WJPA News

HARRISBURG — Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that a pair of western Pennsylvania-based amusement companies pleaded guilty to felony corrupt organizations regarding the widespread distribution of hundreds of illegal video gaming devices.  The companies — Buffalo Skills Games, Inc. and J.J. Amusement, Inc. — agreed to dissolution and the forfeiture of $5 million in assets, as part of the plea resolution.  Investigators seized nearly 400 illegal gambling devices from more than 60 locations in several western Pennsylvania counties, including Washington County.  ”This resolution secures a multi-million-dollar forfeiture for the Commonwealth, while assuring the companies will cease to exist,” Attorney General Sunday said. “I commend our partners at the Pennsylvania State Police for helping disband a large-scale operation that involved slot machines essentially dressed up as skill games.”  The Pennsylvania State Police assisted the Office of Attorney General’s Gaming Enforcement and Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Sections in a series of 2024 seizures at bars, gas stations, and convenience stores in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Crawford, Indiana, Somerset, Venango, Erie, Washington, Armstrong, and Westmoreland counties.

CARROLL TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A North Charleroi man faces charges after Carroll Township police said he attacked a doctor and staff members at Penn Highlands Mon Valley Hospital. Court documents police were called to the hospital early Saturday for a report of a violent patient. Court documents said Victor Tyree attacked staff members after being asked not to live-stream video of the emergency room area. Police said surveillance video shows Tyree punching, pushing, and grabbing a doctor and two security guards.

North Strabane Township staff moved into their new Municipal Building last fall, but they waited for nicer weather to officially introduce the building to the public. Township officials and several elected officials participated in a ribbon cutting on Tuesday. Township Council President Neil Kelly was excited about the building saying it was desperately needed as their previous building suffered from structural and plumbing issues. Township Manager Andrew Walz said that the building will offer residents amenities that the old building did not have. Residents may rent an event space with a full kitchen for birthday parties, meetings or even exercise classes. Smaller areas are available for business people to rent if they need a temporary office. Instead of constructing a new building from scratch, the township purchased the former Lighthouse Electric offices. County Real Estate records indicate that the building was purchased for $2.75 million. Walz said that $1.6 million in renovations was needed. He said that $1 million of those costs were covered by grants through the state. Walz said the township is not done. A poll of residents last year indicated that they would like an indoor recreation facility. A feasibility study has been ordered for that. Walz said that the site of the old municipal building could be the location for that facility.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s health ministry says that Israeli strikes during the day killed 182 people, the highest single-day death toll in the Israel-Hezbollah war. Israel launched a barrage of strikes in central Beirut and elsewhere in the country on Wednesday as a shaky ceasefire took effect between the U.S. and Iran. Iranian officials have maintained that the deal was supposed to include Lebanon, while Israel and the U.S. have insisted that it does not. The ministry says that another 890 people were wounded in the strikes. Altogether, 1,739 people have been killed and 5,873 wounded in Lebanon in just over five weeks since the outbreak of the war.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stock markets are surging worldwide, and oil prices are plunging back toward $90 per barrel after President Donald Trump pulled back from his threat to force a “whole civilization” to die in the war with Iran. The S&P 500 leaped 2.4% after Trump announced a two-week ceasefire, just 90 minutes before a deadline Trump had set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 1,332 points, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 2.9% following bigger gains in Europe and Asia. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil tumbled 16.1% below $92, down from $119 earlier in the war.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge has handed down a sentence of 15 years in prison to a woman who pleaded guilty to selling “Friends” star Matthew Perry the ketamine that killed him in a 2023 overdose. Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett sentenced 42-year-old Jasveen Sangha on Wednesday. Sangha is the third defendant to be sentenced of the five people who have pleaded guilty in connection with the 54-year-old “Friends” star’s death. Prosecutors had recommend a 15-year sentence for Sangha. They cast her in court filings as a “Ketamine Queen” who had an elaborate drug operation catering to high-end clients.

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A Long Island architect has pleaded guilty to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings. Rex Heuermann entered the pleas on Wednesday in a courtroom packed with reporters, police and victims’ relatives. His decision brings finality to a case that bedeviled investigators, tantalized the public and spawned true-crime documentaries, podcasts and a Hollywood movie. Authorities say Heuermann killed the women over a 17-year span. Many of them were sex workers whose deaths received little attention until their remains were found buried together along an isolated beach highway. Heuermann faces life in prison and will be sentenced at a later date.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Ray Stevens has broken his neck and is recovering at home. A statement on X confirmed Tuesday that the 87-year-old country star had been briefly hospitalized after falling late last month. The statement says he “is now fully mobile & in good spirits.” Stevens is known for his topical satire. His decades-long recording career has included such hits as the Grammy-winning “Everything Is Beautiful” as well as the zany “The Streak,” which captured the mid-1970s craze for running naked in public. His latest album is expected to be released Friday on Curb Records.