September 18, 2021 4:47 am
DEL RIO, Texas (AP) – A US official says the Biden administration plans on the widescale expulsion of Haitian migrants in a small Texas border city on flights to Haiti starting Sunday. The move represents a swift and dramatic response to thousands who suddenly assembled under and around a bridge in Del Rio. The official tells The Associated Press that details are not finalized but will likely involve five to eight flights a day. San Antonio may be among the departure cities. U.S. authorities closed traffic to vehicles and pedestrians in both directions at the Del Rio’s only border crossing with Mexico.
September 18, 2021 4:46 am
NORTH PORT, Fla. (AP) – Police and the FBI are now searching for both Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie. Police in North Port, Florida said late Friday that Laundrie’s family told authorities they haven’t seen him since Tuesday. Laundrie has been named a person of interest in Petito’s disappearance. The couple left in July on a cross-country trek in a converted van to visit national parks in the U.S. West. Petito was reported missing by her family on Sept. 11. Investigators say Laundrie had returned Sept. 1 to his parents’ home in North Port.
September 18, 2021 4:44 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Congressional Democrats face a daunting assignment. They’re trying to complete a $3.5 trillion, 10-year bill strengthening social and environment programs and raising taxes on the rich. That means they need to rewrite tax, health and environment policy. They might have to reduce the cost dramatically to satisfy moderates. And they must make sure that no more than three Democrats in all of Congress votes against it. If they fail, President Joe Biden’s own party will have dealt him an embarrassing, wounding defeat on the cornerstone of his domestic agenda.
September 18, 2021 4:43 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Pentagon has retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month. It announced Friday that a review revealed that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed. Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, called it a “tragic mistake.” For days after the Aug. 29 strike, Pentagon officials asserted that it had been conducted correctly. News organizations later raised doubts, reporting that the driver of the targeted vehicle was a longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization and citing an absence of evidence to support the Pentagon’s assertion that the vehicle contained explosives.
September 18, 2021 4:43 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The fence around the Capitol is back up. The D.C. police department is at the ready, and U.S. Capitol Police have requested assistance from nearby law enforcement agencies including the U.S. National Guard. The Capitol police are taking no chances as they prepare for Saturday’s rally at the U.S. Capitol in support of rioters imprisoned after the violent Jan. 6 insurrection. They’re working to avoid a repeat of the pre-inauguration attack. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger says it’s difficult to say whether threats of violence for the Saturday event are credible, but “chatter” online and elsewhere has been similar to intelligence that was missed in January.
September 18, 2021 4:37 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — Republican Representative Bud Cook of the 49th Legislative District has reached out to the County Commissioners about a new initiative. During the Commissioners meeting Thursday, Cook presented his “Come Home…Go Big” project which he says would benefit all of Southwestern Pennsylvania. The idea reportedly started in May of this year, as Cook commits to figuring out ways to keep jobs in the area, while also attracting people to the region through tourism. Cook asked the Commissioners for an additional meeting to discuss the initiative further in the coming months.
September 18, 2021 1:48 am
(WPXI) – It may be six months late, but Pittsburgh’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade will finally kick off this weekend. Starting at ten o’clock on Saturday morning, more than 200 groups, marching bands, floats and organizations will begin marching in the Strip District. The parade has drawn up to 20,000 people in years past. The parade will run from Liberty and 11th streets to Grant Street, to the Boulevard of the Allies, where it will continue until ending at Commonwealth Place. City officials say street parking will be scarce but the Pittsburgh Parking Authority has a list of available garages online. (Photo: WPXI)
September 17, 2021 11:37 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Jane Powell, who starred in Hollywood golden age musicals, has died. A longtime friend said that Powell died Thursday in Wilton, Connecticut, of natural causes. Powell sang with Howard Keel in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and danced with Fred Astaire in “Royal Wedding,” among other 20th-century films. Powell performed virtually her whole life, starting at age 5 as a singing prodigy on radio in Portland, Oregon. She made her first movie at 16 and graduated from teenage roles to costarring in lavish musical productions through the mid-1950s. Jane Powell was 92 years old when she died at her longtime home in Connecticut. (Photo: CNN)
September 17, 2021 3:37 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Opposition from some leading moderate Democrats over a $3.5 trillion budget proposal championed by the party’s most liberal, progressive wing has left the party grappling with deeper ideological questions. Fully embracing an unprecedented expansion of the federal social safety net could jeopardize the bill’s passage and ultimately alienate independent and moderate Democrats ahead of next year’s midterm elections. But scaling back ambitions might disillusion progressives the party will need to turnout in 2022, when Republicans believe they are poised to take back control of Congress.
September 17, 2021 3:35 am
THREE RIVERS, Calif. (AP) – Crews are struggling to save California’s iconic giant sequoias from a lightning-caused wildfire that’s heading toward old-growth forests in the Sierra Nevada. Firefighters have wrapped the base of the world’s largest tree – the General Sherman Tree – in fire-resistant aluminum wrapping along with other trees and buildings in Sequoia National Forest. That’s to protect them from a wildfire that’s expected to reach a grove of 2,000 sequoias within days. áAlthough, fire officials say the fire didn’t grow much on Thursday. A wildfire in the region last year killed thousands of sequoias, some as tall as high-rises and thousands of years old.
