April 18, 2021 7:46 am
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Police in Portland, Oregon, said Saturday they arrested four people after declaring a riot Friday night when protesters smashed windows, burglarized businesses and set multiple fires during demonstrations that started after police fatally shot a man while responding to reports of a person with a gun. Police said they dispersed the crowd so firefighting crews could douse fires before they spread in extreme fire hazard conditions. The vandalism downtown came after the police shooting earlier Friday and also was part of vigils and demonstrations already planned for the night in the name of people killed in police shootings nationwide. They include 13-year-old Adam Toledo of Chicago and Daunte Wright, a Black man in a Minneapolis suburb. Deputy Police Chief Chris Davis told reporters a white man in his 30s had been shot and killed in Portland by police. The man was pronounced dead at the scene in Lents Park, a leafy, residential neighborhood of the city.
April 18, 2021 7:45 am
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) — As protests intensified in the Minneapolis suburb where a police officer fatally shot Daunte Wright, a group of Black men joined the crowd intent on keeping the peace and preventing protests from escalating into violence. Hundreds of people have gathered outside the heavily guarded Brooklyn Center police station every night since Sunday, when former Officer Kim Potter, who is white, shot the 20-year-old Black motorist during a traffic stop. Despite the mayor’s calls for law enforcement and protesters to scale back their tactics, the nights have often ended in objects hurled, tear gas and arrests. The Black men at the edge of the crowd wear yellow patches on protective vests that identify them as members of the Minnesota Freedom Fighters, a group formed to provide security in Minneapolis’ north side neighborhoods during unrest following the death of George Floyd last year. They are not shy about casting a forceful image — the group’s Facebook page features members posing with assault-style weapons and describes itself as an “elite security unit” — but on Friday the Freedom Fighters didn’t appear to be armed and said they intended only to encourage peaceful protesting. As several people began to rattle a fence protecting the Brooklyn Center police department, the Freedom Fighters communicated to each other over walkie-talkies. They declined to say how many are in their group.
April 18, 2021 4:40 am
A growing number of unfilled appointments and low uptake among nursing home workers are early signs that vaccine hesitancy is becoming an issue in Pennsylvania. That prompted state officials to sound the alarm Friday and urge residents to get their COVID-19 shots as quickly as possible. After months of demand outstripping supply, vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are more readily available. The administration of Gov. Tom Wolf says the challenge now is to assuage the concerns of people who are reluctant to get it.
April 18, 2021 4:34 am
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board posted on its website that combined revenue generated from all forms of gaming regulated by the board along with fantasy contests for the month of March 2021 was $403,131,336. That is a 162% increase over March of 2020. This is the first time revenue exceeded $400 million in one month. The previous high was $320 million in October of 2020. Locally, The Meadows Casino total revenue for March was $20,973,736. In March of 2020 total revenue was $9,960,324. That is an increase of 110%. Slot Machine revenue at The Meadows led the way with $12,862,586 in total revenue.
April 18, 2021 4:21 am
State Representative Pam Snyder (D-50) announced that a state grant has been awarded to replace a bridge in Greene County. The grant worth nearly $830,000 will be dedicated to replace Bridge No.31 in Franklin Township. This bridge has been classified as being in poor condition since 1991. The bridge carries school buses, heavy farming equipment and tractor trailers. The grant comes from PennDot’s Multimodal Transportation Fund.
April 18, 2021 3:17 am
A major improvement project in Westmoreland County is in the works, and PennDOT wants to hear from the people who use the Interstate 70/Route 51 interchange on a regular basis. The construction project will upgrade the highway and state route as well as a few other roads in the area. The biggest improvement to the interchange that was last updated in the 1950s will be a new Diverging Diamond Interchange, just like what is in use with Interstate 70 and Route 19 in Washington today. Along with the DDI, both the highway and state route will be widened in the construction zone, the bridges carrying Route 51 over I-70 will be replaced, and a Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad bridge will also be relocated and replaced to the south end of the project. Additionally, the bridge carrying Interstate 70 over the Youghiogheny River will get preservation upgrades. This project is only in the final design phase, with another public meeting set for next year. PennDOT is anticipating to start on the five-phase project in 2022, with it lasting through four construction seasons, ending in 2025. Residents can view the virtual public meeting and leave comments by visiting i-70projects.com.
April 17, 2021 12:27 pm
WINDSOR, England (AP) – With military bands and a royal procession, Prince Philip was laid to rest in a funeral ceremony that honored his lifetime of service to the country, the crown and his wife of 73 years, Queen Elizabeth II. The widowed British monarch, setting an example amid the coronavirus pandemic, sat alone at Saturday’s ceremony, dressed in black and with her head bowed in prayer. Philip, who died April 9 two months shy of his 100th birthday, was honored at Windsor Castle in a service that was steeped in military and royal tradition. People across Britain observed one minute of silence in honor of Philip. The procession and funeral took place out of public view within the grounds of the castle but was shown live on television.
April 17, 2021 9:35 am
MOSCOW (AP) – An American astronaut and two Russians have returned to Earth after six months aboard the International Space Station. A Soyuz space capsule carrying NASA’s Kate Rubins and Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov landed Saturday morning in the steppes of Kazakhstan. Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, said all three were feeling well after they were extracted from the capsule and began reacclimating to the pull of gravity. The three had arrived at the orbiting laboratory complex on Oct. 14. There now are seven people aboard the ISS.
April 17, 2021 9:31 am
BOSTON (AP) – The sprawling, monthslong hacking campaign came to be known as SolarWinds for the company whose software update Russian intelligence agents stealthily seeded with malware to penetrate ágovernment and private networks. Yet it was Microsoft whose code the cyber spies persistently abused in the campaign’s second stage as they rifled through emails and vital files of high-value targets and hopped undetected among victim networks. And that has put the world’s third-most valuable company in the hot seat. Lawmakers are insisting that Microsoft swiftly upgrade security to what they believe it should have provided in the first place, and do it without fleecing taxpayers.
April 17, 2021 9:30 am
PORT FOURCHON, La. (AP) – Divers searching the site of a capsized lift boat off Louisiana’s coast have recovered two more unresponsive crewmembers. The Coast Guard declined to release more details, referring all questions late Friday to a local coroner. A Coast Guard statement said commercial divers on the capsized Seacor Power lift boat found the two Friday evening. Coast Guard Capt. Will Watson, commander of the New Orleans sector, said the agency extends its “deepest sympathy” to the family, friends and loved ones of all involved in what he called “this tragic incident.” áThe vessel, which supports offshore oil rigs, overturned Tuesday in rough weather south of the Louisiana coast.
