September 24, 2024 2:51 am
(AP) – Counties in Pennsylvania have started testing their voting equipment to ensure that it’s working properly ahead of the November election. All election equipment used to count votes is tested during the process. This includes everything from machines that tabulate mail ballots to devices used by voters who cast ballots in person. The procedure, known as a logic and accuracy test, involves running a predetermined collection of sample ballots through the machines to confirm that they’re tabulating and processing ballots correctly. The testing helps officials ensure not only that the equipment is functioning properly but that ballots don’t have any proofing errors, such as missing candidates. (Photo: AP)
September 24, 2024 2:40 am
After spending the past eleven years with the Washington City Mission, Dr. Sally Mounts has announced plans to retire, effective September 30th of this year. Mounts, who was originally hired by former President and CEO, Dean Gartland, as a contracted grants writer, quickly moved into her current position as Chief Development Officer. During Mounts time at the mission, the facility’s annual budget grew from two-point-five-million-dollars to more than nine-million-dollars and it expanded from a ninety-six beds to a one-hundred and seventy-four bed facility with four distinct shelters, a medical clinic and career training and education center. As for her future plans, Mounts says she plans to enjoy family, traveling and coming back to the mission, as a volunteer. (Photo courtesy of City Mission. Former President and CEO Dean Gartland w/Dr. Sally Mounts)
September 23, 2024 2:20 am
In an anticipated 2-1 vote, Washington County Commissioners finalized the contract awarding a nearly $24.5 million dollar contract to Motorola Solutions, Inc. for the county’s new emergency radio system. It is an all inclusive system that includes subscriber radios and system management. The contract will take into account all changes recommeded by system consultant Mission Critical Partners, LLC, and the County Solicitor. Commissioner Larry Maggi was the dissenting vote calling the contract process “flawed” saying the contract was awarded and then price negotiations began. Commissioner Nick Sherman disputed that saying that the county had all of the contract numbers weeks ago. The county is now working on trying to recover approximately $8 million from MRA, Inc, the company awarded the contract initially to rebuild the radio system. According to Sherman, after nearly two years, consultants were unable to verify that the system MRA, Inc proposed would be able to be built.
September 18, 2024 3:58 pm
BEIRUT (AP) — Israel’s defense minister declares a “new phase” of war as Hezbollah officials and Lebanon’s state media say explosions went off in Beirut and multiple parts of Lebanon in an apparent second wave of detonations of electronic devices. The Hezbollah officials and state media said Wednesday that walkie-talkies and even solar equipment detonated a day after hundreds of pagers blew up. Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least 14 people were killed and 450 were wounded. Israel’s defense minister made no mention of the mysterious waves of exploding devices in his remarks.
September 18, 2024 5:04 am
Instagram is introducing separate teen accounts for those under 18 as it tries to make the platform safer for children amid growing backlash against how social media affects young people’s lives. The teen accounts will be private by default. Messages are restricted so teens can only get them from people they follow or are already connected to. “Sensitive content,” such as videos of people fighting or those promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited, Meta said. They will get notifications if they are on Instagram for more than 60 minutes and a “sleep mode” will be enabled that turns off notifications and send auto-replies to direct messages from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m.
September 17, 2024 4:56 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Philadelphia voters are filling two vacant seats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. In both cases the Democratic candidates are the only ones on the ballot. Tuesday’s special elections are for positions vacated this summer when state Reps. Donna Bullock and Stephen Kinsey resigned. Keith Harris is seeking Bullock’s seat, and Andre Carroll is in line to succeed Kinsey. Harris and Carroll also face no opposition on the ballot in November for full two-year terms. The state House has a 102-101 Democratic majority, counting the Bullock and Kinsey seats. Polls are open from 7 in the morning until 8 at night.
September 17, 2024 4:51 pm
BEIRUT (AP) — Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded near simultaneously in parts of Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people — including members of the militant group Hezbollah and a young girl. Officials in Lebanon say more than 2,700 were wounded on Tuesday, 200 critically. Hezbollah officials tell The Associated Press that the explosions affected a new brand of pagers used by the militant group. The explosions occurred in the suburbs of Beirut and in other areas that are Hezbollah strongholds. Hezbollah blamed the explosions on Israel. AP has reached out to the Israeli military, which declined to comment.
September 17, 2024 5:11 am
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The man suspected in an apparent assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump camped outside a Florida golf course with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours. That’s according to court documents filed Monday. The papers indicated that the suspect was lying in wait for the former president before a Secret Service agent thwarted the potential attack and opened fire. Officials said Ryan Wesley Routh did not fire any shots, never had Trump in his line of sight and sped away after being shot at by an agent who spotted him. He was arrested in a neighboring county. The 58-year-old Routh appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach to face federal firearms charges. (Photo: AP)
September 17, 2024 5:06 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs has been ordered held without bail in his federal sex trafficking case. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky made the decision Tuesday after hearing lengthy arguments from prosecutors and Combs’ lawyers. Prosecutors wanted the music mogul held without bail. His attorneys proposed that he be released on a $50 million bond to home detention with electronic monitoring. Combs pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. An indictment accuses him of presiding over a sordid empire of sexual crimes, coercing and abusing women for years while using blackmail and shocking acts of violence to keep his victims in line. (Photo: AP)
September 17, 2024 5:03 am
CHARLEROI, Pa. — Despite the nice weather on Monday, it was a quiet afternoon walking up and down the streets of Charleroi. But, the small river town is anything but quiet after it was thrust into the national spotlight over the weekend when former President Donald Trump made comments about the town’s Haitian immigrant population. Speaking at a campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona, Trump mentioned the influx of immigrants to the borough. “The small 4,000-person town of Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Charleroi. What a beautiful name. It’s not so beautiful now. Has experienced a 2,000% increase in the population of Haitian migrants under Kamala Harris,” Trump said. “This is a small town, all of a sudden they’ve got thousands of people.” The comments, amplified by Republican Senate Candidate Dave McCormick this weekend, were not well received by Kristin Hopkins-Calcek, the borough council president “I don’t look kindly at anyone using our town for political gain unless they are willing to offer help,” Hopkins-Cakcek told Channel 11’s Havranek. Hopkins-Calcek said Charleroi’s problems are not because of immigrants. She was out of town Monday attending meetings to try to keep the Anchor Hocking glass plant in town after the company announced plans to close it for good by the end of the year. With the new national attention, she’s calling for elected leaders to send funds to Charleroi to help. One of the things they need help with is students in the school district — many of whom don’t speak English. Channel 11 told you in the spring the district was working to support a growing number of English-as-a-Second-Language students, there are now 225 students in the program — up from 172 in March. “We are one of the only small towns in Pennsylvania that have a population increase and an upturn in our economy,” Hopkins-Calcek. I don’t want anyone’s comments on either side of the aisle to take us back.” Donald Trump won 61% of the vote in Washington County in both 2016 and 2020, and he’s hoping to get more out of the county this November.
