December 28, 2023 2:55 am
A new police chief for the city of Washington has been named to replace retiring chief Dan Rush. Mayor-elect JoJo Burgess announced on Wednesday that Lieutenant Steve Devenney will take over on January 2nd. Burgess says that Devenney’s knowledge of the department and the city will serve him well. Devenney began working for the city in 2005, moving up in the ranks to his current position of lieutenant. Devenney will be sworn in along with Burgess at the city’s reorganization meeting on January 2nd at noon. (Photo: City Of Washington Police Department)
December 27, 2023 1:32 pm
(WPXI) – Pennsylvania State Police removed 58 animals from a house in Butler County last week. According to state police, troopers served a search warrant in relation to an animal neglect case at a house in Eau Claire Borough on Dec. 21st. State police found 58 animals in the house, including dogs, cats, snakes, a ferret, a bearded dragon and a goat. Butler CYS also became involved in the investigation because there were children living in the house, state police said.
December 27, 2023 9:31 am
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s Supreme Court is keeping former President Donald Trump on the state’s primary election ballot. The court said Wednesday it will not hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling from groups seeking to keep Trump from appearing on the ballot. Wednesday’s ruling follows a Dec. 19 decision by a divided Colorado Supreme Court, which said Trump is ineligible to be president after his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. That ruling was the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate. Michigan’s high court says it is “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court.”
December 27, 2023 5:20 am
MATAMOROS, Mexico (AP) — Mexican immigration officials are clearing out a migrant encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande as U.S. pressure mounts to limit a surge of migrants reaching the border. Mexico are removing tents, both occupied and unoccupied, from the encampment in the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas. The operation using bulldozers and workers with machetes continued Wednesday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City. Mexico says its priority in the talks with the U.S. is to reopen border crossings temporarily closed by the United States.
December 27, 2023 5:19 am
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces have bombarded cities, towns and refugee camps across Gaza overnight, killing dozens of people. The air and ground offensive against Hamas has widened to most of the territory, and forced thousands more to flee from homes and shelters. The war has already killed over 20,000 Palestinians and driven about 85% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Much of northern Gaza has been leveled, largely depopulated and isolated for weeks. Many fear a similar fate awaits the south. Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas and bring back more than 100 hostages still held by the militants after their Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed in that assault.
December 27, 2023 5:02 am
BEIJING (AP) — China says it is banning a United States research company and two analysts who have reported extensively on claims of human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups native to the country’s northwest. China is accused of sending Muslims to prison camps for brainwashing and forced labor. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was quoted as announcing late Tuesday night that research and data analytics firm Kharon, along with its director of investigations and a human rights analyst at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, would be barred from traveling to China. Any assets or property they have in China will be frozen and organizations and individuals in China are prohibited from making transactions with them.
December 27, 2023 5:00 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the Republican primaries around the corner, a new poll finds that party members aren’t sure votes in the presidential nominating contest will be counted accurately. Only about one-third of Republicans say they’re confident that tallies in the primary will be accurate. That’s according to a new AP-NORC poll. The skepticism comes after years of former President Donald Trump blaming prior losses on voter fraud, including in the 2020 election. It also comes as Americans express pessimism about both political parties. About half of adults are pessimistic about the future of the GOP and just under half are similarly down on the Democratic party.
December 27, 2023 4:59 am
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A top U.S. delegation is meeting with Mexico’s president about a surge of migrants reaching the U.S. southwestern border. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says he is willing to help limit the surge, as he has done before. But he says he wants to see progress in U.S. relations with Cuba and Venezuela, which are two of the top sources of migrants. He would also like to see more development aid for the region. The U.S. team is headed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
December 27, 2023 4:57 am
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military says it has expanded its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip to the densely populated urban refugee camps in the central part of the territory. Residents reported shelling and airstrikes shaking the Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij camps. The built-up towns hold Palestinians whose families fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s independence. The camps are now crowded with Palestinians who fled northern Gaza in the early stages of Israel’s ground offensive. Meanwhile, Gaza’s main telecom provider announced another “complete interruption” of services.
December 27, 2023 4:56 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Lee Sun-kyun, a popular South Korean actor best known for his role in the Oscar-winning movie “Parasite,” has been found dead in a car in Seoul after weeks of an intense police investigation into his alleged drug use. Police and emergency officers initially found Lee in what they believed was an unconscious state in the car parked on a street in northern Seoul on Wednesday. Police station. Police had been searching for Lee, 48, after receiving a report that he was missing. “Parasite” won Oscars for best picture and three other categories in 2020. The class satire was the first non-English-language film to win best picture in the then-92-year history of the Academy Awards, and was the first South Korean movie to win an Oscar.
