October 4, 2024 4:53 am
PENSACOLA, N.C. (AP) — The search for victims of Hurricane Helene is dragging into its second week. With at least 215 dead, lack of phone service and electricity continues to hinder efforts to contact the unaccounted for. That means search crews must trudge through the mountains to learn whether residents listed as missing are safe. Exhausted rescue crews and volunteers continue to work long days — navigating past washed out roads, downed power lines and mudslides. Sheriff Quentin Miller of Buncombe County, North Carolina, has a message for those still waiting: “We’re coming to get you. We’re coming to pick up our people.”
October 4, 2024 4:51 am
BEIRUT (AP) — Israel has carried out a series of massive airstrikes overnight in the southern suburbs of Beirut. It had warned people to evacuate communities in southern Lebanon that are outside a United Nations-declared buffer zone. The blasts rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, sending huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shaking buildings kilometers away. On Friday morning, Lebanese state media reported that an Israeli airstrike cut a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria. Also, Israeli forces carried out a strike Thursday in Tulkarem, a militant stronghold in the West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 18 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp there.
October 4, 2024 4:47 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Republican challenger David McCormick have held the first debate in their race for a swing-state seat. Casey tried to drive home the message that McCormick is a carpetbagging ex-hedge fund CEO. McCormick painted Casey as a weak career politician. Each candidate also repeatedly accused the other of lying. One thing the candidates agreed on was opposing the sale of U.S. Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel. Meanwhile they disagreed on preserving the Senate filibuster. Casey supports ending it so senators vote on big issues. McCormick said the filibuster protects moderation.
October 4, 2024 2:39 am
Washington City Council took the last step to repeal a tax that has been around since 1984. Council approved the repeal of the tax that raised revenue to defray costs related to the pension plans of the city. The tax amount levied was .02%. That repeal in combination with an earlier pension refinance issue will save approximately $500,000 in pension payments this year. Earlier in the week an audit of fiscal year 2023 showed a revenue decrease of approximately $500,000. Mayor JoJo Burgess was asked if that shortfall would shine a different light on the sale of the City Garage, he flatly stated “No.” He went on to say that council was not going to let news like that sway them into a quick decision that would not be beneficial to the city’s residents. He did say that they are willing to sell the garage, but not under the terms presented earlier by the county. Burgess thanked Finance Director Ken Westcott and his team for their hard work in repealing that tax. In city business, council did approve a motion to bid the revitalization plans for an empty lot at 70 N. Main Street. The revitalization is a partnership with the Washington Business District Authority to create space for food trucks to operate.
October 4, 2024 2:01 am
Washington County Commissioners voted 2-1 to appoint Snehal Patel of Peters Township to the board of the Washington County Housing Authority. During the nomination, Commissioner Larry Maggi, who cast the dissenting vote, asked the two other commissioners if they knew Patel. Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman said he did and characterized him as a “good guy.” After the meeting, Maggi pointed to Patel’s 2014 guilty plea for possession of controlled substances and possession with intent to deliver controlled substances after a 2012 raid on his Cigarette City store in Washington. When contacted, Sherman stated he had no comment on the matter due to the inability to verify the report. Patel is replacing David Gatling, Sr., President of the Washington Branch NAACP. In county business PennDot will reimburse the county $5.65 million to replace two county bridges. The county will also enter into a master grant agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to receive $2.2 million in funding for housing and supporting services for homeless individuals and families.
October 3, 2024 5:46 pm
(AP) – Month-old twin boys are the youngest known victims of Hurricane Helene. The twins died alongside their mother when a large tree fell through the roof of their home in Thomson, Georgia, last week. The woman’s father, Obie Williams, said one of his sons went to check on the mother and her babies after the storm and found all three dead. Williams is devastated that he will never have the chance to meet his grandsons in person. The death toll from Helene reached 200 on Thursday. Other young victims include a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy from nearby Washington County, Georgia. Meanwhile, searchers are combing the remote mountains of North Carolina to locate the missing and those needing supplies nearly a week after Hurricane Helene barreled through the Southeast. The death toll has surpassed 200 and could rise higher still. Rescue crews and volunteers are just now trying to get to the hardest-to-reach places and finding mudslides, downed trees and washed out roads at every turn. Some are using canoes, horses and all-terrain vehicles to get past. Helene is now the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina. President Joe Biden is touring the disaster zones in Georgia and Florida.
October 3, 2024 4:59 am
(AP) – An Islamic health organization in Lebanon said that an Israeli strike in the capital Beirut killed seven health and rescue workers. The airstrike in the residential Bashoura district overnight targeted an apartment in a multi-story building that houses an office of the Health Society, a group of civilian first responders affiliated to Hezbollah. It was the closest strike to the central downtown district of Beirut, where the United Nations and government offices are located. The strike came as Israel was pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah, while also conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children.
October 3, 2024 4:54 am
KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (AP) — Typhoon Krathon has made landfall in the major port city of Kaohsiung. The slow-moving typhoon has schools and offices closed for a third consecutive day, with authorities asking people to stay indoors. Krathon made landfall around 12:40 p.m. Thursday, packing maximum sustained winds of 78 mph near its center, with gusts of 101 mph. The typhoon has brought Kaohsiung, a city of 2.7 million people, to a standstill for the past three days. Stores and restaurants have been shuttered, and residents are staying away from markets and harbors. All domestic flights have been grounded for the past two days. Some areas have seen more than 5 feet of rainfall over the past five days.
October 3, 2024 4:53 am
BEIRUT (AP) — Israel is pressing forward on two fronts. The military is pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah that left eight Israeli soldiers dead Wednesday and conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. As Israel vowed to retaliate for Iran’s ballistic missile attack a day earlier, the region braced for further escalation. Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and the Hamas militants who run the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip, launched dozens of missiles into Israel on Tuesday night. It was another escalation in a cycle that is pushing the Middle East closer to a regional war. Israel warned that the attack would have repercussions.
October 3, 2024 4:52 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors say Donald Trump laid the groundwork to try to overturn the 2020 election even before he lost, knowingly pushed false claims of voter fraud and “resorted to crimes” in his failed bid to cling to power. A newly unsealed court filing lays out fresh details from the landmark criminal case against the former president. It argues that the former president is not entitled to immunity from prosecution. It was submitted by special counsel Jack Smith’s team following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents and narrowed the scope of the prosecution.
