November 15, 2020 8:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Israel worked together to track and kill a senior al-Qaida operative in Iran earlier this year, a bold intelligence operation by the two allied nations that came as the Trump administration was ramping up pressure on Tehran. Four current and former U.S. officials said Abu Mohammed al-Masri, al-Qaida’s No. 2, was killed by assassins in the Iranian capital in August. The U.S. provided intelligence to the Israelis on where they could find al-Masri and the alias he was using at the time, while Israeli agents carried out the killing, according to two of the officials. The two other officials confirmed al-Masri’s killing but could not provide specific details. Al-Masri was gunned down in a Tehran alley on Aug. 7, the anniversary of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Al-Masri was widely believed to have participated in the planning of those attacks and was wanted on terrorism charges by the FBI. Al-Masri’s death is a blow to al-Qaida, the terror network that orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S, and comes amid rumors in the Middle East about the fate of the group’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The officials could not confirm those reports but said the U.S. intelligence community was trying to determine their credibility.
November 15, 2020 8:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Several thousand supporters of President Donald Trump in Washington protested election results and then hailed Trump’s passing motorcade before nighttime clashes with counterdemonstrators sparked fistfights, at least one stabbing and at least 20 arrests. Several other cities on Saturday also saw gatherings of Trump supporters unwilling to accept Democrat Joe Biden’s Electoral College and popular vote victory as legitimate. Cries of “Stop the Steal” and “Count Every Vote” continued in spite of a lack of evidence of voter fraud or other problems that could reverse the result. After night fell, the relatively peaceful demonstrations in Washington turned from tense to violent. Videos posted on social media showed fistfights, projectiles and clubs as Trump supporters clashed with those demanding they take their MAGA hats and banners and leave. The tensions extended to Sunday morning. A variety of charges, including assault and weapons possession, were filed against those arrested, officials said. Two police officers were injured and several firearms were recovered by police.
November 15, 2020 7:54 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — Officials say the Washington County 911 Call Center was down for a brief time Saturday afternoon. According to the Peters Township Fire Department, Washington County’s 911 Control Center was unable to take phone calls around 1:30 p.m. The fire department alerted local residents to call the fire station directly for any emergencies during the system outage. Authorities say the call center was back up and running by roughly 3:00 p.m. that same afternoon. There was no word as to why the system was out for a period of time.
November 15, 2020 7:48 am
BULGER, Pa. — A woman is dead following an afternoon Motorcycle crash Saturday. Coroner Tim Warco says 48-year-old Kristine Irvine of Moon Township was the passenger on a motorcycle traveling west on Old Stubenville Pike at approximately 2:30 p.m. Reports say the operator lost control of the vehicle near the 9000 block of the road and both riders were thrown from the motorcycle. Warco says Irvine was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash and that she was pronounced deceased at roughly 3:40 p.m. There was no injury update or identity released for the driver of the bike. The accident is still under investigation by the McDonald Police Department. Assisting at the scene included McDonald and Midway Fire Departments, Fort Cherry Ambulance and the Pennsylvania State Police.
November 15, 2020 7:41 am
Republican leaders in four critical states won by President-elect Joe Biden say they won’t participate in a legally dubious scheme to flip their state’s electors to vote for President Donald Trump. Their comments effectively shut down a half-baked plot some Republicans floated as a last chance to keep Trump in the White House. State GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all said they would not intervene in the selection of electors, who ultimately cast the votes that secure a candidate’s victory. Such a move would violate state law and a vote of the people, several noted. The idea loosely involves GOP-controlled legislatures dismissing Biden’s popular vote wins in their states and opting to select Trump electors. While the endgame was unclear, it appeared to hinge on the expectation that a conservative-leaning Supreme Court would settle any dispute over the move. Still, it has been promoted by Trump allies, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and is an example of misleading information and false claims fueling skepticism among Trump supporters about the integrity of the vote. The theory is rooted in the fact that the U.S. Constitution grants state legislatures the power to decide how electors are chosen. Each state already has passed laws that delegate this power to voters and appoint electors for whichever candidate wins the state on Election Day. The only opportunity for a state legislature to then get involved with electors is a provision in federal law allowing it if the actual election “fails.”
November 14, 2020 9:40 am
SOUTH STRABANE – A man from North Strabane Township faces multiple charges after police say he rammed two police cruisers while driving a tractor during a slow-speed police chase. According to police, 47-year-old Steven Magdich refused to pull over his John Deere tractor along Routes 519 and 136 earlier this week after police tried to stop him. When police approached, they noticed he was drinking beer and he began to yell obscenities at them. He then hit a cruiser with the front end loader on his tractor and struck another cruiser with the blade attached to the back. He was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, fleeing from police, and DUI. He’s lodged in the Washington County Jail on $75,000 bond.
November 14, 2020 8:58 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The FBI says a man who was serving a life sentence for murder when he escaped custody while attending his grandmother’s funeral nearly 50 years ago has been captured in Michigan. Leonard Rayne Moses was 16 when he was convicted in the 1968 killing of Mary Amplo during civil unrest in Pittsburgh over the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Moses escaped custody in 1971. The FBI says he’d been living under an assumed name in Michigan. Moses was charged with stealing pills from a pharmacy earlier this year and the FBI said Friday the fingerprints from that arrest came back a match.
November 14, 2020 8:49 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden’s advisers are already signaling that a nationwide lockdown is not under consideration for combating the coronavirus pandemic. This week, two members of his coronavirus task force publicly said they were not looking at a widespread lockdown. Their comments came after a third member, Dr. Michael Osterholm, suggested a four- to six-week lockdown with financial aid for Americans was a strategy worth considering. Osterholm later walked back his comments, telling ABC News he hasn’t brought up the proposition with the task force. But the scramble over the issue underscores the political and practical challenges Biden will face in seeking to turn the tide of the pandemic.
November 14, 2020 5:15 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Republicans suffered setbacks to court challenges over the presidential election in three battleground states on Friday as a national law firm that came under fire for its work for President Trump’s campaign withdrew from a major Pennsylvania case. The legal blows began when a federal appeals court rejected an effort to block about 9,300 mail ballots that arrived after Election Day in Pennsylvania. The judges noted the “unprecedented challenges” facing the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, a Michigan judge found no evidence of fraud in refusing to stop the certification of Detroit-area election results. And in Arizona, a judge dismissed a Trump campaign’s lawsuit seeking the inspection of ballots in metro Phoenix
November 14, 2020 5:00 am
(AP) – Researchers say a cheap, daily pill combining four cholesterol and blood pressure medicines taken with low-dose aspirin can cut the risk of heart attacks, strokes and heart-related deaths by nearly one third. The results announced Friday are from a large international study that tested this approach, called a polypill, in people at moderate risk for heart problems because of high blood pressure, diabetes or other conditions. At least half a dozen companies sell polypills outside the United States, but they’re not widely used. Doctors think that will change with the results of this study. Heart disease is the top killer worldwide.
