February 16, 2023 4:07 am
ATLANTA (AP) – A special grand jury that investigated efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss in Georgia is expressing concerns that “one or more witnesses” called to testify may have lied under oath. The panel recommends that the district attorney “seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.” But the report does not name the people who are alleged to have lied. In addition to the section on perjury, the report’s introduction and conclusion were released Thursday. But any recommendations on potential criminal charges for specific people will remain under wraps for now.
February 16, 2023 4:05 am
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) – A devastating earthquake that toppled buildings across parts of Turkey and neighboring Syria has revived a longstanding debate locally and in neighboring Cyprus about a large nuclear power station being built on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coastline. The plant’s site in Akkuyu, located some 210 miles (338 kilometers) to the west of the closest epicenter of the Feb. 6 tremors, is being designed to endure powerful tremors and did not sustain any damage or experience powerful ground shaking from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and aftershocks. But the size of the quake – the deadliest in Turkey’s modern history – sharpened existing concerns about the facility being built on the edge of a major fault line.
February 16, 2023 2:58 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Nearly a year after Bruce Willis’ family announced that he would step away from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, his family says his “condition has progressed.” In a statement posted Thursday, the 67-year-old actor’s family said Willis has a more specific diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia. Last March, Willis’ family said his aphasia had affected his cognitive abilities. The condition causes loss of the ability to understand or express speech. The statement was posted on the website for The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration and signed by Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, his ex-wife Demi Moore, and his five children, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn.
February 16, 2023 2:29 am
WJPA Radio anonymously received a copy of an email sent by the National Correctional Employees Union addressed to Washington County Correctional Facility Warden Jeffery Fewell and to Washington County Commissioners. In the email, an alleged breech of security protocols was committed by Warden Fewell on December 27 of last year. Fewell is accused of escorting a visitor to meet with an inmate that is monitored as a high security inmate without subjecting the visitor to security measures required by facility policy. The inmate in question is accused of homicide. Some of the allegedly ignored security measures included no search of the visitor, no removal of excess clothing such as jackets and not having the visitor empty their pockets to a locked cabinet to prevent the spread of contraband. After a more than 90 minute Prison Board meeting on Wednesday, Warden Fewell declined comment about the email. Washington County Chairperson Diana Irey-Vaughn stated that they are unable to comment on personnel matters or security issues in county facilities.
February 15, 2023 5:28 pm
(WPXI) – A woman and her daughter were found shot to death in Swissvale Wednesday morning. According to Allegheny County police, Swissvale police were requested to help medics get into a barricaded apartment in the 7800 block of Sailor Place at around 10:13 a.m. First responders found a woman and female child dead at the scene from gunshot wounds. According to police, the preliminary investigation shows that this was a double homicide. In a press briefing, police said medics were originally called to the scene for a man with chest pains. They went to one of the apartments in the building but no one answered. They found out the call came from a different apartment which they couldn’t get in to. Police later said that the victims were mother and daughter. Police are looking to talk with 35-year-old Kareef Antonio Easington who they said had a relationship with the woman who was killed. Police said they don’t know if Easington is the one who called 911. Anyone with information concerning this incident is asked to call the County Police Tip Line 1-833-ALL-TIPS. Callers can remain anonymous.
February 15, 2023 4:25 am
FALMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Rare and in some cases never before publicly seen video of the 1986 dive through the wreckage of the Titanic is being released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The more than 80 minutes of footage on the institution’s YouTube channel on Wednesday chronicles some of the remarkable achievements of the dive led by Robert Ballard. The expedition marked the first time human eyes had seen the giant ocean liner since it struck an iceberg and sank in the frigid North Atlantic on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City in April 1912. About 1,500 people died.
February 15, 2023 4:23 am
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – A white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket has been sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday after listening to the relatives of his victims express the pain and rage caused by his racist attack. Wendesday’s sentencing hearing for Payton Gendron was disrupted briefly when he was charged by a man in the audience, who was quickly restrained. Gendron pleaded guilty to charges including murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate. That last crime carried an automatic life sentence. He still faces federal charges that could result in a death sentence if prosecutors choose to seek it.
February 15, 2023 4:21 am
ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that more than 35,000 people have died in Turkey as a result of last week’s earthquakes, making it the deadliest such disaster since the country’s founding 100 years ago. Confirmed deaths passed the 33,000 recorded from the massive Erzincan earthquake in 1939. Erdogan said 105,505 people were injured as a result of the Feb. 6 quake centered around Kahramanmaras and its aftershocks. Almost 3,700 deaths have been confirmed in neighboring Syria, taking the combined toll in both countries to over 39,000. While the death toll is almost certain to rise further, many of the tens of thousands of survivors left homeless were still struggling to find shelter from the bitter cold.
February 15, 2023 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says the three unidentified aerial objects shot down in the past week were likely benign, drawing a distinction between them and a massive Chinese balloon that earlier traversed the U.S. with a suspected goal of surveillance. Officials also disclosed that a missile fired at one of the three objects, over Lake Huron on Sunday, missed its intended target and landed in the water before a second one successfully hit. The China balloon is believed by American intelligence to have initially been on a track toward the U.S. territory of Guam, according to a U.S. official.
February 15, 2023 4:18 am
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Police say the 43-year-old gunman who killed three students and wounded five others at Michigan State University had no apparent connection to the campus. Investigators are searching for a motive for shootings that terrified the community for hours. Anthony McRae fired inside an academic building and the student union just before 8:30 p.m. Monday. An hourslong lockdown at the campus in East Lansing ended when he killed himself miles away while being confronted by police. The shooting happened the day before the fifth anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting that killed 17 and is the latest in what has become a deadly new year in the U.S.
