April 25, 2022 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – As voters get ready for hundreds of elections of local and national importance this year, officials and voting rights advocates are bracing for a repeat of the misinformation that overwhelmed the 2020 presidential election. This year, the voting advocacy group Common Cause hopes to rely on thousands of volunteers to identify misinformation floating around online and push for social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to take down the most egregious falsehoods. One official in Ohio says that “2020 changed everything” and that fighting election misinformation “has got to be a part of our job now.”
April 25, 2022 4:12 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Authorities say three children and one adult were found dead after an early morning fire in a north Philadelphia row home. Fire crews were called to the two-story residence in the Kensington neighborhood shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday and found heavy fire coming from both floors. Officials say three children were found dead and a man reported unaccounted for was also later found deceased. The names of the victims and other details about them weren’t immediately released. One person who jumped to safety was taken to a hospital.The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
April 25, 2022 4:09 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – Another violent weekend in Pittsburgh, with police responding to multiple shooting calls throughout the area in just a matter of hours. One week after the mass shooting on Easter Sunday, city leaders are calling for a change. “What this incident brought to light was a problem,” said Isaac Faldey, president of Community Alliance of Spring Garden. “That was a big problem, and it’s not just what the police need to solve, it’s what the community can do.” Faldey led a round-table discussion on how to respond to Easter Sunday’s mass shooting. “We want to try to get something going for the entire North Side, even if it’s just a start,” Faldey said. Just hours beforehand, police around the Pittsburgh area were once again busy, responding to calls of violence. Around 10:30 Saturday night, a man was found on Wylie Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Hill District with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition. At 2 a.m. Sunday, emergency crews were notified of a female on St Clair Avenue in Clairton who was shot in the stomach. The woman was also taken to the hospital in critical condition. Around the same time, another shooting. This time in Duquesne, where a man was taken to the hospital after being shot in the shoulder. Faldey said that right now, the group is focused on the youth and finding ways to target that age group to start curbing the violence they’re currently seeing.
April 24, 2022 8:10 am
UNDATED (AP) – The Russian military says it has struck a Ukrainian explosives factory, several artillery depots and hundreds of other targets. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Sunday that the Russian military used precision-guided missiles to destroy a factory making powder and explosives near Pavlohrad in the Dnipro region in central Ukraine. Konashenkov said Russian forces also struck several depots with artillery munitions and rockets in the Kharkiv region. He added that the Russian artillery hit 423 Ukrainian targets overnight, including fortified positions and troops concentrations, while Russian warplanes destroyed 26 Ukrainian military targets.
April 24, 2022 8:09 am
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – Volunteers and workers in Shanghai have erected metal barriers in multiple districts to block off small streets and entrances to apartment complexes as China hardens its strict “zero-COVID” approach in its largest city. On social media, people posted videos of the new barriers with some expressing anger over the measures. In one video, residents broke down the mesh fence barricade. The business media Caixin reported the barriers were put up in several neighborhoods in Shanghai’s financial district. Buildings where cases have been found sealed up their main entrances, with a small opening for pandemic prevention workers to pass through. China reported 21,796 new community transmitted infections on Sunday, the vast majority being asymptomatic cases in Shanghai.
April 24, 2022 8:08 am
BERLIN (AP) – The World Health Organization says at least one death has been reported in connection with a mysterious liver disease outbreak affecting children in Europe and the United States. The U.N. health agency said late Saturday that it has so far received reports of at least 169 cases of “acute hepatitis of unknown origin” from a dozen countries. The cases were reported in children aged one month to 16 years old, and 17 of those who fell ill required liver transplants. WHO did not say in which country the death occurred. The first cases were recorded in Britain, where 114 children have been sickened. Experts say the cases may be linked to a virus commonly associated with colds but further research is ongoing.
April 24, 2022 8:06 am
UNDATED (AP) – Facing a rise in COVID-19, several U.S. universities are reinstating mask mandates, sometimes just days after dropping them. Mandates were shed widely in the wake of spring break as case numbers dropped following a winter surge fueled by the omicron variant. But several Northeast cities have seen a rise in hospitalizations in recent weeks, as the BA.2 subvariant of the omicron variant continues to rapidly spread throughout the country The clampdown means the end of the school year has been upended by the virus for three straight academic years. Soon-to-be seniors haven’t had a normal school year yet. (Photo: AP)
April 24, 2022 8:04 am
UNDATED (AP) – Many Ukrainian Americans are observing Orthodox Easter this Sunday, but they’re finding it difficult to be joyful when their ancestral homeland has been torn by the Russian invasion. The Rev. Richard Jendras of St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said this should be a joyous holiday. But he noted that this year, it coincides with grim news from the war zone of death and destruction. Yet he said it’s important to affirm that “good does triumph” over evil. Eastern Orthodox often celebrate Easter later than Western churches because they use a different method to calculate its date. (Photo: ABC News)
April 24, 2022 8:03 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Gov. Jim Justice has announced that the West Virginia National Guard will send armored personnel carriers for Ukraine to use against Russian aggression. According to a news release, Justice says an “an undisclosed number” of M-113 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine following a request from the Department of Defense. The vehicles are used to move soldiers and equipment while providing protection from small arms fire. Earlier this year, Justice ordered the state to stop the purchase and sale of liquor produced in Russia. The Republican governor also asked the West Virginia Retailers Association to remove Russian liquor from their shelves.
April 24, 2022 7:00 am
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Orrin G. Hatch, who became the longest-serving Republican senator in history who was a fixture in Utah politics for more than four decades, died Saturday at age 88. His death was announced in a statement from his foundation, which did not specify a cause. He launched the Hatch Foundation as he retired in 2019 and was replaced by Republican Mitt Romney. A staunch conservative on economic and social issues, he also teamed with Democrats several times during his long career on issues ranging from stem cell research to rights for people with disabilities to expanding children’s health insurance. He also championed GOP issues like abortion limits and helped shape the U.S. Supreme Court. (Photo: ABC News)
