April 7, 2023 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans have subpoenaed one of the former Manhattan prosecutors who had been leading a criminal investigation into Donald Trump before quitting last year in a clash over the direction of the probe. House Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan is demanding that Mark Pomerantz testify before the committee by April 30. The subpoena, reviewed Thursday by The Associated Press, is the latest escalation by Republicans as they probe Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, days after a grand jury charged Trump with a 34-count felony indictment in a hush money scheme involving a porn actor.
April 7, 2023 4:16 am
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s GOP-dominated House has expelled two of three Democratic members for their roles in a demonstration in favor of gun control following the Nashville school shooting. The chamber’s split votes to oust Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones on Thursday while narrowly sparing Rep. Gloria Johnson also have drawn accusations of racism. Pearson and Jones are Black, while Johnson is white. Republican leaders deny that race was a factor, however. Expulsions are an extraordinary move that the chamber has used only extremely rarely since the Civil War. They came a week after the trio chanted back and forth from the chamber floor with gun control supporters in the gallery days afer six people died in the school shooting.
April 7, 2023 4:13 am
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has launched rare strikes in southern Lebanon and pressed on with bombing targets in the Gaza Strip. Friday’s strikes marked a widening escalation in the region following violence this week at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site. The cross-border fighting erupted during a delicate time. Jews are are celebrating the Passover holiday and Muslims are marking the Ramadan holy month. Similar tensions spilled over into an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers in 2021. Israeli strikes in Lebanon carry the risk of drawing Lebanon’s heavily armed Hezbollah militia into the fighting. Iran-backed Hezbollah is viewed by Israel as a bitter foe and holds sway over much of southern Lebanon.
April 7, 2023 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is allowing a 12-year-old transgender girl in West Virginia to continue competing on her middle school’s girls sports teams while a lawsuit over a state ban continues. The justices refused to disturb an appeals court order that made it possible for the girl, Becky Pepper-Jackson, to continue playing on her school’s track and cross-country teams, where she regularly finishes near the back of the pack. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas would have allowed West Virginia to enforce its law against Pepper-Jackson.
April 7, 2023 2:49 am
Bruce Bandel has announced his candidacy for Washington County commissioner on the Republican ballot in the May 16th primary. Bandel says he is an experienced entrepreneur and small business owner, having worked for ten years in sales and marketing in door-to-door work as a canvasser and recruiter. He was an Independent Contractor for twenty-two years with Keller Williams Realty where he says he handled both residential and commercial properties serving both buyers and sellers alike; closing deals in excess of one million dollars. Bandel is also an ordained minister of the Gospel; having planted and pastored a small church in Eighty-Four called “In Christ Community Fellowship” for seven years. Currently, Bandel owns and operates Bandel Airport, a privately owned public-use airport in Eighty-Four. Bandel says he will lead by serving “We the People” in Washington County with integrity and virtue. He says he will bring his longstanding business experience and wisdom to county government. Bandel says he believes in term limits to secure continued faith in those who are elected. He says he will ensure financial accountability and transparency to enable the county to fund the government into the future. Bandel says, if elected, he will be focused on reducing the burden of taxes on the people and exploring new ways to empower the business sector to produce good paying jobs.
April 7, 2023 2:41 am
A Monongahela woman has announced her candidacy for Washington County commissioner on the Republican ballot in the May 16th primary. Ashley Duff says she wants to champion revitalization and investment commitments into small-town communities; strengthen partnerships with existing industries like the energy sector, to ensure quality, high-paying jobs for decades to come. Duff says she believes in the concept of term limits, as she has grown tired of career politicians and wants to bring fresh innovative thinking, along with out-of-the-box solutions to serve the needs of the people. Duff’s career has consisted of working in a variety of managerial and administrative positions within the communities of Washington County. During her time in the service industry, she says her leadership and administrative skills were utilized to help grow an upscale Italian Restaurant in Peters Township where she was quickly promoted to front-end trainer, then into management. Next, as an Administrative Assistant and volunteer at Central Assembly of God Church in Chartiers-Houston, Duff says she spearheaded the Hope Dinner Ministry that would serve an elegant sit-down dinner for homeless and low-income guests.
April 6, 2023 8:50 am
BALTIMORE (AP) — More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused more than 600 children over the past 80 years. That’s according to a state report released Wednesday that accused church officials of decades of cover-ups. The disclosure marks a significant development in an ongoing legal battle over their release and adds to a growing pile of evidence from parishes across the country as numerous similar revelations have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years. Former Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh launched the probe in 2019 and announced its completion last November.
April 6, 2023 4:19 am
GLEN ALLEN, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say five people were killed when a tornado tore through an area of rural southeastern Missouri before dawn on Wednesday. The twister caused significant destruction in and around the small communities of Glen Allen and Grassy, about 50 miles south of St. Louis. The tornado was spawned by a large storm system moving through the Midwest and South. That system was the third in a series of massive storms to strike the nation’s heartland over the past two weeks, and the storms have killed at least 65 people. Just last weekend, confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country.
April 6, 2023 4:17 am
NEW YORK (AP) — As lawmakers debate whether to ban TikTok nationwide, its Chinese parent company has stealthily introduced a new app that’s already getting some traction. The app, called Lemon8, is a photo-based app that could be described as a mixture of Instagram and Pinterest with sprinkles of videos that resemble those posted on TikTok. It launched in Asian markets in 2020 and has already made headway in countries like Thailand and Japan. The app was introduced in the U.S. in February with little fanfare. But media attention and promotion by some TikTok influencers has already attracted user interest. The app analytics company data.ai says as of Sunday, Lemon8 had 290,000 downloads in the U.S., the vast majority of which happened in late March.
April 6, 2023 4:15 am
BEIJING (AP) — Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency says Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to reopen diplomatic missions in their respective capitals and in additional cities. The report says the agreement was reached Thursday during a meeting of the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia in Beijing. The agreement also calls for studying the possibility of resuming flights between the two nations and facilitating the visa process for the citizens of both countries. Saudi Arabia and Iran are longtime regional rivals, but have moved toward reconciliation as part of a deal brokered by China last month.
