Lebanon Daily News
SS United States to be largest artificial reef
WILMINGTON, DE – About a year and eight months after the SS United States left Philadelphia and headed to Alabama for sinking preparations, Okaloosa County, Florida, has announced the ship will be deployed in the second week of November. “America’s...
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Trump clemency erases $1.7 billion in penalties
President Donald Trump loves a good pardon. His generosity is so well known, in fact, that an industry of lobbyists, lawyers and other insiders has reportedly sprung up to facilitate clemency for wealthy criminals. Clemency, meaning mercy or leniency,...
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Poll: Americans oppose bets on U.S. events
NEW YORK – Most Americans oppose using prediction markets to bet on U.S. elections and other government actions, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll that suggests the markets may lack broad public support as policymakers debate how to regulate...
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Lebanon school officials seek input
about the district leaving the Lebanon County Career and Technology Center. More than 20 residents, government officials, and community leaders attended the district officials’ first public forum at the Lebanon Intermediate School on Oct. 7 to hear...
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Movement touts addictive drug as beneficial, but dangers persist
An ironic development emerging alongside the “Make America Healthy Again” movement is the portrayal of nicotine as a wellness and performance-enhancing product. Across social media, podcasts, wellness communities and tech startups, prominent wellness...
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Wallace meets with voters in Annville
Weeks before her only scheduled debate with U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, Democratic challenger Rachel Wallace held a town hall in Annville Tuesday, Oct. 6, to address concerns and answer questions from residents in Pennsylvania’s 9th District. More than 140...
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Cornell rape probe draws expert criticism
Cornell University, campus police and the local prosecutor’s office are all facing intense scrutiny over their investigation into 2024 gang rape allegations, and experts say key changes early in the case could have had a big impact on the...
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Israelis mark 3 years since Hamas attack
KFAR AZA, Israel – Israelis gathered in silence on Oct. 7 in a kibbutz near the Gaza border that was overrun by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, mourning victims of attacks that set off Israel’s assault in the Gaza Strip and plunged the Middle East...
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Loud sounds have hidden health risks
The human body is remarkably good at getting used to the environment around it. You’ve probably experienced this if you’ve ever gone to a matinee and emerged from the dark theater into sunshine. Your eyes sting, so you squint and shield your face until...
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Lebanon district may exit from CTC
A majority of Palmyra school officials have signaled support for allowing Lebanon Area School District to potentially leave the Lebanon County Career and Technology Center (CTC), and Lebanon officials have geared up to hold public forums on creating...
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The AI of the storm
Artificial intelligence has revolutionized weather forecasting in just a few years, with global AI weather models now able to produce forecasts that rival some of the world’s best physics-based prediction systems. h This remarkable progress has been...
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New local Lebanon Transit project begins
After years of planning and funding efforts, Lebanon Transit has begun construction on a new building that will consolidate the transportation organization’s various facilities and house its growing fleet of vehicles. Government officials and...
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Four-year firefighter contract ratified
The Lebanon City Council unanimously ratified a new four-year contract with the International Association of Firefighters, AFL-CIO Local 1952, starting in 2026. The contract calls for a 3.75% increase on base salary for career firefighters starting in...
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Pilots not warned about winds before fatal crash
An air traffic controller did not provide required information about tailwind conditions to the pilots of an Amazon cargo plane before it overran a runway at Miami International Airport and crashed Sept. 6, killing five people on the ground, according...
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PATCHWORK OF POLICIES
Standing in your local retail store, it can be mindboggling to try to weigh the pros and cons of all the packaging options. Take shampoo, for example. Shampoo can come in a rigid plastic bottle, a flexible squeeze tube, a refillable metal canister or...
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The long afterlife of QAnon
On Election Day in 2024, as voters cast their ballots, Elon Musk posted a campaign music video supporting Donald Trump’s bid for president. Set to Van Halen’s “Jump,” with a montage of 1980s cultural references and images of Trump in various strongman...
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Administration cuts mileage standards
President Donald Trump’s administration finalized a new set of rules regarding mile-per-gallon standards for passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks, reducing standards set by the Biden administration two years ago by nearly a third. While the Trump...
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Taliban, Pakistan go from friends to foes
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s air force struck 10 locations in Afghanistan on Sept. 24, its second round of strikes in four days after three months of relative quiet along the two countries’ 1,600mile border. Islamabad said it struck militant hideouts in...
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TREASURING THE MOMENTS
Christmas came a little early for National Guard Staff Sgt. Wade Morehart’s daughter this year. h The Williamsport-area guardsman gave his 2-year-old a stuffed wolf, originally intended as a holiday gift, two weeks ago, knowing he’d be overseas this...
