January 24, 2022 4:24 am
OXFORD, Mich. (AP) – The Michigan high school where four students were fatally shot reopened for the first time since the Nov. 30 tragedy. Officials welcomed students back to Oxford High School on Monday. The students have been attending classes at other buildings since Jan. 10. Four students were killed and six students and a teacher were injured during the shooting. A fellow student, Ethan Crumbley, is charged with murder and other crimes. His parents also are facing charges. Oxford High School is in Oakland County, about 30 miles north of Detroit. Tim Throne, the school district superintendent, says the community “will get through this with love and grace.”
January 24, 2022 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The State Department is ordering the families of all American personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to leave the country and allowing non-essential staff to leave Ukraine. The move comes amid heightened fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine despite talks between U.S. and Russian officials. The State Department stresses that the Kyiv embassy will remain open and that the departure of families and some non-essential personnel is not an evacuation. At the same time, officials are warning all Americans against travel to Ukraine as well as to Russia, pointing in part to tensions between those two countries and, in Russia, because of potential harassment of U.S. citizens.
January 24, 2022 4:18 am
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – The United Arab Emirates has intercepted two ballistic missiles targeting Abu Dhabi. The state-run WAM news agency said missile fragments fell harmlessly over the Emirati capital. Videos posted to social media show the sky light up before dawn, with points of light looking like interceptor missiles. The missile fire disrupted traffic into the airport for about an hour after the attack. A spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi rebel militia later said they had launched attacks targeting both the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, without elaborating. Monday’s attack came a week after Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed an attack on the Emirati capital that killed three people.
January 24, 2022 4:16 am
UPPER ST. CLAIR, Pa. — (WPXI) – Students and staff in the Upper St. Clair School District are still required to wear masks, according to an emergency injunction filed by a federal appeals court on Sunday. A group of families of medically disabled children filed a lawsuit against the school district on Thursday, in response to the school board reversing its mandatory mask mandate in early January. According to reports, Attorney Ken Behrend sought the injunction, after a judge ruled in favor of the district on Friday. Masks would have been optional for all students and staff starting Monday without the order. “The foregoing motion by Appellants for emergency injunctive relief is granted on a temporary basis,” the emergency injunction says. “A full three-judge panel of this Court will be formed worthwith to consider the motions and issue a ruling.” Attorneys for both the parents and the school district must file responses by 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 25, and should prepare to deliver arguments this week.
January 24, 2022 4:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s payrolls are continuing to grow, but a persistent worker shortage is still keeping labor markets tight. The state Department of Labor and Industry said Friday that Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped three-tenths of a percentage point to 5.4% in December. The national rate was 3.9% in December. In a survey of households, the labor force shrank for the seventh straight month, reflecting a worker shortage that some economists attribute partly to an increase in people who have recently gone to work for themselves. In a separate survey of employers, payrolls in Pennsylvania grew in December by more than 14,000, driven primarily by hiring in trucking and warehousing.
January 23, 2022 8:14 am
BIG SUR, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters on Saturday were battling a wildfire that broke out in the rugged mountains along Big Sur, forcing hundreds of residents on this precarious stretch of the California coast to evacuate and authorities to shut its main roadway. The fire started Friday night in a steep canyon and quickly spread toward the sea, fanned by strong winds up to 50 mph (80 kph). The blaze burned at least 2.3 square miles (6 square kilometers) of brush and redwood trees, said Cecile Juliette, a spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Authorities made contact with about 500 residents, urging them to evacuate the sparsely populated area between Carmel and Big Sur. More than 250 firefighters from multiple agencies and volunteer groups, aided by water-dropping aircraft, contained about 20% of the blaze by Saturday evening.
January 23, 2022 8:12 am
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. Navy announced Sunday it seized a boat in the Gulf of Oman carrying fertilizer used to make explosives that was caught last year smuggling weapons to Yemen. The British royal navy said it confiscated 1,041 kilograms (2,295 pounds) of illegal drugs in the same waters. The interdictions were just the latest in the volatile waters of the Persian Gulf as American and British authorities step up seizures of contraband during the grinding conflict in Yemen and ongoing drug trafficking in the region. The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet said its guided-missile destroyer USS Cole and patrol ships halted and searched the sailboat, a stateless fishing dhow, that was sailing from Iran on a well-worn maritime arms smuggling route to war-ravaged Yemen last Tuesday. U.S. forces found 40 tons of urea fertilizer, known to be a key ingredient in homemade improvised explosive devices, hidden on board.
January 23, 2022 8:10 am
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is postponing her wedding after announcing new COVID-19 restrictions Sunday following the discovery of nine cases of the omicron variant in a single family that flew to Auckland to attend a wedding. The so-called “red setting” of the country’s pandemic response includes heightened measures such as required mask wearing and limits on gatherings. The restrictions will go into effect on Monday. Ardern stressed that “red is not lockdown,” noting that businesses can remain open and people can still visit family and friends and move freely around the country. “Our plan for managing omicron cases in the early stage remains the same as delta, where we will rapidly test, contact trace and isolate cases and contacts in order to slow the spread,” Ardern told reporters. But her own wedding plans are on hold. The 41-year-old prime minister was planning to tie the knot next weekend.
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)
