October 8, 2022 8:44 am
EMERSON, Ga. (AP) – Herschel Walker pitches himself as a politician who can bridge America’s racial and cultural divides. “I don’t care what color you are,” Georgia’s Republican Senate nominee, who is Black, tells his overwhelmingly white crowds. “This is a good place,” Walker says of the U.S., “and a way we make it better is by coming together.” Yet the former University of Georgia football star has staked out familiar conservative ground on America’s most glaring societal fissures, seemingly contradicting his promises of unity. Walker says those who don’t share his vision of the country can leave, and he blasts his opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock, and the Democratic Party as the real purveyors of division.
October 8, 2022 8:43 am
KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian authorities say a truck bomb has caused a fire and the collapse of a section of a bridge linking Russia-annexed Crimea with Russia. The bridge is a key supply artery for Moscow’s faltering war effort in southern Ukraine. The speaker of Crimea’s Kremlin-backed regional parliament immediately accused Ukraine, though the Kremlin didn’t apportion blame. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly threatened to strike the bridge and some celebrated the explosion, but Kyiv stopped short of claiming responsibility. Saturday’s attack on the bridge comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 70. It deals him a humiliating blow that could lead him to up the ante in his war on Ukraine.
October 8, 2022 3:34 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – A construction worker died after the bucket truck he was working in was hit by a tractor-trailer, leading him to fall off of the Parkway East, according to police. Pittsburgh firefighters and medics and Pennsylvania State Police responded to the crash in South Oakland around 3:15 a.m. During the time of the crash, there was ongoing construction in the area and the left lane was closed. According to Pennsylvania state police, the bucket truck that the man was working in was in the left lane and the bucket he was in was extended out over to the right lane. Troopers said that’s when a tractor-trailer hit the bottom of the bucket, causing it to spin off of its axis. The worker, who has been identified as 41-year-old Derek Cronk, was ejected from the bucket and fell off of the overpass. Other workers on the scene rendered aid to the man before medics arrived. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead. State police said the tractor-trailer driver stopped and has been cooperating with troopers. Pennsylvania State Police continue to investigate.
October 7, 2022 4:35 pm
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Uvalde school leaders have pulled its embattled campus police force off the job four months after the Robb Elementary School shooting. The decision Friday follows a wave of new outrage over the hiring of a former Texas state trooper who was part of the hesitant law enforcement response during the May attack that killed 19 children and two teachers. School leaders also put two members of the district police department on administrative leave, one of whom chose to retire. áA total of 400 officers responded to the shooting, including five school district police officers. The city’s police, county sheriff’s deputies, state police and U.S. Border Patrol agents were among others who responded.
October 7, 2022 12:38 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – President Joe Biden says the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Biden’s words come as Russian officials speak of possibly using tactical nuclear weapons after massive setbacks in their invasion of Ukraine. Biden’s ominous words were at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “a guy I know fairly well” and that Putin was “not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons.” For months now, U.S. officials have warned that Russia could use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine to counter strategic setbacks on the battlefield. However Biden’s remarks are the starkest warnings yet issued by the U.S. government about the use of nukes.
October 7, 2022 8:57 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – America’s employers slowed their hiring in September but still added a solid 263,000 jobs – a dose of encouraging news that may mean the Federal Reserve’s drive to cool the job market and ease inflation is starting to make progress. Friday’s government report showed that last month’s job growth was down from 315,000 in August and that the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. September’s more moderate pace of hiring may be welcomed by the Fed, which is trying to restrain the economy enough to tame the worst inflation in four decades without causing a recession. Slower job growth would mean less pressure on employers to raise pay and pass those costs on to their customers.
October 7, 2022 4:19 am
Washington City Council worked through an agenda full of bill payments and contract approvals on Thursday night. They approved a resolution appointing Michael Namie as the County’s nomination to the Washington Parking Authority Board for a five year term. Council also announced several events that will be occurring throughout the month. The 7th Ward Playground Fall Festival will take place on October 13th from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm and the Dark in the Park will be held October 28th and 29th at the Washington Park. The Washington Senior Center will hold their Spud Night Fundraiser on October 15 from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the American Legion. The City Police and County Sheriff will hold a Drug Take Back Program on October 29th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Washington Pavilion, and Trick or Treat is scheduled for Monday October 31st from 5:30 pm until 7:00 pm.
October 7, 2022 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to plotting with other members of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group to violently stop the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election. Jeremy Joseph Bertino is the first Proud Boys member to plead guilty to a seditious conspiracy charge. Bertino also pleaded guilty on Thursday to a charge of unlawfully possessing firearms. Bertino has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation of the role that Proud Boys leaders played in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Former Proud Boys national chairman Henry “Ënrique” Tarrio and four other group members also have been charged with seditious conspiracy.
October 7, 2022 4:14 am
SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. (AP) – Hurricane Ian’s death toll has climbed into the triple digits. The number of recorded storm-related deaths rose Thursday to at least 101 in the eight days since the storm made landfall in southwest Florida. Of the total deaths, 92 were in Florida, according to reports from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission. Other storm deaths include five in North Carolina, three in Cuba and one in Virginia. Ian is the second-deadliest storm to hit the mainland United States in the 21st century behind Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 1,800 people dead in 2005. The deadliest hurricane to ever hit the U.S. was the Great Galveston Hurricane in 1900 that killed as many as 8,000 people.
October 7, 2022 4:11 am
A judge has delayed a looming trial between Twitter and Elon Musk. The move gives the Tesla CEO more time to close his $44 billion deal to buy the social media company after months spent fighting to get out of it. Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, head of the Delaware Chancery Court, said Thursday that Musk and Twitter have until Oct. 28 to close the deal. She said that a trial set for Oct. 17 will happen in November if they don’t. Musk renewed his offer Monday and asked to halt the trial to get the financing in order. Twitter objected because he’d already backed out once.
