January 7, 2022 4:30 am
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is set to make a virtual appearance before an Albany judge. Prosecutors are moving Friday to dismiss the only criminal charge filed against the Democrat in connection with the sexual harassment allegations that drove him from office. A misdemeanor complaint was filed by the local sheriff in October. It accused Cuomo of groping an aide in the executive mansion in December 2020, eight months before he resigned. Albany County District Attorney David Soares told Judge Holly Trexler earlier this week that although the aide was credible, and some evidence supported her account, he believed he couldn’t win a conviction in court.
January 7, 2022 4:29 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is forcefully accusing Donald Trump and his supporters of holding a “dagger at the throat of democracy” with his election lies that sparked last year’s deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol. Biden used the anniversary of the attack Thursday to warn that America’s system of government remains under urgent threat. The day’s ceremonies were widely attended by Democrats but not by Republicans – a display of the grip that Trump and his views still hold on the party. The nation’s divisions remained clear on a day that many hoped would be one of reconciliation.
January 7, 2022 4:23 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Investigators are looking into whether a 5-year-old who was playing with a lighter set a Christmas tree on fire, sparking a conflagration that killed 12 family members in a Philadelphia rowhome. That’s according to a search warrant application revealed Thursday. City and federal investigators are working to determine the cause of the city’s deadliest single blaze in more than a century. They declined to speculate on a possible cause, adding the fire scene is complex. The fire took the lives of eight children and four adults. Officials have said 26 people had been staying in the three-story brick duplex.
January 7, 2022 4:12 am
(AP) – A winter storm that had already blanketed parts of the South in snow moved into the Northeast, snarling air travel, crushing morning commutes and giving hundreds of school districts struggling to keep kids in the classroom during a wave of new coronavirus cases an excuse to shut down for a one-day respite. Many spots in New England had received more than a foot of snow by late Friday morning. Schools in Boston closed. Providence, Rhode Island, schools switched to distance learning. New York City kept the nation’s largest school system open. Officials were advising people to stay off the roads, and more than 2,400 flights have been scrubbed. Washington County picked up a few inches of snow, but it was enough to cause several accidents around the area, including one that closed the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 Thursday night. Several fire departments were called out to the accident which involved a tractor trailer (pictured). There were no injuries reported. Several school districts also operated under two hour delays or went to remote learning. Greene County and points south picked up much more snow. (Photo: Charleroi Fire Department FB Page)
January 7, 2022 3:49 am
Authorities say one person was hurt after a mine collapse in Fayette County. The collapse was reported Friday afternoon around three o’clock at Laurel Aggregates on Springhill Furnace Road near Point Marion. The mine is located near the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. There has been no word yet on what may have caused the mine to collapse or how seriously the individual may have been hurt. The mine is owned by Arcosa and is an aggregate facility. Officials from the Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Mine Safety and Health Admibnistration will be investigating. (Photo: WPXI)
January 7, 2022 3:05 am
Pennsylvania State Police say the search for two missing children, five-year-old Jade Fannon and her three-year-old brother Jayce is over. Troopers say their parents, 30-year-old Curtis Fannon and 25-year-old Brandi Renee Stump took them out of the foster home in which they had been placed by Greene County Children and Youth Services, and then fled with them out of state. Police say the children were found safe, several hours after their parents took them. The parents are now in custody.
January 6, 2022 2:55 pm
(AP) – Peter Bogdanovich, the ascot-wearing cinephile and director of 1970s black-and-white classics like “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon,” has died. He was 82. Bogdanovich died early Thursday morning at this home in Los Angeles, said his daughter Antonia Bogdanovich. She said he died of natural causes. Considered part of a generation of young “New Hollywood” directors, Bogdanovich was heralded as an auteur from the start. His turbulent personal life was also often in the spotlight, from his well-known affair with Cybill Shepherd while he was married to the mother of his Playmate girlfriend Dorothy Stratten and his subsequent marriage to her younger sister. (Photo: AP)
January 6, 2022 12:56 pm
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice says he will ask the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for permission to offer a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines to residents 50 and older as well as to essential workers. At a news conference Thursday, Justice pointed to Israel, which last month became one of the first countries to approve a fourth vaccine dose for people. Justice’s request comes as West Virginia set a pandemic record for the number of daily positive coronavirus cases. The 3,345 confirmed cases reported Thursday were 29% higher than the previous mark of 2,585 cases set last Friday.
January 6, 2022 9:16 am
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Powerball tickets sold in Wisconsin and California were winners of the latest jackpot and will split $632 million. The Wisconsin Lottery didn’t immediately announce where the winning ticket was sold in Wisconsin. The California Lottery says the winning ticket in its state was sold at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Sacramento. The winners have a cash option of splitting $450 million. The jackpot is one of the largest in the history of the Powerball game, but didn’t rank among the Top 10 largest in U.S. lottery history. The winning numbers for the Powerball jackpot drawn Wednesday night were 6, 14, 25, 33 and 46. The Powerball was 17.
January 6, 2022 8:55 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week but remained at historically low levels, suggesting that the job market remains strong. U.S. jobless claims rose by 7,000 last week to 207,000. áThe four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week gyrations, rose by nearly 4,800 to just below 205,000. Despite the increases, the numbers show that claims remained below the 220,000 typical before the pandemic struck the U.S. economy in March 2020. The highly transmissible omicron variant so far does not appear to have triggered layoffs.
