Author: rpnadmin

A man was found dead on Friday after he was electrocuted while trying to take wiring out of a power line, the Pennsylvania State Police said.Aaron Cottrell, 32, was discovered dead at 7:12 a.m. in Dunbar, 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, the police said in a release.The power had to be shut off to de-electrify and remove the wire on Mr. Cottrell’s body, according to Pittsburgh’s WPXI.The state troopers said they found a backpack and pole saw on Mr. Cottrell’s person and that “it appeared he had been attempting to obtain wire from active electrical lines when he was electrocuted.”The…

A person was hospitalized in Baltimore Friday night after a Maryland Transit Administration light rail train struck a car the person was in.The train hit the Nissan sedan at the intersection of Howard Street and Lexington Street at around 8:30 p.m., according to The Baltimore Sun. MTA officials said a person inside the car was taken to Baltimore’s R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, according to the city’s WJZ-TV, but did not provide a name or indicate whether the person was the driver or passenger.The exact nature and severity of the person’s injuries were not specified. Transit officials have not yet…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is in a spat with a major oil company over who is to blame for the state’s high gas prices, with the Democratic governor’s office urging drivers not to fill up at Chevron stations over Memorial Day weekend. “Pro tip: unbranded gas comes from the same refineries, storage tanks, and pipelines, and it meets the same state standards to keep your engine running clean,” Newsom’s office posted Thursday on X. “Big Oil is already making billions off Trump’s Iran War; don’t let them rip you off even more by overpaying for the brand…

OMAHA, Neb. — The 18 American passengers who were exposed to hantavirus on the MV Hondius cruise ship are getting a taste of Nebraska hospitality as they wait to find out how much longer they will have to remain in quarantine at the hospital in Omaha. Elsewhere, a 12th illness linked to the ship was confirmed Friday in the Netherlands as health officials continue to monitor hundreds of people who were potentially exposed. The doctor who runs the National Quarantine Unit where the American passengers are being monitored said at a news conference Friday that none of them are showing…

NEW YORK — A judge on Friday threw out author Michael Wolff’s lawsuit against first lady Melania Trump, ruling that his “contorted” attempt to prevent her from suing him for $1 billion over his statements about her and Jeffrey Epstein “is not how the federal courts work.” Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in federal court in Manhattan chided both sides for an “inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship” and said she “will not be conscripted to oversee an abusively presented spat.” Vyskocil, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, agreed that Wolff and the first lady “have a real dispute,” but said…

NEW YORK — The estranged husband of a prominent New York City art dealer was convicted Friday of hiring a hitman to kill him in Brazil. Daniel Sikkema, 55, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Brent Sikkema, 75, was found stabbed to death in his Rio de Janeiro townhouse in January 2024. Daniel Sikkema, a U.S. and Cuban citizen who lived in New York, was arrested in April 2024. He was convicted in federal court in Manhattan of charges including murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in death. The alleged hitman was arrested in Brazil, where he remains jailed. “Amid contentious…

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Authorities said Friday that fentanyl and methamphetamine were found at a home where first responders answering a call about suspected overdoses in a rural New Mexico county became sick. Three people who were found inside the house died Wednesday. A fourth person who was in the house and one of the emergency responders who became sick were still being treated at a hospital Friday. A doctor who saw the responders exhibiting symptoms including nausea and dizziness said their symptoms most closely resembled fentanyl exposure. However, the investigation into how the exposure happened and what caused it was…

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — About 40,000 people were under evacuation orders and schools shut down Friday in Southern California after a storage tank continued to leak a hazardous chemical used to make plastic parts that officials said could rupture or explode. A storage tank holding between 6,000 and 7,000 gallons (22,700 and 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate overheated Thursday and began venting vapors into the air at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, a city in Orange County, the county’s fire authority said. Officials ordered residents in Garden Grove to leave and expanded evacuations orders Friday to some residents…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – There are no immigrants waiting for rulings anymore at San Francisco’s main immigration court, no lawyers making arguments. The court, which had 21 judges when President Donald Trump was sworn in last year, had only two left when it closed May 1. The rest had been fired, retired or resigned amid a White House purge of federal immigration judges. The closing is one more reflection of the turmoil that has upended the immigration court system as the administration looks for ways to churn through its massive backlog of 3.8 million asylum cases and deport as many…

Officials at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport pushed back the reopening of a runway closed due to a sinkhole to Saturday as inspections and repairs continue. LaGuardia officials said on X that ground-penetrating radar was used Thursday to find possible problem spots, which were then “proactively repaired.” Airport crews are looking to see if other areas have structural problems, and officials said they expect those inspections and any further repairs to be done by 6 a.m. Saturday. Officials have repeatedly delayed the reopening, starting with Thursday morning, then noon that day. About 90 minutes before that deadline, officials pushed it…