May 19, 2024 12:38 pm
ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden on Sunday told Morehouse College graduates during his commencement speech that he heard their voices of protest over the Israel-Hamas war, and that scenes from the conflict in Gaza have been heartbreaking. The speech, and a separate one Biden is giving later Sunday in the Midwest, is part of a burst of outreach to Black constituents by the president, who has watched his support among these voters soften since their strong backing helped put him in the Oval Office in 2020. There were scattered demonstrations but no major disruptions to the event.
May 19, 2024 6:33 am
DALLAS (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has urged gun owners to vote in the 2024 election as he addressed thousands of members of the National Rifle Association, which officially endorsed him just before Trump took the stage at their annual meeting in Texas. Trump on Saturday pledged to continue to defend the Second Amendment and called himself “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House.” The United States faces record numbers of deaths due to mass shootings. Last year ended with 42 mass killings and 217 deaths, making it one of the deadliest years on record.
May 19, 2024 6:37 am
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike has killed 20 people in central Gaza, mostly women and children, and fighting raged across the north. Israel’s leaders are meanwhile airing divisions over who should govern Gaza after the war, now in its eighth month. Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s three-man War Cabinet, has threatened to leave the government if a plan is not formulated by June 8 that includes an international administration for postwar Gaza. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan is expected in Israel on Sunday to discuss an ambitious U.S. plan for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel and help the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza in exchange for a path to eventual statehood.
May 19, 2024 6:35 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia says it shot down some 60 drones and several missiles over its territory while Ukraine in turn says it destroyed over 30 Russian drones. At least four people were reported killed in an attack on the outskirts of Kharkiv on Sunday as Russia pushed ahead with its renewed offensive in Ukraine’s war-ravaged northeast. Russian officials say air defenses shot down 57 Ukrainian drones over the southern Krasnodar region, while nine long-range ballistic missiles and a drone were destroyed over the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula. A further three drones were shot down over the Belgorod region. Ukraine says its air defenses shot down all 37 Russian drones launched overnight.
May 19, 2024 6:27 am
The City of Washington Fire Department dedicated their new engine with a traditional “push” ceremony. The tradition commemorates times when fire companies used horses to transport water to fires and when finished, the fire apparatus was “pushed back” into the garage. Fire Chief Chris Richer commented on the appreciation he had with the city to actively upgrade the city’s aging fleet. The truck is a 2023 Pierce Saber Pumper. It has a 1000 gallon water tank and a pump capable of pumping 1500 gallons per minute. The truck was funded entirely by grants. The price of the truck was purchased as a demonstrator model which was priced at approximately $680,000, saving taxpayers more than $250,000. The engine is the second apparatus delivered in the last three years.
May 19, 2024 6:26 am
UNION TOWNSHIP, Pa. —(WPXI)-A church that was hit by a tornado in Washington County a week ago is prepared to go back to worship. Crossroad Ministries was hit by a tornado while 100 people were inside last weekend. Part of the church’s roof was ripped off, but church officials say services will be held in the church auditorium on Sunday. There will be one at 9:30 a.m. and another at 11 a.m.
May 19, 2024 6:24 am
A vehicle pursuit on the border of Peters Township and North Strabane Township ended without incident. A social media post circulated a story that said that the Dollar Bank on McDowell Lane may have been robbed. That post on social media said that a person saw two people running away from the bank and the assumption was that it was robbed. In a Facebook post from Peters Township Police, they stated that they assisted North Strabane Township Police in a vehicle pursuit where actors fled on foot after a vehicle accident. All actors were caught and are now in custody. There is no danger to the public.
May 18, 2024 3:56 am
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump used a day off from his hush money trial Friday to headline a Republican fundraiser in Minnesota, a traditionally Democratic state that he boasts he can carry in November. Trump headlined the state GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan dinner in St. Paul, which coincides with the party’s state convention. Trump declared his appearance to be “an official expansion” of the electoral map of states that could be competitive in November. No Republican presidential candidate has won Minnesota since Richard Nixon in 1972. But Trump came close to flipping the state in 2016, when he fell 1.5 percentage points short of Democrat Hillary Clinton.
May 18, 2024 3:53 am
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — A decisive vote against the United Auto Workers at two Mercedes factories in Alabama sidetracked the union’s grand plan to sign up workers at nonunion plants mainly in the South. But President Shawn Fain said the UAW will return to Mercedes and will press on with efforts to organize about 150,000 workers at more than a dozen auto factories across the nation. Employees at Mercedes plants near Tuscaloosa voted 56% against the union. The Friday vote count handed the UAW a serious setback a month after the union scored a breakthrough victory at Volkswagen’s 4,300-worker assembly factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
May 18, 2024 3:49 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip have rolled across a newly built U.S. pier and into the besieged enclave for the first time. Friday’s shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day. It comes as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hindered the delivery of food and other supplies seven months into the Israel-Hamas war. But the U.S. and aid groups warn that the floating pier project is not a substitute for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water and fuel needed in Gaza. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered the territory on an average day.
