September 25, 2024 1:29 pm
(WPXI) – Former President Donald Trump will return to the Butler Farm Show grounds for an October 5th rally, marking the first time he’s visited the site since he was shot in an assassination attempt.Trump first announced in late July that he planned to return to Butler, after a gunman opened fire at his rally on July 13th. Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief, was killed at the rally and Trump says he plans to honor him and the two men who were injured in the assassination attempt when he returns. “I will be going back to Butler, Pennsylvania for a big and beautiful rally, honoring the soul of our beloved firefighting hero Corey and those brave patriots injured two weeks ago. What a day it will be – fight, fight, fight!” the former president said on Truth Social over the summer.
September 25, 2024 4:51 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Washington County violated state law when election workers refused to tell voters whether their mail-in ballot would be counted in April’s primary election, an appeals court ruled Tuesday. The case is one of several election-related lawsuits being fought in courts in Pennsylvania, a presidential battleground state where November’s contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris could be close. Through a 2-1 decision, the statewide Commonwealth Court panel upheld Judge Brandon Neuman’s month-old order. The order requires county employees to notify any voter whose mail-in ballot is rejected because of an error — such as a missing signature or missing handwritten date — so that the voter has an opportunity to challenge the decision. It also requires Washington County to allow those voters to vote by provisional ballot. In the 19-page majority opinion, Judge Michael Wojcik wrote that the county’s past policy “emasculates” the law’s guarantees that voters can protest the rejection of their ballot and take advantage of the “statutory failsafe” of casting a provisional ballot. The local NAACP branch, the Center for Coalfield Justice and seven voters whose ballots had been rejected in the April 23 primary sued the county earlier this summer, accusing Washington County of violating the constitutional due process rights of voters by deliberately concealing whether their ballot had been counted.
September 25, 2024 10:51 am
Emergency responders were called to a pair of accidents Wednesday morning. The first occurred along Clare Drive in South Strabane Township just before 7 a.m. Washington County 9-1-1 says it was a one-vehicle crash. The driver was transported by ambulance from the scene. The second happened about an hour later along Interstate 70 westbound near the Eighty Four exit. Dispatchers say two vehicles were involved including a tractor trailer. One person was transported from the scene by ambulance. No other details were available. There is no word on the identity or condition of those injured.
September 25, 2024 5:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Multiple Secret Service failures ahead of the July rally for former President Donald Trump where a gunman opened fire were “foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day.” That’s according to a bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday. Similar to the agency’s own internal investigation and an ongoing bipartisan House probe, the interim report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found multiple failures on almost every level ahead of the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting, including in planning, communications, security and allocation of resources. Each probe has found new details that show a massive breakdown in the former president’s security.
September 24, 2024 2:51 am
(AP) – Counties in Pennsylvania have started testing their voting equipment to ensure that it’s working properly ahead of the November election. All election equipment used to count votes is tested during the process. This includes everything from machines that tabulate mail ballots to devices used by voters who cast ballots in person. The procedure, known as a logic and accuracy test, involves running a predetermined collection of sample ballots through the machines to confirm that they’re tabulating and processing ballots correctly. The testing helps officials ensure not only that the equipment is functioning properly but that ballots don’t have any proofing errors, such as missing candidates. (Photo: AP)
September 25, 2024 4:45 am
North Strabane Township Supervisors took steps to advance a project that appeared before them earlier this spring. Supervisors voted to schedule a public hearing on the definition of a “personal warehouse.” The hearing will take place on October 15 at 6:00 PM. CC Realty Advisors is looking to develop the personal warehouse. They want to build it at the corner of Morganza and Curry Roads. Supervisors voted to not change the zoning on that parcel to industrial. It will remain under a highway commercial zoning use. Supervisors also voted to change the weight restriction on Demar Blvd. It will now have a 10 ton weight limit. According to Township Manager Andrew Walz, residents have been complaining about excessive traffic from large trucks using the road as a shortcut from Interstate 79 to Route 19. Finally, Supervisors approved a development package of $1,632,890 to remodel their new municipal building at 1957 Route 519. The Waller Corporation will be the general contractor on the project.
September 25, 2024 5:03 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — This year’s vice presidential candidates both entered the spotlight this summer as relative political unknowns — but as they prepare to address their biggest audience yet in next week’s debate, Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance is less popular among voters than his Democratic rival, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The findings of the new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reinforce a challenge for the Republican presidential ticket as voting begins in more and more states. In addition to Vance’s relative unpopularity among voters overall, Democrats are more enthusiastic about Kamala Harris and Walz than Republicans are about Donald Trump and Vance.
September 25, 2024 5:01 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has passed a temporary spending bill that would keep federal agencies funded when the new fiscal year begins next Tuesday while punting final decisions on spending for the next budget year until after the Nov. 5 election. The stopgap measure, approved Wednesday by a 341-82 vote, generally funds agencies at current levels through Dec. 20. Speaker Mike Johnson touted the measure as doing only what’s absolutely necessary in a bid to win over conservatives. The measure now moves to the Senate, which is expected to approve it later Wednesday.
September 24, 2024 2:40 am
After spending the past eleven years with the Washington City Mission, Dr. Sally Mounts has announced plans to retire, effective September 30th of this year. Mounts, who was originally hired by former President and CEO, Dean Gartland, as a contracted grants writer, quickly moved into her current position as Chief Development Officer. During Mounts time at the mission, the facility’s annual budget grew from two-point-five-million-dollars to more than nine-million-dollars and it expanded from a ninety-six beds to a one-hundred and seventy-four bed facility with four distinct shelters, a medical clinic and career training and education center. As for her future plans, Mounts says she plans to enjoy family, traveling and coming back to the mission, as a volunteer. (Photo courtesy of City Mission. Former President and CEO Dean Gartland w/Dr. Sally Mounts)
September 25, 2024 4:58 am
BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah has launched a missile at Tel Aviv in its deepest strike yet into Israel, marking a further escalation after Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed hundreds of people. The Israeli military said it intercepted the projectile, which set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, and there were no reports of casualties or damage. The military said it struck the site from which the projectile was launched. Hezbollah said it targeted the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, which it blames for the targeted killings of its commanders and for an attack in which explosives hidden in personal devices killed dozens and wounded thousands, including many Hezbollah members.
