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A28 u.s. news
Diaranson 31 augustus 2022

Biden to talk crime, gun control in swing state Pennsylvania

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. below the percentage naming
(AP) — President Joe many of the other top issues
Biden on Tuesday arrived for Americans.
in Pennsylvania to talk Biden has tried to balance
up his administration's his approach to crime by ac-
plans to prevent crime, knowledging voters' fears
an issue that has become and praising law enforce-
potent politically both in ment, but also urging more
this state and nationwide accountability for officers.
ahead of November's mid-
term elections. He's rejected the activist
slogan "defund the police,"
It's Biden's first of three trips which Republicans have used
in the coming week, under- as a cudgel against Demo-
scoring the state's role as a crats in general, by calling for
key political battleground, more money for cops.
and it comes days before
former President Donald Jean-Pierre said Monday that
Trump hosts his own rally in Biden will speak in Wilkes-
Pennsylvania on Saturday. Barre about the "simple basic
notion that when it comes to
The White House said Biden public safety in this nation,
will use his Tuesday visit to the answer isn't to defund the
call out Republicans for op- police, but to fund the po-
posing his proposal to restore It's a particularly fraught issue recruit more police officers. criminals" from prisons or lice."
a ban on assault-style weap- in Pennsylvania, a key swing Last December, he said that that he's in favor of "empty-
ons. state where a U.S. Senate seat state agents and Philadel- ing prisons." Biden also plans to talk about
Both parties worked together and the governor's office are phia police officers working the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S.
in a rare effort to pass biparti- up for grabs. together had reduced the Fetterman does not plan to be Capitol and the role that law
san gun safety legislation ear- number of shootings in areas in Wilkes-Barre with Biden, enforcement played in de-
lier this year after massacres The Republican candidate for that were confronting gun but he's expected to march fending Congress. He previ-
in Buffalo, New York, and governor, Doug Mastriano, violence related to drug traf- in Pittsburgh's Labor Day pa- ously focused on that issue in
Uvalde, Texas, but Biden has accuses Democrat Josh Sha- ficking. rade when the president vis- a virtual address to the Na-
repeatedly said more needs to piro of being soft on crime Shapiro plans to attend Tues- its Sept. 5. Biden also will be tional Organization of Black
be done. as the state's twice-elected day's event with Biden. in Pennsylvania on Thursday Law Enforcement Executives
attorney general, saying at The Republican U.S. Sen- for a prime-time speech that on July 25.
As a U.S. senator, Biden one recent event that crime ate nominee, heart surgeon the White House said will
played a leading role in tem- has gone up on his oppo- turned television celebrity address "the continued battle Biden has laid out a $37 bil-
porarily banning assault-style nent's watch and that Shapiro Dr. Mehmet Oz, has tried to for the soul of the nation" lion plan for addressing
weapons, including firearms "stands aside" as homicides portray the Democratic can- and defending democracy. crime and boosting law en-
similar to the AR-15 that rise across Pennsylvania. didate, Lt. Gov. John Fetter- It's unclear whether crime forcement resources. He
have exploded in popularity man, as extreme and reckless will end up as a pivotal issue wants Congress to spend $13
in recent years, and he wants Homicides have been in- on crime policy. in November. billion to help communities
to put the law back into place. creasing in Pennsylvania, but hire and train 100,000 po-
overall crime seems to have Fetterman has endorsed rec- Only 11% of U.S. adults lice officers over five years.
Biden's speech at Wilkes fallen over the last year, ac- ommendations that more ge- named crime or violence as Another $3 billion would go
University in Wilkes-Barre cording to state statistics. riatric and rehabilitated pris- one of the top five issues they to clearing court backlogs
comes as Democrats try to oners can be released from consider most important for and resolving cases involv-
blunt Republican efforts to As attorney general since state prisons without harm- the government to work on ing murders and guns, and
use concern about crime to 2017, Shapiro has toured the ing public safety. Oz and Re- in the next year, according to $5 billion more would go to
their advantage in the mid- state discussing the need to publicans have distorted that an AP-NORC poll conduct- support programs that could
terms. crack down on gun traffick- into the claim that Fetterman ed in June. That's unchanged help stop violence before it
ing and ghost guns, and to wants to release "dangerous since December, and it's well occurs.

Storms blamed in deaths of 3 in Michigan, Ohio, Arkansas

Michigan and Arkansas as safety department said in a Monday night when a tree
well as a woman in Ohio. Facebook post. fell on her behind her home
in Toledo just as a strong
Monday's storms also And in the Detroit-area com- storm moved through the
knocked out electrical service munity of Warren, two boys area, the city's fire depart-
to hundreds of thousands were hospitalized — includ- ment said. Her name and age
of homes and businesses in ing an 8-year-old who was in were not released.
Indiana and Michigan, with critical condition — after one
dozens of schools canceling of them touched a downed The storms were widespread
classes in Michigan alone on power line Tuesday morning, in states including Michi-
Tuesday because of power The Detroit News reported, gan, Ohio and Indiana. Tree
outages. citing a fire department of- branches and power lines fell
ficial. while winds gusted as high
In the Michigan city of as 58 mph (93 kilometers per
Monroe, a 14-year-old girl In Arkansas, an 11-year-old hour) at Battle Creek Execu-
was electrocuted Monday boy died after he was swept tive Airport in Michigan and
night in the backyard of her into a storm drain during 60 mph (96 kilometers per
MONROE, Mich. (AP) — parts of the Midwest and home after coming into con- heavy rainfall Monday, au- hour) in Huntington, Indi-
Severe storms that brought the South were blamed for tact with an electrical line thorities said. ana, the weather service re-
damaging winds, heavy the deaths of three people, that was knocked down by ported.
rains and flash flooding to including two children in a thunderstorm, the public In Ohio, a woman was killed