November 3, 2023 4:57 am
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden added a bouquet of white flowers Friday to a makeshift memorial outside Schemengees Bar and Grille, one of the scenes of the state’s deadliest mass shooting. They stood for a moment of silence before bending over to hug bar owner Kathy Lebel. Eight people died there in the Oct. 25 massacre, along with seven at the nearby Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley. Three others died at hospitals. Biden came to Lewiston to do what presidents do in these moments of horror and grief; lend comfort to the families of the victims and to show support for a reeling community. But it’s a type of trip that has become all too familiar, despite a bipartisan gun safety law passed last year after another mass shooting, and despite a series of executive orders by the president meant to stop gun violence. “Too many times the president and first lady have traveled to communities completely torn apart by gun violence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on the eve of the Bidens’ trip on Friday. “We can’t accept it as normal.” Besides those killed, 13 people were injured in the shootings. (Photo: AP)
November 3, 2023 4:56 am
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York jury has convicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried of fraud charges. The 31-year-old California man was convicted Thursday in Manhattan federal court by jurors who rejected his testimony that he didn’t defraud thousands of customers worldwide who counted on him to safeguard the billions of dollars they deposited in accounts. Bankman-Fried has been jailed since August, when a judge concluded he’d tried to influence prospective trial witnesses. He was extradited to the United States last December from the Bahamas, where he had operated the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and a hedge fund, among other businesses.
November 3, 2023 4:55 am
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against growing U.S. pressure for a “humanitarian pause” in the nearly month-old war to protect civilians and allow more aid into Gaza. Netanyahu insisted Friday that there would be no temporary cease-fire until the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas are released. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his third trip to Israel since the war began and reiterated American support for Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas after its brutal Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel. He also echoed President Joe Biden’s calls for a brief halt in the fighting to address a worsening humanitarian crisis.
November 3, 2023 4:46 am
Washington City Council held their voting meeting Thursday and approved the new fee for solid waste and recycling collection. The new fee is $300 per year per dwelling. A one time late fee of $30 dollars will be assessed if payment is not made by the due date. The new service begins in January. Bigs Sanitation will be sending pickup schedules to all city residents by the end of the year. Council also adopted their preliminary budget. Currently the spending plan sits just over $15 million. The budget is still under scrutiny to locate any other savings. The budget does not include a tax raise. Taxes in the city have not been raised since 2019. Council approved the hiring of three public works employees. This will bring the department within one person of being fully staffed. City Hall will be closed on November 10 for Veterans Day. It will also close November 23 and 24 for Thanksgiving.
November 3, 2023 2:48 am
(WPXI) – A local nurse previously charged for allegedly killing two patients and hurting another with intentional doses of insulin is facing more accusations of mistreatment. According to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, Heather Pressdee, 41, is facing dozens of new charges for allegedly administering lethal doses of insulin to 19 additional patients at five different care facilities between 2020 and 2023. Seventeen patients died under Pressdee’s care, the attorney general said. Some were diabetic and required insulin but some were not. Officials said Pressdee would administer the insulin during overnight shifts when staffing was low. She is accused of mistreating 22 patients in total, including the three involved in the previous charges. The victims were ranged in age from 43 to 104. Pressdee is currently being held in the Butler County Prison. Anyone with information about these incidents or Heather Pressdee is asked to contact the Office of Attorney General’s tip-line at 888-538-8541.
November 3, 2023 2:18 am
((WPXI) – Robert Bowers, the man convicted in the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, has appealed his death sentence and is asking for a new trial. According to federal documents, Bowers seeks a judgment of acquittal and a new trial. The appeal is nearly 40 pages long and alleges prosecutors excluded potential jurors who were Black, Hispanic and Jewish. It also claims there was insufficient evidence to prove Bowers’ hatred of the victims was “because they were religious or secular or were engaged in religious practices.” Eleven people were killed in the shooting on Oct. 27, 2018. Bowers was found guilty on June 16, 2023, and sentenced to death on Aug. 3, 2023.
November 3, 2023 1:54 am
Governor Josh Shapiro and Nick Deiuliis, CEO of CNX Resources Corporation met at a well pad outside of Claysville, PA to sign what they call an historic Collaboration Agreement. Shapiro states that the agreement that was reached after many months of talks will have CNX follow many of the suggestions that were made by the 43rd Statewide Grand Jury that was convened in 2020 when Shapiro served as the Attorney General. Some of those guidelines being addressed will be the disclosure of chemicals used by CNX in the fracking process and increased setbacks for drilling activities surrounding homes and schools. The agreement will have CNX gather air, water and ground pollution data and take corrective action to address any health concerns. Shapiro, for his part will empower the Department of Environmental Protection to increase their enforcement and penalize any non-compliance of fracking companies going forward. David Masur of PennEnvironment applauded the agreement as a good first step to protecting the health of Pennsylvania Residents. In a written statement after the agreement, the group stated that they still call for a complete banning of fracking activities. Locally, Lisa DePaoli, Communications Director of the Center for Coalfield Justice called the agreement a “slap in the face” to southwestern Pennsylvania residents. It likened CNX’s self-reporting of data to the fox guarding the hen house. She pointed to over 400 environmental violations racked up by CNX since the Grand Jury report.
November 2, 2023 5:42 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The final Beatles recording featuring John, Paul, George and Ringo is here. Released Thursday and titled “Now and Then,” the song comes from a batch of unreleased demos written by the late John Lennon in the ’70s. Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr used the tape to construct the songs “Free As a Bird” and “Real Love,” released in the mid-1990s. But there were technical limitations to finishing “Now and Then.” That changed in 2022, 21 years after Harrison’s death, when Starr and McCartney were able to utilize the same artificial intelligence restoration methods used during the making of “The Beatles: Get Back” to complete “Now and Then.” (Photo: AP)
November 2, 2023 5:40 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — A new government report shows fewer high school students are vaping. About 10% of high school students said they had used electronic cigarettes in the previous month. That’s down from 14% from the same survey conducted last year. Fewer high schools students also smoked cigarettes and cigars. The use of e-cigarettes among middle school students was about the same as last year. The report was released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC considers the annual survey its best measure of youth smoking trends.
November 2, 2023 5:02 am
Migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and travel to cities around the country are running into a disjointed health care systems when they need treatment. There is no national system to track the medical care that new arrivals may have received. Doctors say that most migrants are healthy but that the arduous journey and lack of consistent medical care can turn manageable health issues into emergencies. Doctors also say they struggle to keep track of patients because of unstable or fluid housing situations.
