September 30, 2022 2:09 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Judah Samet, a Holocaust survivor who narrowly escaped a shooting rampage at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, has died. Samet died Tuesday at age 84. He was in the parking lot of Tree of Life synagogue during a rampage inside that killed 11 people. It was the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history. Born in Hungary, Samet and his family spent 10 months at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany during World War II. He moved to Pittsburgh in the 1960s and spoke about his Holocaust experience to tens of thousands of people at schools and other settings.
September 29, 2022 9:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits dropped last week, a sign that few companies are cutting jobs despite high inflation and a weak economy. Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Sept. 24 fell by 16,000 to 193,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Last week’s number was revised down by 4,000 to 209,000. First-time applications generally reflect layoffs. The current figures are very low historically and suggest Americans are benefiting from an unusually high level of job security.
September 29, 2022 4:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has appeared for a voluntary interview with the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. The committee has for months sought an interview with Thomas in an effort to know more about her role in trying to help former President Donald Trump overturn his election defeat. She texted with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and contacted lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin after the election. She did not answer questions when she arrived on Capitol Hill for the interview or later when she briefly left for a break. But Thomas did tell reporters she was looking forward to answering questions from the members of the committee.
September 29, 2022 4:22 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Coolio, the rapper who was among hip-hop’s biggest names of the 1990s with hits including “Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Fantastic Voyage,” has died. Manager Jarez Posey tells The Associated Press that Coolio, whose legal name was Artis Leon Ivey Jr., died at the Los Angeles home of a friend on Wednesday. The cause was not immediately clear. Coolio was 59. He won a Grammy for best solo rap performance for “Gangsta’s Paradise,” the 1995 No. 1 hit from the soundtrack of the Michelle Pfeiffer film “Dangerous Minds” that sampled Stevie Wonder’s 1976 song “Pastime Paradise.”
September 29, 2022 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Congress is moving quickly to avoid a government shutdown. The Senate on Thursday passed a short-term spending bill that would finance federal agencies into mid-December. The legislation also provides another round of military and economic aid to Ukraine as it seeks to repel Russia’s invasion. The bill finances the federal government through Dec. 16, giving lawmakers time to agree on a larger government funding package after the midterm election. Assistance and money to help low-income families afford their heating bills this winter was also included in the bill, which now heads to the House for consideration.
September 29, 2022 4:11 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia has positioned itself to formally annex parts of Ukraine after occupied areas held a Kremlin-orchestrated “referendum” – denounced as illegal and rigged by Kyiv and the West á- to live under Moscow’s rule. Armed troops had gone door-to-door with election officials to collect ballots in five days of voting. The results were widely ridiculed as implausible and characterized as a land grab by an increasingly cornered Russian leadership following embarrassing military losses in Ukraine. Russia is calling up 300,000 reservists to fight in the war and warned it could resort to nuclear weapons. The European Commission president urged the European Union’s 27 member countries to slap more sanctions on Russian officials and trade over what he called sham referendums.
September 29, 2022 4:10 am
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) – Ian has regained hurricane strength as it spun toward South Carolina a day after devastating a cross section of Florida. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm’s maximum sustained winds increased Thursday to 75 mph. It was centered about 240 miles south of Charleston, South Carolina, and moving northeast at 10 mph. Ian made landfall Wednesday on Florida’s west coast as a powerful Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds. The storm flooded homes, cut off a popular barrier island and left nearly 2.7 million people without power before moving over the Atlantic and turning north. Authorities say that at least nine people in Florida have died due to Hurricane Ian and they expect that number to continue to rise as search and rescue efforts continue.
September 29, 2022 4:05 am
SMITHTON, Pa. — (WPXI) – “It was designed to be very disgusting and it definitely succeeded. Multiple people were disturbed,” Smithton Police Chief Michael Natale said. Neighbors in Smithton woke up to vandalism and damage to their properties in one section of the Borough; vile images and words smeared on garage doors and fences. The vandalism was visible to parishioners as they walked into church one Sunday morning earlier this month. ”It was possible to sit in one of these churches on Sunday morning, look out the window, and see this disgusting graffiti on a fence next door,” Natale said. Much of the vandalism has already been cleaned up, and what remains is too graphic and vulgar to show.” Some of the graffiti was in back alleys and some of it was right on a major street corner,” Natale explained. A handful of properties were hit in the alley behind Third Street, and another was on Second Street. Smithton Police said a vigilant neighbor with cameras rolling the night it happened captured the suspect and identified him as Jeffrey Schoaf, 18. Smithton Police said they’d had dealings with him in the past before he turned 18, but now that he is an adult, he is facing criminal charges. ”I hoped very much that I got through to him as I hope I get through to anyone who’s 16 or 17, and going down the wrong path, but that birthday happened and his habits haven’t changed and now it’s for real,” Natale said. Schoaf will appear in court at the end of October.
September 29, 2022 2:59 am
A SWAT situation in Washington County has led to the arrest of an Illinois man who is accused of being involved in a double shooting and carjacking in Illinois in July. According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the SWAT situation began Tuesday night around eight o’clock at 115 Thompson Avenue in Donora. An arrest warrant was issued for 27-year-old Lewis C. McCracken, from Elgin, Illinois, for his alleged role in a double shooting and subsequent carjacking in Huntley, Illinois, on July 18. Pittsburgh’s FBI unit, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Huntley Police Department detectives did a joint investigation and found McCracken was at the home on Thompson Drive. Police said the standoff lasted nearly two hours before officers were able to take McCracken into custody without incident. McCracken is charged with two counts of first degree attempted murder – intended death or great bodily harm, two counts of first degree murder with probability of death, felony possession or use of a firearm with a prior conviction of specified offenses, and aggravated battery of a person 60 years or older.
September 29, 2022 2:46 am
Washington County 9-1-1 says three people were transported by ambulance from the scene of a two-vehicle crash along Interstate 70 Westbound Thursday morning. I happened around 8:30 a.m. at mile-marker 16 near the Jessop Place exit. A tractor trailer and another vehicle were involved. Initial reports said the driver of the tractor trailer was entrapped. Traffic in both directions were impacted by the crash. A Hazmat team was called to the scene for leaking fluids. About two-hours later, Washington County 9-1-1 reported that crews had cleared the scene. There is no word on the identity or condition of those injured.
