Category Archives: Pennsylvania

North-eastern US braces for record-breaking heat

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One heat-related death reported in New York while authorities in Philadelphia extend health emergency declaration

Residents in the north-east US braced for potentially record-breaking temperatures on Sunday as a near-week-long hot spell continued, prompting officials to warn of dangerous heat.

At least one heat-related death, in New York, was reported. Around the region, athletic events were shortened or postponed and cities opened cooling centers and even turned to buses to offer relief from the heat.

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‘Out of a horror movie’: Pennsylvania officer shoots snake around man’s neck

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Officer was able to fire one shot that injured 15ft reptile because its midportion, not head, was around the victim’s neck

A police officer in Pennsylvania fatally shot a 15ft snake in the head on Wednesday as it was coiled around a man’s neck while he was in cardiac arrest.

Just after 2 pm, two officers from the Upper Macungie Township police department responded to a call that a male with a snake wrapped around his neck.

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Workers rescued after tumbling into vat of chocolate at Mars Wrigley factory

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The pair were carrying out maintenance work on the partially filled tank at the plant in Pennsylvania

Two people were rescued after they somehow fell into a partially filled chocolate tank while doing maintenance work at a candy factory in Pennsylvania.

The incident at the Mars Wrigley plant in Elizabethtown occurred shortly before 2pm on Thursday.

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Pennsylvania Republican primary conceded to Trump-backed Mehmet Oz

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Two weeks after the election, David McCormick acknowledged that the statewide recount will not make up the deficit of votes

David McCormick has conceded the Republican primary in Pennsylvania for US Senate to the celebrity heart surgeon Dr Mehmet Oz, ending his campaign more than two weeks after the election as he acknowledged an ongoing statewide recount wouldn’t give him enough votes to make up the deficit.

McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, said on Friday evening that he had called Oz to concede.

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Shapiro: ‘Dangerous’ Republican rival Mastriano could override will of voters

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Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania governor says if Mastriano wins he could wield power to choose his own slate of electors and overturn presidential election results

Josh Shapiro, who was nominated this week as the Democrats’ candidate for governor in the electorally critical state of Pennsylvania, has accused his Republican rival of intending to override the democratic will of voters and pick his own winners in future elections.

Shapiro launched his attack on Doug Mastriano in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. He called Mastriano, a far-right state senator, “dangerous and divisive” and warned that were he to become Pennsylvania’s governor he could wield power to choose his own slate of presidential electors as a means of overturning the results of the 2024 presidential election.

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US primary elections: Dr Oz tied with McCormick in test of Trump’s influence on Republicans – live

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Joe Biden will welcome the prime minister of Sweden, Magdalena Andersson, and the president of Finland Sauli Niinistö to Washington tomorrow.

It will be a very visual symbol of US support for those two European, Russia-adjacent nations joining the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).

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John Fetterman, Democratic Pennsylvania Senate candidate, suffers stroke

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Lieutenant governor and frontrunner in Democratic primary says he’s recovering and insists ‘campaign isn’t slowing down one bit’

John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania and frontrunner in the state’s Democratic US Senate primary, suffered a stroke Friday, and is recovering, he said in a statement.

“On Friday, I wasn’t feeling well, so I went to the hospital to get checked out. I didn’t want to go – I didn’t think I had to – but Gisele insisted, and as usual, she was right,” Fetterman said in a statement posted to Twitter, referring to his wife. “I hadn’t been feeling well, but was so focused on the campaign that I ignored the signs and just kept going.”

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US rocked by three separate mass shootings over Easter weekend

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Two teenage boys killed in Pittsburgh in one of at least three shootings over the weekend, including two in South Carolina

Two teenage boys were killed and eight other people were wounded after gunfire erupted at a party in a short-term rental home in Pittsburgh early Sunday, one of at least three mass shootings across the US on Easter weekend.

The other two shootings – both in South Carolina – left a total of 18 people with bullet wounds, once again reigniting calls among advocates for meaningful gun control legislation.

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Philadelphia becomes first major US city to reinstate indoor mask mandate

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Covid-19 cases have risen more than 50% in 10 days, the threshold at which city’s guidelines call for masking indoors

Philadelphia on Monday became the first major US city to reinstate its indoor mask mandate after reporting a sharp increase in coronavirus infections, with the city’s top health official saying she wanted to forestall a potential new wave driven by an Omicron sub-variant.

Confirmed Covid-19 cases had risen more than 50% in 10 days, the threshold at which the city’s guidelines called for people to wear masks indoors, said Dr Cheryl Bettigole, Philadelphia health commissioner.

