September 17, 2022 9:15 am
LONDON (AP) – Thousands of people have spent London’s coldest night in months huddled in line to view the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II. Authorities warn that arriving mourners face a 16-hour wait. Honoring their patience, King Charles III and Prince William made an unannounced visit to greet the waiting crowds. William and the queen’s seven other grandchildren are due to stand vigil beside her coffin on Saturday at Parliament’s Westminster Hall. Police arrested a man on Friday night after what the force described as a “disturbance” there. Parliamentary authorities said someone tried to approach the coffin on the platform where it is lying in state.
September 17, 2022 9:11 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Western defense officials and analysts say said they believe Russian forces are setting up a new defensive line in Ukraine’s northeast after Kyiv’s troops broke through the previous one and tried to press their advances further into the east. The British defense ministry said that the line likely was between the Oskil River and Svatove, southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The new line comes after a Ukrainian counteroffensive punched a hole through the previous front line and recaptured large swaths of land in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Ukrainian forces are continuing to cross a key river as they try to press on in a counteroffensive targeting Russian-occupied territory in the country’s northeast, according to a Washington-based think tank.
September 17, 2022 3:59 am
FAYETTE COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) A local lawmaker came up with an idea to help people struggling with alcohol addiction after experiencing it first-hand. “Over the past year or so, I have, unfortunately, struggled with alcohol addiction,” said Representative Matt Dowling. Speaking from experience, Rep. Dowling, who represents Fayette and Westmoreland Counties, knows the struggle of alcohol addiction, especially after a recent DUI crash. “The reason why I’m out telling my personal story is I want to destigmatize that there’s a certain type of person that suffers from any type of addiction,” said Dowling. “Because, you know, if I wouldn’t have had that stigma in my head, perhaps I would have reached out for help earlier. And that’s what I want to see my constituents and the people of Pennsylvania do.” Dowling wants to help by adding another resource for people. He just introduced legislation that if passed would create a way for people to voluntarily add themselves to a list that prevents them from being able to purchase alcohol. “No one else can exclude another individual,” said Dowling. It would work just like the program designed for gambling addiction. “It would be a five-year period just like the gambling, self-exclusion, you could re-up yourself after those five years,” said Dowling. “You would also be able to send a letter into the PLCB, and in writing request to be taken off the list at some point in time.” Dowling says he knows it’s not foolproof and people immediately spotted that .“It’s hard for people to say I know I need to stop, but they’ll find other ways to get around it,” said Traci Melko. “Like, ‘hey will you run to the store to get me something.’” “I live about a half hour from Morgantown, West Virginia,” said Dowling. “Maybe 25 minutes, I could go down there and sit in a bar, restaurant order drink, even if I was on this list. But it is something to help that person who’s struggling with addiction to give a second thought to going into a store and ordering a drink.” “It’s a really great idea,” said Melko. I know people who have struggled with it in my own life. I hope it works. The person just wants to want to get better.” As for penalties for establishments that sell alcohol: “We’ve worked with taverns and restaurants to make sure that there weren’t onerous penalties placed on the establishment themselves,” said Dowling. “If there would be an issue where maybe their reader was down, and they accidentally served someone. There’s no penalties like that. But it is still a safeguard for the user that has put themselves on that list. This would have establishments carding everyone. You know those of us who may be a little bit older, we can start to feel flattered I guess if that happens, not myself because I won’t be ordering but for those that go in, they would scan the license for every transaction. ”The proposed legislation is in committee now. Dowling says he’s retiring from politics in November and hopes one of his colleagues picks up this legislation. He says the earliest this legislation could be voted on and passed would be next March.
