January 4, 2024 1:44 pm
Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding unveiled the 2024 PA Farm Show Butter Sculpture, a 1,000-pound diorama in dairy titled, A Table for All: Pennsylvania Dairy Connects Communities. The sculpture was designed and crafted by Jim Victor and Marie Pelton of Conshohocken to reflect the 2024 Farm Show theme, Connecting Our Communities, and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of PA Preferred®, Pennsylvania’s statewide brand for locally grown and made agricultural products. “Pennsylvania’s $14 billion dairy industry provides jobs 53,000 Pennsylvanians and makes up a third of our state’s food agriculture industry,” Secretary Redding said. “Our hardworking dairy farm families are connecting Pennsylvanians to opportunity and feeding our prosperity together. The Shapiro Administration is working hard to connect our dairy industry to future economic opportunities. We are proud to invest in dairy and highlight the industry and its innovative leaders during the Farm Show and year-round.” Pennsylvania dairy farmer Walt Moore of Walmoore Holsteins in Chester County, and a host of PA dairy industry leaders joined Redding to unveil the sculpture, which depicts urban and rural Pennsylvanians connecting around a meal of delicious local food against a backdrop of a cityscape and farm skyline. The diners are celebrating a harvest of PA products with a centerpiece of the keystone-and-check-mark PA Preferred logo.
January 4, 2024 11:58 am
(WPXI) – A Monroeville police officer was shot multiple times after spotting a person suspected in an armed robbery at Crumbl Cookie Wednesday night. Police were called to the Crumbl Cookie in Miracle Mile Shopping Center for an armed robbery at 9:13 p.m. According to the criminal complaint, the person who called 911 said there was a Black male dressed in all black with a black hoodie armed with a handgun. Officers responding to the scene were told to keep an eye out for anyone matching that description. At 9:17 p.m., a Monroeville sergeant was traveling east on Monroeville Boulevard near Stonecliffe Drive. The sergeant saw an individual that matched the description of the suspect. According to the complaint, body cam footage showed the sergeant making a U-turn after he passed a male on the road. He relayed he was getting out with one male at the entrance of Stonecliff Drive, which was when the suspect fired multiple rounds at the police vehicle. The officer radioed that he was taking shots from a male in an orange vest armed with a gun. The complaint said the sergeant was shot at least three times in the left elbow and left hip. He was taken to the hospital and is listed in critical but stable condition. Police have not identified the adult male suspect.
January 4, 2024 10:15 am
PERRY, Iowa (AP) — Police said a sixth grader was killed and five other people were wounded by a 17-year-old suspect in the shooting Thursday at a small-town Iowa high school. The shooter, identified as Dylan Butler, was found dead from what they believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police in Perry, Iowa, say multiple people were shot at the city’s high school, on students’ first day back in classes after their annual winter break. A spokesperson said two gunshot victims were taken by ambulance to a hospital in the state capital of Des Moines, about 40 miles southeast of Perry. In Perry, Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante says an active shooter was reported at Perry High School before school started on Thursday and officers responded about seven minutes later. The shooting occurred in the backdrop of the Iowa caucuses and not far from where Republican candidates were campaigning. (Photo: AP)
January 4, 2024 5:10 am
PERRY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a 17-year-old student with a shotgun and a handgun opened fire at a small-town Iowa high school, killing a sixth-grader and wounding five others. Thursday’s shooting had students at Perry High School barricading themselves in offices, ducking into classrooms and fleeing. Authorities say one of the wounded was a school administrator and the suspect was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. investigators are looking at possible motive and reviewing the suspect’s social media posts. Two friends and their mother who spoke with The Associated Press said the suspect was a quiet person who had been bullied for years.
January 4, 2024 5:09 am
MUWASI, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians seeking refuge in southern Gaza say every day has become a desperate struggle to find food, water, medicine and working bathrooms. They often spend hours waiting in line for aid distributed by the U.N. Families also live in fear of Israeli airstrikes and the growing threat of diseases. Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion to eradicate Hamas have pushed almost all Palestinians toward Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah. In nearly every plot of land that stretches west from the city, thousands of nylon tents have sprung up for those without a house to shelter in.
January 4, 2024 5:07 am
DETROIT (AP) — American consumers bought 15.6 million new vehicles last year. The numbers indicate car buyers were undeterred by high prices, rising interest rates, autoworker strikes and a computer-chip shortage that slowed assembly lines. The tally is 12% more than in 2022, and the biggest increase in more than a decade. Yet sales still haven’t returned to the 17 million rate in the years before the pandemic, and there are signs of a cooling market as supplies grow on dealer lots and prices start to fall. Average auto sales prices peaked in December of 2022 just over $47,300. Data from J.D. Power show that average prices in mid-December were down 2.7% from the peak to around $46,000. Analysts expect more discounts through the year.
January 4, 2024 5:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers posted 8.8 million job openings in November, down slightly from October and the fewest since March 2021. But demand for workers remains strong by historical standards. The number of job vacancies dipped from 8.9 million in October. And the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in the labor market — fell to its lowest level since February 2021. The number of quits is now roughly where it stood before the pandemic erupted. Job openings dropped by 128,000 in transportation, warehousing and utilities and by 78,000 at hotels and restaurants. The federal government reduced job openings by 58,000. By contrast, openings in construction rose by 43,000 and in retail by 42,000.
January 4, 2024 5:04 am
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Officials say South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has been released from prison on parole after serving nearly nine years in prison for killing his girlfriend. The Department of Corrections gave no more details of Pistorius’ release. The announcement came around 8:30 a.m., indicating that officials released the world-famous double-amputee Olympic runner early in the morning. Pistorius has served nearly nine years of his almost 13-and-a-half-year murder sentence for killing model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013. He was approved for parole in November. Serious offenders in South Africa are eligible for parole after serving at least half their sentence.
January 4, 2024 5:03 am
NEW YORK (AP) — A winter weather system moving through the U.S. is expected to wallop the East Coast this weekend with a mix of snow and freezing rain. But forecasters say it’s too soon to say which areas will get snow and which will get rain and how much. The Pacific system is moving through Western and Southern states before moving up the East Coast this weekend. Major U.S. cities accustomed to white winters didn’t receive much snow last year due to a lack of cold air. The National Weather Service in New York City said this week that 2023 would go down as the city’s “least snowiness” year, with just 2.3 inches measured in Central Park.
January 4, 2024 5:01 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is spending the third anniversary of a mob of his supporters overrunning the U.S. Capitol by campaigning to win back the White House. He has two events in Iowa and repeats lies that seek to reframe how the country remembers the deadly insurrection. President Joe Biden is marking the same milestone on Friday in Philadelphia, where he’ll brand Trump and top supporters of his “Make America Great Again” movement as dire threats to American democracy. Both are talking about the same events in very different ways — with each offering framing they believe gives them a political advantage.
