ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Bills safety Damar Hamlin is preparing for the next step to resume his career by suiting up in Buffalo’s preseason-opening game against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday. The game will mark the first time Hamlin appears in a competitive setting since the 25-year-old went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati in January. Coach Sean McDermott told The Associated Press that Hamlin is scheduled to play. The third-year safety says he’s taken a step-at-a-time approach with each milestone which began with him being cleared for practice in April. He says it’s too early to express what playing in a game will be like.
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Residents of Maui County face a surreal landscape of flattened homes, blackened hulks of burned-out cars and ashy lots where buildings once stood as they take stock of their shattered lives in the aftermath of a wildfire on the Hawaii island that authorities say killed at least 80 people. A new wildfire Friday evening triggered the evacuation of Kaanapali in West Maui, but crews were able to extinguish the fire before 8:30 p.m. Many survivors of the fire say they did not receive a warning giving them enough time to flee. Attorney General Anne Lopez has announced plans to conduct a comprehensive review of decision-making and standing policies impacting the response to the deadly fires.
MARSHALL TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A person was hospitalized after an overnight crash on I-79. According to PennDOT, the crash happened at around 12:20 a.m. on I-79 southbound near mile marker 74.5. The crash caused a lane restriction, according to PennDOT. Allegheny County 911 said one person was hospitalized following the crash. There’s no word on that person’s condition.
PITTSBURGH — The Monongahela Incline was stuck, according to Pittsburgh Regional Transit. PRT toldChannel 11 each car became stuck about 50 feet from their respective stations. There were nine passengers in one car, and three in the other. Cars started moving again just after 6 p.m. without anyone needing to be rescued. Police, fire and paramedics all responded and a rescue team was prepared to get people off the upper car. Crews are working to determine the cause of the outage. The incline will be out of service “until further notice.”
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Five former leaders of the Pennsylvania corrections officers’ union have been charged with theft after investigators say they used union funds to pay for personal expenses and hid the transactions. PennLive reported the criminal charges, made last month in a Harrisburg court, on Thursday. Two former union presidents and three ex-vice presidents are charged. The transactions — which allegedly totaled more than $23,000 among the five men — were made between 2015 and 2019 and included iTunes purchases, wineries and vineyards, and luxury venues in Las Vegas, the Harrisburg-area newspaper reported. The five men used union credit cards to make the personal purchases, submitted vague expense reports and attempted to block any questioning from other leaders, police say. The charges came after the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association’s own audit of questionable credit card purchases. Charged are former union President Jason Bloom for unlawful transactions totaling $8,286.48; former President Roy Pinto for $2,030.50; former Executive Vice President Tim Walsh for $5,834.58; former Western Region Vice President Larry Blackwell for $2,488.02; and former Eastern Region Vice President Robert Storm for $4,422.13. The Associated Press left messages seeking comment Friday with attorneys representing Bloom, Blackwell and Storm. Walsh’s attorney’s office declined to comment. No attorney for Pinto was listed in the online court docket. Bloom was suspended without pay from his position at a state prison, and the other four do not work for the government anymore, according to Maria Bivens, a state Department of Corrections spokesperson. The current union leadership says none of the men are still involved with the union.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Authorities have released the name of the third person killed in a bus crash on a Pennsylvania interstate near the commonwealth’s capital city. The Dauphin County coroner’s office said Friday that Kadiatou Barry, 21, of Cincinnati, died in the crash that occurred shortly before midnight Sunday north of Harrisburg on Interstate 81, but did not disclose her cause of death. The office had previously announced that 39-year-old Alioune Diop of the Bronx, New York, and 26-year-old Serigne Ndiaye, whose residence is unknown, died of multiple traumatic injuries. State police have said the bus, carrying up to 50 people and heading from New York to Ohio, was traveling south on I-81 during heavy rain. It was in the right lane on a right-hand curve when it left the road, struck an embankment, turned onto its right side and hit a sport utility vehicle that had stopped in traffic in the right lane, police said. Those killed on the bus operated by the Super Lucky Tour Company of Boston were declared dead at the scene, while other passengers suffered injuries that ranged from minor to severe. The occupants of the SUV were taken to a hospital with moderate injuries. Peter Chan, the bus company manager, said in a phone interview Monday that he was “very sorry to hear about the accident” but had no further information because he hadn’t been able to talk to the driver, who was hospitalized after the crash. (Photo: AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday he is appointing a special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe, deepening the investigation of the president’s son ahead of the 2024 election. Garland said he is naming David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware who has been probing the financial and business dealings of the president’s son, as the special counsel. Garland said on Tuesday that Weiss told him that “in his judgment, his investigation has reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a Special Counsel, and he asked to be appointed.” “Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel,” Garland said. The move is a momentous development from the typically cautious Garland and comes amid a pair of sweeping Justice Department probes into Donald Trump, the former president, and President Joe Biden’s chief rival in next year’s election. It comes as House Republicans are mounting their own investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings. “Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel,” Garland said.
Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh says seven men and women, believed to be members of a multi-county methamphetamine ring have been arrested and charged with drug delivery and conspiracy. Walsh says 29-year-old Jaclyn Farabee, 27-year-old Merrieann Parr-Loar, and 37-year-old Jami Rhodes, all of Waynesburg, along with 29-year-old John Bizet and 34-year-old Rebecca Carn, both of Cokeburg; and 31-year-old Michael Vallor of Bentleyville and 46-year-old Travis Frye of Brownsville, are facing multiple charges related to the delivery of more than three and a half pounds of methamphetamines to undercover officers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration says it could soon launch a formal evaluation of risks posed by vinyl chloride, the cancer-causing chemical that burned in a towering plume of toxic smoke following the fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The Environmental Protection Agency is set to review risks posed by a handful of chemicals later this year and is considering chemicals used for plastic production as a key benchmark. Vinyl chloride, used to make PVC plastic pipes, is among chemicals eligible for review. EPA said a risk evaluation would take at least three years. Environmental and public health groups have long pushed to ban the chemical, also used in vinyl siding and children’s toys.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal judge overseeing the 2020 election conspiracy case against Donald Trump will hear arguments over a request by prosecutors for a protective order seeking to bar the former president from publicly disclosing evidence shared by the government. Prosecutors have raised concerns that Trump may reveal sensitive case information that they are legally obligated to hand over to the defense. The protective order sought by special counsel Jack Smith’s team has become an early flashpoint in the case accusing the Republican of illegally scheming to cling to power after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Friday’s hearing will be the first time the lawyers appear before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
