May 14, 2024 5:13 am
BALTIMORE (AP) — Crews have set off a chain of explosives to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. The demolition Monday marks a major step in freeing the grounded Dali container ship. The span landed on the ship’s bow after the Dali lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s support columns shortly after leaving Baltimore on March 26. Since then, the ship has been stuck amid the wreckage and Baltimore’s busy port has been closed to most maritime traffic. The controlled demolition will allow the Dali to be refloated and restore traffic through the port.
May 14, 2024 5:09 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced diplomatic mission to reassure Ukraine that it has American support as it struggles to defend against increasingly intense Russian attacks. The two-day visit starting Tuesday comes less than a month after Congress approved a long-delayed foreign assistance package that sets aside $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, much of which will go toward replenishing badly depleted artillery and air defense systems. It’s Blinken’s fourth trip to Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. U.S. officials say Blinken will underscore the Biden administration’s commitment to Ukraine’s defense and long-term security.
May 14, 2024 5:08 am
The United Nations says more than half a million Palestinians have been displaced in recent days by escalating Israeli military operations in both southern and northern Gaza. Aid workers are struggling to distribute dwindling supplies to Palestinians in makeshift tent camps facing catastrophic levels of hunger. The United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees says around 450,000 Palestinians were driven from the southern Gaza city of Rafah over the past week. The U.N. said Monday that 100,000 people were displaced so far by Israeli evacuation orders in northern Gaza. Israeli forces are battling militants in northern areas despite launching major operations earlier in the war. Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes in central Gaza killed at least 12 people overnight and into Tuesday.
May 14, 2024 5:05 am
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Republican voters have advanced strong Senate contenders in Maryland and West Virginia, giving the GOP a big boost in its push to claim control of Congress’ upper chamber. Former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan claimed the Republican nomination in what will be a marquee race in Maryland against Angela Alsobrooks, a top local official who could become the fourth Black woman in U.S. history to serve in the Senate. Another popular Republican, Gov. Jim Justice, won the Senate nomination in deep-red West Virginia, becoming the overwhelming favorite in the race that represents the GOP’s best pickup opportunity in the nation.
May 14, 2024 5:04 am
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — Punxsutawney Phil’s offspring have names that just might help the famed weather-forecasting groundhog to predict when spring will begin. Phil’s human handlers chose Mother’s Day to announce that the two kits born this spring to Phil and his partner, Phyllis, are named Sunny and Shadow. Sunny is a female, Shadow a male. Each spring, Phil makes a prediction about the length of the remaining winter. According to tradition, if he sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of cold. The club received hundreds of suggested names for the marmot babies. The groundhog family lives in a climate-controlled burrow at the local library.
May 14, 2024 5:04 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s defense attorneys have grilled prosecutors’ star witness in his hush money trial, portraying former attorney Michael Cohen as a media-obsessed liar who’s determined to see the former president behind bars. Cohen on Tuesday endured intense questioning by Trump’s legal team after providing pivotal testimony tying the presumptive Republican presidential nominee directly to the hush money scheme at the heart of the case. Cohen will return to the witness stand Thursday for more cross-examination before prosecutors rest their case. Trump denies any wrongdoing in the case, which he has portrayed as an effort to hurt his 2024 presidential campaign.
May 14, 2024 5:00 am
FINLEYVILLE, Pa. — (WPXI) – Joyce and Gene Abel were throwing a birthday party for their 4-year-old granddaughter, Thea, on Saturday and said they didn’t see or hear it coming. “Wind started to pick up a little bit, I was leaning on the railing, that tornado appeared right there – right in front of my face,” Abel recalled. Gene was outside with his son and said the tornado was roaring and he couldn’t hear anyone yelling for him to get inside. “I literally had to hold onto that railing, it was pulling my feet out from under me,” Abel said. “It couldn’t have lasted any more than 30 seconds.” Abel says the kids made it safely into the basement just before the roof of the home was sucked up into the air. His massive, 200-year-old oak trees were twisted and snapped. Insulation and debris are now tangled in the limbs. Dead birds were found all over his front yard. You can see the path the tornado took, tearing through town from Abel’s house to Crossroads Ministries on Walter Long Road. Nearly 100 people were inside the church during Saturday evening mass when the tornado hit. The windows of the church were blown out and the glass cut a couple of people inside as it swirled in the wind. They were not seriously hurt. The Abels don’t yet know if their home is a total loss but they’re preparing to be in a hotel for the next eight months.
May 14, 2024 2:14 am
(WPXI) – A West Virginia man was stopped with a loaded gun at Pittsburgh International Airport on Monday, May 13, a day after a Pennsylvania man who was also carrying a loaded gun was stopped. Transportation Security Administration agents found a .380 caliber handgun loaded with six bullets on Monday. The catch brings the total number of guns caught at the airport’s checkpoints to 14 so far this year. All of the guns were loaded.
May 14, 2024 1:51 am
A world-renowned forensic pathologist who served Allegheny County for two decades has died. A spokesperson for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts confirmed Cyril Wecht died on Monday. He was 93. During his time as the Allegheny County coroner, Wecht performed about 21,000 autopsies and reviewed or been consulted on 42,000 additional postmortem exams, according to a biography on Duquesne University. Some of the high-profile cases he was involved in include O.J. Simpson, Kurt Cobain, the Menendez Brothers, Scott Peterson, Chandra Levy, Elvis Presley and Jeffrey Epstein. He likewise investigated the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. He detailed his career and personal life, including his professional pitfalls and public corruption trial, in a memoir titled “The Life and Deaths of Cyril Wecht: Memoirs of America’s Most Controversial Forensic Pathologist.” Wecht held faculty positions at several Pittsburgh area schools, including the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University and Carlow University.
May 13, 2024 5:28 pm
BALTIMORE (AP) — Crews have conducted a controlled demolition to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. The demolition Monday marks a major step in freeing the grounded Dali container ship. The span landed on the ship’s bow after the Dali lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s support columns shortly after leaving Baltimore on March 26. Since then, the ship has been stuck amid the wreckage and Baltimore’s busy port has been closed to most maritime traffic. The controlled demolition will allow the Dali to be refloated and restore traffic through the port.
