September 29, 2022 4:11 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia has positioned itself to formally annex parts of Ukraine after occupied areas held a Kremlin-orchestrated “referendum” – denounced as illegal and rigged by Kyiv and the West á- to live under Moscow’s rule. Armed troops had gone door-to-door with election officials to collect ballots in five days of voting. The results were widely ridiculed as implausible and characterized as a land grab by an increasingly cornered Russian leadership following embarrassing military losses in Ukraine. Russia is calling up 300,000 reservists to fight in the war and warned it could resort to nuclear weapons. The European Commission president urged the European Union’s 27 member countries to slap more sanctions on Russian officials and trade over what he called sham referendums.
September 29, 2022 4:10 am
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) – Ian has regained hurricane strength as it spun toward South Carolina a day after devastating a cross section of Florida. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm’s maximum sustained winds increased Thursday to 75 mph. It was centered about 240 miles south of Charleston, South Carolina, and moving northeast at 10 mph. Ian made landfall Wednesday on Florida’s west coast as a powerful Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds. The storm flooded homes, cut off a popular barrier island and left nearly 2.7 million people without power before moving over the Atlantic and turning north. Authorities say that at least nine people in Florida have died due to Hurricane Ian and they expect that number to continue to rise as search and rescue efforts continue.
September 29, 2022 4:05 am
SMITHTON, Pa. — (WPXI) – “It was designed to be very disgusting and it definitely succeeded. Multiple people were disturbed,” Smithton Police Chief Michael Natale said. Neighbors in Smithton woke up to vandalism and damage to their properties in one section of the Borough; vile images and words smeared on garage doors and fences. The vandalism was visible to parishioners as they walked into church one Sunday morning earlier this month. ”It was possible to sit in one of these churches on Sunday morning, look out the window, and see this disgusting graffiti on a fence next door,” Natale said. Much of the vandalism has already been cleaned up, and what remains is too graphic and vulgar to show.” Some of the graffiti was in back alleys and some of it was right on a major street corner,” Natale explained. A handful of properties were hit in the alley behind Third Street, and another was on Second Street. Smithton Police said a vigilant neighbor with cameras rolling the night it happened captured the suspect and identified him as Jeffrey Schoaf, 18. Smithton Police said they’d had dealings with him in the past before he turned 18, but now that he is an adult, he is facing criminal charges. ”I hoped very much that I got through to him as I hope I get through to anyone who’s 16 or 17, and going down the wrong path, but that birthday happened and his habits haven’t changed and now it’s for real,” Natale said. Schoaf will appear in court at the end of October.
September 29, 2022 2:59 am
A SWAT situation in Washington County has led to the arrest of an Illinois man who is accused of being involved in a double shooting and carjacking in Illinois in July. According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the SWAT situation began Tuesday night around eight o’clock at 115 Thompson Avenue in Donora. An arrest warrant was issued for 27-year-old Lewis C. McCracken, from Elgin, Illinois, for his alleged role in a double shooting and subsequent carjacking in Huntley, Illinois, on July 18. Pittsburgh’s FBI unit, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Huntley Police Department detectives did a joint investigation and found McCracken was at the home on Thompson Drive. Police said the standoff lasted nearly two hours before officers were able to take McCracken into custody without incident. McCracken is charged with two counts of first degree attempted murder – intended death or great bodily harm, two counts of first degree murder with probability of death, felony possession or use of a firearm with a prior conviction of specified offenses, and aggravated battery of a person 60 years or older.
September 29, 2022 2:46 am
Washington County 9-1-1 says three people were transported by ambulance from the scene of a two-vehicle crash along Interstate 70 Westbound Thursday morning. I happened around 8:30 a.m. at mile-marker 16 near the Jessop Place exit. A tractor trailer and another vehicle were involved. Initial reports said the driver of the tractor trailer was entrapped. Traffic in both directions were impacted by the crash. A Hazmat team was called to the scene for leaking fluids. About two-hours later, Washington County 9-1-1 reported that crews had cleared the scene. There is no word on the identity or condition of those injured.
September 28, 2022 2:07 pm
(AP) – Television personality Katie Couric has announced she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Couric posted a statement on her website saying the diagnosis came on June 21, 2022, which was “the first day of summer, my 8th wedding anniversary,” CNN reported. Couric had a lumpectomy on July 14 and has been undergoing radiation treatments since Sept. 7th, the “Today” show reported. She finished the treatments this week. She said that she feels fine other than looking like she’s been sunbathing on parts of her body.
September 28, 2022 1:45 pm
SHERWOOD, Ark. (AP) – One person is dead and one person has been taken into custody in connection with an active shooter event at CHI St. Vincent North hospital in Sherwood. During a news conference shortly after 12:30 p.m., Sherwood Police Department Chief Jeff Hagar reported that one person at the hospital had died of gunshot wounds, and one “person of interest” had been taken into custody. A spokesperson for the SPD said the call for police came at about 10 a.m., and officers were on the scene shortly thereafter. They immediately established a perimeter and entered the building, clearing the hospital.
September 28, 2022 6:16 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – Pittsburgh police have confirmed three of their marked vehicles caught fire this morning in the department’s Training Academy parking lot and the fire is considered suspicious. The building is located at 900 N. Lincoln Avenue in the city’s North Side neighborhood and the parking lot is located behind the building on Maolis Way. The fire was first reported around 3 a.m. No one was injured and there was no damage to the building. Police plan to use privately owned surveillance cameras in the area to learn who set the fire and how. The Fire Investigation Unit and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating.
September 28, 2022 4:20 am
Activists say Iran’s current wave of protests are different from previous unrest. Unleashing their anger at the compulsory veil for women, protesters are targeting something central to the identity of Iran’s Islamic cleric-led rule. The protests are drawing from a long history of resistance among Iranian women. During the 1979 revolution, the hijab was a sign of breaking with the secular monarchy. But when the new Islamic Republic then made wearing it mandatory, thousands of women marched in protests. Woman have been challenging the rule ever since. The death of a woman arrested for wearing too loose a headscarf has sparked an eruption of anger.
September 28, 2022 4:18 am
Clergy in 33 states are exempt from laws requiring professionals such as teachers, physicians and psychotherapists to report information about alleged child abuse to police or child welfare officials. That loophole has resulted in an unknown number of predators being allowed to continue abusing children for years despite having confessed the behavior to religious officials. An Associated Press review finds that over the past two decades, more than 130 bills have been proposed in state legislatures to create or amend child sex abuse reporting laws. After intense opposition from religious groups, the clergy privilege remained unchanged. Often, legislative efforts to close the loophole run up against lawmakers who are also church members.
