January 15, 2023 7:55 am
MARBURY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama mechanic took refuge in a shipping container as a tornado decimated his shop and killed two neighbors. A woman hid in a bathtub with her 2-year-old son, telling her mother by phone: “If the house is messed up I’ll be in the tub area.” The harrowing stories of survivors of Thursday’s storm are emerging as residents comb through the wreckage wrought by tornadoes and blistering winds that killed at least nine people in Alabama and Georgia. Survivors described chaotic scenes unfolding as the storm spun toward them, with people rushing into shelters and sheds as the winds bore down.
January 15, 2023 7:54 am
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — So far, 68 people have been confirmed dead after a regional passenger plane with 72 aboard crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in the resort town of Pokhara, according to an announcement posted by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority to Twitter. It’s the country’s deadliest airplane accident in three decades. A witness to the crash said he saw the aircraft spinning violently in the air after it began to attempt a landing, watching from the terrace of his house. Gaurav Gurung said the plane fell nose-first towards its left and then crashed into the gorge.
January 15, 2023 7:54 am
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden is marking what would have been the 94th birthday of the late Martin Luther King with a Sunday sermon at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. The president is aiming to celebrate the civil rights leader’s legacy while also reviving the Biden administration’s call for sweeping voting rights legislation. Biden’s failure to win passage of a measure bolstering voting right protections is one of his biggest disappointments of his first two years in office. That tasks is even steeper now that Republicans control the House. Biden was invited to Ebenezer by the church’s senior pastor, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. Ebenezer is the church were King once preached.
January 15, 2023 7:52 am
FALLOWFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Multiple crews responded to a residential structure fire along Bentleyville Road in Fallowfield Township Saturday evening. Reports say the blaze started in the chimney and extended into the attic. Fallowfield, Charleroi, Bentleyville, Lock Four and Stockdale Fire Departments were all involved along with Rostraver West Newton EMS. The incident was cleared in an hour with no reported injuries. (Photo: Charleroi Fire Department Facebook Page)
January 15, 2023 3:53 am
A Monongahela man charged with homicide in the killing of his wife in March of 2022 pleaded guilty on Friday. Dennis Vaccaro, 65 pleaded guilty to third degree homicide in the killing of his 47 year old wife Mecca. The two were witnessed arguing outside and inside their home. When inside the home, Vaccarro shot his wife twice. The witness said that when he arrived in the home, Mecca said he shot me! Dennis Vaccaro said I shot her twice. A self defense argument did not work and a negotiated plea ended the case. Vacarro will now spend the next nine to twenty years in state prison.
January 15, 2023 3:52 am
SHALER TOWNSHIP (WPXI) – A two-year old was killed and eight people were hurt in a blaze in Shaler last night. Our news partners at WPXI report that the fire was called in around 9:45 p.m. Friday night to a home on Fall Run Road, off Route 8. Reports from emergency radio transmissions indicated that a child, two adults, and a firefighter were transported to the hospital. Police Chief Sean Frank said firefighters found 2-year-old Danika Deramo on the first floor of the home; she was taken to the hospital where she later died. Among the injured were four firefighters who suffered non-life threatening injuries.
January 15, 2023 3:38 am
PennDOT has a traffic advisory for motorists traveling I-79 around the Neville Island Bridge. Starting Wednesday, January 18, the ramps from Route 65 to I-79 South will be closed through mid-February for continuing paint containment removal. Detours will be posted, using the Mt. Nebo Road exit (Exit 68), and uniformed off-duty police officers will also be present along the detour route to assist motorists.
January 14, 2023 4:01 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Questioned for a lawsuit, former President Donald Trump hurled insults and threatened to sue the columnist who accused him of raping her in a department store in the 1990s. Excerpts of Trump’s October deposition were released publicly Friday. They reveal a contentious battle between Trump and a lawyer for columnist E. Jean Carroll who questioned him. Also Friday, a federal judge refused a request by Trump’s lawyers to toss out two lawsuits by Carroll alleging defamation and rape. An April trial is planned. Trump says the encounter with Carroll at an upscale Manhattan department store never happened.
January 14, 2023 3:59 am
ATLANTA (AP) – During the 2022 midterm campaign, President Joe Biden steered clear of Georgia as Sen. Raphael Warnock, like other battleground-state Democrats, sought to distance himself from the White House amid an inflationary economy and the president’s lagging approval ratings. Now, with Warnock having secured his first full term and Biden buoyed by Democrats’ better-than-expected election results, the senator is welcoming the president back to Georgia and to America’s most famous Black church. The president is set to speak Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church as part of Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
January 14, 2023 3:57 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – A series of explosions has rocked Kyiv and minutes later air raid sirens started to wail as an apparent missile attack on the Ukrainian capital was underway. The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office said on Telegram that a missile attack on critical infrastructure in the capital was taking place on Saturday morning. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that “explosions were heard in Dniprovskyi district, left bank of Kyiv.” It wasn’t immediately clear whether the explosions were caused by the strikes or by air defense systems operating. The Ukrainian capital hasn’t been attacked since New Year’s night.
