thoughts and prayers out to his family.
