April 24, 2024 5:03 am
Republican York County District Attorney Dave Sunday and Democratic former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale won their parties’ nominations for state attorney general Tuesday evening, with Sunday defeating a single opponent and DePasquale topping a field of five candidates. Sunday has been elected twice as district attorney in York County, where he lives in Spring Garden Township. He also has served as a special assistant U.S. attorney. The five-candidate fray among Democrats was the biggest field among the primary elections for statewide row offices. Incumbent Attorney General Michelle Henry, appointed to the job by Gov. Josh Shapiro in 2023 after he became governor, is not seeking election.
April 24, 2024 5:01 am
Democrats nominated Erin McClelland, a two-time congressional candidate from Harrison, Allegheny County, who has helped run various human services organizations, to challenge Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, and they nominated state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta of Philadelphia to challenge Republican state Auditor General Tim DeFoor. Ms. McClelland prevailed despite being heavily outspent by her party-endorsed rival.
April 24, 2024 2:44 am
The Freedom Transit began a series of public hearings on Tuesday to seek public opinion on proposed rate changes that could go into effect this summer. The hearing describes how rates will be streamlined and how some riders will see an increase in fares and how others will see a decrease. Currently Freedom Transit has four separate fares ranging from $1.50 to $5.00 depending on destination. The new proposal will look to institute a two tiered price system of $2.00 for Washington County Travel and $4.00 for Allegheny County travel. Effectively, riders that currently pay fares in Zone 1 will see an increase of fifty cents. Riders who pay fares in Zones 2 and 3 will see price decreases of fifty cents and $1.50. Allegheny County riders would see a decrease of $1.00. According to Emma Brzustowicz, Outreach and Marketing Coordinator for Freedom Transit, they have not had a fare increase since 2012. The reasons for the increase are related to inflationary costs that have risen by 35.2% for Freedom Transit since the last rate increase. That fare schedule would also align with what the Mid Mon Valley Transit Authority charges. This was the first of four public hearings scheduled. The other three will be on April 30 from noon to 2:00 PM at the Heritage Public Library in McDonald, also on April 30 from 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM at the Frank Sarris Public Library in Canonsburg and once again on May 1 from noon to 7:00 PM at the Freedom Transit Transportation Center in Washington. After the input has been examined, if the rate changes are approved they would go into effect on July 1.
April 23, 2024 2:21 am
A deal between the city of Washington and the Washington School District – to renovate the Colt Baseball Field at Washington Park is dead. The school board, Monday night, voted to rescind an agreement with the city, on what would have been a two-million-dollar project. The work would have included a turf field for the school’s baseball and softball teams and other youth programs to play on. District Superintendent George Lammay tells WJPA that the district is now looking at other options, options that will not include engaging with the city. Last August, the two sides had informally agreed to the project, a project that Lammay says he saw as a win-win for the city and the school district.. Washington Mayor JoJo Burgess says city officials have been in constant contact and had meetings with the district’s solicitor and the school board president regarding some land issues that needed to be dealt with before any official agreement could be signed. He tells WJPA that the city plans to do everything by the book and legally, so if the district doesn’t want to wait, perhaps it is a good idea that they seek other options.
April 23, 2024 2:37 am
A Donora man has died after being struck by a train late Monday night. Authorities say 30-year-old Cody David Kimmel was struck by a train around eleven-thirty near 65 East First Street in Donora. He was taken to Penn Highlands Monongahela Valley Hospital where he died a short time later. The incident is under investigation by the Donora Police Department and the Norfolk Southern Railroad Police. An autopsy is pending.
April 24, 2024 5:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is considering a case that will determine when doctors can provide abortions during medical emergencies in states with bans enacted after the high court’s sweeping decision overturning Roe v. Wade. The case’s hearing begins Wednesday and comes from Idaho, which is one of 14 states that now ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy with limited exceptions. The Biden administration argues that even in states where abortion is banned, federal health care law says hospitals must be allowed to terminate pregnancies in rare emergencies where a patient’s life or health is at serious risk. Idaho contends its ban has exceptions for life-saving abortions but allowing it in more medical emergencies would turn hospitals into “abortion enclaves.”
April 23, 2024 5:09 am
NEW YORK (AP) — A veteran tabloid publisher has testified that he pledged to be Donald Trump’s “eyes and ears” during his 2016 presidential campaign, recounting for a jury how he promised the then-candidate that he would help suppress harmful stories and had even arranged to purchase a doorman’s silence. The testimony on Tuesday from David Pecker was designed to bolster prosecutors’ assertions of a decades-long friendship between Trump and the former publisher of the National Enquirer that culminated in an agreement to give the candidate’s lawyer a heads-up on negative tips and stories so they could be quashed.
April 24, 2024 5:08 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests. At the University of Texas at Austin, dozens of local police and state troopers formed a line to prevent students from marching through the campus Wednesday, eventually clashing with the protesters and detaining multiple people. And at the University of Southern California, police removed several tents, then got into a tugging match with protesters before falling back. The actions across the U.S. came after Columbia University averted another confrontation between students and police earlier in the day.
April 24, 2024 5:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles, striking a Russian military airfield in Crimea and Russian troops in another occupied area overnight. The strikes come about a month after the U.S. secretly provided the weapons so Ukraine could strike targets up to 190 miles away. One U.S. official says the delivery of the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, was approved by President Joe Biden in February, and then in March the U.S. included a “significant” number of them in a $300 million aid package announced. The official says the U.S. is providing more in the latest aid package.
April 24, 2024 5:13 am
SYDNEY (AP) — Australian police say they have arrested seven teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology in raids around Sydney to protect the community from a potential attack. They say the seven arrested Wednesday are part of a network that includes a 16-year-old boy who is accused of the stabbing of a bishop in a Sydney church last week. Five other teenagers were still being questioned late Wednesday by the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team. Officials say more than 400 police officers executed 13 search warrants at properties across southwest Sydney on Wednesday because the teens were considered an immediate threat. They say investigators found no evidence of specific targets for any intended “violent act.”
