May 21, 2024 4:50 am
The Peters Township School District approved their preliminary budget for the 2024-2025 school year. The $83,070,291 spending plan was unanimously approved and will include a .29 mill tax increase. According to Business Manager Brad Rau, that will mean an increase of $29 for each $100,000 of assessed value of a resident’s home. The budget is balanced and does not include any extraordinary spending items. All items are general maintenance and planned upgrades. Rau went on to say that no programs are being eliminated. The budget will be formally adopted at the board’s June 24 meeting.
May 21, 2024 2:28 am
No injuries were reported in a chemical fire at a CONSOL Energy Plant in East Finley Township. The fire broke out just before six-thirty Monday morning at the Bailey OMNIS Plant. Washington County Public Safety Director Gerry Coleman tells WJPA that a portion of the three-story building collapsed. He says this situation was complicated because the building that caught fire is actually located in Greene County, so crews from there were on site as well. Coleman says officials monitored the air and found no danger to the public. He says a few residents were evacuated early in the day but were then allowed to return to their homes. Coleman says more than twenty-two emergency agencies worked to secure the scene. In a written statement, CONSOL officials said they are aware of the structure fire, but the incident has no direct impact to CONSOL’s mining operations, preparation plant, or its employees. They say OMNIS is a third-party project partner who has confirmed that all employees were accounted for and there were no injuries. The State Police Fire Marshal has been called in to investigate the cause of the blaze.
May 21, 2024 4:56 am
A teen in Western Pennsylvania had to be resuscitated after going into cardiac arrest when he drank a now-discontinued Charged Lemonade from Panera in March. A lawsuit has been filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania over the incident. Luke Adams, 18, bought and consumed a chicken sandwich and a large Charged Lemonade on March 9 in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. He then went to a movie with friends. One noticed Adams was making “unusual sounds” and was unresponsive. Two nurses and a cardiologist who were at the theater performed CPR and used an external defibrillator to keep him alive. Adams had no known health conditions before the incident. Adams also suffered two seizures. Charged Lemonade was discontinued by Panera about two weeks before Adams’ suit — which is one of several — was filed. Before it was discontinued and after the first lawsuits were filed, Panera put a warning on the drink saying to enjoy it in moderation and that it should not be drunk by children, people sensitive to caffeine or pregnant or nursing women.
May 21, 2024 5:06 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers have rested their defense without the former president taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial. The jury was sent home Tuesday until May 28, when closing arguments are expected. Trump did not stop to speak as he left the courthouse and ignored a question about why he wasn’t testifying.. Prosecutors have accused Trump of a scheme to bury negative stories to fend off damage to his 2016 presidential campaign and then falsifying internal business records to cover it up. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
May 21, 2024 5:55 pm
PHOENIX (AP) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani pleaded not guilty Tuesday to nine felony charges stemming from his role in an effort to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Arizona to Joe Biden. Giuliani appeared remotely for the arraignment that was held in a Phoenix courtroom. His trial is scheduled for Oct. 17, about 3 weeks before the U.S. election. His plea follows a not guilty plea by former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward for the same charges. Ward and nine other people were arraigned in a Phoenix courtroom on conspiracy, forgery and fraud charges. The Tuesday arraignments were the second held in the case. (Photo: AP)
May 21, 2024 5:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Donald Trump makes a comeback bid to return to power, Republicans in Congress have become even more likely to cast doubts on President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. A new report from States United Action, a group that targets election deniers, says nearly one-third of the lawmakers in Congress supported in some way Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 presidential results. Several more are running for election this year to the House and Senate. Lizzie Ullmer of States United Action says the public should have a “real healthy dose of concern.” It’s not happening just in Congress. Prominent election deniers also now run the Republican National Committee.
May 21, 2024 5:10 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge has blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a new rule in Texas that would require firearms dealers to run background checks on buyers at gun shows or other places outside brick-and-mortar stores. The decision by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk came before the rule had been set to take effect Monday. The order also prevents the federal government from enforcing the rule against several gun-rights groups, including Gun Owners of America. The requirement is the Biden administration’s latest effort to curtail gun violence. It aims to close a loophole that has allowed unlicensed dealers to sell tens of thousands of guns every year without checking that the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from having a firearm.
May 21, 2024 5:53 pm
CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations says it has suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah due to lack of supplies and insecurity. It also said no aid trucks entered via a pier set up by the U.S. for sea deliveries for the past two days. The U.N. has not specified how many people remain in Rafah after the Israeli military launched an intensified assault there on May 6, but they appear to number several hundred thousand. Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the U.N’s World Food Program, warned that “humanitarian operations in Gaza are near collapse.” She said that if food and other supplies don’t resume entering Gaza in “in massive quantities, famine-like conditions will spread.”
May 21, 2024 5:07 am
France and Belgium have released statements supporting the world’s top war crimes court’s request for arrest warrants for leaders of Israel and Hamas, after Israel and the United States both harshly condemned the effort. International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced his intention to seek warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders, whom he accused of war crimes. His announcement came the same day Israel said it would expand operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in its effort to crush Hamas. Meanwhile, Israeli forces raided a militant stronghold Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, killing at least seven and wounding several.
May 21, 2024 4:59 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Red Lobster’s filing for bankruptcy could impact customers’ ability to use their gift cards and rewards points, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry. The seafood chain filed for bankruptcy on Monday, days after announcing the closures of several locations, including one in Erie. Henry advises people with gift cards, rewards points or coupons to use them “sooner than later.” If you have an issue redeeming rewards or using gift cards or a coupon, you can call the Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection at 1-800-441-2555.
