September 23, 2021 4:11 am
COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Police say a shooting at a Tennessee grocery store east of Memphis has left one person dead and 12 others wounded, and the shooter has been found dead. Chief Dale Lane of the Collierville Police Department said the shooting happened Thursday afternoon at a Kroger grocery outlet in that community about 30 miles east of Memphis. He said 13 people in all were shot and 12 of them were taken to hospitals, some with very serious injuries. He said police SWAT team officers went aisle to aisle to take people to safety inside the store. He says the shooter was subsequently found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
September 23, 2021 4:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate negotiators say bipartisan congressional talks on overhauling policing practices have ended without agreement. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has told reporters that bargainers were not making progress on issues like whether to hold individual officers personally liable for abusive behavior. The breakdown marks an unproductive end to an effort that began after killings of unarmed Black people by officers sparked protests across the U.S. Booker says there were also unresolved differences over raising professional standards and collecting data on police use of force. Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said he was ‘deeply disappointed’ that Democrats rejected a deal on some issues.
September 23, 2021 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is pushing in person for fellow Democrats to hasten work on his “build back better” agenda. Biden and congressional Democrats are laboring to bridge party divisions that threaten his big proposals. In hours of back-to-back meetings Wednesday at the White House, Biden told them to come up with a framework and topline budget figure they can live with soon, even next week. The House is to vote soon on the first part of Biden’s plan – a nearly $1 trillion public works package. That vote Monday now serves as a deadline.
September 23, 2021 4:07 am
State College, PA — (WPXI) – More than 100 Penn State University students are on interim suspension for failing to comply with the university’s covid-19 testing requirement, according to a release from the school. As of Tuesday, according to the release, 117 students at University Park have been placed on interim suspension after missing at least three weeks of testing. Covid-19 testing is required weekly for Penn State students and staff who have not been vaccinated or who have not shared their vaccination status with the school. Interim suspension means students cannot participate in classes regardless of whether they are in-person or remote, cannot be on university property and are temporarily removed from their residence hall, officials said. Suspended students are also barred from university-backed events, like football games.
September 23, 2021 3:08 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – An elected county prosecutor in Pennsylvania is jailed and facing charges he raped a woman he knew through work. Somerset County District Attorney Jeffrey Lynn Thomas is accused of violently attacking the woman in her Windber home late Saturday. He was charged with rape, indecent and simple assault, strangulation and criminal trespassing. The police affidavit alleges that Thomas showed up at the woman’s home late at night despite being told to stay away. His defense lawyer says Thomas denies the allegations. The office of the state attorney general is prosecuting the case.
September 22, 2021 8:54 am
There is new leadership at the former Greater Washington County Food Bank, now known as Food Helpers. The Board of Directors has selected George Omiros as Chief Executive Officer. He takes over for Connie Burd who will officially retire at the end of the month. She had informed the board of her retirement plan back in October of last year. Omiros is described as a “nationally recognized leader with decades of philanthropic leadership experience in non-profit management. Prior to forming Omiros Philanthropic Advisors in 2019, he was Associate Vice President of Medicine and Health Science Development at the West Virginia University Foundation. He has also held leadership positions with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
September 22, 2021 4:25 am
NORTH PORT, Fla. (AP) – A county coroner has confirmed that human remains found in remote northern Wyoming along the border of Grand Teton National Park are those of Gabby Petito. The 22-year-old disappeared while on a cross-country road trip with a boyfriend who is now being sought by authorities in Florida. The FBI said Tuesday that the coroner determined Petito was a homicide victim, but officials did not disclose a cause of death pending final autopsy results. Police in North Port, Florida, say investigators returned to a swampy preserve area to look for her 23-year-old boyfriend Brian Laundrie. They paused for the night and planned to resume searching Wednesday.
September 22, 2021 4:22 am
DEL RIO, Texas (AP) – U.S. officials say many Haitian migrants camped in a small Texas border town are being released in the United States, undercutting the Biden administration’s public statements that Haitians who enter the country illegally face immediate expulsion. One official says Haitians have been freed on a “very, very large scale” in recent days, many of them with notices to appear at an immigration office. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press. The releases come despite a massive effort to expel Haitians on flights to Haiti under pandemic-related authority that denies migrants an opportunity to seek asylum.
September 22, 2021 4:21 am
President Joe Biden is pushing well-off nations to do more to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control around the world as world leaders and health experts sound the alarm about the slow pace of global vaccinations. Biden is convening a virtual vaccine summit on Wednesday, timed to coincide with this week’s U.N. General Assembly. He wants more nations to follow the lead of the U.S., which has donated more doses than any other. But even the American response has come under criticism for being too modest. Biden is expected to announce additional U.S. commitments at the summit.
September 22, 2021 4:20 am
PHOENIX (AP) – A Republican official in Arizona resigned Tuesday from the board overseeing Maricopa County after a recording emerged of him criticizing his GOP colleagues in a meeting with activists demanding an audit of the 2020 election. During the meeting recorded surreptitiously last March, Supervisor Steve Chucri suggested two fellow Republican county supervisors opposed an audit because they nearly lost their own races. Chucri apologized in a statement announcing his resignation and said he shouldn’t have made the comments, adding “the political landscape has changed for the worst this year.”
