April 24, 2021 4:52 am
JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli police say 44 people have been arrested and 20 officers wounded in a night of chaos in Jerusalem. Security forces separately clashed with Palestinians angry about Ramadan restrictions and Jewish extremists who held an anti-Arab march nearby. Tensions have spiked in recent days in the city, which has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Militants in Gaza fired rockets in retaliation. Palestinians have clashed with Israeli police on a nightly basis since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. On Thursday, hundreds of Jewish extremists tried to march to the site of the clashes but were halted by police. Smaller violent confrontations broke out elsewhere in the city.
April 24, 2021 4:50 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — Washington County Police Departments are teaming with the Washington County Opioid Overdose Coalition and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to give the public the opportunity to dispose of unwanted medications Saturday between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. This prevents prescription pill abuse and theft by ridding homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. This service is free and anonymous, no questions asked. This is the 20th National take back day. Last October, Americans turned in over 492 tons (985,392 pounds) of medications at 4,587 sites operated by DEA and more than 4,153 of its state and local law enforcement partners. Take back participants in the community include the Canonsburg (Shop and Save), Carroll Township (Mon Valley Hospital), Cecil Township (Dollar Store), Chartiers Township, McDonald, Burgettstown, Monongahela (Mon Valley Hospital), Mount Pleasant Township, Peters Township (Giant Eagle, Heislers, Country Store, Rite Aid), Smith Township, South Strabane Township and City of Washington Police Departments. There will also be participants at the Washington Hospital Police Department and the Washington County Sheriffs Office at Mingo Park.
April 24, 2021 4:32 am
NEW YORK (AP) – A U.S. Capitol Police officer testified Friday against a New York man accused of threatening to kill members of Congress, recounting how police struggled to quell the “surreal” Jan. 6 riot in Washington. Defendant Brendan Hunt wasn’t part of the siege. But prosecutors sought to use the testimony of Special Agent Christopher Desrosiers to frame the episode as a further catalyst for Hunt’s alleged call to massacre members of Congress. Prosecutors allege Hunt was trying to inspire violence against members of Congress on Inauguration Day as a follow up to the Jan. 6 attack. Defense attorneys have argued there’s no proof that Hunt was a legitimate threat.
April 24, 2021 4:30 am
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Gov. Gavin Newsom said California will stop issuing fracking permits by 2024 and halt all oil extraction by 2045. Newsom made the announcement Friday, after a ban on fracking failed to pass the Legislature. Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing, a process for extracting oil embedded deep underground. Environmental advocates oppose it, citing harm to the environment and public health. California would be the largest oil-producing state to ban fracking. Newsom said he will use his executive authority to take on the state’s powerful oil and gas industry in a year that he is expected to face voters in a recall election.
April 24, 2021 4:29 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A Minnesota court has set a June sentencing date for Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. Online court records say Chauvin will be sentenced on June 16 at 1:30 p.m., by Judge Peter Cahill, the Hennepin County judge who oversaw the trial. Chauvin, 45, was convicted Tuesday of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck. Under Minnesota statutes he’ll only be sentenced on the most serious one – second-degree murder. The max he would face is likely 30 years, but he could get less.
April 24, 2021 4:16 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Ghislaine Maxwell has faced a judge in person for the first time as lawyers squabble over exactly when she should be tried on sex trafficking charges alleging that she procured teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse at his posh residences. Maxwell pleaded not guilty Friday to sex trafficking conspiracy and a sex trafficking charge that were added in a rewritten indictment filed last month in Manhattan federal court. Her lawyers maintain they need months of additional preparation because of the new charges, making it impossible to keep a July 12 trial date.
April 24, 2021 4:14 am
(AP) – A U.S. health panel says it’s time to resume use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, despite a very rare risk of blood clots. Out of nearly 8 million people vaccinated before the U.S. suspended J&J’s shot, health officials uncovered 15 cases of a highly unusual kind of blood clot, three of them fatal. All were women, most younger than 50. But advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday the vaccine’s benefits outweigh that serious but small risk — especially against a virus that’s still infecting tens of thousands of Americans every day. The government will rapidly weigh that recommendation in deciding next steps.
April 24, 2021 1:47 am
Washington County’s COVID-19 death toll is now up to 288, with the addition of two new deaths over the past twenty-four-hours. Washington County also added 52 new COVID infections. Allegheny County’s death toll rose by three along with 350 new coronavirus cases. In Greene County, where infections seem to be leveling off, there were just two new COVID cases and no new deaths. Statewide, there were more than forty-one-hundred new cases of COVID along with 59 new deaths. On a more positive note, state health officials say vaccinations continue to increase, with more than three-million residents now fully vaccinated and over seven-point-seven-million people having received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.
April 24, 2021 1:46 am
A Pagan Motorcycle Club member who is serving a 20-40 year sentence in state prison dismissed his attorney to represent himself against additional charges. Matthew Vasquez is facing conspiracy to defraud creditors and defrauding of creditors charges. Vasquez tried to hide two motorcycles and avoid payment on them while he is in jail. Judge Valarie Costanzo granted Vasquez’s request to represent himself. Three other co-conspirators in the plot pleaded guilty last year. Vasquez was convicted on aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault charges in 2020 for his role in the beating of a rival motorcycle club member at the Charleroi Slovak Club in 2019. He is currently serving his sentence at SCI-Albion.
April 23, 2021 5:22 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Japanese automaker Honda plans to phase out all gasoline-powered vehicles in North America by 2040. The announcement Friday makes Honda the latest major automaker with a goal of becoming carbon neutral. It came as leaders of the major global economies are meeting for President Joe Biden’s climate summit. Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said the company expects that 40% of all vehicle sales will be battery or fuel-cell powered by 2030, and 80% of all vehicles sold will be electric or fuel-cell powered by 2035.
