April 24, 2024 4:59 am
Palestinian hospital officials say Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip have killed at least five people. Among those killed in the strikes overnight and into Thursday were two children, identified in hospital records as Sham Najjar, 6, and Jamal Nabahan, 8. More than half of the territory’s population of 2.3 million have sought refuge in Rafah, where Israel has conducted near-daily raids as it prepares for an offensive in the city. Meanwhile, a top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.
April 24, 2024 4:57 am
Incumbent Republican Bud Cook held off a challenger in the 50th Legislative District which includes all of Greene County and parts of Washington County. Cook defeated political newcomer Stephanie Waggett with some 63-percent of the vote. Now, the four-term incumbent is taking aim at what he calls “the politically connected and insiders”. One of those, he says, is Republican State Senator Camera Bartolotta who backed Waggett. It’s unclear if Cook will face a Democratic challenger in November.
April 24, 2024 2:44 am
The Freedom Transit began a series of public hearings on Tuesday to seek public opinion on proposed rate changes that could go into effect this summer. The hearing describes how rates will be streamlined and how some riders will see an increase in fares and how others will see a decrease. Currently Freedom Transit has four separate fares ranging from $1.50 to $5.00 depending on destination. The new proposal will look to institute a two tiered price system of $2.00 for Washington County Travel and $4.00 for Allegheny County travel. Effectively, riders that currently pay fares in Zone 1 will see an increase of fifty cents. Riders who pay fares in Zones 2 and 3 will see price decreases of fifty cents and $1.50. Allegheny County riders would see a decrease of $1.00. According to Emma Brzustowicz, Outreach and Marketing Coordinator for Freedom Transit, they have not had a fare increase since 2012. The reasons for the increase are related to inflationary costs that have risen by 35.2% for Freedom Transit since the last rate increase. That fare schedule would also align with what the Mid Mon Valley Transit Authority charges. This was the first of four public hearings scheduled. The other three will be on April 30 from noon to 2:00 PM at the Heritage Public Library in McDonald, also on April 30 from 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM at the Frank Sarris Public Library in Canonsburg and once again on May 1 from noon to 7:00 PM at the Freedom Transit Transportation Center in Washington. After the input has been examined, if the rate changes are approved they would go into effect on July 1.
April 24, 2024 2:33 am
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Wednesday morning for the four-point-five-million-dollar Char House Renovation Project at 251 Ninth Street in Charleroi Borough. Washington County Commissioners, along with federal, state and local officials were on hand to celebrate the project, which involved the replacement of the building’s electrical, plumbing and sanitary systems; new common area flooring and painting, the renovation of the community room kitchen and public restrooms, along with the kitchens, bathrooms, patio doors and windows of the apartments. In addition, the parking lot was also paved. Char House was built in 1979 on the site of the former Charleroi Ninth Street School. Residents of Char House must be sixty-two-years of age of older or persons with a disability, and their annual income cannot exceed 56-thousand-700-dollars for an individual or sixty-four-thousand-eight-hundred-dollars for two people.
April 23, 2024 3:57 pm
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is paying a $138.7 million to settle more than 100 claims that it badly mishandled allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016. It was a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue preying on victims before his arrest. Nassar worked at Michigan State University and at USA Gymnastics. He’s serving decades in prison for assaulting female athletes, including Olympians. For more than a year, FBI agents in Indianapolis and Los Angeles had knowledge of allegations against Nassar but apparently took no action. (Photo: AP)
April 23, 2024 3:55 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — What began last week when students at a New York Ivy League school refused to end their protest against Israel’s war with Hamas has turned into a much larger movement. Students across the nation set up encampments, occupied buildings and ignored demands to leave Tuesday. Protests against Israel’s war with Hamas had been bubbling for months but kicked into a higher gear after more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia University’s upper Manhattan campus were arrested last week. Dozens more protesters have been arrested at other campuses since, and many now face charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct.
April 23, 2024 5:09 am
NEW YORK (AP) — A veteran tabloid publisher has testified that he pledged to be Donald Trump’s “eyes and ears” during his 2016 presidential campaign, recounting for a jury how he promised the then-candidate that he would help suppress harmful stories and had even arranged to purchase a doorman’s silence. The testimony on Tuesday from David Pecker was designed to bolster prosecutors’ assertions of a decades-long friendship between Trump and the former publisher of the National Enquirer that culminated in an agreement to give the candidate’s lawyer a heads-up on negative tips and stories so they could be quashed.
April 23, 2024 4:57 am
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Life-saving medication and equipment is dwindling or altogether absent at hospitals and clinics across Haiti’s capital as brutal gangs tighten their grip on Port-au-Prince and beyond. They have blocked roads, forced the closure of the main international airport in early March and paralyzed operations at the country’s largest seaport, where containers filled with key supplies remain stuck. Dr. Rachel Lavigne of Doctors Without Borders says that “everything is crashing.” Haiti’s health system has long been fragile, but it’s now nearing total collapse after gangs launched coordinated attacks on Feb. 29, targeting critical state infrastructure in the capital and beyond.
April 23, 2024 4:56 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is returning to Washington to vote on $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine and Israel. They are taking the final steps in Congress to send the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk after months of delays and contentious internal debate over how involved the United States should be abroad. The $61 billion for Ukraine comes as the war-torn country desperately needs new firepower and as Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up his attacks. Soldiers have struggled to hold the front lines as Russia has seized the momentum on the battlefield and forced Ukraine to cede significant territory.
April 23, 2024 4:55 am
PARIS (AP) — At least 5 people have died while crossing the English Channel, according to French media, hours after the U.K. approved the migrant deportation bill. The Voix du Nord newspaper said the bodies were discovered at the Wimereaux beach in northern France on Tuesday. This came only hours after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s latest effort to send some migrants on a one-way ticket to Rwanda finally won approval from Parliament. Human rights groups have described the legislation as inhumane and cruel. The U.K. government plans to deport some of those who enter the country illegally as a deterrent to migrants trying to claim asylum once they reach Britain.
