March 24, 2022 4:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has announced he’ll vote against confirming Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying he “cannot and will not” support the groundbreaking nominee for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. While McConnell’s opposition wasn’t unexpected and Jackson’s confirmation is still on track, his declaration coming only hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up four days of hearings probably will lead many fellow Republicans to follow suit. Democrats can confirm Jackson, the first Black woman nominated for the nation’s highest court, without any GOP support in the 50-50 Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris can cast the tie breaking vote.
March 24, 2022 4:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The United States is expanding efforts to help refugees fleeing Ukraine after Russia invaded. It has agreed to accept up to 100,000 people who are escaping from the war and will increase support for Eastern European nations that have taken in most of those fleeing Russian forces. It’s a modest number relative to the need, with an estimated 3.5 million refugees and millions more displaced within Ukraine. It’s also modest by historical standards, far less than the number who came from Southeast Asia decades ago. Here’s a look at the situation.
March 24, 2022 4:03 am
WUZHOU, China (AP) – Chinese state media say the search area is being expanded for the second black box from a China Eastern passenger plane that crashed in southern China with 132 people on board earlier this week. One of the black boxes was found on Wednesday. The Boeing 737-800 was cruising at 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) when it suddenly nose-dived into a remote mountainous area. No survivors have been found. Investigators have said it is too early to speculate on the cause. The flight was headed from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, to Guangzhou, a major city and export manufacturing hub on China’s southeastern coast.
March 24, 2022 2:50 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state, has died of cancer, her family said Wednesday. She was 84. President Bill Clinton chose Albright as America’s top diplomat in 1996, and she served in that capacity for the last four years of the Clinton administration.At the time, she was the highest-ranking woman in the history of U.S. government. She was not in the line of succession for the presidency, however, because she was a native of Czechoslovakia. (Photo: ABC)
March 24, 2022 2:36 am
A Monongahela man has been charged with criminal homicide in the shooting death of his wife Wednesday morning. Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh says 64-year-old Dennis Vaccaro admitted to authorities that he shot his wife, 47-year-old Mecca Vaccaro with his own 9mm gun, at their home at 533 Park Avenue, around eight o’clock. Walsh says he also told detectives that he placed the gun in his truck after he shot her. According to an individual who was at the scene, he heard Dennis Vaccaro arguing with his wife and then heard two pops. When he came around the corner of the house, he said he saw Vaccaro holding a gun pointed at the ground and Mecca Vaccaro laying on the ground. Mecca Vaccaro was taken to Penn Highlands Mon Valley Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Walsh says Vaccaro has been arraigned and is lodged in the Washington County Jail without bail. No preliminary hearing date has been set yet. (Photo: WPXI)
March 23, 2022 8:43 am
UNDATED (AP) – Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine works in babies, toddlers and preschoolers. The company announced early findings from a study of children younger than 6 on Wednesday. If regulators agree the small doses are safe and effective enough, it could mean a chance to finally start vaccinating the littlest kids by summer. Moderna said it will submit the data to U.S. regulators in the coming weeks. While other countries allow Moderna vaccinations for older children, the U.S. currently limits them to adults. Moderna said it also will push to vaccinate teens and school-age children, too.
March 23, 2022 5:47 am
WUZHOU, China (AP) – China says one of two black boxes from the China Eastern plane crash was found in severely damaged condition. The recorder is so damaged that they are not able to tell whether it is the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder. Mao Yanfeng, the director of the accident investigation division of the Civil Aviation Authority of China, told a news conference Wednesday that an all-out effort is being made to find the other black box. Recovering the so-called black boxes is considered key to figuring out what caused the crash.
March 23, 2022 4:13 am
ARABI, La. (AP) – A tornado tore through parts of New Orleans and its suburbs Tuesday night, flipping cars and ripping roofs off homes and killing at least one person in a region that was pummeled by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago. Parts of St. Bernard Parish, which borders New Orleans to the southeast, appeared to take the brunt of the weather’s fury, and that is where the so far single fatality occurred. St. Bernard Parish officials gave no details on how the person died; they said multiple other people were injured. The damage comes after other tornadoes spawned by the same storm system hit parts of Texas and Oklahoma.
March 23, 2022 4:11 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian leaders have accused Russia of seizing 15 rescue workers and drivers from a humanitarian convoy trying to get desperately needed aid into the bloodied city of Mariupol. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian forces also seized vehicles from the convoy despite earlier agreeing to the aid route. The Red Cross confirmed the failure of the latest attempt to get aid into the southern port city. Ukraine estimates that 100,000 civilians remain in the city, which has been devastated by weeks of Russian bombardment. The U.S. says Russian navy vessels offshore have joined in the strikes on Mariupol.
March 23, 2022 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the Biden administration has made a formal determination that Russian troops have committed war crimes in Ukraine. Blinken says the assessment was based on a “careful review” of public and intelligence sources since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last month. America’s top diplomat says the United States will share that information with allies, partners and international institutions tasked with investigating allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Blinken made the announcement Wednesday in a statement released as he was traveling to Brussels with President Joe Biden for an emergency summit of NATO leaders.
