May 1, 2022 8:13 am
PARIS (AP) — Citizens and trade unions in cities around Europe were taking to the streets on Sunday for May Day marches, and put out protest messages to their governments, notably in France where the holiday to honor workers was being used as a rallying cry against newly reelected President Emmanuel Macron. In Italy, after a two-year pandemic lull, an outdoor mega-concert was set for Rome with rallies and protests in cities across the country. Besides work, peace was an underlying theme with calls for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Italy’s three main labor unions were focusing their main rally in the hilltop town of Assisi, a frequent destination for peace protests. This year’s slogan is “Working for peace.” “It’s a May Day of social and civil commitment for peace and labor,” said the head of Italy’s CISL union, Daniela Fumarola. Protests were planned far and wide in Europe, including in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, where students and others planned to rally in support of Ukraine as Communists, anarchists and anti-European Union groups held their own gatherings.
May 1, 2022 8:12 am
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — The United Nations labored Sunday to get civilians out of the bombed-out ruins of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, while U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed she visited Ukraine’s president to show American support for the country’s defense against Russian aggression. Russia’s high-stakes offensive in coastal southern Ukraine and the country’s eastern industrial heartland has Ukrainian forces fighting village by village and more civilians fleeing airstrikes and artillery shelling as the war draws near their doorsteps. As many as 100,000 people are believed to still be in blockaded Maripol, including up to 1,000 civilians who were hunkered down with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters beneath a sprawling Soviet-era steel plant that is the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians. Pelosi, who is second in line to succeed the president, is the most senior American lawmaker to visit Ukraine since the war erupted. Her Saturday trip with a congressional delegation was a sign of unflinching U.S. support and came just days after Russia launched rockets at the capital during a visit by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.
May 1, 2022 8:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House press corps’ annual gala returned Saturday night along with the roasting of Washington, the journalists who cover it and the man at the helm: President Joe Biden. The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, sidelined by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, featured Biden as the first president in six years to accept an invitation. Donald Trump shunned the event while in office. The president took the opportunity to test out his comedic chops, making light of the criticism he has faced in his 15 months in office while taking aim at his predecessor, the Republican Party and the members of the press. Biden also made light of the “Let’s Go Brandon” slogan, which has become the right’s stand-in for swearing at the president. In addition to speeches from Biden and comedian Trevor Noah, the hourslong event had taped skits from talk-show host James Corden, comedian Bill Eichner and even Biden himself.
May 1, 2022 8:07 am
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A former Pennsylvania attorney general who served jail time for leaking grand jury material and lying about it has been taken into custody on an alleged probation violation. A spokesperson for Montgomery County said Friday that 55-year-old Kathleen Kane is behind bars at the county jail. Kane was charged with drunken driving following a crash in Scranton last month. A Montgomery County judge then issued a bench warrant for her arrest. Kane was on probation from her 2016 conviction for perjury, obstruction and other counts for leaking secret investigative files to embarrass a rival prosecutor.
May 1, 2022 8:04 am
NORTH STRABANE, Pa. — Multiple fire crews were called to a shed fire in North Strabane Township just off of Route 19. According to reports, the blaze was called in just before 12:30 a.m. Sunday on the 200 block of Mansfield Road. North Strabane Township Fire Department was assisted by Peters Township, Canonsburg and Washington on scene. There were no reported injuries and no cause of the fire has been released at this time.
May 1, 2022 7:57 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — Sunday’s lineup is busy with the Pittsburgh Marathon making its big return after a 2-year hiatus, the University of Pittsburgh’s graduation and an afternoon Pirates game. There will be dozens of road closures scheduled and thousands of visitors flooding the city. With hundreds of signs posted and barricades ready to block dozens of roads, city police said drivers were warned to make way for the return of the Pittsburgh Marathon. “Over the last year, we’ve been working with fire, with EMS, Allegheny County dispatchers and the National Weather Service,” said Pittsburgh Police Commander Cristyn Zett. With hundreds of moving parts, officials have worked to clear a 26-mile path that spans several neighborhoods including the South Side, North Side, Shadyside, Homewood, Highland Park, Friendship, Lawrenceville, the Strip District and Oakland. “It’s going to be a very busy day in the city,” said Zett.
