August 26, 2023 11:44 am
MILL RUN, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say an EF-2 tornado brought down trees and damaged homes as well as a resort and campground in southwestern Pennsylvania, injuring at least six people. The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh said an EF-2 tornado with peak winds estimated at 120 mph was on the ground for more than two miles in Fayette County shortly after 2:30 a.m. Friday. Trees were uprooted across Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park resort and campground in Mill Run, where several hundred campers were present. Officials said three people were injured by falling trees. The park says it is without power and closed for the weekend. Three more people were injured elsewhere.
August 26, 2023 4:36 am
PELLA, Iowa (AP) — Vivek Ramaswamy has charged back into Iowa after his attention-grabbing performance in the first Republican presidential debate. The charismatic 38-year-old businessman was met Friday by hundreds of GOP activists at breakfast and midday events in small central cities near Des Moines. He has more events planned in the coming days. Iowa Republicans are expressing both curiosity and skepticism about Ramaswamy. Some say they like that he is young and energetic. Others question his position that the U.S. should stop providing arms and funding to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.
August 26, 2023 4:32 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial in the nation’s capital to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. The March on Washington, convened by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and members of the King family, is meant to be a rededication to the push for civil rights in the face of a backlash. The original march in 1963 drew as many as 250,000 people and helped till the ground for passage of federal civil rights and voting rights legislation in the next few years.
August 26, 2023 4:28 am
The Wagner Group’s presence extends from Syria to Africa, projecting the Kremlin’s global influence with mercenaries accused of using brutal force and profiting on mineral wealth. But that was under Yevgeny Prigozhin. In what could have been his final video released this week, he boasted that Wagner is “making Russia even greater on all continents and Africa even more free.” On Wednesday, a private jet carrying Prigozhin and his top lieutenants of the mercenary group crashed northwest of Moscow, two months after he led an armed rebellion that weakened the authority of President Vladimir Putin. That crash has raised questions about the future of the Wagner Group without Prigozhin.
August 26, 2023 4:21 am
Governor Josh Shapiro and the Department of Environmental Protection jointly announced that they have secured combustible gas detectors for the Rustic Ridge neighborhood in Plum Borough. This follows a house explosion that killed six and damaged multiple other homes. The detectors will be provided at no cost to the Rustic Ridge Homewners Association. Olympus Energy has provided 250 detectors to be distributed. The origin and cause of the explosion remains undetermined and is under investigation.
August 26, 2023 4:12 am
Power outages continue in Washington County after powerful thuderstorms roared throughout the area. Currently more than 1000 customers are still without power on Saturday morning. Amwell Township is most severely affected with more than 250 outages. According to the West Penn Power website power is expected to be restored by 6:00 pm on Sunday.
August 25, 2023 5:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican and independent support for gun restrictions is slipping a year after Congress passed the most comprehensive firearms safety legislation in decades with bipartisan support. A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows the gap between Democrats and Republicans on the issue of guns is widening. Democrats consistently outpace Republicans and independents in their belief gun laws in the U.S. should be strengthened. The poll finds GOP support has dropped even further behind over the past year. Ninety-two percent of Democrats want stronger gun laws. Republican desire for more expansive legislation has dropped to 32% from 49% last summer. Independents’ support declined slightly to 61% from 72%.
August 25, 2023 5:18 am
HONOLULU (AP) — Maui County has sued Hawaiian Electric Company over the fires that devastated Lahaina, saying the utility negligently failed to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions. Witness accounts and video indicated that sparks from power lines ignited fires as utility poles snapped in the winds, which were driven by a passing hurricane. The Aug. 8 fire killed at least 115 people and left an unknown number of others missing. A Hawaiian Electric statement says they’re “very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding.”
August 25, 2023 5:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane crash presumed to have killed a Russian mercenary leader. Yevgeny Prigozhin was eulogized Thursday by Vladimir Putin, even as suspicions grew that the Russian president was the architect of the assassination. One of the U.S. and Western officials who described the initial assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s history of trying to silence his critics. The officials did not offer any details about what caused the explosion. Several of Prigozhin’s lieutenants were also presumed dead.
August 25, 2023 5:16 am
ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has been booked at a jail in Atlanta, forced to pose for a mug shot as he surrendered on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. Unlike his bookings for three other batches of charges, this one yielded a historic first: the mug shot of a former American president, scowling at the camera. Trump and 18 others were indicted last week, accused of participating in a sprawling conspiracy to overturn his presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The Fulton County prosecution is the fourth criminal case against Trump since March, when he became the first former president in U.S. history to be indicted.
