January 23, 2022 8:08 am
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday rejected a British claim that Russia was seeking to replace Ukraine’s government with a pro-Moscow administration, and that former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniy Murayev was being considered as a potential candidate. Britain’s Foreign Office on Saturday also named several other Ukrainian politicians it said had links with Russian intelligence services, along with Murayev who is the leader of a small party that has no seats in the parliament. Those politicians include Mykola Azarov, a former prime minister under Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president ousted in a 2014 uprising, and Yanukovych’s former chief of staff, Andriy Kluyev. Murayev’s Nashi party — whose name echoes the former extensive Russian youth movement that supported President Vladimir Putin — is regarded as sympathetic to Russia, but Murayev on Sunday pushed back characterizing it as pro-Russia.
January 23, 2022 8:04 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — Snowy weather returns to the area Sunday prompting a winter weather advisory for many counties around the region. Snow showers will break out Sunday morning and continue on and off much of the day. Most areas will see 1″ to 3″ of snow by Sunday evening with the better chance of up to 3″ from Beaver, Allegheny, Westmoreland counties and south where a Winter Weather Advisory has been issued from 7am Sunday to 7pm Sunday. Roads will be slick and snow-covered at times. Watch for untreated surfaces as temperatures stay in the 20s all day. The recent frigid weather means roads will be cold enough to stick immediately. (Graphic: National Weather Service Pittsburgh Facebook Page)
January 23, 2022 1:58 am
East Beau Street was closed for several hours Saturday morning near the Church of the Covenant due to a water main break. The initial repairs were completed early Saturday afternoon but conditions remain very icy for both drivers and pedestrians. In a correction to earlier reports, North Avenue was not closed. Beau Street was blocked in both directions from North Avenue to Lincoln Street.
January 23, 2022 1:07 am
A North Strabane man is accused of firing shots into a vehicle at Frankie I’s Bar and Restaurant on New Years Eve. He faced a preliminary hearing on Friday. According to witness testimony, Dee Frazee, Jr., 27 got into a verbal altercation with off duty Sheriff’s Deputy Joseph Joscsak inside the bar. When attempting to leave the bar, Joscsak got into a physical altercation with Frazee near the exit door. Several witnesses saw a handgun in Frazee’s waistband. As the fight broke up, Joscsak and two friends got into a car and departed. During their departure, approximately 5 gunshots rang out striking the vehicle and injuring a passenger inside. North Strabane Twp. police responded to the incident. Follow up investigation found .40 caliber shells at the scene and bullets in the victim’s truck. A query into gun ownership indicated that Frazee owned five handguns and one of them a .40 caliber handgun. A search of Frazee’s residence uncovered evidence of ammunition similar to that found in the victim’s truck. It also found four of the five handguns but not the .40 caliber gun suspected in the shooting. Frazee is facing three felony counts of attempted homicide and three counts of aggravated assault among several other charges. Frazee’s attorney tried to get the charges dismissed stating that no one positively identified Frazee as the shooter. All charges against Frazee were held for court. Frazee is currently being held in the Washington County Jail.
January 22, 2022 9:42 am
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says the criticism he received over a comment made about African American voters is outrageous and offensive. The Republican leader on Friday said he misspoke at a news conference held in Washington on Wednesday. McConnell had said African Americans had voted “in just as high a percentage as Americans.” The comment implied that Black voters are somehow not American and underscored the concerns of voting rights advocates that Republicans state lawmakers are explicitly seeking to disenfranchise Black voters. McConnell said he should have said “all” before Americans. He said he had been an advocate for minority voting rights through the years.
January 22, 2022 9:39 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Officials say a New York City police officer has been killed and another critically wounded in a shooting in Harlem. The officers had been responding to a call Friday about an argument between a woman and her adult son. The shootings bring the total number of officers struck by gunfire to four in as many days. The officer who was killed has been identified as 22-year-old Jason Rivera and the wounded officer as 27-year-old Wilbert Mora. Police say the weapon used in the shooting had been stolen in Baltimore in 2017. The suspect was shot and is hospitalized in critical condition.
January 22, 2022 9:38 am
MOSCOW (AP) – With tens of thousands of Russian troops positioned near Ukraine, the Kremlin has kept the U.S. and its allies guessing about its next moves in the worst security crisis to emerge between Moscow and the West since the Cold War. Amid fears of an imminent attack on Ukraine, Russia has further upped the ante by announcing more military drills in the region. It also has refused to rule out the possibility of military deployments to the Caribbean, and President Vladimir Putin has reached out to leaders opposed to the West. The muscle flexing reflects a bold attempt by the Kremlin to halt decades of NATO expansion. Russia wants guarantees the alliance won’t embrace Ukraine or other former Soviet nations.
January 22, 2022 9:34 am
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – The sweeping “zero-tolerance” policies that China has employed to protect its people and economy from COVID-19 may, paradoxically, make it harder for the country to exit the pandemic. Most experts say the coronavirus isn’t going away and believe it could eventually become, like the flu, a persistent but generally manageable threat if enough people gain immunity through infections and vaccines. But China’s uncompromising approach means most of its people have never been exposed to the virus. At the same time, the effectiveness of its vaccines against omicron has been called into question.
January 22, 2022 9:32 am
BROOKHAVEN, Ga. (AP) – Police in the Atlanta area say a stray bullet struck and killed an English astrophysicist while he was inside an apartment. Brookhaven police identified the man Thursday as 31-year-old Matthew Willson of Chertsey, Surrey, England. Officers say Willson was killed while laying in bed early Sunday morning when a bullet pierced the wall of the apartment that he was staying in. He was taken to a hospital with a bullet wound to the head and later pronounced dead. Police say the shooting was the result of people firing guns randomly. No arrests have been announced.
January 22, 2022 9:29 am
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) – Vice President Kamala Harris returned to her home state during challenging times for the White House to highlight funding for federal wildfire programs. The former California senator was in San Bernardino on Friday. She toured wildfire damage by helicopter and spotlighted federal dollars directed to disaster relief – including $600 million from the Forest Service for California. Harris’ visit comes at a time when President Joe Biden’s approval rating is sliding, Democrats are at risk of losing control of the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms and Harris continues to struggle to define her role in the administration.