May 1, 2022 4:13 am
SOMERSET COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) -Suspended Somerset County District Attorney Jeffrey Thomas was in court Friday for a bond revocation hearing. A judge decided he will be kept under house arrest until his trial, rather than going to jail. The judge said he had to consider 3 things: if there was a bond violation, if there was a danger and if he had any contact with witnesses. The judge determined prosecutors met their proof, but did not order Thomas to jail. ”If they proved their allegations at this level, that’s appropriate. I think, what would’ve been inappropriate would be for him to be fully incarcerated in the Somerset County Jail,” Thomas’ defense attorney, Ryan Tutera said. The AG’s office said Thomas’ behavior is why they were there Friday. They told the judge they believe Thomas is a dangerous person who cannot be trusted with his freedom. The judge agreed that he felt Thomas violated his bond, but instead of incarceration, he ordered him to live with his parents under electronic monitoring and GPS tracking. Thomas was just hit with two new and wholly separate cases this week. One is stemming from an alleged assault in May of last year where Thomas is accused of punching his wife in the head multiple times while she was on a FaceTime call with someone. She testified Friday that she did not even know about the charges until Thomas was being arraigned. A few weeks ago, Windber Police said Thomas chased down a commonwealth witness, and friend of the sexual assault victim, with his truck and allegedly deliberately rammed his truck into the witness’ vehicle. Thomas is expected to go to trial in September for the initial sexual assault charges that led to all of this fallout. If Thomas violates any of these conditions, he will immediately be sent to jail.
May 1, 2022 4:11 am
MONONGAHELA, Pa. — (WPXI) – A Washington County couple is arrested on felony child endangerment charges, accused of leaving fentanyl out in front of their 1-year-old baby. Monongahela Police escorted a CYS worker to Branddon Danilchak and Kaya Zakrzewski’s Finleyville home. They were checking on the couple’s three children after getting a report that the children were being exposed to drugs. Officers found two bricks of heroin in a closet, empty stamp bags, drug paraphernalia and a white powdery substance. Zakrzewski told police it was fentanyl and that her 1-year-old daughter was in the bedroom the whole time it was out in the open. “It’s extremely dangerous. It takes a very small amount of fentanyl to injure or kill somebody and we know kids get into just about everything,” said Sgt Ryan Lenzi of the Monongahela City Police department. The CYS worker who responded to the home became ill with nausea and light-headedness, before vomiting. She was rushed by ambulance to Jefferson Hospital. Zakrzewski told police Danilchak was purchasing heroin with his pandemic unemployment money until 2021. After that money ran out, she told police she gave him $200 a week to purchase it.
May 1, 2022 1:27 am
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Naomi Judd, whose family harmonies with daughter Wynonna turned them into the Grammy-winning country stars The Judds, has died. She was 76. Her daughters, Wynonna and Ashley, announced her death on Saturday in a statement provided to The Associated Press. “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness,” the statement said. “We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.” Naomi Judd died near Nashville, Tennessee, said a statement on behalf of her husband and fellow singer, Larry Strickland. It said no further details about her death would be released and asked for privacy as the family grieves. The Judds were to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday and they had just announced an arena tour to begin in the fall, their first tour together in over a decade. The mother-daughter performers scored 14 No. 1 songs in a career that spanned nearly three decades. The red-headed duo combined the traditional Appalachian sounds of bluegrass with polished pop stylings, scoring hit after hit in the 1980s. Wynonna led the duo with her powerful vocals, while Naomi provided harmonies and stylish looks on stage.
April 30, 2022 10:26 am
KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian forces are fighting to hold off a Russian advance aimed at capturing an eastern industrial region along with Ukraine’s last holdout in the southern city of Mairupol. The United Nations is trying to broker an evacuation of civilians holed up with Ukrainian fighters in a steel mill and from other parts of the bombed-out port city. Two women whose husbands belong to the Azov Regiment of Ukraine’s National Guard say they fear soldiers will be tortured and killed if left behind and captured by the Russians. They shared video and photos with The Associated Press of wounded men with open wounds or amputated limbs.
