October 4, 2024 4:53 am
PENSACOLA, N.C. (AP) — The search for victims of Hurricane Helene is dragging into its second week. With at least 215 dead, lack of phone service and electricity continues to hinder efforts to contact the unaccounted for. That means search crews must trudge through the mountains to learn whether residents listed as missing are safe. Exhausted rescue crews and volunteers continue to work long days — navigating past washed out roads, downed power lines and mudslides. Sheriff Quentin Miller of Buncombe County, North Carolina, has a message for those still waiting: “We’re coming to get you. We’re coming to pick up our people.”
October 4, 2024 4:51 am
BEIRUT (AP) — Israel has carried out a series of massive airstrikes overnight in the southern suburbs of Beirut. It had warned people to evacuate communities in southern Lebanon that are outside a United Nations-declared buffer zone. The blasts rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, sending huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shaking buildings kilometers away. On Friday morning, Lebanese state media reported that an Israeli airstrike cut a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria. Also, Israeli forces carried out a strike Thursday in Tulkarem, a militant stronghold in the West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 18 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp there.
October 3, 2024 5:46 pm
(AP) – Month-old twin boys are the youngest known victims of Hurricane Helene. The twins died alongside their mother when a large tree fell through the roof of their home in Thomson, Georgia, last week. The woman’s father, Obie Williams, said one of his sons went to check on the mother and her babies after the storm and found all three dead. Williams is devastated that he will never have the chance to meet his grandsons in person. The death toll from Helene reached 200 on Thursday. Other young victims include a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy from nearby Washington County, Georgia. Meanwhile, searchers are combing the remote mountains of North Carolina to locate the missing and those needing supplies nearly a week after Hurricane Helene barreled through the Southeast. The death toll has surpassed 200 and could rise higher still. Rescue crews and volunteers are just now trying to get to the hardest-to-reach places and finding mudslides, downed trees and washed out roads at every turn. Some are using canoes, horses and all-terrain vehicles to get past. Helene is now the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina. President Joe Biden is touring the disaster zones in Georgia and Florida.
October 2, 2024 2:16 am
Washington City Police are alerting motorists that an ongoing road construction project will hamper daily travel on East Maiden Street in Washington. Police say the work is continuing till further notice, Monday through Friday, from eight a.m. until five p.m. on East Maiden Street from South Main Street to Dunn Avenue. Police say there will be long delays and are urging motorists to find alternate routes if possible.
October 3, 2024 2:02 am
The Borough of Charleroi met at their agenda meeting and one discussion item that caused earlier strife in the county, caused even more tense feelings in the borough. After Donald Trump referenced Charleroi in a campaign rally speech in September, Borough Council President Kristin Hopkins-Calcek released a statement simultaneously with a press release authored by the Mon Valley Alliance. Because board members of the MVA were not aware of the release, several have resigned to show that they in no way were involved with the issuance of the press release. Councilman Larry Celaschi called out Hopkins-Calcek for not alerting borough council of her statement. Celaschi says that the signature made it look like it was an official statement from the board, they should have been consulted. At particular issue was a line that made reference to a 50 acre industrial property along the river. Celaschi said that it was insensitive to the employees at the Corelle Plant to infer that they will be out of their jobs soon by marketing the property. Hopkins-Calcek indicated that it was in no way a concession to the plant closing. She recited the elected officials that she has been in contact with both federally and in the state. She said the statement was to be taken as forward thinking because if the plant does close, she wanted to make people aware of the location and the strong workforce available in Charleroi. Business that council will consider at their voting meeting will be a first reading of a proposed ordinance establishing building permits in accordance with the Uniform Construction Code. They will look to approve several maintenance issues in the borough and vote to advertise for a new solid waste collection contract.
October 3, 2024 4:52 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors say Donald Trump laid the groundwork to try to overturn the 2020 election even before he lost, knowingly pushed false claims of voter fraud and “resorted to crimes” in his failed bid to cling to power. A newly unsealed court filing lays out fresh details from the landmark criminal case against the former president. It argues that the former president is not entitled to immunity from prosecution. It was submitted by special counsel Jack Smith’s team following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents and narrowed the scope of the prosecution.
October 2, 2024 2:34 am
The Washington County Board of Elections met to determine how to handle mail in ballots that have flaws that render them unable to be considered. The Board voted 3-0 to comply with the court order issued By Judge Brandon Neuman. The Elections office will enter the flawed ballot into the Sure System. That will generate an email from the Secretary of State to notify the voter of the flaw. If no email is provided, the voter will be notified by the county elections office by phone. With that notice, the voter may choose to vote provisionally on Election Day. On July 1, seven disenfranchised voters, The Center For Coalfield Justice and the Washington Branch of the NAACP sued the Board of Elections for its policy to disallow flawed mail in ballots and not notify voters of those flaws. On August 23, Judge Brandon Neuman determined that voters must be notified of those flaws so that they may vote with a provisional ballot if they so choose. An appeal of that decision By the Republican National Committee, the State GOP and Washington County was lost in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court on September 24. The Republican National Committee and the State GOP are appealing that ruling to the Supreme Court. It is unclear if the Supreme Court will hear the appeal as they are being asked by the RNC and State GOP to consider a “King’s Bench” ruling on a number of other cases regarding mail in ballots before the November 5 election.
October 2, 2024 4:49 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene has brought climate change to the forefront of the presidential campaign. President Joe Biden has toured some of the areas hardest-hit by the storm on Wednesday as he and Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to different parts of the Southeast. Trump was in Georgia on Monday and criticized the federal response. The storm and its aftermath have killed at least 180 people. Vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz agreed on the need for a strong response. But Walz also linked the storm to climate change, saying it “roared onto the scene faster and stronger than anything we’ve seen.″
October 3, 2024 4:54 am
KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (AP) — Typhoon Krathon has made landfall in the major port city of Kaohsiung. The slow-moving typhoon has schools and offices closed for a third consecutive day, with authorities asking people to stay indoors. Krathon made landfall around 12:40 p.m. Thursday, packing maximum sustained winds of 78 mph near its center, with gusts of 101 mph. The typhoon has brought Kaohsiung, a city of 2.7 million people, to a standstill for the past three days. Stores and restaurants have been shuttered, and residents are staying away from markets and harbors. All domestic flights have been grounded for the past two days. Some areas have seen more than 5 feet of rainfall over the past five days.
October 2, 2024 4:56 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some manufacturers and retailers are urging President Joe Biden to invoke a 1947 law as a way to suspend a strike by 45,000 dockworkers that has shut down 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas. At issue is Section 206 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft-Hartley Act. The law authorizes a president to seek a court order for an 80-day cooling-off period for companies and unions to try to resolve their differences. Biden has said, though, that he won’t intervene in the strike.
