April 27, 2022 4:26 pm
(AP) – Meteorologists are retiring the name Ida from the list of Atlantic hurricane names. Last year’s Ida was the fifth costliest U.S. storm on record, causing $75 billion in damage and killing 55 people. It made landfall in Louisiana and caused a swath of destruction throughout the eastern U.S., killing 49 people in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. This is the 12th hurricane name starting with the letter I that’s been retired, more than any other letter by far. There have been more category 4 and 5 landfalling hurricanes in the U.S. in the last five years than in the 54 years from 1963 to 2016.
April 27, 2022 7:56 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Russia and the United States have exchanged prisoners. A senior U.S. official says Russia released a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow while the U.S. released a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a prison sentence in Connecticut. Wednesday’s surprise exchange was done as Russia’s war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades. Russia gave up Trevor Reed, a Marine from Texas arrested in 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer. The U.S. agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who’d been serving a 20-year sentence for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. Reed’s family thanks President Joe Biden for deciding “to bring Trevor home.”
April 27, 2022 6:55 am
SOUTH FAYETTE, Pa. — (WPXI) – Softball player for James Madison University (JMU) and South Fayette standout Lauren Bernett has died. University President Jonathan Alger said in a statement on Tuesday that Bernett had died the previous day. She was a sophomore biology major and a high achieving member of the university’s softball team. The McDonald, Pennsylvania native was a four-year letter winner at South Fayette High School and graduated in 2020. During her time at JMU, Bernett played as a catcher and competed in the 2021 College World Series. As a freshman, she was a member of the VaSID All-State Second Team and was named Rookie of the Week after recording four hits, two being doubles scored during the team’s opening weekend. She recorded a season high of 18 putouts in a game against Liberty. Outside of the softball field, Bernett earned Dean’s List during the fall semester of 2020. Bernett was also named Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week on Monday, less than 24 hours before her death. “Our condolences and deepest sympathies are with her family, friends, coaches and fellow members of the student-athlete community,” said Alger.
April 27, 2022 4:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court is questioning lower-court orders that have blocked the Biden administration from ending a controversial Trump-era immigration program for asylum-seekers. Questions from conservative and liberal justices during nearly two hours of oral arguments on Tuesday suggested that the court could free the administration to end the “Remain in Mexico” policy that forces some people seeking asylum in the U.S. to wait in Mexico for their hearings. President Joe Biden suspended the program on his first day in office. After Texas and Missouri sued, lower courts required immigration officials to reinstate it, though the current administration has sent far fewer people back to Mexico than its predecessor.
April 27, 2022 4:24 am
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – Deputies protecting Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz had to pull him aside and surround him after members of a jury pool became potentially threatening. Judge Elizabeth Scherer said a potential juror had to be removed by bailiffs after he began mouthing possible threats toward Cruz. Others also started acting threatening, so deputies moved in to protect Cruz. The entire 70-person panel was then dismissed. Scherer said they became belligerent in the hallway. Cruz is facing a possible death sentence for murdering 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland four years ago.
April 27, 2022 4:22 am
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met one-on-one for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine. And the United Nations says they agreed on arranging evacuations from a besieged steel plant in the battered Ukrainian city of Mariupol. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says the Russian leader and U.N. chief discussed evacuations from conflict zones and agreed in principle Tuesday that the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross should be involved in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant where Ukrainian defenders are making a dogged stand in Mariupol, a southeastern city surrounded by Russian forces.
April 27, 2022 4:20 am
POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) – The U.S. defense chief has urged Ukraine’s allies to “move at the speed of war” to get more and heavier weapons to Kyiv while Russia cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made the remarks Tuesday as Russian forces rained fire on eastern and southern Ukraine amid new fears that the fighting could spill over the country’s borders. On Tuesday, explosions rocked the separatist region of Trans-Dniester in neighboring Moldova. Just across the border in Russia, the Belgorod regional governor says an ammunition depot was on fire early Wednesday after several explosions were heard. Poland and Bulgaria say the Kremlin is cutting off natural gas supplies starting Wednesday, the first such actions of the war.
April 27, 2022 4:16 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – State lawmakers are moving toward hundreds of billions of dollars in business tax cuts. The state House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday for a cut in the corporate net income tax rate from 10% to 9%. If the state’s revenues are sufficient, the rate would fall again to 8% by 2025. The House vote to send the bill to the Senate was 195 to 8. Pennsylvania state revenues are exceptionally strong this fiscal year. The most recent Revenue Department figures show the year-to-date general fund collections are about $2.7 billion above projections through March. That amounts to about 8%.
April 27, 2022 4:15 am
BELLE VERNON, Pa. — (WPXI) – Students and employees of Rostraver Elementary School had a twist in their day when a student found a small starter gun buried behind the building. According to a press release from the Belle Vernon Area School District, a student found what appeared to be a small handgun buried in the mud while on a class break. The student notified a teacher, and the gun was taken into possession by Rostraver Township Police. Local authorities determined that the gun was a starter pistol, similar to what is used at school in interscholastic track meets. The weapon was incapable of functioning, and fell apart as it was cleaned. The school’s principal and a member of the Rostraver Township Police Department visited classrooms throughout the day to explain the situation to students. Parents were also notified of the incident.
April 26, 2022 12:53 pm
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AP) – An Air Force major general in Ohio who was convicted on one of three specifications of abusive sexual contact allegations has been told he will receive a reprimand and must forfeit $10,910 of monthly pay for five months. Maj. Gen. William Cooley was found guilty Saturday in what was the first-ever military trial of an Air Force general. The weeklong court-martial at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio had three specifications, one accusing Cooley of a forcible kiss and two alleging forcible touching in 2018. The 56-year-old Cooley was convicted of the forcible kissing specification but acquitted of the other two. (Photo: AP)
