July 5, 2021 3:38 am
ROANOKE, W.Va. (AP) – Authorities say a woman was killed and two others were injured in a tubing accident on Stonewall Jackson Lake in West Virginia. News outlets cited a statement from the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources in reporting that a boat was pulling the women on a tube Sunday evening near the Vandalia boat ramp. The statement says it appears the driver of the boat swung the tube too close to a rock wall causing a collision. Officials say one woman died and two others were flown to a hospital with serious injuries.
July 4, 2021 7:44 am
ATLANTA (AP) — The young midshipman needed a date one evening while he was home from the U.S. Naval Academy, so his younger sister paired him with a family friend who already had a crush. Nearly eight decades later, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are still together in the same tiny town where they were born, grew up and had that first outing. In between, they’ve traveled the world as Naval officer and military spouse, American president and first lady, and finally as human rights and public health ambassadors. “It’s a full partnership,” the 39th president told The Associated Press during a joint interview ahead of the couple’s 75th wedding anniversary on July 7. It will be another milestone for the longest-married presidential couple in American history. At 96, Carter also is the longest-lived of the 45 men who’ve served as chief executive. Yet even having reached that pinnacle, Carter has said often since leaving the Oval Office in 1981 that the most important decision he ever made wasn’t as head of state, commander in chief or even executive officer of a nuclear submarine in the early years of the Cold War.
July 4, 2021 7:43 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — As it has been for nearly 16 months, longer than any time in the nation’s history, the U.S. Capitol is closed to most public visitors. The one-two punch of the coronavirus pandemic that shuttered the Capitol’s doors in the spring of 2020 and the deadly insurrection by then-President Donald Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6 has left the icon of American democracy unopen to all but a select few. As the rest of the nation emerges this July Fourth holiday from the pandemic for cookouts and fireworks that President Joe Biden is encouraging from the White House, the people’s house faces new threats of violence, virus variants and a more difficult moment. Congressional leaders are working intensely to try to resume public tours at the Capitol in some form, but any reopening probably will come with new protocols for health and safety for the millions of annual visitors, 535 lawmakers and thousands of staff and crew that work under the dome and its surrounding campus. In the House, lawmakers have been operating under a proxy voting system that has allowed them to avoid travel to Washington, though most now vote in person. The smaller Senate is mostly back to in-person business. Both chambers conduct some committee operations remotely. The security fencing surrounding the Capitol is about to come down, a gesture toward normalcy. A $1.9 billion emergency spending package to bolster security for the complex was approved by the House, but the Senate is objecting to the increased money.
July 4, 2021 7:40 am
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba prepared to evacuate people along the island’s southern region on Sunday amid fears that Tropical Storm Elsa could unleash heavy flooding after battering several Caribbean islands, killing at least three people. The government opened shelters and moved to protect sugarcane and cocoa crops ahead of the storm, whose next target was Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 15 counties, including in Miami-Dade County where the high-rise condominium building collapsed last week. Elsa was located about 175 miles (280 kilometers) east-southeast of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and was speeding west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph). It had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm killed one person in St. Lucia, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency. Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman died Saturday in separate events in the Dominican Republic after walls collapsed on them, according to a statement from the Emergency Operations Center. Elsa was a Category 1 hurricane up until Saturday morning, causing widespread damage in several eastern Caribbean islands on Friday as the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. Among the hardest hit was Barbados, where more than 1,100 people reported damaged houses, including 62 homes that completely collapsed as the government promised to find and fund temporary housing to avoid clustering people in shelters amid the pandemic.
July 4, 2021 7:35 am
MONESSEN, Pa. — Three firefighters were transported to local hospitals after a house fire on Park Way in Monessen caused the floor to give out. One was sent by helicopter to the UPMC Burn Clinic and the two others were ferried by ambulance to Mon Valley. There is no word as to what initially started the fire. 911 officials said that they were alerted to the scene just before 3 p.m. on Saturday. The Monessen fire chief said when firefighters got to Park Way, another person came up and shouted that someone was inside. Firefighters went in to try to rescue whoever might be in there, while other firefighters worked to put the fire out. The fire chief said that when first responders went into the house, they confirmed that there were signs that a squatter had taken over. They didn’t find anyone in the house but the fire chief said a Charleroi firefighter fell through the second floor onto the first floor and had to be life-flighted. Two other firefighters were treated for heat-related issues.
July 4, 2021 7:31 am
NORTH STRABANE, Pa. — Crews were called to the scene of a two-alarm fire in Eighty Four early Saturday evening. Reports say the fire started around 5:00 p.m. on Rush Lane. Nobody was injured in the blaze. North Strabane Fire Department was assisted by Peters Township, City of Washington, Canonsburg, Chartiers and South Strabane along with Canonsburg EMS. Houston, Mt. Pleasant Township, Muse and Canton Township were on stand-by while the crews took care of the incident. There is no word on what caused this fire. (Photo: Facebook)
July 4, 2021 6:54 am
Reports from the union that represents striking workers at Allegheny Technologies, Inc. steel mills in the region are saying that a deal is in place to end the steelworkers’ strike at ATI. The union says it’s reached a tentative agreement with the company. Contract talks had hit a wall over healthcare costs. On Friday night, the union says it had “preserved premium-free health insurance” and secured better pay. Workers will have to ratify the deal in the coming weeks. Around 1,300 employees at nine facilities have been on strike for the last three months.
July 3, 2021 9:21 am
(AP)-Coronavirus deaths in Russia have hit a record for the fifth straight day, with the authorities reporting 697 fatalities Saturday as the country faces a rapid surge of infections. The previous record on Friday was 679. Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 24,439 new coronavirus cases – the highest daily tally since January and 1,200 more than the day before. Moscow, its outlying region and St. Petersburg accounted for nearly half of the new cases. The Kremlin insisted on Friday that the authorities are not discussing another lockdown. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted that the situation with the coronavirus remains “tense” in a number of regions, but said that “no one wants any lockdowns.”
July 3, 2021 9:19 am
ROME (AP) – The Vatican’s criminal tribunal has indicted 10 people and four companies on charges including extortion, abuse of office and fraud in connection with the Secretariat of State’s 350 million-euro investment in a London real estate venture. The tribunal president, Judge Giuseppe Pignatone, set July 27 as the trial date, according to a Vatican statement. Indicted were four former Vatican officials, including two officials from the Secretariat of State, as well as Italian businessmen who handled the London investment. Also indicted on alleged embezzlement charges was an Italian intelligence expert.
July 3, 2021 9:15 am
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A coalition of Minnesota’s largest law enforcement groups has sued the state to overturn a state law that changed the standard for justified use of deadly force by police. The lawsuit claims the law, which took effect in March, violates officers’ rights to self-defense and unconstitutionally compels officers to forfeit their rights to refuse to testify against themselves in deadly force cases. The law underwent a major rewrite following George Floyd’s death in the custody of four Minneapolis police officers last May. Minnesota Public Radio reports the rewritten standard narrowed the conditions for when deadly force is deemed appropriate.
