December 28, 2022 2:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s top elections official is fully certifying results from the November vote after recount petitions in some counties delayed the process. The Department of State said Tuesday that acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman completed certification of all races in the 2022 midterm election on Thursday. The final tally comes less than two weeks before members of Congress and state lawmakers are due to be sworn in on Jan. 3. The state’s next governor, Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro, will be inaugurated on Jan. 17. Recount petitions in at least 27 of the state’s 67 counties caused delays in the certification process.
December 27, 2022 5:42 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court is keeping pandemic-era limits on people seeking asylum in place indefinitely, dashing hopes of immigration advocates who had been anticipating their end this week. The restrictions, often referred to as Title 42, were put in place under then-President Donald Trump at the beginning of the pandemic to curb the spread of COVID-19. They have been used 2.5 million times to prevent migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. Conservative-leaning states argued that lifting the restrictions would lead to a massive increase in migrants, and pushed the court to intervene. Immigration advocates say the U.S. has moral and international obligations to offer asylum to people fleeing persecution. The case will be argued in February.
December 27, 2022 8:57 am
DALLAS (AP) – Southwest Airlines scrubbed thousands of flights again in the aftermath of the massive winter storm that wrecked Christmas travel plans across the U.S., and the federal government said it would investigate why the company lagged so far behind other carriers. A day after most U.S. airlines had recovered from the storm, Southwest called off 2,500 more flights on the East Coast by midday Tuesday. The FlightAware tracking service reported that those flights accounted for more than 80 percent of the 3,000 trips that got canceled nationwide Tuesday. The chaos seemed certain to continue. The airline also scrubbed 2,500 flights for Wednesday and nearly 1,000 for Thursday.
December 27, 2022 4:21 am
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) – The co-leader of a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. Adam Fox’s sentence is the longest of anyone convicted in the plot so far, though it’s significantly shorter than the life sentence that prosecutors sought. Fox returned to federal court Tuesday, four months after he and Barry Croft Jr. were convicted of conspiracy charges. They were accused of organizing a wild plot to whip up anti-government extremists just before the 2020 presidential election. Whitmer wasn’t physically harmed. The FBI was secretly embedded in the group and broke things up with 14 arrests. The government said Fox urged recruits to take up arms and kidnap the governor.
December 27, 2022 4:19 am
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) – A fourth electrical substation was vandalized late on Christmas Day in Washington state, leaving homes in Kapowsin and Graham temporarily without power. By 7 a.m. Monday, more than 10,500 Puget Sound Energy customers were without electricity across the region. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office says the suspects broke into a fenced area and vandalized equipment, causing a fire. The fire was extinguished and power was later restored, but no suspects are in custody. The attacks come as federal officials are warning that the U.S. power grid needs better security to prevent domestic terrorism and after a large outage in North Carolina earlier this month that took days to repair.
December 27, 2022 4:18 am
The holiday shopping season – for Mega Millions lottery ticket buyers, at least – is ramping up as officials say the estimated jackpot for Tuesday night’s drawing has surpassed half a billion dollars. As of late Monday, lottery officials estimate Tuesday’s prize at $565 million – or more than $293 million if delivered in cash – after there were no lucky winners holding a ticket that matched all six numbers in the last drawing held on Friday. áTickets sold in California and Florida for an Oct. 14 drawing shared the last Mega Millions jackpot of $502 million. The Mega Millions lottery’s top prize has been building anew over 20 drawings held since then.
December 27, 2022 4:17 am
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – Officials in New York say state and military police were sent to keep people from driving in snow-choked Buffalo. The Erie County executive said Tuesday that police are being positioned at entrances to Buffalo and at major intersections to enforce a ban on driving. Officials say more than 30 people died in the region. That’s in addition to about two dozen other deaths the huge storm caused around the country. And an emergency services commissioner in the Buffalo area says crews are keeping an eye on warmer weather forecast for later in the week that could bring a threat of flooding as the snow melts.
December 27, 2022 4:13 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — When mapmakers reimagined the boundaries of Pennsylvania’s 253 legislative districts, they did it with an eye on the state’s growing racial and ethnic minorities, and officials say that has helped yield the most diverse incoming class of lawmakers yet. The number of state lawmakers who are Black, Latino or of South Asian descent will rise as part of what House Democrats call the “most diverse class of freshmen legislators” in Pennsylvania history after candidates ran in this year’s election in the newly drawn map of districts. Pennsylvania’s Legislature will remain disproportionately white, like nearly every other state’s, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures last gathered in 2020. The state’s newly elected minority lawmakers are all Democrats, further deepening the disparity with Republicans who have long attracted fewer candidates or voters of color in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. There are now more Black, Latino and Asian-American lawmakers than ever, said Rep. Donna Bullock, who chairs the Legislative Black Caucus. The caucus — which includes lawmakers who are Latino or Asian-American — will have more members than ever, rising from 31 to 37, she said.
December 27, 2022 4:07 am
MOUNT LEBANON, Pa. — (WPXI) – This season is tough especially when you are forced to celebrate the holidays without the ones you love. “My mom was the glue to our family, really she was the one who kept everyone together. Over the holidays she was the one who initiated everything with the family,” said Craig Coester, whose mom died in Mt. Lebanon. Coester is having a hard time describing what life is like without his mom, Bonnie. Coester told our news partners at Channel 11 it was the end of June when his 87-year-old mom was walking through downtown Mt. Lebanon in front of Il Pizzaiolo when she tripped on an improperly placed construction cone, falling forward and striking her head on the curb. She died a few months later from those injuries. Coester is now suing the construction company and Mt. Lebanon over the “Vibrant Uptown Plan” project. The lawsuit alleges that there are areas not properly secured like where Bonnie fell. Attorney Matthew Scanlon claims the cones being used were not placed correctly and are not the proper size, according to federal regulations. Channel 11 reached out to all three parties named in the lawsuit, including the engineering and construction companies. We did not hear back from either and Mt. Lebanon said no comment.
December 26, 2022 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Local organizers in Washington say three buses of recent migrant families arrived from Texas near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in record-setting cold on Christmas Eve. Texas authorities have not confirmed their involvement, but the bus dropoffs are in line with previous actions by border-state governors calling attention to the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, says the buses that arrived late Saturday were carrying around 110 to 130 people. Some were wearing T-shirts despite temperatures hovering around 15 degrees Fahrenheit (-9 degrees Celsius). It was the coldest Christmas Eve on record for Washington. Organizers had buses ready to take the migrants to a church where they stayed the night.