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‘TV is like a poll’: Trump endorses Dr Oz for Pennsylvania Senate nomination

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Former president enthuses about TV doctor in statement and at rally but many on far right doubt conservative credentials

Donald Trump has endorsed Dr Mehmet Oz for the Republican nomination for Senate in Pennsylvania, an expression of support for a fellow TV star which could test the former president’s grip on his party.

Being on TV was “like a poll, that means people like you,” the former president and Celebrity Apprentice star said of Oz, a heart surgeon turned daytime host.

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‘Adults are banning books, but they’re not asking our opinions’: meet the teens of the Banned Book Club

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Conservatives are pushing to ban books from school libraries. At a time of crisis, a group of Pennsylvania teenagers are fighting back

“Napoleon’s use of the sheep was notable,” says Jordan Daughtry, 14. She’s clutching a copy of Animal Farm, and referring to the authoritarian Berkshire boar who seizes control of an English acreage, before bending his fellow animals to his will.

The sheep, who represent the unwitting masses in George Orwell’s critique of Joseph Stalin’s totalitarian rule, are “ignorant buffoons”, Daughtry says.

Kiara Daughtry, left, and Lena Cackley.

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Biden visits site of Pittsburgh bridge collapse and promises action with infrastructure law –as it happened

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Defense secretary Lloyd Austin will host a joint press conference with joint chief of staff chair Mark Milley later today.

A 2019 law allowing anyone in Pennsylvania to vote by mail is unconstitutional, a state court ruled on Friday.

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Pittsburgh bridge collapses hours before Biden’s infrastructure speech in city

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At least 10 injured and a bus and several cars left stranded in wreckage after 477ft-long bridge on Forbes Avenue caved in

It would be hard to imagine a more dramatic way to illustrate the need for investment in US infrastructure that Joe Biden was set to talk about in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Friday.

Hours before his visit and just four miles from where the president was scheduled to speak, one of Pittsburgh’s major car bridges collapsed.

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Pittsburgh New Year’s Day meteor explosion equivalent to 30 tonnes of TNT, says Nasa

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If not for clouds, the half-tonne fireball would have been easily visible in the day, maybe about 100 times the brightness of a full moon

A meteor that caused an earthshaking boom over suburban Pittsburgh on New Year’s Day exploded in the atmosphere with an energy blast equivalent to an estimated 30 tonnes (27,200kg) of TNT, officials said.

The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh initially responded, suggesting the most likely explanation was a “meteor explosion” as people took to social media in search of answers.

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Kellogg to replace 1,400 strikers as deal is rejected

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Strike, which began in October, expected to continue as workers seek significant raises, saying they work 80-hour weeks

Kellogg has said it is permanently replacing 1,400 workers who have been on strike since October, a decision that comes as the majority of its cereal plant workforce rejected a deal that would have provided 3% raises.

The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union said an overwhelming majority of workers had voted down the five-year offer.

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Man killed by stray bullet while eating Thanksgiving dinner at home

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District attorney names victim and suspect in incident in suburbs of Philadelphia on Thursday

A man eating Thanksgiving dinner inside a home in the suburbs of Philadelphia was killed by a stray bullet that pierced a window, authorities said.

Edilberto Miguel Palaez Moctezuma, 25, was shot in the torso just before 9.30pm on Thursday, the Montgomery county district attorney, Kevin Steele, said in a press release. Palaez Moctezuma was flown to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

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America mourns as leaders and families mark 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks

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Ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and at Pentagon mark the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks

Some wept. Some held photos of loved ones At 8.46am, precisely two decades after a passenger plane became a new and deadly weapon here, all fell silent in remembrance.

Families of the victims gathered at the 9/11 memorial plaza in New York on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and helped shape the 21st century.

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Hurricane Ida death toll nears 60 as states begin to comb through debris

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The US death toll from Hurricane Ida rose towards 60 on Saturday, nearly a week after one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US mainland made landfall in Louisiana. Two more evacuated nursing home residents were confirmed to have died in the southern state.

Related: Louisiana Shell refinery left spewing chemicals after Hurricane Ida

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More than 40 killed in US north-east amid sudden heavy rains and flooding

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Deaths and damage spanned huge areas in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland

The death toll from floods and tornadoes in the US north-east rose past 40 on Thursday, as authorities continued to digest the full impact of the remnants of Hurricane Ida.

Ida struck Louisiana last Sunday, knocking out power to the city of New Orleans and causing deaths in that state and Mississippi.

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Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction overturned by Pennsylvania court

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  • Cosby has served two years of a 3-to-10-year sentence
  • Court says charges invalid because of prior deal with prosecutor

Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction on Wednesday after finding an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.

Cosby has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia. He had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand.

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