WJPA News

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates are mourning the loss of Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski. The team confirmed Mazeroski died on Friday at the age of 89. “Everyone across the Pirates organization is deeply saddened by the loss of Bill Mazeroski,” Pirates Chairman Bob Nutting said. “Maz was one of a kind — a true Pirates legend, a National Baseball Hall of Famer and one of the finest defensive second basemen the game has ever seen.”Mazeroski was an inaugural member of the Pirates Hall of Fame class in 2022 and was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, in 2001. He was a seven-time All-Star known for the most famous home run in history, a ninth-inning, game-winning hit against the Yankees in Game Seven of the 1960 World Series.

The City Mission’s biggest fundraiser of the year is tomorrow. The 32nd Annual Sweet Sunday Festival is scheduled to have a savory twist. There will be more than two dozen vendors, live music featuring Scott Blasey of the Clarks, auction baskets, silent auction items, a cafe, Kids Korner activities featuring Royal Princess Engagement, celebrity judges and more. The fundraiser helps support the City Mission’s life changing programs and services for the homeless. The event is from noon until 5 tomorrow at the Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe in Canonsburg.

After high winds Friday afternoon and evening, West Penn Power is reporting there are about 1,400 customers in Western Pennsylvania without power. That includes some 123 customers just south east of Bentleyville, with others near Scenery Hill, east of East Finley, and near Southpointe. West Penn Power’s website estimates that they will have power restored this morning.

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, PA [WPXI] — A father and son were injured after several homes were damaged by fire in Westmoreland County on Friday. Westmoreland County dispatchers said firefighters were called to the 400 block of Hoover Drive in Washington Township at 7:20 p.m. Video taken by a neighbor showed massive flames coming from one of the homes. Firefighters said that a father and son who live in that home were taken to a hospital by ambulance for burns. Washington Township VFC Assistant Fire Chief Bob Baustert said he believes they were grilling when the fire broke out. “We had a problem with the gas meter. Somehow the fire extended to the gas meter on this side of the house opposite the deck and so when crews arrived, it was a gas-fed fire going on – plus the wind tonight,” Baustert said. The house collapsed in on itself. Homes on either side of the house where the fire started were also damaged. No one inside those homes was hurt.

A Peter’s Township High School senior was arrested Friday and charged with operating a criminal network involving “catfishing” and “sextortion.” 18-year-old Zachariah Meyers, who is reportedly president of the senior class and an athlete at the school, is accused of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of more than twenty underage victims. Meyers appeared in front of a judge and was ordered held without bail, as the judge called Meyers a “danger to the community.” Online court records show Meyers is facing more than 300 felony charges. According to the criminal complaint, Peters Township police first became aware of the reported criminal network on December 5th. Officers say they interviewed thirty underage boys and identified at least twenty-one victims.  (Photo:  WPXI)

BULLSKIN TOWNSHIP, PA [WPXI] — A person is dead after a head-on crash in Fayette County. Fayette County dispatchers said emergency crews were called to the 1500 block of Route 982 in Bullskin Township Friday afternoon. Pennsylvania State Police said a sedan crossed into the opposite lane while traveling on a curve in the roadway and hit another vehicle head-on. Fayette County Coroner Bob Baker identified the man who died as David Lancaster, 50, of Mount Pleasant. The driver of the vehicle that was hit was uninjured, troopers said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — On Saturday, governors gather for the annual National Governors Association dinner after a tense week. President Donald Trump has mocked the group’s leaders and initially blocked Democratic Gov. Wes Moore and Gov. Jared Polis from a White House working meeting. He reversed course late. The meeting then ended early after Trump reacted to a Supreme Court ruling Friday that strikes down his tariff policy. Dozens of Democrats had threatened to boycott the dinner Saturday if members of their party were blocked from the working meeting. But even after Moore’s attendance, some said they still wouldn’t show up Saturday.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — War veterans with severe injuries from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have taken the stage in Kyiv in an adaptation of Ivan Kotliarevskyi’s “Eneida.” It’s a Ukrainian reimagining of Virgil’s “Aeneid.” The amateur troupe spent nearly a year preparing for the play’s premiere this week at the National Academic Molodyy Theatre. The production, adapted by director Olha Semioshkina, blends epic poetry with the actors’ personal wartime stories, humor and resilience. Despite air raid warnings and blackouts, the premiere ended with a standing ovation and a message to the country’s veterans: Come out, live, and don’t close yourself off.

NEW YORK (AP) — Businesses face a new wave of uncertainty after the Supreme Court struck down tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump under an emergency powers law and Trump vowed to work around the ruling to keep his tariffs in place. The Trump administration says its tariffs help boost American manufacturers and reduce the trade gap. But many U.S. businesses have had to raise prices and adjust in other ways to offset higher costs spurred by the tariffs. It remains to be seen how much relief businesses and consumers will actually get from Friday’s ruling. Within hours of the court’s decision, Trump pledged to sign an executive order imposing a 10% tariff on all imports that would last 150 days.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Republican lawmakers and left in place a congressional map that gives Democrats a high chance of picking up one of the state’s four Republican-held U.S. House seats in the fall. In the order on Friday, the court explained that they do not have “jurisdiction over Legislative Defendants’ appeal.” The lawmakers had appealed a decision in November in which a Utah judge adopted a congressional map, creating a Democratic-leaning district over one poised to protect all four of the state’s U.S. House seats held by Republicans.