August 20, 2022 4:04 am
ATLANTA (AP) – A federal judge says Sen. Lindsey Graham’s appearance before a special grand jury should not be delayed while he continues to challenge it in court. The grand jury is investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia. Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May ordered the South Carolina Republican to honor his subpoena for the grand jury. Graham’s attorneys appealed that order to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and asked May to stay her ruling while that appeal plays out. May declined that request Friday. Graham is currently scheduled to appear before the special grand jury on Tuesday. Representatives for Graham did not immediately respond Friday to messages seeking comment on May’s ruling.
August 20, 2022 4:03 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – A fire at a munitions depot inside Russia forced the evacuation of two villages near the border with Ukraine, while two civilians were reported wounded by Russian shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as both sides traded accusations about fighting near the facility in southern Ukraine. The fire late Thursday struck the munitions storage building near the village of Timonovo in Russia’s Belgorod region on Ukraine’s northeastern border. About 1,100 people live in Timonovo and Soloti, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the border. No one was hurt, said Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov on Friday.
August 20, 2022 4:02 am
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) – A British man nicknamed one of the Beatles by his captives because of his English accent has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the deaths of four U.S. hostages captured by the Islamic State. Prosecutors say El Shafee Elsheikh is the most notorious member of the Islamic State ever to be convicted at trial in a U.S. court. A jury found him guilty of hostage taking resulting in the deaths of Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. All but Mueller were executed in videotaped beheadings circulated online. Elsheikh lawyer said at Friday’s sentencing hearing that he is appealing the conviction. (Photo: AP/Alexandria Sheriff’s Office)
August 20, 2022 3:56 am
A host of statewide political candidates and their supporters were in the area Friday evening for rallies and campaigning ahead of the November general election. Republican candidate for governor, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, held a rally at the Wyndham hotel in Downtown Pittsburgh. Mastriano was joined by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Meanwhile, GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, Dr. Mehmet Oz, was at the Washington County Fair Friday evening and renewed his calls to debate Democratic candidate, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. The Democratic Lieutenant Governor candidate, Austin Davis, also was campaigning in Pittsburgh Friday evening.
August 20, 2022 3:48 am
MCCANDLESS TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WPXI) — Police said a woman’s body was driven around Pittsburgh for hours before being left in a car outside her home for two days. Patrick McCurry is charged with abuse of a corpse. Nicole Dull’s body was found in the passenger seat of her car about two months ago, in the parking lot of a McCandless apartment building. Investigators said McCurry gave her Narcan after an overdose and drove her around the city. Police believe the victim was already deceased before she ended up in the car. “I was surprised by the police cars here,” a witness said. “They were still here whenever I came back around 45 minutes later. It looked like detectives were on the scene with the flip books that everything you see.” Police say traffic cameras spotted McCurry driving the car that night with Dull in a reclined position.
August 20, 2022 3:35 am
The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum announced on Friday, the acquisition and restoration of a full size horse model for display with its historic 1870s vintage horsecar. Museum officials say the full-sized fiberglass horse had become a landmark and was displayed for over 45 years as part of a sign for Lowry’s Western Shop near the Museum on Henderson Avenue in Washington. They said the popular road side sign was badly damaged in January after being knocked over by a delivery truck, so Gail Cecchetti and Bill Litman, Co-Owners of Lowry’s Western Shop, generously donated the horse to the Museum and then Prime Collision Center stepped in to restore it. Gary Flannery, Prime Collision Center’s Executive Manager, said “although unusual, Prime Collision Center accepted the challenge since it performs fiberglass repairs on vehicles.” Gary’s wife Rose got into the act by doing the detailed painting of the horse. Ed Morasyczk, President of the Trolley Museum and one of the owners of Prime Collision Center thought it was a worthy project and donated Prime’s services to make the repairs and painting. Sarah Wells, a long-time PTM volunteer found and donated the correct harness to outfit the horse so it can be properly displayed with the horsecar. Scott Becker, Executive Director & CEO said that: “The horse really helps to better tell the story of animal powered transit in the 19th Century. Horsecars were the first “all weather” public transit in places like Pittsburgh since they ran on steel rails and got people out of the mud. Pittsburgh’s Sarah Street line ran until 1923 and was one of the last horsecar lines in the United States.
August 19, 2022 3:32 pm
(AP) – A Pittsburgh grandmother needed hundreds of stitches after she was bitten on the arm by a shark in Myrtle Beach, one of two attacks that day. On Monday, Karen Sites and her 8-year-old grandson, Brian Sites, were wading in the ocean at South Carolina’s most famous beach when an unidentified shark grabbed Karen Sites’ arm. “I just felt something, I guess, bite me and there was a shark on my arm,” Sites told The Associated Press. According to WPDE, Brian Sites witnessed the attack just a few feet away. “I couldn’t even see the shark coming up, but all I saw was the shark jumped up, and it didn’t even bite all the way, like I saw the movement of the tail go to the side, and then she screamed a little bit, and as soon as she touched it, it fell into the water,” he told WPDE. Karen Sites was taken to a nearby hospital for surgery, where she received hundreds of stitches. While shark attacks are considered rare, a second shark attack was reported later that day, about a half-mile from where Karen Sites was bitten.
August 19, 2022 7:53 am
FARGO, N.D. (AP) – The school board in North Dakota’s most populous city has reversed course on its decision to stop reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at its monthly meetings. The group decided to reconsider at a special meeting Thursday following complaints from conservative lawmakers and widespread bashing from citizens. Seven of the nine members of the Fargo Board of Education, including four newcomers who took office in June, had voted last week to cancel a previous board edict to recite the pledge that passed a couple of months before the election. The new board said the oath did not align with the district’s diversity and inclusion code. All but one of the board members voted to reinstate the pledge, saying the controversy was a distraction to the district.
August 19, 2022 4:14 am
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met the U.N. chief and Turkey’s leader in Ukraine. Little progress was reported on expanding Ukraine’s grain exports, the volatile situation at a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant and efforts to help end the war. It was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s first visit to Ukraine since the outbreak of the war, and the second by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. The leaders also discussed exchanges of prisoners of war and a proposed U.N. fact-finding mission to a prison in Russian-occupied Ukraine where 53 POWs were killed last month.
August 19, 2022 4:11 am
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Dire consequences could result if states, cities and farms across the American West cannot agree on how to cut the amount of water they draw from the Colorado River. Hydroelectric turbines may stop turning. Las Vegas and Phoenix may be forced to restrict water usage or growth. Farmers may have to stop planting some crops. Yet for years, seven states that depend on the river have allowed more water to be taken from it than nature can replenish. Despite widespread recognition of the crisis, the states missed a deadline this week to propose cuts. And the government stopped short of imposing cuts on its own.
