April 21, 2022 4:25 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces are tightening the noose around the defenders holed up in a mammoth steel plant that is the last known Ukrainian stronghold in in the besieged city of Mariupol. A fighter apparently on the inside issued a video plea for help. He said the defenders may have only a few days or hours left. With the holdouts punished by new bombing attacks, another attempt to evacuate civilians trapped in the city has failed because of continued fighting. Separately, the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region says Russian forces now control 80 percent of it. It is one of two regions that make up the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
April 21, 2022 4:22 am
DETROIT (AP) – Ford is recalling more than 650,000 pickup trucks and big SUVs in the U.S. because the windshield wipers can break and fail. The recall covers certain F-150 pickups, and Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs from the 2020 and 2021 model years. Also included are F-250, 350, 450 and 550 trucks from 2020 through 2022. Ford’s F-Series pickups are the top-selling vehicles in the U.S. Ford says in documents posted Thursday by U.S. safety regulators that teeth on the wipers aren’t the right height. That can cause the wiper arms to become stripped. Dealers will replace both front windshield wiper arms. Owners will be notified by letter starting May 23.
April 21, 2022 4:21 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department is filing an appeal seeking to overturn a judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs. The notice came minutes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked the Justice Department to appeal the decision handed down by a federal judge in Florida earlier this week. A notice of appeal was filed Wednesday in federal court in Tampa. The CDC says it is its “continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.”
April 21, 2022 4:20 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Actor Robert Morse, who won a Tony Award as a hilariously brash corporate climber in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and a second one a generation later as the brilliant, troubled Truman Capote in “Tru,” has died. He was 90. David Shaul of BRS/Gage Talent Agency says Morse died at his home Wednesday after a brief illness. More recently, Morse played the autocratic and eccentric leader of an advertising agency in “Mad Men,” AMC’s hit drama that debuted in 2007. The role earned him an Emmy nomination in 2008 as best guest actor in a drama series. (Photo: pinterest)
April 21, 2022 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden on Thursday announced he has approved an additional $800 million in military aid to help Ukraine fight back against the Russian invasion, but warned Congress will need to approve additional assistance. The new military assistance package includes much needed heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition, and drones for Ukrainian forces in the escalating battle for the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine , and builds on roughly $2.6 billion in military assistance that Biden had previously approved for Ukraine. Biden said that $13.6 billion approved last month by Congress for military and humanitarian assistance is “almost exhausted.”
April 21, 2022 4:15 am
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) – Police say that two scam artists stole thousands of dollars from three Peters Township ATMs. The men are in the Washington County jail, listed as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 because the only identification on them were fake IDs for a Robert Pokorny and a Flip Honza from the Czech Republic. Police suspect the two men are Romanian, and are in the country illegally. According to police, the John Does took out $700 from a Walgreens ATM, nearly $1200 from the CVS ATM, and $1600 from a BP ATM, all with fraudulent credit cards. The cards worked in ATMs by using stolen credit card numbers. Workers at the BP said they had five times the number of ATM transactions over the weekend, totaling close to $5,000. The rare arrests in this case started after investigators at Peters Township got calls from out of state. People called to say they were alerted to fraudulent activity by their banks, but still had their cards on them. Police immediately began looking at surveillance video and saw the suspects parked in the lot at a senior home, walked into the stores. Investigators caught John Doe 1 in action, taking cash from the Walgreens ATM and John Doe 2 running across Washington Road. The men had 134 fraudulent credit cards on them, as well as their own fake IDs. Magistrate David Marks is holding both men in jail without bond, since police don’t know their true identities or where they are from.
April 21, 2022 2:42 am
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins apparently ran out of gas and was returning to his vehicle when he was fatally struck by a dump truck earlier this month in Florida. The Florida Highway Patrol released Wednesday a recording of a 911 call Haskins’ wife Kalabrya made to the agency shortly after the April 9 accident. Calling from Pittsburgh and unaware of the accident, she told the dispatcher that Haskins had called her to say he had run out of gas and would call her back. When the former Ohio State star didn’t and she couldn’t reach him, she called 911.
April 21, 2022 2:20 am
West Penn Power tells WJPA News that a power outage in and around the city of Washington Thursday morning was caused by a raccoon. Reports of power outages around the city and surrounding areas began flooding into the power company around three-thirty. At one point, spokesman Todd Myers says there were nearly five-thousand customers without electricity, the bulk of them in Canton Township. Myers says they have a sub-station right outside of the city and when crews went to investigate, they found a small raccoon had gotten into some of the energized equipment. Myers says in almost all cases where small animals are able to get past their “critter guards” the animals are killed. Except in this case. Myers says it was one lucky racoon, because crews say he was “alive and kicking” and they were able to chase him out of the substation. Myers says most of the power was restored by around five o’clock. He says they’re planning to repair the substation on Friday, but that should not involve any power outages.
April 21, 2022 2:08 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia will receive $99 million in a settlement finalized with Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. The state filed a lawsuit accusing the drugmaker of contributing to the opioid crisis in the state that’s led the nation in overdose deaths. State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey says he believes West Virginia’s settlement with Janssen is the largest in the country per capita. The settlement was announced at the start of the third week of the trial against Janssen, Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc., AbbVie Inc.’s Allergan and their family of companies. A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson says the settlement is not an “admission of liability or wrongdoing.”
April 20, 2022 5:39 pm
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – The Florida Senate has passed a bill to repeal a law allowing Walt Disney World to operate a private government over its properties in the state. The Republican-controlled chamber approved the bill Wednesday, escalating a feud with the entertainment giant over its opposition to what critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” law. The proposal could have huge tax implications for Disney, whose series of theme parks have over the decades transformed Orlando into one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. And Democrats have warned that the move could cause local homeowners to get hit with big tax bills. The Florida House of Representatives is expected to take up the bill Thursday.
