April 30, 2021 2:40 am
MEDIA, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania man who illegally voted for Donald Trump on behalf of his long-dead mother in last year’s presidential election has been sentenced to five years of probation. Bruce Bartman pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of perjury and one count of unlawful voting. Besides his probation term, the 70-year-old Marple man will not be allowed to vote in an election for four years and is no longer eligible to serve on a jury. Bartman apologized for his actions, telling the judge: “I was isolated last year in lockdown. I listened to too much propaganda and made a stupid mistake.”
April 29, 2021 1:57 pm
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) – Prosecutors say eight people have been indicted in the alcohol-related death of an Ohio college student found unconscious after a fraternity party. Six of those indicted Thursday are charged with involuntary manslaughter. They range in age from 19 to 23. Twenty-year-old Bowling Green State University sophomore Stone Foltz was found by roommates and taken to a hospital in early March. He died three days later. An investigation found that fraternity members had forced pledges to each drink an entire bottle of alcohol during an off-campus event. The other charges against some of the eight include reckless homicide, felonious assault, hazing and violating underage alcohol laws.
April 29, 2021 9:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 13,000 last week to 553,000, the lowest level since the pandemic hit last March and another sign the economy is recovering from the coronavirus recession. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims were down from 566,000 a week earlier. They have fallen sharply over the past year but remain well above the 230,000 weekly figure typical before the pandemic struck the economy in March 2020.
April 29, 2021 9:25 am
BOONE, N.C. (AP) – Authorities say two North Carolina sheriff’s deputies were killed and three other people including a suspected gunman were found dead after a lengthy standoff. The Watauga County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the home in the Boone area Wednesday after the homeowner and his family didn’t appear at work or answer telephone calls. Sgt. Chris Ward and K-9 Officer Logan Fox were shot when they entered the home. Ward was extracted from the scene and died at a hospital. Fox died at the scene. A sheriff’s statement says the individual suspected of killing the two officers also is suspected of killing two other people inside the home.
April 29, 2021 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden says 12 years of education is no longer enough to compete in the 21st century. But he’s also saying a college degree is unnecessary for nearly 90% of the jobs that would be created through his proposal to boost the country’s roads, bridges and other public works. Biden is using his first speech to Congress to promote his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan and his newly announced $1.8 trillion proposal that includes universal preschool, two years of free community college and $225 billion for child care. When it comes to education, Biden said the “world is catching up.”
April 29, 2021 4:17 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Texas is edging closer to becoming the largest state in the country to allow people to carry handguns without a license. The push in the Republican-controlled Legislature has alarmed law enforcement and gutted El Paso lawmakers whose hometown is still recovering from the trauma of one of the worst mass shootings in the nation’s history. A special committee hastily created by the state Senate is set to advance the measure on Thursday, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott says he supports the measure and will sign it into law if it gets to his desk.
April 29, 2021 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has used the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s address to Congress to vow that “America is not a racist country.” Scott, the only Black Republican senator, seized on Biden’s calls earlier in the evening that passage of major police reform could help stamp out institutional racism nationwide. Scott countered that “today, kids are being taught the color of their skin defines them again. If they look a certain way, they’re the oppressor.” He said Biden and other top Democrats have begun crying racism too frequently when it comes to unrelated policy disputes, saying “race is not a political weapon to settle every issue.”
April 29, 2021 2:31 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Republicans in Pennsylvania’s Senate are trying to make Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration start over on its plans to toll up to nine major bridges. They approved a bill Tuesday to require PennDOT to first secure approval from the Legislature. The bill passed 28-19, with the backing of every Republican and one Democrat. Republicans contend that the process leading to PennDOT’s announcement in February has lacked transparency and was never envisioned by lawmakers when they created the Public-Private Transportation Partnership Board in 2012. Democrats say Republicans are failing their obligations to fund transportation needs and say PennDOT’s initiative was squarely within the scope of 2012’s law. Wolf’s administration opposes the bill.
April 28, 2021 4:56 pm
UNDATED (AP) – Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins has died at age 90. He orbited the moon alone while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their historic first steps on the moon in 1969. Collins’ family said in a statement that the astronaut died Wednesday from cancer. While Collins traveled some 238,000 miles to the moon and came within 69 miles, he never set foot on the surface. áCollins spent the eight-day mission piloting the command module, Columbia. While Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the moon’s surface in the lunar lander Eagle, Collins remained alone for nearly 28 hours.
April 28, 2021 2:08 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – A law enforcement official tells the Associated Press that federal investigators have executed search warrants at Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan residence and office. The former New York City mayor has been under investigation for several years over his business dealings in Ukraine. Details of the reasons for Wednesday’s searches were not immediately available. The officials who confirmed the execution of the search warrants did not have approval to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. A message left for Giuliani’s lawyer wasn’t immediately returned.
