June 6, 2021 1:50 am
The Washington County Coroner’s Office said Friday that they have identified the human remains found in a burned-out car in Claysville. Authorities say DNA testing shows the body is that of 40-year-old Thomas Ringer of Waynesburg. Ringer’s remains were found in what was left of a burned out vehicle on May 16th on Maple Road. No further details have been released. State Police are asking anyone with information connected to this incident to call their barracks at 724-223-5200.
June 5, 2021 4:35 am
President Joe Biden is portraying the May jobs report as a jumping off point for more spending on infrastructure and education. It’s an argument for his broader agenda to keep growth going. But Friday’s employment numbers also hinted at the limits of how much government aid can be pumped into the world’s largest economy. The 559,000 jobs added were less than what many economists were expecting. A separate figure indicated that too few people are looking for jobs compared to demand from employers. This mismatch means wages are rising sharply. But it also means that inflation could be elevated until market forces sort out supply chains and hiring.
June 5, 2021 4:34 am
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – U.N. experts say Taliban insurgents show no sign of reducing the level of violence in Afghanistan to facilitate peace negotiations with the government. The experts said in a report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Friday that the Taliban appears to be trying to strengthen its military position as leverage, with the “unprecedented violence” of 2020 carrying into 2021. The experts said the Taliban are also reported to be responsible for the great majority of assassinations that have become a feature of the violence in Afghanistan, targeting government officials, women, human rights defenders and journalists among others.
June 5, 2021 4:33 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Department of Agriculture is sending $1 billion to the country’s food bank networks, seeking to expand the reach of the system and revamp the way food banks acquire and distribute aid. The funding, announced Friday, comes half from the American Rescue Plan COVID stimulus bill and half from standard congressional appropriations. Like other aspects of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better initiative, the food bank plan openly seeks to use COVID recovery as a chance to reform a support system whose flaws were exposed by the pandemic.
June 5, 2021 4:32 am
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) – A sheriff’s deputy who was involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black man in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, is resigning. The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Friday that Aaron Lewellyn is using accrued leave time before officially resigning June 30. The statement provides no reason for his departure. He was one of three deputies placed on extended leave following the April 21 shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. The deputies were serving drug-related warrants. A prosecutor said the shooting was justified because Brown struck a deputy with his car and nearly ran him over. The sheriff announced last month that the deputies would keep their jobs but would be disciplined and retrained.
June 5, 2021 4:21 am
GREENSBURG, Pa. — A 60-year-old man was arrested outside the Westmoreland Mall after a teen girl told police he followed her out to her car. The girl told police when she was walking in to work at the mall, William Gressman made a sexual comment toward her. Hours later as she was leaving, she told officers she recognized Gressman from earlier. She said he started following her to her car and appeared to be touching himself inappropriately. State police said security camera footage showed the encounter. Gressman admitted to the incident while being interviewed by investigators, according to court documents. He was taken to the Westmoreland County Prison on $5,000 bond.
June 5, 2021 1:17 am
(AP) – Facebook says it will suspend former President Donald Trump’s accounts for two years following its finding that he stoked violence ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. Facebook also plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that automatically exempted politicians from certain moderation rules on its site. The social media giant said on Friday that will it will still apply this “newsworthiness” exemption to certain posts it deems to be in the public interest even if it violates Facebook rules, it will no longer treat material posted by politicians any differently from what’s posted by anyone else.
June 5, 2021 1:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A key member of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives is flatly rejecting talk of any sort of audit of the 2020 presidential election. Rep. Seth Grove, who chairs the committee that handles election matters, said on Twitter on Thursday that the chamber “will not be authorizing any further audits on any previous election.” Grove made the statement a day after three fellow Republican state lawmakers toured the Arizona Senate GOP’s partisan audit of the 2020 election. Republican Sen. David Argall, however, says legislation or a resolution in his chamber to commission some sort of audit is a possibility. No election official or prosecutor has raised a concern over widespread election fraud in November’s election in Pennsylvania.
June 4, 2021 1:57 pm
CANTON, Ohio (AP) – The head football coach at an Ohio high school and six other coaches there have been ousted after a football player said he was forced him to eat pork in violation of his religious beliefs for missing a voluntary workout. The Canton City Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to not renew the coaching contracts of Canton McKinley head football coach Marcus Wattley, two of his assistants and an assistant baseball coach. With the same vote, the board also deemed three other assistant football coaches as ineligible for future coaching positions. An attorney retained by Wattley says details of the events were exaggerated and parts are false.
June 4, 2021 8:42 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers added 559,000 jobs in May, an improvement from April’s sluggish gain but still evidence that many companies are struggling to find enough workers as the economy rapidly recovers from the pandemic recession. Last month’s job gain was above April’s revised total of 278,000. The unemployment rate fell to 5.8% from 6.1%. The speed of the rebound from the pandemic recession has caught employers off guard and touched off a scramble to hire. The reopening of the economy, fueled by substantial federal aid and rising vaccinations, has released pent-up demand among consumers to eat out, travel, shop, attend public events and visit with friends and relatives.
