January 15, 2024 5:10 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia police say a former high-ranking commander fired after he was charged with sexual assault will be reinstated following dismissal of the cases against him. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a department spokesperson says Carl Holmes “will return to his previous rank of chief inspector” following an arbitrator’s ruling in favor. Holmes, who spent nearly three decades on the force, was fired in 2019 after he was accused of having sexually assaulted three women at work. The criminal cases involving two of the women were withdrawn in early 2021 and prosecutors dropped the last case in January 2023 after the accuser failed to appear in court.
January 15, 2024 5:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A fake 911 call that the White House was on fire has sent emergency vehicles to the complex. President Joe Biden and his family were at Camp David in Maryland when the call came in Monday morning. A person familiar with the matter says fire engines and other emergency vehicles responded to a report the White House was ablaze and a person was trapped inside. District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services and U.S. Secret Service personnel determined it was a false report and called off the response. Biden is scheduled to return to the White House on Monday afternoon after participating in an event in Philadelphia marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
January 15, 2024 5:04 am
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) – A car carrier caught fire overnight on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The fire happened in Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, around 2:30 a.m. 911 officials tell Channel 11 that the tractor-trailer was damaged by the flames. So were some of the cars it was carrying. A photo shared by the Youngwood Volunteer Fire Department shows some of the cars were destroyed in the fire.
January 15, 2024 5:01 am
A Washington County man who was wanted by police after he allegedly hit a woman with a car in the parking lot of Hollywood Casino at the Meadows was arrested in West Virginia. North Strabane Township Police posted on Facebook on Saturday that a tip resulted in the arrest of 43-year-old Christopher Michael Holt. According to the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Holt was arrested at 6:05 a.m. on Saturday. Holt was wanted on aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person charges. Police say surveillance video showed Holt’s black sedan aggressively accelerating at the woman before making a sharp right turn onto the roadway, driving over the curb and hitting her, according to the complaint. The impact tossed her body up onto the hood of the car and onto the ground. There is no word on her identity or condition.
January 15, 2024 4:37 am
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — With snow falling at a rate of 2 inches per hour, a group of about 85 people tried to dig out the Buffalo Bills’ stadium in Orchard Park, New York, on Sunday. The Bills’ playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers was postponed to Monday because of a lake-effect storm that was expected to drop 1 to 3 feet of snow in the area. The Bills paid snow shovelers $20 an hour, but one person who participated, Logan Eschrich, says the work at Highmark Stadium was nearly impossible. The storm was expected to taper off Sunday night, allowing time to clear roads and prepare the stadium for the game.
January 14, 2024 6:59 am
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley were finding Iowa voters looking for alternatives to former President Donald Trump as they campaigned on the final weekend before 2024 voting begins. But Trump is still confident even as he canceled larger events in favor of “tele-rallies” because of the weather. Voters’ reactions on Saturday showed how uncertain it is whether either candidate can dent Trump’s advantage. DeSantis has spent considerable attention and money on Iowa. Haley has made a push in Iowa but is perhaps better-positioned in New Hampshire and South Carolina, where she served as governor. Some voters said they are choosing between DeSantis and Trump. Others are choosing between Haley and DeSantis as an alternative to him.
January 14, 2024 6:56 am
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Homeland Security Department says Texas denied federal agents access to a stretch of border when they were trying to rescue three migrants who drowned. The federal government’s account came hours after U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said the Texas Military Department and Texas National Guard “did not grant access to Border Patrol agents to save the migrants” Friday night. Mexican authorities recovered the bodies of a woman and two children Saturday across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.
January 14, 2024 6:53 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military says North Korea has fired a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile toward the sea. The launch was the North’s first this year and comes two months after it claimed to have tested engines for a new harder-to-detect missile capable of striking distant U.S. targets in the region. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says it has detected a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile launch from the North’s capital region on Sunday afternoon. It said the missile flew toward the North’s eastern waters. Japan’s Defense Ministry also said it spotted a possible ballistic missile launch by North Korea.
January 14, 2024 6:49 am
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israel-Hamas war has quickly shattered many records when it comes to the history of conflicts between the bitter enemies. It’s the deadliest, the most destructive, and the longest. Israel has razed large swaths of the Gaza Strip, where researchers assess that nearly half of all buildings are likely damaged or destroyed. Nearly 24,000 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed, which amounts to more than 1% of Gaza’s population. Meanwhile, the Hamas attack on Israel that spurred the war was the single deadliest day in Israeli history.
January 14, 2024 5:16 am
JERUSALEM (AP) — The White House says “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, even as Israeli leaders vow to intensify their operation against the territory’s ruling Hamas militant group. The U.S. comments on Sunday exposed the growing differences between the close allies on the 100th day of the war. Also Sunday, Israeli warplanes struck targets in Lebanon following a Hezbollah missile attack in northern Israel that killed two Israeli civilians — an older woman and her adult son. The exchange of fire underscored concerns that the Gaza violence could trigger wider fighting across the region.
