February 8, 2022 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court has put on hold a lower court ruling that Alabama must draw new congressional districts before the 2022 elections, boosting Republican chances to hold six of the state’s seven seats in the House of Representatives. The court’s action Monday, by a 5-4 vote, means the upcoming elections will be conducted under a map drawn by Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature that contains one majority-Black district, represented by a Black Democrat, in a state in which more than a quarter of the population is Black.
February 8, 2022 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A bipartisan report from a congressional commission says the U.S. needs Cabinet-level leadership and a new multipronged strategy to counter its festering overdose epidemic. With powerful synthetic drugs like fentanyl driving record overdose deaths, the scourge of opioids awaits after the COVID-19 pandemic finally recedes. The report from the Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking calls opioids one of the most pressing challenges in national security, law enforcement and public health. A co-chair of the commission, Maryland congressman David Trone, says he’s spoken to President Joe Biden and believes Biden fully understands the problem and is committed to taking it on.
February 8, 2022 4:03 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s state Supreme Court will consider a new map of congressional districts being recommended by a lower court judge who picked a proposal favored by top Republican lawmakers, but opposed by Democrats. The map recommended Monday by Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough, a Republican, came from a pool of more than a dozen submitted to the court. The map passed the Republican-controlled Legislature without support from a single Democratic lawmaker and was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. It sides with Republicans on the most prominent areas of disagreement between partisans. The state Supreme Court – with a 5-2 Democratic majority – will make the ultimate decision.
February 8, 2022 4:00 am
Cecil Township Supervisors voted to terminate their agreement to purchase an industrial site on Muse Bishop Road. The ABB property was purchased by the township in 2017 for $10 with the township being responsible for the first $450,000 in remediation costs. That site is 87 acres and the site of a former coal mine and chemical factory. Controversy immediately arose over the history of the property and the proposed clean up. The township was intending to use the property to build a new public works maintenance facility but property and plans languished for several years with the board not interested in proceeding with those plans. Supervisor Chairwoman Cindy Fisher says the board determined that the township was not the right entity to try and develop the site and they decided to move on. Supervisor Tom Casciola was the lone vote against the separation agreement stating that the township has already spent $258,000 on the site that it will not get back. A new buyer for the property has emerged and according to Casciola, a small business park is going to be developed. Casciola stated that the township’s ownership of the property would not have generated tax revenue, but the new development will. At least that will recoup some of the money spent by the township on the site. The new owner will have to comply with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to assure the property is remediated correctly.
February 8, 2022 2:49 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The National Transportation Safety Board initial review doesn’t identify the cause of a recent bridge collapse in Pittsburgh. But the preliminary report issued Monday concluded it began at the structure’s west end. The report says investigators found no primary fractures in sections of welded steel girders they examined that were considered “fracture critical.” The Forbes Avenue bridge gave way early Jan. 28 and sent a city bus and four cars to the bottom of a ravine. Ten vehicle occupants were injured. There were no fatalities. The NTSB says it’s extracting bridge components for closer study. A final report could take more than a year. (Photo: WPXI)
February 7, 2022 5:45 pm
CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) – British rock band The Who will play their first concert in the Cincinnati area in over four decades, after 11 people died in a pre-show stampede in 1979. WCPO-TV reported Monday The Who is now set to play at the TQL Stadium on May 15. The band’s return was originally planned for April 2020 at the BB&T Arena in Kentucky, but had to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Long haunted by the tragedy, the band has for years supported a memorial scholarship effort in a Cincinnati suburb where three of the victims went to school. (Photo: thewho.com)
February 7, 2022 5:39 pm
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) – Authorities are searching for a man who opened fire at a grocery store in Washington state, killing one person and injuring another. The shooting happened Monday morning at a Fred Meyer store in Richland. Police say the suspect is a white man with a handgun. He’s believed to have fled the scene, though Richland police Commander Chris Lee says it’s not known if the man left by foot or in a vehicle. The Tri-City Herald reports screenshots from store surveillance footage show the suspect was wearing a plaid shirt with a dark-colored down vest, a black gaiter or scarf pulled over his nose, light-colored pants and athletic shoes.
February 7, 2022 12:41 pm
(WPXI) – Smoke in the cockpit of a plane brought emergency crews to Arnold Palmer Regional Airport on Monday morning, officials said. The small private passenger plane with 12 people on board had just taken off from the airport in Latrobe when it had to turn around and land because of the smoke, officials said. The plane had been taking off for Shreveport, Louisiana. Officials believe the smoke was caused by an issue with the heating system. Fire crews were called. No one was hurt.
February 7, 2022 6:46 am
CHICAGO (AP) – Syl Johnson, a Chicago soul singer and blues artist whose work was sampled by top hip-hop artists, has died at age 85. A statement Sunday from his family calls him a “fiery, fierce fighter” and says his musical work is a “historical blueprint to all who experience it.” Family members did not say when he died or give a cause of death. His death comes days after his brother, fellow blues artist Jimmy Johnson, passed. Syl Johnson was known for his hits in the 1960s including “Come On Sock It To Me.” But it was his 1967 song “Different Strokes” that was sampled in the following decades by artists including Jay-Z, Kanye West, Tupac Shakur and Public Enemy.
February 7, 2022 4:24 am
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – UN experts say North Korea is continuing to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from financial institutions and cryptocurrency firms and exchanges, illicit money that has become an important source of revenue for the government and its nuclear and missile programs. The experts quoted an unnamed country in a new report saying North Korean “cyber-actors stole more than $50 million between 2020 and mid-2021 from at least three cryptocurrency exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia. And the experts said a cybersecurity firm reported recently that in 2021 the North’s “cyber-actors stole a total of $400 million worth of cryptocurrency.”
