March 21, 2021 7:49 am
ATLANTA (AP) — A diverse crowd gathered Saturday near the Georgia state Capitol to demand justice for the victims of recent shootings at massage businesses and to denounce racism, xenophobia and misogyny. Hundreds of people of all ages and varied racial and ethnic backgrounds gathered in Liberty Plaza in Atlanta, and in similar rallies across the country, waving signs and chanting slogans. In Atlanta, they cheered U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, and Georgia state Rep. Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the Georgia House. Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, is accused of killing four people inside two Atlanta spas and four others at a massage business about 30 miles away in suburban Cherokee County. Six of the eight people killed Tuesday were women of Asian descent. Another person was shot but survived. Investigators have said Long confessed to the slayings but said they weren’t racially motivated. He claimed to have a sex addiction, which caused him to lash out at what he saw as sources of temptation, according to authorities. Police have said they’re still working to establish a motive, including looking into whether the attacks can be classified as hate crimes.
March 21, 2021 7:45 am
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (WPXI)– Police said a 12-year-old boy was stabbed at a McDonalds’ restaurant in Downtown Pittsburgh just after 2 p.m. Investigators said it happened at the store on Liberty Avenue. The boy was rushed to the hospital for treatment in critical condition. Police said a family of four was standing in line when a man approached and stabbed the boy in the neck. 51-year-old Charles Edward Turner was arrested and charged with criminal attempt homicide, four counts of aggravated assault, two counts of simple assault and resisting arrest. He is being held at the Allegheny County Jail.
March 21, 2021 4:40 am
A Washington City Councilman has withdrawn his nominating petitions to be on the ballot in the upcoming May Primary. Joe Manning, whose nominating petitions were challenged this week by Washington resident Georgianna Farkas, for falling short of the required one-hundred signatures, told WJPA News that he withdrew the petitions, but he is not going to withdraw from his efforts to win re-election. Manning, who is a Democrat, says he plans to file nomination papers to run for re-election in the fall, as an Independent. Manning has served on council since 2010.
March 20, 2021 10:31 am
SAN DIEGO (AP) – A father allegedly carried his 2-year-old daughter into an elephant habitat at the famous San Diego Zoo to take a photo with the animals. An elephant seemed like it wanted to charge at them, and the father dropped his child when they tried to escape the enclosure Friday. The elephant was not harmed, and the man was able to get his daughter out of the habitat safely. The 25-year-old father was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment. Police told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the man “wanted to take a photo with the African bull elephant.”
March 20, 2021 9:58 am
DALLAS (AP) – Authorities say someone opened fire at a Dallas nightclub early Saturday, killing one person and wounding five others. Police say in a news release that the shooting happened during a fight between two groups inside Pryme Night Club, and that the shooter got away. The six people who were shot were taken to hospitals, where one was pronounced dead. The conditions of the wounded range from stable to critical condition.
March 20, 2021 9:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration is facing growing questions about why it wasn’t more prepared for an influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The administration is scrambling to build up capacity to care for 14,000 young undocumented migrants now in federal custody, and more are likely on the way. Immigration experts say the predicament was predictable. Biden administration officials blame the Trump administration for making a mess of the immigration system. Border patrol officials have encountered more than 29,000 unaccompanied minors since Oct. 1, nearly the same number of youths taken into custody for all of the previous budget year.
March 20, 2021 4:51 am
Four men described by prosecutors as leaders of the far-right Proud Boys have been indicted on charges that they planned and carried out a coordinated attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. A federal indictment ordered unsealed Friday presents new evidence of how federal officials believe group members planned and carried out the Jan. 6 attack. It says more than 60 people used an encrypted messaging channel to communicate when they joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. With the new indictment, at least 19 Proud Boys leaders, members or associates have been charged with federal offenses related to the riots.
March 20, 2021 4:49 am
ATLANTA (AP) – President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are offering solace to Asian Americans and a reeling nation as they visit Atlanta just days after a white gunman killed eight people, most of them Asian American women. Biden and Harris addressed the nation after a roughly 80-minute meeting with Asian American state legislators and other leaders. The president says it was “heart-wrenching” to listen to their stories of the fear among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders amid what he called a “skyrocketing spike” of harassment and violence against them. The visit had added resonance with the presence of Harris, the first person of South Asian descent to hold national office.
March 20, 2021 4:48 am
BERGAMO, Italy (AP) – While Italy is better managing its latest coronavirus surge, one thing that hasn’t changed is that those who are dying are predominantly elderly. Promises to vaccinate all Italians over 80 by the end of March have fallen woefully short, amid well-documented interruptions of vaccine supplies and organizational shortfalls. Just one third of Italy’s 7.3 million vaccine doses administered so far have gone to those over 80, with more than half of them still waiting for the first jab. The new government of Premier Mario Draghi has pledged to accelerate the vaccination campaign. It is aiming to vaccinate 80% of the population by September.
March 20, 2021 4:45 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Lou Barletta, the former congressman who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in 2018, says he’ll make a decision in the next few weeks on whether to seek the Republican nomination for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022. Barletta said Friday that he felt the pull of running for office again during the pandemic and seeing the hardship of business owners and people losing their jobs. Meanwhile, a spokesperson says a second-term Republican state senator from Erie County, Dan Laughlin, is also considering running. The office is open since Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is term-limited. Attorney General Josh Shapiro is widely expected to seek the Democratic nomination.
