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.
November 2, 2023 4:59 am
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Vladimir Putin is expected to seek another term in the Kremlin when Russia holds presidential elections next March. But he is 71 years old, an age when death or serious illness are hardly distant concerns. If Putin was not on the ballot for some reason, it’s not clear who might take his place. At the national level, Russia’s political system has no primary elections in which voters can choose a candidate. Political parties select their own contenders and then present them to the electorate. However the process plays out, a candidate almost certainly would come from within the current power structure, as none of the lesser parties’ candidates would have wide recognition or support.
November 2, 2023 4:58 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Eric Trump has testified that he was never involved with or aware of financial statements that New York state lawyers say fraudulently puffed up the ex-president’s wealth and the worth of their family business. He clarified his answer Thursday after he was shown decade-old emails from a fellow Trump executive asking him for information for the financial statement. Eric Trump testified: “We’re a major organization, a massive real estate organization — yes, I’m fairly sure I understand that we have financial statements.” But, he insisted: “I had no involvement and never worked on” Donald Trump’s financial statement. Eric Trump followed brother and co-executive Donald Trump Jr. in testifying at the family’s New York civil fraud trial. Their father is scheduled to testify Monday.
November 2, 2023 4:56 am
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Efforts to use the Constitution’s “insurrection” clause to prevent former President Donald Trump from running again for the White House are turning to Minnesota with oral arguments before the state Supreme Court. Thursday’s hearing will unfold as a similar case plays out in Colorado. Both cases argue that Trump is disqualified from running under a Civil War-era section of the 14th Amendment that bans anyone from higher office who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it. Trump’s lawyers argue that while the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol devolved into a riot, it was not an insurrection in the constitutional sense.
November 2, 2023 4:55 am
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — In just 25 days of war, more than 3,600 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza, according to the strip’s health authorities. They were hit by airstrikes, smashed by rockets, burned by blasts and crushed by buildings. Among the dead were avid readers, budding journalists and infants too young to comprehend what was happening. The advocacy group Save The Children says more children were killed in Gaza in October than in all conflict zones around the world combined last year. With nearly half of the crowded strip’s 2.3 million inhabitants under the age of 18, children are the most vulnerable victims of Israel’s powerful airstrikes.
November 2, 2023 4:49 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A court says Pennsylvania can’t enforce a regulation to make power plant owners pay for their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The ruling Wednesday by the Commonwealth Court is another setback for the centerpiece of former Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to fight global warming. The court temporarily blocked it last year, and the new ruling makes that decision permanent. The plan would’ve made Pennsylvania the first major fossil fuel-producing state to adopt a carbon-pricing program. The court agreed with Republican lawmakers and coal-related interests that the plan amounted to a tax that would require legislative approval. It would be up to Wolf’s successor, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, to decide whether to appeal.
November 2, 2023 4:40 am
Washington County Commissioner Chairwoman Diana Irey-Vaughan was honored Wednesday evening when she was awarded the Jack Piatt Spirit of Southpointe Award. The award is given each year by the Southpointe CEO Association, to people who embody the vision and entrepreneurial drive that Jack Piatt demonstrated. Piatt and his company Millcraft Investments and a first term commissioner both focused on making Southpointe a model development for home, work and recreation. Lucas Piatt, CEO of Piatt Companies moderated a “fireside chat” with Irey-Vaughan that covered the 28 year span of her commissioner term. She credited her devotion to Jesus and to her family as the reason she gets up in the morning to continue her work in community service. Irey-Vaughan said that some of the hardest things she had to do as commissioner was to raise taxes twice and say no. A particularly hard no was when Walmart wanted to move into the Southpointe development. Her proudest accomplishment was the reorganization of the county’s human services department. During the event, Irey-Vaughan officially announced her next step in her life’s journey President and CEO of the Washington City Mission beginning in March of 2024.
November 1, 2023 4:37 pm
MERCER, Pa. (AP) — A multi-vehicle crash on a snowy stretch of interstate in western Pennsylvania has killed one person. Officials say the crash occurred around 5:45 a.m. Wednesday at mile marker 14 on Interstate 80 near Mercer. About 11 miles of the road was shut down. The wreck involved at least eight vehicles including tractor-trailers and passenger cars. A state police spokesperson says one person died at the scene. At least six others sustained minor injuries.
November 1, 2023 4:09 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — George Santos will soon face a vote to expel him from the House. The effort to oust the Republican congressman from New York is being led by fellow GOP members from the state. They’re anxious to distance themselves from a colleague who’s become infamous for fabricating his life story and has been accused of stealing from donors and lying to Congress. For the effort to succeed, the resolution needs the support of at least two-thirds of lawmakers. That means dozens of Republican lawmakers would have to break ranks with newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson. Johnson says Santos is entitled to due process. Santos is facing charges in federal court and a House Ethics Committee investigation.
