July 11, 2024 5:39 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania lawmakers are grinding through votes to finalize a budget deal that took nearly two weeks into the new fiscal year to reach. The $47.6 billion plan under consideration Thursday represents a 6% increase. Most of the new money is going toward public schools, services for adults with intellectual disabilities and nursing home care for the poor. Hundreds of pages of budget-related legislation are just becoming public and could reach Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk by late Thursday. The plan doesn’t increase sales or income tax rates. It will require some of the state’s surplus cash to balance. Shapiro had initially sought a 7% increase.
July 11, 2024 5:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s ability to run for reelection faces crucial tests Thursday. He will be fielding questions at a highly anticipated press conference that many Democrats will be watching for signs he’s up for another four-year term. And he sent his campaign team to meet privately with skeptical senators on Capitol Hill, even as more House Democrats called for him to exit the race. The Biden campaign is laying out what it sees as its path to keeping the White House in a new memo, saying that winning the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan is the “clearest pathway” to victory. It says there’s no indication another Democrat would do better against Republican Donald Trump.
July 11, 2024 5:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he prepares to accept the Republican nomination for the third time, Donald Trump has promised to expand his coalition — and, in particular, to win over more of the nonwhite voters who largely rejected him during the 2020 election. But an AP analysis of two consecutive polls from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted in June shows that about 7 in 10 Black Americans have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Trump, as do about half of Hispanic Americans. While both groups do see Trump a little more favorably than when he left office in 2021, their opinion is still more negative than positive.
July 11, 2024 5:10 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities in Western states are warning of the rising risk of wildfires as hot conditions and low humidity dry out the landscape amid a protracted heat wave baking much of the U.S. California’s top fire official says so far this year the state has responded to more than 3,500 wildfires that have scorched nearly 325 square miles of vegetation. Blazes are also burning in Oregon, where the governor issued an emergency authorization allowing additional firefighting resources to be deployed. More than 142 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts Wednesday, especially across the West, where dozens of locations tied or broke heat records.
July 11, 2024 5:04 am
BEIJING (AP) — China has accused NATO of seeking security at the expense of others and told the alliance not to bring the same “chaos” to Asia. The statement from a Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Thursday came a day after NATO labeled China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine. He urged NATO to stop interfering in China’s internal politics and smearing China’s image.
July 11, 2024 5:09 am
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military has urged all Palestinians to leave Gaza City and head south. The evacuation orders issued Wednesday indicated that Israel was pressing ahead with a fresh offensive across the north, south and center of the embattled territory that has killed dozens of people over the past 48 hours. The stepped-up military activity came as U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators were meeting with Israeli officials in the Qatari capital, Doha, for talks seeking a long-elusive cease-fire deal with Gaza’s Hamas militant group. Israel informed people in Gaza of the evacuation order by dropping leaflets.
July 11, 2024 5:11 am
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Prosecutors sought to cast Alec Baldwin as someone who flouts rules and has little regard for safety at the first day of his New Mexico trial in the shooting of a cinematographer. Special prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson repeatedly referred to Baldwin playing “make-believe” with a revolver on the set of the film “Rust.” She said it led to very real danger and the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin’s attorney, Alex Spiro, told jurors that the actor did only what actors always do — act like the characters they’re playing. He called the death an “unspeakable tragedy,” but said Baldwin had committed no crime.
July 10, 2024 4:45 am
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) – Michael Brackman walked out of his preliminary hearing Tuesday afternoon denying he terrorized young girls with his drone for a year. Canonsburg police arrested Brackman after they say he used a drone at least 120 times to stalk girls, following them when they left their houses, jumping on trampolines, at a lemonade stand or the playground. Officers said it started when he began stalking a 13-year-old girl with his drone 80 to 90 times, many times within 10 feet of her. That victim testified saying the drone was following her almost every time she went outside. Her family moved because of it. Two other underage victims testified they saw the drone hovering right outside their bedroom window. The victims said they felt uncomfortable, calling it scary and terrifying. Officers said more victims and their parents came to the police station with sexual notes that they say Brackman left for their child on their porch as well as flyers he allegedly put up around the neighborhood with actual photos police said he took of kids with his drone. Brackman’s attorney said flying the drone was his hobby. ”It was a hobby of his. He was on house arrest. Couldn’t go out so he was flying the drone,” said attorney Bruce Carsia. “They weren’t really being harassed and he was legally flying his drone.” All charges were held for court. Brackman remains in the Washington County jail.
July 9, 2024 2:53 am
State Police say a tractor-trailer traveling east on Interstate 70 near the Bentleyville Exit Tuesday afternoon created a traffic nightmare for motorists. The truck lost some of its load of coils, creating a miles-long back-up of traffic. There’s been no word on whether there were any injuries or how the coils came loose, but crews were called in to clear the scene. Traffic was able to get around the area, but very slowly.
July 9, 2024 2:37 am
Attorneys for Washington County election officials and the ACLU were in court Tuesday for the first of several hearings regarding mail-in ballot curing. Vic Walczak is the attorney for the ACLU, he is representing seven county voters, the Center for Coalfield Justice and the Washington branch of the NAACP, who say their votes were not counted in the primary election due to minor errors on their mail-in ballots. Representing the county are special prosecutor David Berardinelli and RNC and PA GOP representative Kathleen Gallagher. With a tight deadline due to the November general election, Judge Neuman set a timeline for late July for the two sides to agree on a date to begin arguments with an aspirational goal of mid-August for a final decision.
