December 10, 2023 8:14 am
LUKEVILLE, Ariz. (AP) — The U.S. Border Patrol says it is overwhelmed by a shift in human smuggling routes, with hundreds of migrants from faraway countries like Senegal, Bangladesh and China being dropped in a remote desert area in Arizona. The area around Lukeville is hours away by car to U.S. hospitals and migrant shelters. The U.S. government responded last week by indefinitely closing the crossing between Lukeville and Sonoyta, Mexico, to free officers assigned to the port to instead help agents apprehend migrants. Federal air marshals who provide security on commercial flights and even Federal Protective Service officers who guard U.S. government buildings also are being called on.
December 10, 2023 8:13 am
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Heavy fighting is raging across Gaza including in the devastated north. Israel is pressing ahead with its offensive after the U.S. blocked the latest cease-fire effort and rushed more munitions to its close ally. Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a cease-fire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the internal displacement of nearly 85% of Gaza’s population. The United States has lent vital support to the offensive once again in recent days by vetoing U.N. Security Council efforts to end the fighting. It also pushed through an emergency sale of over $100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel.
December 10, 2023 8:09 am
NORTH HUNTINGDON, Pa, (WPXI) – A Greensburg man is facing charges over accusations he delivered a deadly dose of drugs to a North Huntingdon man in July. The Westmoreland County District Attorney says it worked with the North Huntingdon Township Police to bring a drug delivery resulting in death charge against Justin Todaro. Todaro also faces other drug offenses. Todaro is accused of delivering drugs in July to a man who lived on Larimer Avenue in North Huntingdon Township. That man overdosed and died. The district attorney says lab results from the residue of three of the bags detected fentanyl and xylazine. The district attorney said when police responded to the reported overdose, they found five stamp bags in the kitchen of the home and a small cut section of a straw. The victim’s girlfriend told police he had been in touch with Todaro, his former drug dealer, before his overdose. Through surveillance video, police say they found Todaro’s vehicle near the victim’s home the day he overdosed. A search warrant executed on the victim’s phone also revealed texts between the victim and Todaro setting up the purchase of drugs, the Westmoreland County district attorney says. Todaro was charged Thursday and remains in the Westmoreland County Prison on a $250,000 bond.
December 10, 2023 8:06 am
HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WPXI) – Police are looking for two teens they say escaped from a juvenile detention center in Westmoreland County. Pennsylvania State Police say Robert Anthony Cogdell, 14, and Braedon Matthew Dickinson, 16, took off from the Westmoreland County Juvenile Detention Center on foot at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. The detention center is at 2771 South Grande Boulevard in Hempfield Township. Cogdell is a black male who is about 5 feet and 10 inches tall. He weighs about 140 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes. Dickinson is also a black male with black hair and brown eyes. He is 5 feet and 9 inches tall and weighs about 160 pounds. Both teens are from Connellsville. State police say the two may be heading to Jeannette, Monessen or Uniontown. Anyone with information is asked to call 911.
December 10, 2023 8:04 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has resigned amid pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy. The university said Saturday evening that the chairman of the Ivy League school’s board of trustees, Scott Bok, also resigned, just hours after Bok announced Liz Magill’s departure as president. Magill had been under fire from some donors and alumni this fall over the university’s handling of various perceived acts of antisemitism. (Photo: AP)
December 9, 2023 6:34 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Ryan O’Neal, who was nominated for an Oscar for the tear-jerker “Love Story” and played opposite his precocious daughter Tatum in “Paper Moon,” has died. O’Neal’s son Patrick said on Instagram that his father died Friday. No cause was given, but Ryan O’Neal was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012. In 1970s films such as “Paper Moon” and Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon,” the actor used his boyish, blond good looks to play men who hid shadowy backgrounds. Twice divorced, O’Neal was romantically involved with actor Farrah Fawcett for more than two decades and remained by her side as she battled cancer. She died in 2009.
December 9, 2023 5:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court in Washington has upheld a gag order on former President Donald Trump in his 2020 election interference case but has eased the restrictions on his speech. The three-judge panel’s ruling Friday modifies the gag order to allow the Republican 2024 presidential front-runner to make disparaging comments about special counsel Jack Smith. Trump has described the gag order as unconstitutional muzzling of his political speech. Trump could appeal the ruling to the full court or to the Supreme Court. Prosecutors say the restrictions are necessary to shield potential witnesses from harassment and threats inspired by Trump’s social media posts. The appeals court says Trump “does not have an unlimited right to speak.”
December 9, 2023 5:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden. Republicans are insisting on pairing the funding with changes to America’s immigration and border policies. GOP senators are trying to move the contours of a border security package sharply to the right after Biden’s declaration that he’s willing to make “significant compromises” to reach a deal. A new proposal laid out by lead GOP negotiator Sen. James Lankford (pictured) of Oklahoma could force the White House to consider proposals that many Democrats will seriously oppose. That’s creating new obstacles in the already fraught negotiations.
December 9, 2023 5:00 am
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli warplanes have struck parts of the Gaza Strip in relentless bombardments including some of the dwindling slivers of land Palestinians had been told to evacuate to in the territory’s south. The latest strikes came after the United States vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza despite it being backed by the vast majority of Security Council members and many other nations. The vote Friday in the 15-member council was 13-1 with the United Kingdom abstaining. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council that Gaza was at “a breaking point” with the humanitarian support system at risk of total collapse, and that he feared “the consequences could be devastating for the security of the entire region.”
December 9, 2023 4:55 am
BULLSKIN TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – A building was reduced to rubble after flames tore through it in Fayette County. Emergency crews were called to the 700 block of Kreinbrook Hill Road in Bullskin Township at 1:45 p.m. on Friday. The building collapsed at some point during the response. Dispatchers say there were no injuries as far as they were aware.
