September 9, 2023 4:48 am
ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has denied Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ request to move his Georgia election subversion case from state court to federal court. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones’ ruling Friday is a win for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Willis spent 2 1/2 years building the case against Meadows, Republican ex-President Donald Trump and 17 others before obtaining the indictment under Georgia’s anti-racketeering law. Willis wants to try the defendants together. The defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges they participated in a scheme to illegally try to overturn Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss in Georgia. Meadows says his actions were taken as part of his role as chief of staff.
September 9, 2023 4:45 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem endorsed former President Donald Trump at a party fundraiser in Rapid City Friday night that doubled as an opportunity for Noem to showcase herself as a potential vice presidential pick. As his rivals held town halls and meet-and-greets in early voting states, Trump headlined the South Dakota Republican Party’s “Monumental Leaders Rally” in Rapid City, where Noem, once considered a potential 2024 candidate in her own right, instead threw her support behind the former president. “I will do everything I can to help him win and save this country,” Noem said as she formally offered her endorsement before Trump took the stage.
September 9, 2023 4:41 am
ATLANTA (AP) — Experts say that Hurricane Lee is rewriting old rules of meteorology. It left meteorologists astonished at how rapidly it grew into a goliath Category 5 hurricane. Experts say Lee could also be a dreadful harbinger of what is to come as ocean temperatures climb. The warming ocean waters act as jet fuel to spawn fast-growing major hurricanes. Experts say that could lead to more monster storms and threaten communities farther north and farther inland. That could bring new woes to places such as Washington, D.C., New York and Boston.
September 9, 2023 4:04 am
PITTSBURGH —(WPXI)- The creator of the iconic Mr. Yuk symbol has died. According to his obituary, Dr. Richard Moriarty, from Pittsburgh, died peacefully on Sept. 7 at the age of 83. Dr. Moriarty was born and raised in Lawrenceville and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor’s degree in science and his degree in medicine from Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. Dr. Moriarty spent the duration of his career in the Steel City before founding the Pittsburgh Poison Center at Children’s Hospital. There, he instituted the development of a poison-prevention education program that included the creation of Mr. Yuk. According to his obituary, Mr. Yuk, the green-face poison warning symbol, has been cited by some as the world’s first emoji.
September 9, 2023 3:56 am
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania officials say a prison tower guard has been fired after a convicted murderer slipped out on his watch in a brazen escape. The nine-day-old search pressed on Friday amid suburbs, farms and a vast botanical garden. A Chester County spokesperson says the guard was fired Thursday. Officials say he was on duty in the watchtower Aug. 31 when Danelo Cavalcante scaled a wall and jumped from a roof. Cavalcante has since eluded hundreds of law enforcement personnel in the suburbs and farmlands southwest of Philadelphia. The search on Friday focused around Longwood Gardens, which was closed indefinitely after reports that Cavalcante may have been spotted there.
September 8, 2023 5:03 am
ATLANTA (AP) — A special grand jury seated to help an investigation by the Georgia prosecutor who ultimately indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 others had recommended charging many more people, including South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, two former senators from Georgia and Michael Flynn. The special grand jury’s report was released Friday. Part of the report was released in February, but a judge said at the time that any parts recommending charges against specific people would not immediately be disclosed. But after 19 people were indicted last month on charges associated with efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the judge said the report could be released.
September 8, 2023 5:01 am
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Lee is whirling through open waters toward the northeast Caribbean becoming the first Category 5 storm of the Atlantic season. Lee was not expected to make landfall although forecasters said tropical storm conditions are possible on some islands. Meteorologists said it was too early to provide details on potential rainfall and wind gusts. The Category 5 hurricane was located about 705 miles (1,135 kilometers) east of the northern Leeward Islands. It had winds of up to 160 miles per hour (260 kilometers per hour) and was moving west-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph).
September 8, 2023 4:59 am
The fate of abortion rights in Florida will be at stake when the state Supreme Court is expected to take up a challenge to a law banning the procedure in most cases after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That will determine whether an even stricter six-week ban signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis can take effect. The seven justices are set to hear oral arguments Friday morning in the lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and others. They claim the Florida Constitution’s privacy clause for more than 40 years has explicitly protected a right to abortion in the state. State lawyers claim the privacy clause is wrongly applied to abortion.
September 8, 2023 4:58 am
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian authorities are holding local elections this weekend in occupied parts of Ukraine in an effort to tighten their grip on territories Moscow illegally annexed a year ago and still does not fully control. The voting for Russian-installed legislatures in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions begins Friday and concludes Sunday. It has already been denounced by Kyiv and the West. Ukrainian lawmakers urged other countries not to recognize the results of the vote. One analyst said it is important for Russia to go on with the voting to maintain the illusion of normalcy.
September 8, 2023 4:56 am
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — The hunt for an elusive murderer who escaped a Pennsylvania prison has stretched into a second week. Residents of the Philadelphia suburbs where he’s believed to be hiding say they’re on edge but comforted by the police presence. Hundreds of heavily armed searchers are scouring roads, neighborhoods and dense woodlands. Danelo Souza Cavalcante, a 34-year-old from Brazil, got a life sentence last month for killing his ex-girlfriend in 2021. He escaped a county jail on Aug. 31 while awaiting transfer to state prison. His breakout mirrored an earlier escape there in May and wasn’t detected by guards for a full hour
