February 23, 2024 5:15 am
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A private lander has made the first U.S. moon landing in more than 50 years. Intuitive Machines’ lander touched down Thursday, but left flight controllers scrambling before gaining better contact. Tension mounted in the company’s Houston control center when there was no immediate word from the lander following the designated touchdown time. A faint signal finally was acquired. Once communication was improved, the company confirmed the lander was upright and starting to send back data. The landing put the U.S. back on the moon for the first time since NASA’s Apollo moonwalkers.
February 23, 2024 5:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department plans to impose more than 500 new sanctions on Russia and its war machine on Friday as the U.S. vows to keep up its financial pressure on Moscow with the war entering its third grueling year. The sanctions represent the largest single tranche of penalties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. They come on the heels of a series of new arrests and indictments announced by the Justice Department on Thursday that target Russian businessmen and their middlemen in five separate federal cases. The Biden administration is seeking to demonstrate its unwavering support for Ukraine, even though Republican lawmakers allied with former President Donald Trump are blocking vital additional U.S. military aid.
February 23, 2024 5:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s legal team has filed multiple motions urging a Florida judge to dismiss the criminal case charging him with illegally retaining classified documents. They claim in part that presidential immunity protects him from prosecution — an argument they have already submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in his election interference case. Trump faces dozens of felony counts in federal court in Florida accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. The case is currently set for trial on May 20, but that date could be pushed back.
February 23, 2024 5:09 am
Hamas says its top political leader has left Egypt after holding talks with Egyptian officials about a possible cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, and an exchange of hostages held by the militants for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. During Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, militants killed about 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages. Roughly half of the hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. About 100 hostages remain in captivity, in addition to the bodies of 30 others who were killed in the October incursion or died in captivity. Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians and driven some 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes.
February 23, 2024 4:59 am
The Canon-McMillan School Board met Thursday and began planning for the next school year. Directors adopted the school calendar for the 2024-2025 school year. The first day of school is slated for August 22. The last day of school will be June 2, 2025. Christmas break will take place from December 23 through January 1. In other board activity, Director Julie Chandler (pictured) was honored by the Pennsylvania School Board Association Trust Initiative. She was chosen as one of fifteen school directors to take part in a one week international study group to tour Germany and study educational practices of German schools and make recommendations to school districts in Pennsylvania. She will travel to Bonn, Cologne and Dortmund. This is the first international study group that has been formed in cooperation with the PSBA. Chandler filled out an application, provided a biography along with a letter of interest and statement of her involvement in education. Chandler announced the honor during the meeting saying she is quite humbled to be selected.
February 22, 2024 4:39 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former talk show host Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with the same form of dementia that actor Bruce Willis has. A statement released on behalf of her caretakers Thursday says the 59-year-old’s diagnoses of primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia “have already presented significant hurdles in Wendy’s life” and have behavioral and cognitive impacts. The announcement came a day after a cover story in People magazine quoted Williams’ family about the nature of her struggles, ahead of a Lifetime documentary set to air Saturday. A representative listed on the release referred questions back to the statement. (Photo: AP)
February 22, 2024 4:34 pm
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Prosecutors say negligence by a movie weapons supervisor in handling ammunition and weapons during the filming of the Western “Rust” contributed to actor Alec Baldwin fatally shooting a cinematographer during a rehearsal. They delivered an opening statement Thursday as the trial began for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed on charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the October 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Gutierrez-Reed has pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintains she’s not directly to blame for Hutchins’ death. Baldwin also has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. A trial date has not been set for him. (
February 22, 2024 7:52 am
(AP) – AT&T says it has restored wireless coverage after an outage knocked out cellphone service on its network across the U.S. for hours. A statement from the Dallas-based company Thursday says it has service to all its affected customers. Outage tracker Downdetector noted that outages began at about 3:30 a.m. ET and peaked at around 73,000 reported incidents. AT&T had more than 58,000 outages around noon ET, in locations including Houston, Atlanta and Chicago. The carrier has more than 240 million subscribers, the country’s largest. By 3:30 p.m. ET, the reports were down to fewer than 3,000.
February 22, 2024 5:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is considering using provisions of federal immigration law repeatedly tapped by former President Donald Trump to unilaterally enact a sweeping crackdown at the southern border. That’s according to three people familiar with the deliberations. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing White House deliberations. The administration has been exploring options that President Joe Biden could deploy on his own without congressional approval after House Republicans blocked a bipartisan border bill. But the plans are nowhere near finalized and it’s unclear how the administration would draft any such executive actions in a way that would survive the inevitable legal challenges.
February 22, 2024 5:15 am
LONDON (AP) — Yulia Navalnaya used to avoid the cameras, staying in the background while her husband, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, rose to become President Vladimir Putin’s greatest foe. But following his death in prison last week, she vowed that Putin and his allies would be brought to justice over his death. And she solemnly vowed to continue her husband’s work. It was an ambitious statement from a woman who once said in an interview that her “key task” was caring for the couple’s children and home. Yulia Navalnaya’s new job will be leading the Russian opposition through one of its darkest and most turbulent times.