September 17, 2022 3:10 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — A topic that has been popular at all of the most recent Washington County Commissioners meetings has been the effort by a bloc of Washington County residents to have a ballot question on this November’s General Election ballot asking residents if they wish to continue using electronic voting machines in the county. Commissioners put that idea to rest by having County Commissioners Solicitor Jana Grimm answer why there cannot be a question like that on any ballot. In a prepared statement, Grimm pointed to federal law under the Help America Vote Act that requires the adoption of electronic voting machines. She pointed to several Pennsylvania decisions from the Supreme Court and Commonwealth Court that denied similar campaigns. She stated that a ballot question like this would serve no legal purpose and be non-binding, serving only and advisory purpose. Grimm went on to point out that even if commissioners wished to entertain the request, petitions signed by county residents fell well short of the number needed to be considered. Only 4032 signatures were presented to the elections office and fell 1161 signatures short of the 5193 signatures goal. Proponents wished to have another 2000 plus signatures presented in July added to the total but Grimm pointed out that they contained material defects that would not allow them to be counted as legitimate signatures. Ashley Duff, the driving force behind the petition campaign did not attend the meeting. Other proponents of the measure did not wish to comment. In County business, commissioners entered into a provider agreement with Blueprints to administer the Pennsylvania State Emergency Assistance Program Covid-19 grant. The more than $6.4 million grant will provide rental and utility assistance from July 1, 2022 through September 30, 2025.
September 16, 2022 3:45 pm
(AP) – The ride-hailing service Uber says all its services are operational following what security professionals are calling a major data breach. It says there is no evidence the hacker got access to sensitive user data such as trip history. A hacker, who appears to have been working alone, announced the breach on Thursday after apparently tricking an Uber employee into providing credentials. Screenshots the hacker shared with security researchers indicate they obtained full access to the cloud-based systems where Uber stores sensitive customer and financial data. It is not known how much data the hacker took.
September 16, 2022 3:35 am
DALLAS (AP) — Federal agents have arrested a Dallas anesthesiologist on charges alleging that he injected nerve-blocking agents and other drugs into bags of intravenous fluids at the surgical center where he works, causing the death of a co-worker and cardiac emergencies for several patients. The U.S. attorney’s office for the northern district of Texas said Thursday that Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. was arrested Wednesday for allegedly tampering with a consumer product causing death and intentionally adulterating drugs. He could face life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors say a 55-year-old female co-worker died after treating herself with an IV bag of what she thought was saline. An autopsy found that she died from a lethal dose of a nerve-blocking drug.
September 16, 2022 3:32 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has appointed a veteran New York jurist to serve as an independent arbiter in the criminal investigation into the presence of classified documents at Donald Trump’s Florida home. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has also refused to permit the Justice Department to resume its use of the highly sensitive records seized in an FBI search last month. Cannon on Thursday empowered the newly named special master, Raymond Dearie, to review all the documents taken in the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago and set a November deadline for his work. The sharply worded order from Cannon sets the stage for a challenge to a federal appeals court.
September 16, 2022 3:30 am
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A former deputy Nevada attorney general has been arrested in Reno as a suspect in a 1972 homicide in Hawaii. Seventy-seven-year-old Tudor Chirila Jr. was being held Thursday in the Washoe County Jail without bail on a fugitive charge. He once ran for the state Supreme Court and later was affiliated with the infamous Mustang Ranch brothel. Honolulu police accuse him of second-degree murder, saying DNA evidence links him to the fatal stabbing of 19-year-old Nancy Anderson in her Waikiki apartment 50 years ago. In March, police say they used a DNA sample to identify Chirila’s son the biological child of a DNA sample found at the crime scene.
September 16, 2022 3:29 am
IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities have found a mass burial site near a recaptured northeastern city previously occupied by Russian forces. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the discovery late Thursday in his nightly address to the nation. The grave was found close to Izium in the Kharkiv region. Associated Press journalists saw the site in a forest. Amid the trees were hundreds of graves with simple wooden crosses, most of them marked only with numbers. A larger grave bore a marker saying it contained the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers. Investigators with metal detectors were scanning the site for hidden explosives. Zelenskyy said more information would be made public Friday.
September 16, 2022 3:29 am
LONDON (AP) — Thousands of mourners are waiting for up to nine hours in line to file past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II as she lies in state at Westminster Hall. The queue to pay respects to the late monarch stretched for almost 5 miles past Tower Bridge on Thursday. But those in it said the wait was worth it and authorities provided amenities like portable toilets to ease their wait. King Charles III is spending the day in “private reflection” a week after his mother died at age 96. Buckingham Palace also released details of plans for the queen’s funeral on Monday. It will be the first state funeral held in Britain since the 1965 death of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
