January 4, 2024 4:50 am
Prior to the November election, several residents in South Strabane Township had been critical of the 2022 purchase of a $1.3 million ladder truck for the South Strabane Fire Department. Residents were subjected to a .75 mill fire tax in 2023, to help fund the purchase of the truck. South Strabane Township Fire Chief Jordan Cramer says that a portion of the financing comes from a 2% loan from the Pennsylvania State Fire Commissioner The ladder truck is equipped with a 107 foot aerial that is 37 feet more than the current ladder truck, according to Cramer. He says that the extra height would equate to an additional 3-4 stories of rescue capability. Cramer indicates that South Strabane Township has quite a few multi-level residential buildings such as apartments and senior living residences, its commercial district is large and diverse in size also. Cramer pointed out that height is not the only consideration for the 107 foot aerial capability. He states that many houses in the township are set back 50 feet or more from the roadway. That 107 foot length is useful in a transverse crossing of yards to fight fires. Questions of need arose because of mutual aid agreements with neighboring fire companies. Cramer says that no mutual aid agreement exists to provide South Strabane a ladder truck. He says that more often, South Strabane provides neighbors its ladder truck and they receive fire engine support when needed. Cramer states that it is only a matter of time for when the next fire occurs when a large ladder truck is needed. He points to the Thomas Campbell Apartment fire that claimed the life of a resident on December 23, 2022.
January 4, 2024 2:37 am
Charges were dropped Wednesday, during a hearing for North Franklin Township Supervisor Chairman Bob Sabot, who was charged with one misdemeanor count of theft by unlawful taking of movable property. Sabot’s wife, Sandy, a Democrat, ran unsuccessfully in the November General Election, for Washington County Prothonotary. She lost to incumbent Republican Laura Hough. Sabot was out collecting his wife’s signs after the election, when he also removed a sign for Hough. Hough witnessed him removing one of her signs in Centerville Borough and filed a complaint with Centerville Police. She also recorded a cellphone video showing Sabot picking up her sign, but giving it back to her when she asked for it. Sabot has maintained that he was just clearing up litter and was planning to return it to her, as he did with other candidates signs. Hough told authorities her sign was valued at seven-dollars. Sabot says he is considering taking further action, given that he feels he has been defamed.
January 3, 2024 5:26 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have found a way to help Alzheimer’s drugs seep inside the brain faster — using sound waves to jiggle a temporary opening in its protective shield. Some new drugs modestly slow Alzheimer’s worsening by attacking brain-clogging amyloid plaque, with doses every few weeks for well over a year. In a novel experiment, West Virginia University researchers added the ultrasound tool to three patients’ drug doses for six months. In spots in the brain where that shield was opened, more plaque was cleared. The findings were published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
January 3, 2024 1:00 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Social media has been rife in recent weeks with posts speculating that a judge is about to release a list of clients or co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein, the jet-setting financier who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The truth is less scandalous: There is no such list. Some previously sealed court records are going to be made public, but the great majority of the people whose names appear in those documents aren’t accused of any wrongdoing. The judge unsealing the records said she was doing so partly because much of the information within them is already public. A court official says parties in the case are expected to begin posting the sealed documents on Wednesday.
January 3, 2024 9:50 am
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran says explosions at an event honoring a prominent Iranian general slain in a U.S. airstrike in 2020 have killed at least 103 people and wounded 141 others. Iranian state media call them a “terroristic” attack. No group has immediately claimed responsibility. The blasts on Wednesday struck an event marking the the fourth anniversary of the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force. who died in Iraq in January 2020. The explosions occurred near his grave site in Kerman, about 820 kilometers (510 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran.
January 3, 2024 5:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The downfall of Harvard’s president has elevated allegations of plagiarism as a possible new weapon in conservative attacks on higher education. President Claudine Gay’s resignation Tuesday followed weeks of mounting accusations that she lifted language from other scholars in her doctoral dissertation and journal articles. The allegations surfaced amid backlash over her congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus. The plagiarism claims came not from her academic peers but her political foes, part of a conservative effort to remake higher education, which has often been seen as a bastion of liberalism.
January 3, 2024 5:00 am
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is appealing a decision by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state that he cannot be on the ballot there because he violated a constitutional ban against people who “engaged in insurrection” holding office. The Republican presidential candidate’s appeal to Maine’s Superior Court came Tuesday, and he is expected to soon appeal a similar ruling by Colorado’s Supreme Court to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation’s highest court has never ruled on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court is likely to have the final word on Trump’s eligibility in Colorado, Maine and elsewhere.
January 3, 2024 4:58 am
TOKYO (AP) — Transport officials and police have begun separate investigations at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, a day after a large passenger plane and a Japanese coast guard aircraft collided on the runway and burst into flames, killing five people. The accident occurred Tuesday evening when the Japan Airlines flight JAL-516 plane landed on one of Haneda’s four runways after the coast guard aircraft — a Bombardier Dash-8 — had also entered, preparing to take off. Both sides said they received a go-ahead from aviation officials.
January 3, 2024 4:56 am
SUZU, Japan (AP) — Japanese rescue workers and canine units are searching urgently through rubble ahead of predicted bitter cold and heavy rain in what the prime minister called a race against time after powerful earthquakes killed at least 62 people. Dozens more people are believed to be trapped under collapsed buildings in western Japan. Ishikawa prefecture and nearby areas were rattled by a 4.9 magnitude aftershock early Wednesday. It’s just one of dozens that have followed a magnitude 7.6 temblor that struck on Monday. Experts say the first 72 hours are critical for rescues because the prospects for survival greatly diminish after that. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters on Wednesday: “More than 40 hours have passed. This is a race against time.”
January 3, 2024 4:53 am
South Strabane Township reorganized their board of supervisors Tuesday night by welcoming two new supervisors. Jeff Bull and George Rowand will take over for Bracken Burns and Richard Luketich. Both men are looking to bring back what they describe as “fiscal responsibility“ to the township. Both men say that voters constantly complained of high taxes and the increasing unaffordability to live in South Strabane. Bull went right to work asking that nominations for zoning officers be tabled because last year, $250,000 was spent on code enforcement. He says that is too much for a township the size of South Strabane. Bob Weber was named chairman of the board by a 3-2 vote over Jeff Bull. Supervisors moved meeting times to the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6 PM instead of the current 7 PM start time.
