Hospital closings hit hard on the edge of the Rust Belt
WHEELING, W.Va. — Carrie Jones is looking for work for the first time in two decades. She’s even more worried about what will happen to her psychiatric patients. “Where are they going to go?” Jones said. “We’re honestly like their family.” Jones is among nearly 1,100 employees being laid off...
UK worries Brexit could bring ‘chlorinated chicken’ from U.S.
NEW YORK — Could Brexit bring America’s “chlorinated chicken” to the United Kingdom? The European Union has long refused to import poultry from the United States that is routinely rinsed with chemical washes to kill germs. But the United Kingdom’s planned exit from the EU is putting the practice back...
Air Force disputes Alaska crew favored Trump Scottish hotel
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Military officials are disputing a report that claims a joint Air Force and Alaska Air National Guard unit on a routine mission to Kuwait went miles out of their way to spend the night at a resort in Scotland owned by President Donald Trump. Politico first reported...
CDC: Stop kissing, snuggling your chickens
Poultry owners are being advised to avoid infection during moments of affection. The Centers for Disease Control is recommending various methods to limit the spread of salmonella from backyard poultry to humans. The agency says proper hygiene is the key, such as washing hands with soap and water after handling...
Ball caps become wearable works of art for cancer patientsVideo
The trials and tribulations that come with a cancer fight are daunting. A few crafters are doing their part to make it just a bit brighter for those doing battle. Manning work stations inside a meeting room at Excela Square at Latrobe, volunteers select bright, freshly washed silk flowers, attaching...
Dorian topples crane, knocks out power in eastern Canada
TORONTO — Dorian arrived on Canada’s Atlantic coast Saturday with heavy rain and powerful winds, toppling a construction crane in Halifax and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of people a day after the storm wreaked havoc on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Residents of Nova Scotia braced for heavy...
Trump calls off secret meeting with Taliban, Afghan leaders
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Saturday he canceled a secret weekend meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghanistan leaders after a bombing this week in Kabul that killed 11 people, including an American soldier, and has called off peace negotiations with the insurgent group. Trump has been under pressure...
3 Germans die in separate incidents climbing Austrian Alps
Three German men have died in separate accidents while hiking in the Austrian Alps, authorities said Saturday. A 60-year-old man who fell while roped to two other climbers near Nassereith in western Austria died Friday, Austria’s APA news agency reported. The man, the three-man team’s lead climber, suffered fatal injuries...
Stranded North Carolinians take stock of Dorian’s damage
NAGS HEAD, N.C. — Skies cleared and floodwaters receded Saturday from North Carolina’s Outer Banks, leaving behind a muddy trail of destruction wrought by Hurricane Dorian, which still was expected to unleash powerful winds in New England and Nova Scotia. Dorian’s worst damage in the U.S. appeared to be on...
Russia and Ukraine trade prisoners, each fly 35 to freedom
MOSCOW — Russia and Ukraine conducted a major prisoner exchange that freed 35 people detained in each country and flew them to the other, a deal that could help advance Russia-Ukraine relations and end five years of fighting in Ukraine’s east. The trade involved some of the highest-profile prisoners caught...
NOAA assailed for defending Trump’s Hurricane Dorian claim
WASHINGTON — Former top officials of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are assailing the agency for undermining its weather forecasters as it defends President Donald Trump’s statement from days ago that Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama. They say NOAA’s action risks the credibility of the nation’s weather and science agency...
South Carolina, Kansas GOP scrap 2020 presidential preference votes
Republican leaders in South Carolina and Kansas have voted to scrap their presidential nominating contests in 2020, while party officials Nevada were deciding whether to follow suit as the GOP erects more hurdles for the long shots challenging President Donald Trump. Canceling primaries, caucuses and other voting is not an...
Derry Area grad expressed Croatian roots through song, dance
Leann Muchnok Gisvold was strongly attuned to her Croatian roots, a bond she expressed in song. Following the example of her parents, the Derry Township native spent many years performing with the Tamburitzans, a Pittsburgh-based group named after a stringed folk instrument played in Croatia and neighboring Eastern European countries....
Tyler Perry uses private plane to deliver supplies to Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian
Tyler Perry is stepping up to the plate by using his resources to assist relief efforts in the Bahamas during the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. The Category 5 storm devastated the islands, leaving at least 20 people dead, according to The Washington Post. According to TMZ, the actor is using...
Smoke, not fire, blamed for 34 deaths in dive boat disaster
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Dozens of people trapped on a scuba diving boat that caught fire off the Southern California coast appear to have died from smoke inhalation, not burns, authorities said Friday. The 34 people were trapped in a cramped bunkroom below the main deck of the Conception after...
Dorian’s floodwaters trap people in attics in North Carolina
ATLANTIC BEACH, N.C. — A weakened Hurricane Dorian flooded homes on North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Friday with a fury that took even storm-hardened residents by surprise, forcing people to climb into their attics. Hundreds were feared trapped by high water, and neighbors used boats to rescue one another. Sheriff’s...
Tourists may pay tolls to drive San Francisco crooked street
SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of tourists could soon be forced to make reservations and pay to drive the famed crooked Lombard Street in San Francisco. California lawmakers approved a bill Thursday granting San Francisco the power to establish a toll and reservation system for Lombard Street. The bill still needs...
Trump challenges California power to control auto pollution
DETROIT — The Trump administration on Friday began an all-out challenge to California’s authority to set its own automotive emissions standards as government agencies opened an antitrust investigation and told state officials that they appear to be violating the law in a deal with four automakers to reduce pollution. The...
American Airlines mechanic accused of sabotaging flight
An American Airlines mechanic is accused of sabotaging a flight because he was upset about stalled contract negotiations and wanted to earn some overtime fixing the plane. According to a criminal complaint affidavit filed in federal court in Miami, Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani admitted during an interview Thursday that he...
U.S. health officials report 3rd vaping death, repeat warning
NEW YORK — U.S. health officials are again urging people to stop vaping until they figure out why some are coming down with serious breathing illnesses. Officials on Friday said they had identified 450 possible illnesses, including at least three deaths, in 33 states. The count includes a newly reported...
Pennsylvania gets $75M more in federal aid for opioid fight
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania will receive another $75 million in federal aid to fight the opioid-addiction crisis, money that Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration says will help with treatment, prevention and education. Wolf’s administration said Friday that about $56 million will go to the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. The money...
California warehouse fire case limps on after hung jury
OAKLAND, Calif. — An emotionally taxing criminal case over the deaths of 36 people trapped in a fire inside a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse nearly three years ago will continue after a jury acquitted one defendant and deadlocked on the other. Jurors deliberated over a two-week period before they...
Embattled Massachusetts mayor charged with extorting pot companies
BOSTON — A Massachusetts mayor already accused of stealing investor funds to bankroll a lavish lifestyle was arrested Friday on charges he conspired to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from marijuana companies, the FBI said. Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia’s chief of staff has been arrested on similar charges,...
Before, after photos show magnitude of Dorian destruction in Bahamas
ABACO, Bahamas — At least 30 people died in the Bahamas as Hurricane Dorian passed over, and the number could be “significantly higher,” Bahamian health minister Duane Sands told The Associated Press in a telephone interview late Thursday. The victims are from Abaco and Grand Bahama islands and include some...
Ohio TV meteorologist faces child pornography charges
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A longtime Columbus television meteorologist arrested for possessing child pornography has made his first court appearance. A Franklin County Municipal Court judge set bond Friday for 60-year-old Mike Davis at $50,000 with conditions that he can’t have internet access or unsupervised contact with minors and must surrender...