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The invention of lactose intolerance
Lactose intolerance makes drinking milk or eating ice cream a literal pain. For some people, eating a dairy treat can lead to bloating, nausea and diarrhea. You might’ve experienced its effects yourself. If so, you may think of lactose intolerance as a...
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Report alleges censorship at colleges across America
A “widespread, McCarthyite censorship” campaign by the Trump administration led to the suppression of speech at colleges and universities across the nation, a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International concluded. The...
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Cursive is making a comeback in schools
Learning to read and write cursive was once a rite of passage for practically every American schoolchild. Until the early 20th century, children in the United States were generally taught to write in cursive or script, rather than the print writing...
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Control of House hinges on these races
With six weeks until the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Democrats are leading in polls. But in a politically polarized country with mostly gerrymandered congressional districts, a handful of contests will determine whether Democrats can actually win control...
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‘Security is paramount’
Palmyra Area School District will move forward with planned high school renovations and security upgrades that are expected to cost between $72.5 and $84.1 million. During a Sept. 17 meeting, school board members present unanimously approved a plan to...
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AI
Creating recipes, finding news, generating images, answering research questions, writing emails, helping with job applications: the list of what people are using AI for goes on and on. But researchers suggest that the 2026 midterms are inspiring...
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City officials shocked by CYS cost increases
The increase costs for placement providers, a rise in need for child placement services, and more complex case needs is compounding the expenses for Lebanon County Children and Youth Services. CYS officials reported that the final department costs...
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Girl Scouts adding 2 new cookies for 2027 season
More people will be able to get a bite out of Girl Scout cookie season next year thanks to two new, first-of-their-kind treats in the annual lineup. Girl Scouts of the USA is adding two new cookies – including one for those four-legged friends – to...
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Pres. Trump to face skeptical world leaders
WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations a year ago, he touted the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites just months earlier as “totally obliterating everything” and said he had brought peace between Israel and...
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Dinosaur Rock
Lebanon County residents have been spending the past five years restoring a 200-million-year-old geological landmark on Mt. Wilson Road, and that work is paying off. Volunteers have donated their time cleaning the graffiti from Dinosaur Rock, a...
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Congress weighs action as AI concerns mount
WASHINGTON – Panic is rapidly setting in among many Americans about the dangers of advanced artificial intelligence, and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are feeling intensifying pressure to take action to regulate the companies in charge...
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Tool library opens in South Lebanon Township
Lebanon County’s first tool library officially opened Saturday, Sept. 12, to get tools and equipment into the hands of residents who need but can’t afford them. The Central Pennsylvania Tool Library and Makerspace organizers welcomed residents and...
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DIGITAL DETOX
A trove of recent articles bemoan the collapse in recreational reading among younger Americans, with COVID-19 pandemic-related reading declines, artificial intelligence and social media often described as causes. But as the authors of “How Gen Z...
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‘Extremely tight budgets’
Robert, who had a doctorate in dental medicine, is not someone people would expect to be in need of the Lebanon Rescue Mission’s services, according to Executive Director Susan Blouch. But in 2013, he slipped on some icy steps and received urgent...
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Hotel
A Palmyra manufacturing and commercial construction business is looking to tear down a blighted former Main Street hotel property to expand. On Sept. 8, Palmyra Borough Council members unanimously approved a waiver for the requirement of a land...
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Former DOJ official starts gun rights group
WASHINGTON – Former U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin is launching a new gun rights group aimed at restoring firearm access to Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes, an initiative that seeks to boost conservative turnout in this fall’s midterm...
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A GENERATION OF AFTERSHOCK
Aquarter-century later, 9/11 still echoes. The worst terrorist attack in U.S. history has been followed by other seismic events, from a once-in-a-century global pandemic to the rise of artificial intelligence that is transforming commerce, education...
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UNPLUGGED
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced in-person classroom instruction to go virtual, students suddenly needed to have their own laptops or tablets in order to interact with teachers and complete assignments. Most states used federal pandemic funding to...
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‘It’s extremely emotional’
Robert Koch served with the 34th Engineer Battalion in a village just south of Saigon during the Vietnam War. His unit would clear jungle and build landing zones for helicopters to fly troops in and out of combat. h One of his Koch’s friends since...
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Lawmaker’s egg freezing is upending norms
Armed with a cream-colored $15 Target lunch box containing thousands of dollars’ worth of medication and needles, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, went about her business in the nation’s capital. One day she was in the green room of ABC...
