April 21, 2022 2:50 pm
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A stinky but handsome and widely popular landscape tree has become an aggressive invader. Callery pears create dense thickets that overwhelm native plants and bear four-inch spikes that can flatten tractor tires. Bradford pears and other ornamental Callery pears were cultivated from an import that saved pear orchards from a deadly fungus. And for decades, the decorative trees seemed near perfect, aside from a tendency to fall apart after about 15 years – and their stench. But they cross pollinated with other ornamental varieties. Invasive stands now have been reported in more than 30 states. Fourteen states have formally listed the trees as invasive. (Photo: wikipedia)
April 21, 2022 12:47 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Aviation Administration’s failure to notify Capitol Police about a parachute stunt at a nearby baseball stadium led to an alert and urgent evacuation of the U.S. Capitol, a law enforcement official says. The FAA is reviewing the communications breakdown, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is promising a congressional review. The communications lapse led police to think an aircraft carrying military parachutists for a baseball stadium stunt was “a probable threat,” prompting the alert Wednesday evening to evacuate the complex. Many people who work at the Capitol still are on edge more than a year after the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.
April 21, 2022 10:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Applications for unemployment benefits inched down last week as the total number of Americans collecting aid fell to its lowest level in more than 50 years. Jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 184,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average of claims, which levels out week-to-week volatility, rose by 4,500 to 177,250. About 1.42 million Americans were collecting traditional unemployment benefits in the week of April 9, the fewest since February 21, 1970. Two years after the coronavirus pandemic plunged the economy into a brief but devastating recession, American workers are enjoying extraordinary job security.
April 21, 2022 4:25 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces are tightening the noose around the defenders holed up in a mammoth steel plant that is the last known Ukrainian stronghold in in the besieged city of Mariupol. A fighter apparently on the inside issued a video plea for help. He said the defenders may have only a few days or hours left. With the holdouts punished by new bombing attacks, another attempt to evacuate civilians trapped in the city has failed because of continued fighting. Separately, the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region says Russian forces now control 80 percent of it. It is one of two regions that make up the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
April 21, 2022 4:22 am
DETROIT (AP) – Ford is recalling more than 650,000 pickup trucks and big SUVs in the U.S. because the windshield wipers can break and fail. The recall covers certain F-150 pickups, and Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs from the 2020 and 2021 model years. Also included are F-250, 350, 450 and 550 trucks from 2020 through 2022. Ford’s F-Series pickups are the top-selling vehicles in the U.S. Ford says in documents posted Thursday by U.S. safety regulators that teeth on the wipers aren’t the right height. That can cause the wiper arms to become stripped. Dealers will replace both front windshield wiper arms. Owners will be notified by letter starting May 23.
April 21, 2022 4:21 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department is filing an appeal seeking to overturn a judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs. The notice came minutes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked the Justice Department to appeal the decision handed down by a federal judge in Florida earlier this week. A notice of appeal was filed Wednesday in federal court in Tampa. The CDC says it is its “continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.”
April 21, 2022 4:20 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Actor Robert Morse, who won a Tony Award as a hilariously brash corporate climber in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and a second one a generation later as the brilliant, troubled Truman Capote in “Tru,” has died. He was 90. David Shaul of BRS/Gage Talent Agency says Morse died at his home Wednesday after a brief illness. More recently, Morse played the autocratic and eccentric leader of an advertising agency in “Mad Men,” AMC’s hit drama that debuted in 2007. The role earned him an Emmy nomination in 2008 as best guest actor in a drama series. (Photo: pinterest)
April 21, 2022 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden on Thursday announced he has approved an additional $800 million in military aid to help Ukraine fight back against the Russian invasion, but warned Congress will need to approve additional assistance. The new military assistance package includes much needed heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition, and drones for Ukrainian forces in the escalating battle for the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine , and builds on roughly $2.6 billion in military assistance that Biden had previously approved for Ukraine. Biden said that $13.6 billion approved last month by Congress for military and humanitarian assistance is “almost exhausted.”
April 21, 2022 4:15 am
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) – Police say that two scam artists stole thousands of dollars from three Peters Township ATMs. The men are in the Washington County jail, listed as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 because the only identification on them were fake IDs for a Robert Pokorny and a Flip Honza from the Czech Republic. Police suspect the two men are Romanian, and are in the country illegally. According to police, the John Does took out $700 from a Walgreens ATM, nearly $1200 from the CVS ATM, and $1600 from a BP ATM, all with fraudulent credit cards. The cards worked in ATMs by using stolen credit card numbers. Workers at the BP said they had five times the number of ATM transactions over the weekend, totaling close to $5,000. The rare arrests in this case started after investigators at Peters Township got calls from out of state. People called to say they were alerted to fraudulent activity by their banks, but still had their cards on them. Police immediately began looking at surveillance video and saw the suspects parked in the lot at a senior home, walked into the stores. Investigators caught John Doe 1 in action, taking cash from the Walgreens ATM and John Doe 2 running across Washington Road. The men had 134 fraudulent credit cards on them, as well as their own fake IDs. Magistrate David Marks is holding both men in jail without bond, since police don’t know their true identities or where they are from.
April 21, 2022 2:42 am
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins apparently ran out of gas and was returning to his vehicle when he was fatally struck by a dump truck earlier this month in Florida. The Florida Highway Patrol released Wednesday a recording of a 911 call Haskins’ wife Kalabrya made to the agency shortly after the April 9 accident. Calling from Pittsburgh and unaware of the accident, she told the dispatcher that Haskins had called her to say he had run out of gas and would call her back. When the former Ohio State star didn’t and she couldn’t reach him, she called 911.
