December 15, 2022 3:58 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Ryan Seacrest will usher in 2023 on “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” from Times Square, with iconic bands from the 1980s and 1990s as well as a member of BTS and a TikTok sensation. Duran Duran, fresh off an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, will play from a catalogue that includes hits like “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “The Reflex” and “Rio.” R&B and pop group New Edition will celebrate their 40th anniversary by performing a medley of chart-toppers and solo hits like “Rub You The Right Way,” “My Prerogative,” “Poison,” “If It Isn’t Love,” and “Cool It Now.” J-hope, South Korean songwriter and member of BTS, will play a medley of his “(equals) (Equal Sign),” “Chicken Noodle Soup” and the band’s “Butter.” And Tik-Tok star Jax will sing pop hits “Victoria’s Secret” and “90s Kids.” Singer and rapper Farruko will perform from Puerto Rico. Actress and producer Liza Koshy will return as co-host alongside Seacrest, actor-singer Roselyn Sanchez will co-host from Puerto Rico and Billy Porter will be back in New Orleans for the Central Time Zone countdown.
December 15, 2022 2:57 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House committee investigating the Capitol riot will hold its final meeting Monday, wrapping up its year-and-a-half-long inquiry by asking the Justice Department to investigate potential crimes. The committee is expected to release its final report on Wednesday. The chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, has said the committee will make criminal referrals to the Justice Department recommending prosecution, but he hasn’t disclosed who the targets would be or whether former President Donald Trump would be among them. The committee has focused squarely on Trump and efforts by the-then president in the weeks before the attack to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
December 15, 2022 9:25 am
A Canton Township man is being held in the Washington County Jail on $25,000 bond following an incident late Sunday night. State Police say 49 year old Richard Bedillion faces charges that include; terroristic threats, simple assault, reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct. Police say his girlfriend called 9-1-1 claiming he was armed with an A-R 15 and threatening to kill her son. Police say when they arrived at the home in the 600 block of Baird Avenue around 11 p.m they heard gunshots and found Bedillion pointing the weapon in the air. He was taken into custody without incident.
December 15, 2022 9:18 am
Only minor injuries were reported following a one-vehicle, rollover crash early Thursday morning in Morris Township. Washington County 9-1-1 says it happened just after 5:30 a.m. in the 53-hundred block of Prosperity Pike Road. Initial reports were that the driver was entrapped but emergency crews found the unidentified man walking around when they arrived.
December 15, 2022 4:15 am
KEITHVILLE, La. (AP) – Authorities say three people are dead in Louisiana and several others have been hurt as a destructive storm system has kicked up tornadoes in the South. Sheriff’s deputies found a young boy and his mother dead near Shreveport, Louisiana, after a tornado on Tuesday and a woman was found dead Wednesday west of New Orleans after an apparent twister there. The vast and volatile storm system is crossing from coast to coast, and hundreds of miles to the north, the system has delivered blizzard-like conditions to the Great Plains. The storms are expected to hobble the Midwest with snow and ice for days and push up the East Coast into New England.
December 15, 2022 4:12 am
LONDON (AP) – Elon Musk’s more unfettered version of Twitter could collide with new rules in Europe. Officials warn the social media company will have to comply with some of the world’s toughest laws targeting toxic content. The new digital rulebook means the European Union is likely to be a global leader in cracking down on Musk’s reimagined platform. But the 27-nation bloc will face its own challenges forcing Twitter and other online companies to comply. The law doesn’t fully take effect until 2024, and EU officials are scrambling to recruit enough workers to hold Big Tech to account.
December 15, 2022 4:11 am
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) – Business is bouncing back in Bethlehem after two years in the doldrums during the coronavirus pandemic, lifting spirits in the traditional birthplace of Jesus ahead of the Christmas holiday. Streets are bustling with tour groups. Hotels are fully booked, and months of deadly Israeli-Palestinian fighting appears to be having little effect on the vital tourism industry. Christmas is normally peak season for tourism in Bethlehem, located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank just a few miles southeast of Jerusalem. In pre-pandemic times, thousands of pilgrims and tourists from around the world came to celebrate. But those numbers plummeted during the pandemic. Although tourism hasn’t fully recovered, the hordes of visitors are a welcome improvement and encouraging sign.
December 15, 2022 4:07 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Five weeks after Election Day, winning candidates in Pennsylvania from governor to Congress are waiting for their victories to become official. An effort that appears to be at least partially coordinated among conservatives has inundated counties with ballot recount requests even though no races are close enough to require a recount and there has been no evidence of any potential problems. Recounts have been sought in 172 voting precincts across 40% of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. That led to nine counties missing their Nov. 29 certification deadline, though all but one has since certified. The Pennsylvania Department of State, in a response to The Associated Press on Wednesday, gave no date for certifying the results statewide but said it planned to comply with a request from the clerk of the U.S. House to send certification documents to Congress by mid-December. Judges authorized at least 19 precinct recounts in six counties. Those requesting the recounts said they wanted to check the accuracy of the state’s election equipment and processes, echoing the conspiracy claims of voting machine manipulation for which there is no evidence.
December 15, 2022 3:25 am
JACKSON, Mich. (AP) – A judge has handed down the longest prison terms so far in the plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor. Joe Morrison, Pete Musico and Paul Bellar were not charged with having a direct role in the conspiracy. But they were members of a paramilitary group that trained with Adam Fox, the leader of the scheme. Musico was sentenced to at least 12 years in prison. Morrison got 10 years and Bellar received seven. They had forged an early alliance with Fox before the FBI broke up the scheme in 2020. The three were convicted of providing material support for a terrorist act. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wanted stiff sentences, saying they’d threatened democracy.
December 15, 2022 2:52 am
A Washington man accused of shooting and killing a Tennessee teenager was arraigned in Washington County Court on Wednesday. Jamil Carr, 23 appeared via video from the Allegheny County Jail to be charged with felony homicide and weapons possession charges. Carr is accused of killing 18-year-old Antonio Martinez of Clarksville, Tennessee. Carr and Martinez got into a fight before Carr pulled a handgun and shot Martinez in the chest in front of a Jollick Manor apartment in July. Carr will remain in jail without bond. He is scheduled for a status conference hearing on February 27.
