March 22, 2024 2:23 am
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Biden administration has announced up to $475 million in federal funding for clean energy projects on current or former mine land sites. The U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday that the projects will be in five states. They include the political battleground states of Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada. Kentucky and West Virginia are also benefiting. They are solidly Republican and have been hit hard by the downturn in the coal sector. The projects will involve solar power, geothermal energy, hydroelectricity and batteries. The administration says the clean energy projects will strengthen the country’s energy security while helping ensure mining communities continue playing a role in the energy economy.
March 22, 2024 2:15 am
Washington County Commissioners put to rest an issue that has had county residents in an uproar by adopting a recommendation to grant LSA funding for a homeless women’s shelter. In February, the Local Share Account Committee recommended 50 projects to be funded with $8.7 million of a possible $9.2 million. Notably absent from the list was a Washington City Mission request for $500,000 for a homeless women’s shelter. The recommendation for $8.7 million in grant allocations and the carryover of $500,000 to next year was adopted by commissioners. Community outcry and accusations of political influence caused the commissioners to adopt a measure to have the LSA committee reconvene to consider the allocation of the remaining $500,000 to all projects denied funding. The LSA Committee met Wednesday and considered only the City Mission project and unanimously approved the measure to fund the City Mission’s request. Commissioners unanimously approved the recommendation and the City Mission will receive their women’s shelter funding. Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman says that commissioners have met and will continue to meet with the LSA Committee to refine the process for grant allocations. He disagrees with Commissioner Larry Maggi who says that the recent events have given the selection process a “black eye.” Sherman did say that he was happy that the City Mission received their grant allocation.
March 21, 2024 3:32 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Sweet Easter baskets will likely come at a bitter cost this year for consumers as the price of cocoa climbs to record highs. Cocoa futures have roughly doubled in 2024 after surging 61% overall in 2023. Rising temperatures and weather conditions have stressed and damaged crops in West Africa, which produces more than 70% of the global cocoa supply. Big chocolate companies like Hershey’s and Mondelez have been passing those costs on to consumers. That has helped bolster profit margins. Both companies reported shrinking sales volumes for their most recent quarters as consumers grow tired of paying higher prices. (Photo: AP)
March 21, 2024 3:23 pm
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The last of six former law enforcement officers who tortured two Black men outside Mississippi’s capital has been sentenced. Former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield was given an approximately 10-year federal prison sentence on Thursday. The six white officers were fired and pleaded guilty to subjecting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to numerous acts of racist torture in January 2023. The so-called “Goon Squad” broke into a home where a neighbor complained that the Black men were staying with a white woman. Hartfield tried to destroy evidence of the torture. The sentences for the six ex-officers ranged from about 10 years to 40 years.
March 21, 2024 3:21 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Apple says a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit accusing it of engineering an illegal monopoly in smartphones in the U.S. is “wrong on the facts and the law.” The lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in New Jersey. The suit alleges Apple uses its control over the iPhone to engage in an “illegal course of conduct.” The lawsuit is the latest example of the Justice Department’s approach to aggressive enforcement of federal antitrust law that officials say is aimed at ensuring a fair and competitive market. Apple has defended the digital fortress known as its walled garden as a feature prized by consumers who want to protect their personal information. (Photo: AP)
March 21, 2024 3:18 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers have introduced a $1.2 trillion spending package that sets the stage for avoiding a partial government shutdown for several key federal agencies this weekend. The bill unveiled Thursday comes nearly six months into the current budget year and would allow Congress to complete its work in funding the government through September. Democrats were largely able to swat back scores of policy mandates and some of the steeper budget cuts that House Republicans were seeking to impose on nondefense programs. Among the policy wins that House Speaker Mike Johnson is highlighting for Republicans is a nearly 24% increase in detention beds for migrants awaiting their immigration proceedings or removal from the country.
March 21, 2024 1:09 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Doctors in Boston say they have transplanted a pig kidney into a 62-year-old patient. Massachusetts General Hospital said Thursday it’s the first time a genetically modified pig kidney has been transplanted into a living person. Previously pig kidneys have been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. Also, two men received heart transplants from pigs, although both died within months. The hospital announced the transplant Thursday and said the patient is recovering well.
March 21, 2024 12:51 pm
(WPXI) – Allegheny County police have charged an Etna woman in the drowning death of her one-year-old son. On the afternoon of July 13, County 911 was notified of an unresponsive one-year-old child in the 30 block of Sycamore Street in Etna. First responders performed life-saving measures and transported the child to an area hospital in critical condition. On July 27, the child was pronounced dead at the hospital. Detectives interviewed the child’s mother, Brittany Garrison, 28, and learned Garrison had taken the child and a sibling outside to swim in an above-ground pool. Garrison left the child alone in a flotation device inside the pool and went inside the residence with the sibling, according to a police report. A short time later, the child was found unresponsive outside of the flotation device in the pool. Police determined the child was not wearing any additional flotation device or life jacket. Police have filed charges against Garrison including involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering another person. She was taken into custody Thursday morning and released on non-monetary bond.
March 21, 2024 5:03 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired 31 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv before dawn in the first attack on the Ukrainian capital in 44 days. Officials say air defenses shot down all the incoming missiles, though 13 people including a child were injured by falling wreckage. Residents of Kyiv were woken up by loud explosions around 5 a.m. Thursday as the missiles arrived at roughly the same time from different directions. Ukraine’s air force says Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles against the capital. An 11-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man were reported to be hospitalized and eight other people sustained light injuries.
March 21, 2024 5:02 am
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the “gaps are narrowing” in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas over another cease-fire and hostage release that the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have spent several weeks trying to broker. Blinken’s sixth visit to the region since the start of the Israel-Hamas war began in Saudi Arabia and will take him to Egypt on Thursday and Israel on Friday. In an interview Wednesday with the Al-Hadath network in Saudi Arabia, Blinken said he thinks an agreement is very much possible. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 31,800 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people in the surprise Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza that triggered the war, and abducted another 250 people.
