June 9, 2024 7:36 am
Several agenda items for Washington County Commissioners to consider on Thursday were intergovernmental agreements and memorandums of understanding for participation in the Washington County Land Bank. A unanimous vote found agreements between Fallowfield Township, Chartiers Township, the Charleroi School District and the Chartiers-Houston School District being approved for their participation. According to Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman, the main reason that the entities are participating is to avail themselves to the county’s AA bond rating. Being able to partner with the county through the land bank gives the entities an additional avenue of funding should they be inclined to use it. Participation in the Washington County Land also allows municipalities to fight blight by demolishing unsightly structures and making Washington County a more attractive place to live, according to Sherman. Also approved was a measure to allow not more than $85,000 in blight remediation funds available through the County of Washington Redevelopment Authority to be used by Upper Crust Gourmet Italian Deli, LLC for blight remediation at 15 N. Main Street. The building is not the building that had been recently remodeled, but the one next door that fell down several years ago. Behind the plywood mural on that lot is debris that will be removed. It is unclear what may happen with the lot once it has been cleared.
June 9, 2024 7:35 am
SOUTH PARK TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A woman and a child were found dead in a car in South Park Township on Friday evening. Friday afternoon, a man contacted Mount Lebanon police requesting a welfare check on a 43-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl. Investigators learned the woman’s vehicle was found at Diana Grove, and officers responded to the area after 7 p.m. The woman and child were found dead inside the car. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the woman as Serena Guan and the girl as Abigail Neal. There were no obvious signs of trauma to either the woman or the girl, Allegheny County police said, and information on their cause and manner of death will come from the medical examiner. Police have not given any information on their relationship. Detectives don’t believe there is a threat to the public. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-833-ALL-TIPS.
June 9, 2024 5:09 am
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Donald Trump is scheduled to address a Christian group that calls for abortion to be “eradicated entirely,” as the Republican frontrunner has repeatedly taken credit for the overturning of national abortion rights but said he wants to leave the issue to the states. The former president on Monday will speak virtually at an event put on by The Danbury Institute, which is meeting in Indianapolis. The organization says on its website that it “will not rest” until abortion “is eradicated entirely.” Trump has said he’s proud of appointing Supreme Court justices who played a role in overturning Roe v. Wade and that it’s “a beautiful thing” to watch the states decide the issue.
June 9, 2024 5:07 am
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The criminal trial of President Joe Biden’s son is heading into its final stretch as the defense tries to chip away at the prosecutors’ case laying bare some of the darkest moments of Hunter Biden’s drug-fueled past. Hunter Biden’s lawyers could call at least one more witness when the case resumes Monday in Delaware’s federal court. It’s the first of two trials he’s facing in the midst of his father’s re-election campaign. Hunter Biden is charged with three felonies stemming from the October 2018 purchase of a gun he had for about 11 days. Prosecutors say he lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
June 8, 2024 7:26 am
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel says it has rescued four hostages who were kidnapped in a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7. It is the largest such hostage recovery operation since the war with Hamas began in Gaza. The army said it rescued Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 40, in a complex special daytime operation in Nuseirat. The hostages were rescued in two separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat. Hamas kidnapped some 250 hostages during its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, which triggered the Israel-Hamas war. The rescue comes as international pressure mounts on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which reached its eighth month on Friday.
June 8, 2024 4:55 am
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. secretary-general will tell the Security Council next week that both Israel and Hamas are violating children’s rights and leaving them exposed to danger in their war to eliminate each other. The secretary-general annually makes a global list of states and militias that are menacing children and threatening them. Parties on the list have ranged from the Kachin Independence Army in Myanmar to Russia during its war with Ukraine. Now Israel is set to join them. António Guterres sends the list to the Security Council, which can then decide whether to take action. The United States is one of five veto-wielding permanent council members, and has been reluctant to act against Israel, its longtime ally.
June 8, 2024 4:53 am
PARIS (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden is due to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris as Kyiv’s army endures its hardest days of fighting since the early weeks of the war with Russia and prepares for what officials say could be a tough summer ahead. The United States is by far Kyiv’s biggest supplier of wartime support, and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country. Biden and Zelenskyy attended the 80th anniversary events of D-Day in Normandy, northern France, on Thursday. Biden pledged that “we will not walk away” from Ukraine, drawing a direct line from the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi domination to today’s war against Russian aggression.
June 8, 2024 4:52 am
PARIS (AP) — President Joe Biden is being feted by French President Emmanuel Macron with a state visit this weekend in Paris. The two allies aim to show off their partnership on global security issues and move past trade tensions. The state visit Saturday will begin with a welcome ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe and a military parade leading to the Élysée Palace, where the two will hold official meetings and deliver public statements. Later, Macron will host a dinner at the palace for Biden and his wife, Jill. Both leaders this week have used D-Day 80th anniversary events in France to underscore the urgent need to support Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion.
June 8, 2024 4:50 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers added a vigorous 272,000 jobs in May, accelerating from April and a sign that companies are still confident enough in the economy to keep hiring despite persistently high interest rates. Last month’s strong job growth reflected the durability of America’s consumer-driven economy. With the nation’s households continuing their steady spending, many employers have had to keep hiring to meet their customer demand. The unemployment rate edged up to a still-low 4%, from 3.9%, ending a 27-month streak of unemployment below 4%. That had matched the longest such run since the late 1960s. President Joe Biden is likely to point to Friday’s jobs report as a sign of the economy’s robust health under his administration.
June 8, 2024 4:49 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration is keeping up its biggest push of the eight-month-old war in Gaza to get Israel and Hamas into a cease-fire. But the world is still waiting for signs that the cease-fire appeal that President Joe Biden began a week ago is working. Biden spoke from the White House on May 31 to publicly outline terms of a deal that would halt fighting in Gaza and release hostages. Nimrod Novik, a former adviser to the late Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, says Biden’s outlining of the proposal has served to ‘out’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, by revealing the seriousness of the effort to free hostages held by Hamas.
