April 15, 2023 4:03 am
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been evacuated unharmed after someone threw an explosive device at a campaign event in a western port city. Kishida was visiting the Saikazaki port in Wakayama prefecture on Saturday to cheer his ruling party’s candidate in a local election. The explosion occurred just before he was to begin his speech. No injuries were reported in the incident. Police wrestled a suspect to the ground as screaming bystanders scrambled to get away and smoke filled the air. The incident comes only nine months after former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while delivering a campaign speech in the western city of Nara. The assassination shocked the nation and a subsequent investigation found holes in Abe’s security.
April 15, 2023 3:53 am
The Canon-McMillan School Board met Thursday evening for their monthly agenda meeting. Two financial items stood out. Both items are bond issues for the district. According to Deputy Superintendent Scott Chambers, the district will be refinancing one bond at $7.2 million and a second bond at $20.5 million. Chambers said that market conditions are right to be able to go out and refinance the bonds to save taxpayers money. He said the bonds fund various construction projects throughout the district. Chambers did also say that the budget and finance committee met on Wednesday and are actively formulating a budget for the 2023-2024 school year. A preliminary budget is anticipated in May. Final budget approval will be in June. A small tax increase is anticipated, but Chambers did say that everything is still being studied and numbers could change before June.
April 15, 2023 3:53 am
An inmate who was housed in the Washington County Jail pleaded guilty to a terroristic threats charge on Thursday. John Lazear, 39 appeared in plea court via video from SCI Camp Hill. He was also accused of interception of communications and conspiracy interception of communications but those charges were dismissed. Lazear and his then attorney Kimberly Furmanek were communicating using several cell phones in the Washington County Jail while Furmanek was discussing Lazear’s case with his new attorney James Jefferies. Lazear was accused of making threats to Jefferies on a later phone call. Lazear is already serving a 15-40 year sentence in state prison for multiple charges of drug and weapon possession from a plea agreement in January of this year. He will serve three years probation on the terroristic threats charge concurrent to the existing sentence.
April 15, 2023 3:51 am
SOUTH STRABANE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – A trucker who lost control of his rig before a rollover crash left the tractor-trailer dangling from an overpass in Washington County is sharing his story with our news partners at Channel 11. The tractor-trailer was about five stories above ground as it hung from an I-79 overpass. “I rolled it for a long time, I was thinking it was maybe going to fall off, but luckily it didn’t,” said the driver, Kostas Hobitakis. He walked away with just a few scratches. His only injury was his to his elbow after using it to escape. “So after it was done I just thought, ‘quickly get out of here,’ I was hanging, I unbuckled it and just fell to the floor,” he said. “There was no way I could reach the top door, bottom door, the only thing was the windshield so I rammed into it a couple times and got out.” Hobitakis said there were multiple factors that played a role in the crash, including his heavy load: 40,000 pounds of cardboard that crashed to the ground. He insists speed wasn’t a factor. “I was going the speed limit, I was going the speed limit,” Hobitakis said. “In my head as this was happening, as I was coming down the hill, I am slowing down. The load was really heavy. Coming down, that specific bridge if you cross the line over it goes downward, so the thing is, my tire went into that and you just get sucked in. Hobitakis, who is from Chicago and started driving trucks three years ago said it’s a miracle that he survived. State police told Channel 11 they believe speed played a factor but they are still investigating. Hobitakis was cited for failing to properly negotiate a left turn.
April 14, 2023 4:14 am
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature has approved a bill to ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed it into law. The House gave the proposal final passage on Thursday. The six-week ban will give DeSantis a key political victory among Republican primary voters as he prepares to launch an expected presidential candidacy built on his national brand as a conservative standard bearer. The policy will also have wider implications for abortion access throughout the South as some nearby states have total bans in place. Florida previously prohibited abortions after 15 weeks.
April 14, 2023 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative mega-donor Harlan Crow purchased three properties belonging to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his family, in a transaction worth more than $100,000 that Thomas never reported, according to the non-profit investigative journalism organization ProPublica. The 2014 real estate deal shines a new light on Thomas’s decades-old relationship with Crow, a real estate magnate and longtime financier for conservative causes. That relationship and the material benefits received by Thomas have fueled calls for an official ethics investigation. ProPublica previously revealed that Thomas and his wife Ginni were gifted with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of annual vacations and trips by Crow for decades.
April 13, 2023 4:12 pm
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Police say a self-proclaimed tech consultant has been arrested in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee in San Francisco. Police Chief Bill Scott said during a news conference that 38-year-old Nima Momeni was booked Thursday morning on suspicion of murder. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Momeni is expected to be arraigned Friday. Police found Lee with stab wounds in the Rincon Hill neighborhood of San Francisco at 2:30 a.m. April 4. He died at a hospital. On his LinkedIn profile, Momeni describes himself as an “IT Consultant/Entrepreneur” as well as “owner” at a company called Expand IT. Scott declined to say how police linked the death to the Momeni or how the men knew each other.
April 13, 2023 2:35 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Massachusetts Air National Guard member who has emerged as a main person of interest in the disclosure of highly classified military documents on the Ukraine war was taken into custody Thursday by federal agents. Attorney General Merrick Garland made the announcement at the Justice Department Thursday. The guardsman was identified as 21-year-old Jack Teixeira. FBI agents converged Thursday at Teixeira’s Massachusetts home and heavily armed tactical agents took a man wearing a T-shirt and shorts into custody outside the property.
April 13, 2023 4:15 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is expected to visit the offices of New York’s attorney general for his second deposition in a legal battle over his company’s business practices. The Republican was scheduled to meet Thursday with lawyers for Attorney General Letitia James, who sued Trump last year. Her lawsuit claims Trump misled banks and others about the value of his assets. Trump and his lawyers say the Democrat’s lawsuit against him is politically motivated. Trump met once previously with James’ lawyers, but refused to answer questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. The lawsuit is unrelated to the felony criminal charges filed against Trump last week by the Manhattan district attorney.
April 13, 2023 4:12 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Its neighbors say North Korea has conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile launch in a month as it extends a provocative run of weapons tests. Japan briefly urged residents on a northern island to evacuate in a sign of its vigilance over North Korea’s evolving missile threats. The missile was launched at a high angle, which North Korea usually does to avoid its neighbors, and it landed in the waters between the peninsula and Japan. A South Korean defense official said the military believes the test was of a new type of missile, possibly using solid fuel. It would be the first, if so. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to obtain several new weapons to cope with what he calls U.S. military threats.
