January 4, 2024 5:10 am
PERRY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a 17-year-old student with a shotgun and a handgun opened fire at a small-town Iowa high school, killing a sixth-grader and wounding five others. Thursday’s shooting had students at Perry High School barricading themselves in offices, ducking into classrooms and fleeing. Authorities say one of the wounded was a school administrator and the suspect was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. investigators are looking at possible motive and reviewing the suspect’s social media posts. Two friends and their mother who spoke with The Associated Press said the suspect was a quiet person who had been bullied for years.
January 4, 2024 5:09 am
MUWASI, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians seeking refuge in southern Gaza say every day has become a desperate struggle to find food, water, medicine and working bathrooms. They often spend hours waiting in line for aid distributed by the U.N. Families also live in fear of Israeli airstrikes and the growing threat of diseases. Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion to eradicate Hamas have pushed almost all Palestinians toward Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah. In nearly every plot of land that stretches west from the city, thousands of nylon tents have sprung up for those without a house to shelter in.
January 4, 2024 5:07 am
DETROIT (AP) — American consumers bought 15.6 million new vehicles last year. The numbers indicate car buyers were undeterred by high prices, rising interest rates, autoworker strikes and a computer-chip shortage that slowed assembly lines. The tally is 12% more than in 2022, and the biggest increase in more than a decade. Yet sales still haven’t returned to the 17 million rate in the years before the pandemic, and there are signs of a cooling market as supplies grow on dealer lots and prices start to fall. Average auto sales prices peaked in December of 2022 just over $47,300. Data from J.D. Power show that average prices in mid-December were down 2.7% from the peak to around $46,000. Analysts expect more discounts through the year.
January 4, 2024 5:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers posted 8.8 million job openings in November, down slightly from October and the fewest since March 2021. But demand for workers remains strong by historical standards. The number of job vacancies dipped from 8.9 million in October. And the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in the labor market — fell to its lowest level since February 2021. The number of quits is now roughly where it stood before the pandemic erupted. Job openings dropped by 128,000 in transportation, warehousing and utilities and by 78,000 at hotels and restaurants. The federal government reduced job openings by 58,000. By contrast, openings in construction rose by 43,000 and in retail by 42,000.
January 4, 2024 5:04 am
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Officials say South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has been released from prison on parole after serving nearly nine years in prison for killing his girlfriend. The Department of Corrections gave no more details of Pistorius’ release. The announcement came around 8:30 a.m., indicating that officials released the world-famous double-amputee Olympic runner early in the morning. Pistorius has served nearly nine years of his almost 13-and-a-half-year murder sentence for killing model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013. He was approved for parole in November. Serious offenders in South Africa are eligible for parole after serving at least half their sentence.
January 4, 2024 5:03 am
NEW YORK (AP) — A winter weather system moving through the U.S. is expected to wallop the East Coast this weekend with a mix of snow and freezing rain. But forecasters say it’s too soon to say which areas will get snow and which will get rain and how much. The Pacific system is moving through Western and Southern states before moving up the East Coast this weekend. Major U.S. cities accustomed to white winters didn’t receive much snow last year due to a lack of cold air. The National Weather Service in New York City said this week that 2023 would go down as the city’s “least snowiness” year, with just 2.3 inches measured in Central Park.
January 4, 2024 5:01 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is spending the third anniversary of a mob of his supporters overrunning the U.S. Capitol by campaigning to win back the White House. He has two events in Iowa and repeats lies that seek to reframe how the country remembers the deadly insurrection. President Joe Biden is marking the same milestone on Friday in Philadelphia, where he’ll brand Trump and top supporters of his “Make America Great Again” movement as dire threats to American democracy. Both are talking about the same events in very different ways — with each offering framing they believe gives them a political advantage.
January 4, 2024 4:59 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The unsealing of dozens of documents describing financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls provide a reminder of how he leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to cover up his crimes. The more than 40 documents released late Wednesday were sprinkled with names familiar to anyone who has followed the scandal closely, including the criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and chief recruiter of young, vulnerable females. Among those in Epstein’s orbit before he was exposed as a sexual predator were former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, singer Michael Jackson and magician David Copperfield, according to accounts of his victims and other witnesses quoted in the documents. None of them were accused of wrongdoing.
January 4, 2024 4:58 am
Starting this month, some new personal computers that run Microsoft’s Windows operating system will have a special “Copilot key” that launches the software giant’s AI chatbot. Getting third-party computer manufacturers to add an AI button to laptops is the latest move by Microsoft to capitalize on its close partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and make itself a gateway for applications of generative AI technology.
January 4, 2024 4:52 am
South Strabane Township Fire Chief Jordan Cramer is frustrated with interstate highway drivers who do not slow down when emergency response vehicles are at work. On New Years Day, emergency responders were called to the Interstate 79 flyover for an accident. According to Cramer, when crews arrived, they found three wrecked cars because of ice that formed during the snow/rain mix and freezing temperatures that occurred that morning. Cramer says the bridge was a sheet of ice and PennDot crews had not salted the roads yet. Cramer says that shortly after his crew set up a blocking vehicle to assist in traffic control, a driver speeding on the highway skidded and struck one of his engines. That is the second time inside of 9 months that a fire truck from South Strabane has been struck during an accident assist. Cramer is calling for additional funding from Harrisburg and from PennDot so that appropriate equipment may be purchased to avoid accidents such as these. Cramer says that despite traffic laws that require drivers to exit the adjacent lane to the incident or if they can’t exit, slow down to 10 miles per hour less than the speed limit, drivers still fly by at speeds above the posted speed limit, regardless of weather conditions. They do not pay attention to emergency response teams. Cramer wants to plead with drivers to put down the phone, obey speed limits and look in front of you for adverse traffic conditions. He says that negative repercussions above law enforcement penalties, is the injury or death to a driver or first responder. Slow down, stay safe.