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A ‘living, breathing’ memorial to 9/11
Bruce White and a group of cyclists flash past rain-spattered cotton fields, undeterred by the wet June weather as they pedal toward Reading on their monthlong trek around the 9/11 National Memorial Trail. They’d been on the roughly 1,500mile route...
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AN IDLE THREAT
Abus company that left its buses’ engines running while parked in Boston neighborhoods has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay $5.6 million in damages for the resulting air pollution. The settlement came in a citizen-enforcement lawsuit under the...
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PRESS UNDER PRESSURE
In his White House Correspondents’ Association dinner speech on July 24, President Donald Trump made his usual diatribes against the news media. He derided the “failing” New York Times and reiterated his complaint that CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins...
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PAUSE & REFLECT
Despite the rain and the humidity, The Wall That Heals rolled into Campbelltown Community Park on Tuesday, Sept. 1, to honor Vietnam veterans’ sacrifice and educate visitors about the continuing impact of the war. Escorted by 117 motorcycle riders and...
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Midterm candidates split on data centers
As data centers become a defining issue on the midterm campaign trail, some voters are drawing a line in the sand over a yes-or-no question that’s dividing candidates across the country, especially Democrats. Support for moratoriums, or bans, on data...
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‘ISOLATED’
Severe storms, heat waves and wildfires can shut down the social life of a community, flooding out festivals, canceling community events and keeping people indoors. They’re also evidence of how climate change isn’t just changing the environments we...
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‘He’s touched so many people’
Kasey Daley said her husband, Ratha San, was born in a refugee camp in Thailand 45 years ago after his family fled a war in Cambodia. More than two years later, his family came to the United States through a sponsorship program. h “He actually grew up...
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Cup of care &ambition
In 1973, Dolly Parton wrote “I Will Always Love You” to soften the blow of leaving her business partner Porter Wagoner after years of producing hit country duets together. Parton was ready to pursue a solo career. So she played the song for Wagoner to...
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Colleges confront decline in reading
Anyone who has spent time on a college campus lately has probably heard laments from faculty about their students’ reading habits, or rather nonreading habits. Such complaints are more than an unfounded nostalgia for a bygone age. Reading – not just...
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Rescuers pulled driver from truck on tracks
Neptune Fire Company firefighters Kevin Kepley and Daulton Faust, along with Myerstown resident Rory Righter, were not expecting to leap into action the morning of Aug. 1. That was before a construction truck struck another vehicle and the railroad...
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LOVE, ALWAYS
Dolly Parton, the “Queen of Country” singing and songwriting icon with a personality as bold as her signature blond coif and rhinestoneencrusted outfits, has died. She was 80. Parton’s death was announced by her family on her social media pages and...
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DNCR honors rangers, paramedic
Around 2:30 p.m. May 30, bicyclists Sean Nam and Bill Blandford were traveling along the Swatara State Park trail system. As they were mountain biking on the trails, Blandford suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. Nam, a TowerDirect paramedic, immediately...
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Job seekers say hiring process is ‘broken’
After getting a layoff notice in May, software engineer Todd Hendricks, 46, started his job search. One Friday, he signed on to Zoom for the coding round of an interview process. No one appeared. He reached out to the recruiter and heard nothing...
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Palmyra wrestling coaches reinstated
Whistles and cheers filled the Lingle Avenue Elementary School cafeteria Thursday night as the new Palmyra Area School Board voted to reinstate the wrestling coaches’ contracts for the 2026-27 school year. During their Thursday night meeting, school...
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One killed when plane crashes into helicopter
The pilot of a private plane was killed in a midair collision with a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter on Wednesday at the Carlisle Regional Airport. Two troopers in the helicopter were also injured in the Aug. 19 crash, which is still being...
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ICE insurance would protect local officers
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has put forward an insurance plan that could protect local police officers who make immigration arrests from potential financial consequences if they are accused of misconduct while on...
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Trump plan could hit science funding
Most Americans don’t read the rules that govern the federal grants funding science. Those rules, called the Uniform Guidance, shape how cancer research is funded, graduate students are trained, clinical trials are sustained, universities stock their...
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Police seek video, help after rash of vehicle break-ins
South Lebanon Township Police Department is asking for residents’ help as they investigate a series of incidents involving attempted vehicle entries. Police said items were stolen from several vehicles that were broken into. One vehicle itself was...
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Child Support Awareness Day held to support families
The Lebanon County Domestic Relations Office held its third annual Child Support Awareness Day to support local families. Office employees and volunteers held their annual event for parents and children outside of the Lebanon County Courthouse on Aug....
