July 19, 2024 2:51 pm
CABOT, Pa. (AP) — A fire truck carried Corey Comperatore’s flag-draped casket to a Pennsylvania church on Friday for the funeral of the former fire chief, who was shot and killed when a gunman tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump last weekend. Hundreds of firefighters arrived at the church in a procession of over 100 trucks in a show of support for Comperatore’s grieving relatives and friends. Outside the church, a massive American flag hung from the ladder of a fire truck. A sharpshooter team mounted on a nearby rooftop served as a reminder of last weekend’s bloodshed. Officials have said that Comperatore spent his final moments shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire at Trump’s rally last Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump, who suffered an ear injury in the shooting but was not seriously hurt, did not attend the funeral because of Secret Service concerns. Two other people were wounded at Trump’s rally: David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township. As of Wednesday night, both had been upgraded to serious but stable condition, according to a spokesperson with Allegheny Health Network.
July 18, 2024 5:08 am
MILWAUKEE — Former President Donald Trump addressed the fourth night of the Republican National Convention, his first speech since the assassination attempt in Butler. The speech came five days after a Bethel Park man shot Trump in the ear during an assassination attempt at a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds. One person died in the shooting, while two others were critically injured. Corey Comperatore, who died at the rally, was a volunteer firefighter in his community. His gear joined Trump on stage during his speech at the RNC.
July 19, 2024 4:55 am
Washington County probation offices will be merging. The salary board voted 4-1 to merge the adult and juvenile probation offices into one department of Probation Services with 96 employees during Thursday’s meeting. Commissioner’s Chairman Nick Sherman, who attended the meeting remotely due to be diagnosed with COVID-19 voted against the measure. At the request of the court, President Judge Gary Gilman and the county judges came up with the plan they say will save taxpayers money and better operate the adult and juvenile centers. Democratic Commissioner Larry Maggi says the merger will save about $90,000 and will allow the offices to operate more efficiently. The measure is designed to streamline transports, on-call response, training and other office functions.
July 18, 2024 4:57 am
FREEPORT, Pa. (AP) — Thousands of mourners paid their respects at a Pennsylvania banquet hall to the family of a former fire chief who was fatally shot during the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. Trump sent a note of condolence hailing Corey Comperatore as a hero. The crowd appeared to be made up of friends, neighbors and strangers who showed their appreciation for the man who officials said spent his final moments shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire at the campaign rally. Fire trucks and police vehicles filled the parking lot outside the building. Comperatore, who was 50, also worked as a project and tooling engineer. A private funeral is scheduled for Friday.
July 19, 2024 5:03 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Much of the world faced online disarray Friday as a widespread technology outage affected companies and services across industries — grounding flights, knocking banks and hospital systems offline and media outlets off air. At the heart of the massive disruption is CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that says the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows — with the company noting that the issue was not a security incident or cyberattack. Scores of companies rely on CrowdStrike for their security needs. That makes the consequences of a faulty update, like the one CrowdStrike cited Friday, all the more far-reaching.
July 18, 2024 5:09 am
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Donald Trump, somber and bandaged, has accepted his party’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention. His speech described in detail the assassination attempt that could have ended his life just five days earlier before laying out a sweeping populist agenda, particularly on immigration. The 78-year-old former president says: ““If I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark. And I would not be here tonight.” Trump’s address, among the longest convention speeches in modern history, marked the climax and conclusion of a massive four-day Republican pep rally as voters weigh an election that currently features two deeply unpopular candidates.
July 19, 2024 4:59 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a critical weekend ahead for President Joe Biden. Isolated as he battles a COVID infection at his beach house in Delaware, he is confronting the stark reality that many Democrats at the highest levels want him to consider how stepping aside from the 2024 election could be the party’s best chance of preventing widespread losses in November. Biden’s small circle of advisers has grown smaller as he weighs whether to stay in the race. His campaign is calling an all-staff meeting for Friday. And the Democratic National Committee is pressing ahead Friday with planning for a virtual roll call to nominate the president ahead of the party convention in August.
July 18, 2024 5:01 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Joe Biden faces a growing drumbeat of pressure to drop his reelection bid, most Democrats think his vice president would make a good president herself. The new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Democrats believe Kamala Harris would do a good job in the top slot. About 2 in 10 Democrats don’t believe she would, and another 2 in 10 say they don’t know enough to say. Since Biden’s massive debate debacle on June 27, many Democrats have privately and even openly looked to Harris to step in and succeed Biden as the party’s presidential nominee.
July 19, 2024 4:10 pm
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has agreed to delay implementing a requirement that the Ten Commandments be placed in all of the state’s public school classrooms until at least November. The agreement was approved by a federal judge on Friday. A lawsuit was filed in June by parents of Louisiana public school children with various religious backgrounds. They said the law violates First Amendment language forbidding government establishment of religion and guaranteeing religious liberty. Backers of the law argue that the Ten Commandments belong in classrooms because the commandments are historical and are part of the foundation of U.S. law.
July 19, 2024 8:16 am
YEKATERINBURG, Russia (AP) — A Russian court has convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as a sham. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country’s highly politicized legal system. Gershkovich, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently denied the charges. The unusually swift trial perhaps clears the way for a swap between Moscow and Washington.
