April 21, 2022 2:20 am
West Penn Power tells WJPA News that a power outage in and around the city of Washington Thursday morning was caused by a raccoon. Reports of power outages around the city and surrounding areas began flooding into the power company around three-thirty. At one point, spokesman Todd Myers says there were nearly five-thousand customers without electricity, the bulk of them in Canton Township. Myers says they have a sub-station right outside of the city and when crews went to investigate, they found a small raccoon had gotten into some of the energized equipment. Myers says in almost all cases where small animals are able to get past their “critter guards” the animals are killed. Except in this case. Myers says it was one lucky racoon, because crews say he was “alive and kicking” and they were able to chase him out of the substation. Myers says most of the power was restored by around five o’clock. He says they’re planning to repair the substation on Friday, but that should not involve any power outages.
April 21, 2022 2:08 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia will receive $99 million in a settlement finalized with Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. The state filed a lawsuit accusing the drugmaker of contributing to the opioid crisis in the state that’s led the nation in overdose deaths. State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey says he believes West Virginia’s settlement with Janssen is the largest in the country per capita. The settlement was announced at the start of the third week of the trial against Janssen, Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc., AbbVie Inc.’s Allergan and their family of companies. A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson says the settlement is not an “admission of liability or wrongdoing.”
April 20, 2022 5:39 pm
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – The Florida Senate has passed a bill to repeal a law allowing Walt Disney World to operate a private government over its properties in the state. The Republican-controlled chamber approved the bill Wednesday, escalating a feud with the entertainment giant over its opposition to what critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” law. The proposal could have huge tax implications for Disney, whose series of theme parks have over the decades transformed Orlando into one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. And Democrats have warned that the move could cause local homeowners to get hit with big tax bills. The Florida House of Representatives is expected to take up the bill Thursday.
April 20, 2022 11:35 am
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) – Actor Johnny Depp has returned to the stand for testimony in his libel lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, who he says berated and attacked him constantly during their short-lived marriage. Taking the stand on Wednesday, Depp said Heard would demean him and sometimes slap or shove him. Heard has accused Depp of physically and sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions. Depp has not yet addressed those accusations in detail, beyond dismissing them on Tuesday as false and heinous. He sued Heard after she wrote a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post in which she referred to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” (Photo: ABC)
April 20, 2022 5:29 am
A man wanted by police in Ohio is last reported in the Washington County Jail following a standoff Tuesday. Police, including SWAT surrounded a home in Claysville after members of the fugitive warrant unit executed a search warrant. Nicholas Geryak was taken into custody without incident. He’s awaiting extradition back to Ohio. He was wanted on robbery and auto theft charges in the Cleveland area. A section of Main Street was temporarily closed as a precaution to ensure the safety of nearby residents.
April 20, 2022 4:18 am
The Justice Department says it will not appeal a federal district judge’s ruling that ended the nation’s federal mask mandate on public transit unless the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes the requirement is still necessary. A judge in Florida on Monday ended the sweeping mandate, which required face coverings on planes and trains and in transit hubs. Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said Tuesday that officials believe the federal mask order was “a valid exercise of the authority Congress has given CDC to protect the public health.” The CDC continues to assess public health conditions, and if the agency determines a mandate is necessary, the Justice Department will file an appeal.
April 20, 2022 4:16 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – An unexpectedly sharp drop in subscribers has Netflix considering changes to its service that it has long resisted: minimizing password sharing and creating a low-cost subscription supported by advertising. The looming changes announced late Tuesday are aimed at helping Netflix regain the momentum it’s lost during the past year as pandemic-driven lockdowns that kept people at home lifted and other services run by deep-pocketed rivals such as Apple and Walt Disney began to chip away at its vast audience. On Tuesday, Netflix suffered its first losses in subscribers in years, an unwelcome surprise that drove its stock down by 25%.
April 20, 2022 4:16 am
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) – Winds kicked up a towering wall of flames in rural northern Arizona on Tuesday, tearing through two-dozen structures and forcing the evacuation of more than 700 homes. Coconino County declared an emergency as the fast-moving wildfire on the outskirts of Flagstaff ballooned to over 9 square miles. Forest Service officials say flames as high as 100 feet quickly scorched dry grass, shrubs and Ponderosa pine trees. More than 750 homes and 1,000 animals have been evacuated. Smoke billowed into the air Tuesday in a scene reminiscent of a dozen years ago when a much-larger fire burned in the area. Elsewhere in Arizona, firefighters battled a wildfire in a sparsely populated area of national forest south of Prescott.
April 20, 2022 4:13 am
MOSCOW (AP) – The Russian military says it has successfully performed the first test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile, a weapon President Vladimir Putin said would make the West “think twice” before harboring any aggressive intentions against Russia. The test launch of the Sarmat missile comes amid soaring tensions between Moscow and the West over the Russian military action in Ukraine, underlining the Kremlin’s focus on the country’s nuclear forces. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Sarmat ICBM was launched Wednesday from the Plesetsk military launch facility in northern Russia and its practice warheads successfully reached mock targets on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that Russia had given the U.S. an advance notice about the launch.
April 20, 2022 4:11 am
Dave McCormick earned more than $22 million last year as CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund – the job he quit to run for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. McCormick filed a financial disclosure form that offered the public its first detailed look at his finances. McCormick is part of a trio of ultrarich candidates, including celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz, to come from out of state to run for the GOP nomination for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat. McCormick and his wife estimated the value of their assets between $116 million and $289 million. That includes a valuable stake in Bridgewater Associates, the company he ran until early January.
