April 26, 2021 4:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – An expanding fight over gun laws in Pennsylvania is drawing in the Legislature, the state’s highest court and the state’s biggest cities, while also featuring prominently in the three-way Republican primary race for a state Supreme Court seat. Candidates are showing off of endorsements by gun-rights groups, attending the groups’ meetings or pointing to pro-gun decisions they made from the bench. Lawsuits are multiplying over the drive by cities including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg to write their own firearms laws to try to stem rising gun violence. A case from Harrisburg is before the state Supreme Court while another from Philadelphia is expected to head there.
April 26, 2021 4:09 am
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) – Attorneys for the family say a Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina was shot in the back of his head and had his hands on the car steering wheel when they opened fire. Their comments came Monday after body camera video was shown to Andrew Brown Jr.’s relatives. Attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter watched a 20-second portion of body camera video with the family and said Brown did not appear to be a threat to officers as he backed his vehicle out and tried to drive away. When asked whether Brown was shot in the back, attorney Harry Daniels said, “Yes, back of the head.” (Photo: CNN)
April 26, 2021 4:08 am
Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” won best picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the China-born Zhao also became just the second woman – and the first woman of color – to win best director. “Nomadland” also earned Frances McDormand an Oscar for her lead performance in the wistful portrait of itinerant lives on open roads across the American West. Anthony Hopkins took the best actor award for the dementia drama, “The Father.” Daniel Kaluuya won best supporting actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah, while best supporting actress went to Yuh-Jung Youn, who played the matriarch of Lee Isaac Chung’s tender Korean-American family drama, “Minari.””
April 25, 2021 7:56 am
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Democrat Troy Carter won Saturday’s special election for Louisiana’s vacant U.S. House seat, defeating his state Senate colleague and ending an acrimonious, intraparty clash that divided politicians across New Orleans. Carter easily defeated Karen Carter Peterson in the race for Louisiana’s only Democrat-held seat in Congress, in a race seen as handing a victory to the more moderate side of the party after Peterson planted herself firmly in the progressive camp. Carter dismissed those comparisons, noting he also had progressive support. The pair of state senators from New Orleans, who both made previous failed bids for the congressional seat, had only modest policy differences to distinguish them, and the race centered mainly on personality. Carter had the backing, however, of the seat’s predecessor, Cedric Richmond.
April 25, 2021 7:54 am
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that 82 people died and 110 were injured in a catastrophic fire that broke out in the intensive care unit of a Baghdad hospital tending to severe coronavirus patients. Negligence on the part of hospital authorities has been blamed for the Saturday night fire, which initial reports suggest was caused when an oxygen cylinder exploded in the ward of Ibn al-Khatib hospital. Iraq’s prime minister fired key hospital officials hours after the catastrophic incident. Among the dead were at least 28 patients on ventilators battling severe symptoms of the virus, tweeted Ali al-Bayati, a spokesman of the country’s independent Human Rights Commission. The commission is a semi-official body. Firefighters rushed to battle the flames that raged across the second floor of the hospital. Civil defense teams put out flames until the early hours of the morning. Ambulances transported dozens of wounded. The Health Ministry said at least 200 people were rescued from the scene.
April 25, 2021 7:52 am
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s foreign ministry has summoned the U.S. ambassador in Ankara to protest the U.S. decision to mark the deportation and killing of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire as “genocide.” Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal met with David Satterfield late Saturday to express Ankara’s strong condemnation. “The statement does not have legal ground in terms of international law and has hurt the Turkish people, opening a wound that’s hard to fix in our relations,” the ministry said. On Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden followed through on a campaign promise to recognize the events that began in 1915 and killed an estimated 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians as genocide. The statement was carefully crafted to say the deportations, massacres and death marches took place in the Ottoman Empire. “We see that pain. We affirm the history. We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated,” it said. The White House proclamation immediately prompted statements of condemnation from Turkish officials, although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is yet to address the issue. Turkey rejects the use of the word, saying both Turks and Armenians were killed in the World War I-era fighting, and has called for a joint history commission to investigate. For years, American presidents have avoided using “genocide” to describe what Armenians call Meds Yeghern, or the Great Crime.
April 25, 2021 7:48 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — Police are investigating another deadly shooting in Pittsburgh involving a juvenile male. Officers were called to the 2400 block of Bedford Avenue at about 7:40 p.m. Saturday evening after 911 calls for gunshots. When they arrived, they found the gunshot victim being loaded into a private vehicle. Officers followed the driver to the hospital where the male was pronounced dead. Multiple people were brought in for questioning, police said.
April 25, 2021 4:24 am
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Pa. — PennDOT officials said they’ve issued more than 20,000 citations on one stretch of I-79 near the southern beltway project thanks to new technology that can catch more than one driver going too fast. With a major construction project along the highway in Washington County, there are as many as 100 workers at a time near traffic. The automated work zone enforcement is a portable system inside a vehicle parked along the interstate. If you’re going more than 11 miles per hour over the speed limit, it will snap your picture along with any cars speeding next to you as well. “It used two different types of radar technology to compute the speed of the vehicle, take a picture of the front and back of the car. It can do multiple at once as they are passing through,” said Jason Zang, assistant district executive for PennDOT’s district 11. “There is one goal to improve safety in our work zones, slow people down and improve safety,” Zang said. PennDOT said they’ve issued 220,000 citations across the state over the last year.
April 25, 2021 4:19 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Department of Health said it has notified all COVID-19 vaccine providers to resume using the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. The news follows the announcement that the CDC and FDA had lifted a pause on using the vaccine after several cases of severe blood clots had come to light. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices held an emergency meeting Friday to determine the incidents were “extremely rare” and that the vaccine was safe and effective. The cases of the rare blood clots with low platelet counts occurred in women mostly between the ages of 18 and 48 out of the nearly 7 million Americans who received the vaccine. In Pennsylvania, only 271,132 people have been vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.
April 25, 2021 1:57 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. – Crews responded to a multi-vehicle accident with injuries and entrapment reported near the North Franklin and South Franklin border Saturday morning. The crash occurred on Park Avenue near the intersection with Vankirk Road just before 11:30 a.m. According to 911 officials, a total of 6 victims were involved with the accident. An all-call was requested by first responders, as medical and emergency crews from around the area arrived to help with the rescue. Reports say the officials on scene requested two medical helicopters to the area, where they reportedly used the nearby Washington County Airport as the airlift site. No further details are available at this time.
