March 21, 2024 5:03 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired 31 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv before dawn in the first attack on the Ukrainian capital in 44 days. Officials say air defenses shot down all the incoming missiles, though 13 people including a child were injured by falling wreckage. Residents of Kyiv were woken up by loud explosions around 5 a.m. Thursday as the missiles arrived at roughly the same time from different directions. Ukraine’s air force says Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles against the capital. An 11-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man were reported to be hospitalized and eight other people sustained light injuries.
March 21, 2024 3:23 pm
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The last of six former law enforcement officers who tortured two Black men outside Mississippi’s capital has been sentenced. Former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield was given an approximately 10-year federal prison sentence on Thursday. The six white officers were fired and pleaded guilty to subjecting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to numerous acts of racist torture in January 2023. The so-called “Goon Squad” broke into a home where a neighbor complained that the Black men were staying with a white woman. Hartfield tried to destroy evidence of the torture. The sentences for the six ex-officers ranged from about 10 years to 40 years.
March 20, 2024 5:01 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll shows that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States are highly supportive of legal abortion, even in situations where the pregnant person wants an abortion for any reason. The poll from AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that nearly 8 in 10 people who identify as AAPI think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and three-quarters say Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to legal abortions nationwide. Even AAPI Republicans are somewhat supportive of legal abortion: More than half say abortion should be legal in some or all cases.
March 21, 2024 1:09 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Doctors in Boston say they have transplanted a pig kidney into a 62-year-old patient. Massachusetts General Hospital said Thursday it’s the first time a genetically modified pig kidney has been transplanted into a living person. Previously pig kidneys have been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. Also, two men received heart transplants from pigs, although both died within months. The hospital announced the transplant Thursday and said the patient is recovering well.
March 21, 2024 3:32 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Sweet Easter baskets will likely come at a bitter cost this year for consumers as the price of cocoa climbs to record highs. Cocoa futures have roughly doubled in 2024 after surging 61% overall in 2023. Rising temperatures and weather conditions have stressed and damaged crops in West Africa, which produces more than 70% of the global cocoa supply. Big chocolate companies like Hershey’s and Mondelez have been passing those costs on to consumers. That has helped bolster profit margins. Both companies reported shrinking sales volumes for their most recent quarters as consumers grow tired of paying higher prices. (Photo: AP)
March 20, 2024 5:19 am
TEMPE, Arizona (AP) — Joe Biden and Donald Trump are moving closer to a November rematch, as primary voters around the country urge their favored candidate to keep up the fight and worry about what might happen if their side loses this fall. Both candidates are already their parties’ presumptive nominees. Trump easily won Republican primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio. Biden did the same except in Florida, where Democrats had canceled their primary and opted to award all 224 of their delegates to Biden. Both Biden’s and Trump’s campaigns are working to fire up their bases by tearing into each other and warning of the perils of the opponent.
March 20, 2024 5:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has announced new automobile emissions standards that officials call the most ambitious plan ever to cut planet-warming emissions from passenger vehicles. The new rules relax initial tailpipe limits proposed last year but eventually reach nearly the same strict standards set out by the Environmental Protection Agency. The rules announced Wednesday come as sales of electric vehicles, which are needed to meet the standards, have begun to slow. The auto industry cited lower sales growth in objecting to the earlier EPA proposal. Under its final rule, the industry could meet the limits if 56% of new vehicle sales are electric by 2032, along with 13% plug-in hybrids or other partially electric cars and more efficient gasoline-powered cars.
March 20, 2024 5:05 am
JEANNETTE, Pa. — Four children and an adult were killed in a fire Wednesday morning in a home on Guy Street in Jeannette, just off Harrison Avenue. Fire officials tell our news partners at WPXI, an adult and two children were rescued before flames spread out of control. Video from the scene shows intense flames that spread to a neighbor’s home. Both houses are a total loss, officials said. Flames also spread to a vehicle when the house collapsed. “We had an issue with the water supply,” Jeannette Fire Chief Billy Frye said. “The first hydrant that we hit gave us a little bit of water but not even enough to make it up the hill to the scene, so we did run off of tank water at one point. At that point, the fire was well involved and we had to pull our guys out.” The cause of the fire is under investigation.
March 20, 2024 10:22 am
It looks like the Washington City Mission will land a $500,000 LSA grant after all. At the request of County Commissioners, the Local Share Account committee reconvened for a virtual meeting Wednesday morning to again consider the Mission’s grant request towards its women’s shelter project. The meeting lasted less than thirty minutes and ended with a unanimous vote on a motion to amend the original vote and add the project to its list of projects for approval. It now goes back to County Commissioners for a vote that is expected at their Thursday morning meeting. Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi says the project was on an initial list of 51 projects recommended by the LSA Committee for approval totaling $9.2 million but was then excluded from a list commissioners approved last month that totaled 50 projects and $8.7 million. Former, longtime Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan (pictured) is now the President and CEO of the City Mission and took part in the the virtual meeting. She and others from the Mission answered questions from the board before the vote was taken. Irey Vaughan is thrilled that the project will land the funding. Maggi, who led the effort to get the project back to the LSA board, is also happy. He tells WJPA News the committee “did the right thing” but he also has concerns that what transpired will lead some to question the grant awarding process.
March 20, 2024 5:12 am
Charleroi Borough Council has made it official, Joe Manning is back as their Manager. The former Washington City Councilman was officially hired on a 5-2 vote during a reconvened meeting Tuesday. He is to receive a salary of $63,000. Council members Larry Celaschi and Joe Smith voted against. According to the Mon Valley Independent, Celaschi expressed concerns about Manning’s education and experience. Manning was initially hired as Charleroi’s Manager back in June of 2021 but served only six months before leaving in January of 2022. No official reason was provided and a non-disclosure agreement was reached between the two sides.