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Mass hearings held in immigration courts
Lines have stretched out the front door of courthouses. Overflow seating has been set up in hallways. And there have been classroom-style exchanges, with judges asking people to raise their hands in response to generic questions about their...
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DOJ pressed, dropped officer assault cases
Christian Garcia admits that he threw a water bottle toward officers guarding a federal building near Los Angeles during an immigration protest last summer. h The plastic bottle was empty, he said, and hit no one but Garcia himself – the wind blew it...
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How to find an ethical adoption provider in PA
Families exploring adoption are pursuing a process that’s both emotionally and financially taxing, a combination that can put people at risk, advocates say. A USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania investigation found several instances in which families...
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‘Fake electors’ figure holds White House role
A figure in Arizona’s “fake electors” case continues to have an influential role in President Donald Trump’s White House. Boris Epshteyn, an adviser and personal lawyer to Trump, was accused of working with Arizona Republicans and other Trump allies...
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Al-Qaida, Islamic State group adopting AI
Artificial intelligence may not create a new kind of terrorism, but it makes existing tactics cheaper, faster and easier. That is the central argument of a July report from the U.S.-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. h It...
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‘It’s going to be a great addition’
Lebanon County government and community officials broke ground on a $10 million expansion project at the Lebanon Valley Expo Center Aug. 10, with officials saying it’s the start of creating much needed space for various events. The construction of the...
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Military bases delay toxic PFAS cleanup
It’s been almost five years since Brandi and Brad Hyatt found out the well at their home next to an Army base in Washington is contaminated with “forever chemicals.” h They started using bottled water for everything from making coffee to rinsing off...
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Major fights await Senate after break
WASHINGTON – The Senate just went out with a bang – passing a government funding bill to try to avert another shutdown, confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general and bucking a voter ID measure. Overnight, a quick flurry of legislative activity...
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Palmyra school board gets major shakeup
Palmyra Area School Board got a major shake-up during its Aug. 6 meeting as new members were appointed to fill four recently vacated positions, including that of former Vice President Corey Andrew. To applause from residents in attendance, remaining...
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Immigrants a key role in U.S. economy, experts say
For years, employers from Florida to Ohio have relied on immigrants taking part in a humanitarian program to staff hard-to-fill job openings for construction workers and home health aides. h In recent months, they warned, the Trump administration’s...
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Reports: U.S. missile supply badly depleted
The war on Iran has severely depleted key U.S. missile stockpiles and left the nation and its allies in a vulnerable position for potentially years to come, several experts and reports say. U.S. missile stockpiles were low before President Donald...
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Tractor-trailer crashes into Swatara Twp. garage
A tractor-trailer crashed into a Swatara Township garage Wednesday, Aug. 5, closing a section of Route 72 for motorists, according to PennDOT. The incident with a Sherwin Williams tractor-trailer happened at about 9:08 a.m. at Route 72 and...
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Gunshot detection tech ignites controversy
When gunshots ring out on America’s streets, bystanders face an instant, high-stakes dilemma. h Do I call the cops? Were those even gunshots? Maybe it was just fireworks. h Every moment of hesitation risks a delay in medical treatment or gives a...
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Remembrance through floats
Fourteen years ago, Kortne Stouffer disappeared from her residence without a trace, and her family is still looking for answers and closure. h On Saturday, Aug. 1, the Stouffer family and others drove near Swatara Creek Park in Hershey and lined the...
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‘Housing imbalance’
On July 28, Nancy Johnson was eating lunch in the two-hour parking lot behind the Lebanon City Hall in her sedan. She used to call living in her car going “out for a stroll” after she lost her apartment back in late April. “I couldn’t pay the rent, so...
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Primary wins, GOP attacks draw attention to the left
Ahead of a challenging midterm election, Republicans have seized an opportunity to castigate their opponents as extremists after democratic socialists won Democratic congressional primaries in New York City, Colorado and Washington, DC. GOP leaders...
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York’s Haitian community fears for future after ruling
The Rev. Gusmane Michel, pastor of the First Haitian Church of York, was heartbroken. One of his parishioners, a man who had immigrated from Haiti about three or four years ago, had been picked up by West York Police, Michel believed, for unpaid...
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Attack sparks fears wars could merge
WASHINGTON – Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States insisted that leaders in Kyiv are not playing “a game of chess” with their recent drone strike on an Iranian ship and have no interest in leveraging their conflict with Russia into a wider, global...
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