WJPA News

An employee was killed in an apparent workplace accident Sunday at the Cleveland-Cliffs coke plant in Monessen.  A Westmoreland County 911 supervisor says first responders were dispatched to the plant at 4:15 p.m.  The employee became “pinned between two door machines,” according to the Westmoreland County Office of the Coroner.  Jeffrey Smith, 53, of Newell, was pronounced dead, the coroner’s office says.  His cause and manner of death are pending autopsy and toxicology results.  Monessen police and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating.

One woman is dead and two others were hurt, following a wrong-way crash on Route 22 in Washington County.  The crash happened just after 10:30 p.m. in the eastbound lanes about a half-mile before the Burgettstown exit in Hanover Township.  State police said a vehicle driven by fifty-three-year-old Dawn D’Andrea of Wintersville, Ohio, entered Route 22 the wrong way and collided head-on with another vehicle.  Authorities say D’Andrea was killed , while a front-seat passenger in her vehicle and the driver of the other vehicle were both flown to hospitals.  There’s been no word on the identities or the nature of the other individual’s injuries.

Efforts continue to assist local residents and businesses dealing with damage that resulted from recent flooding.   The County will host a Multi-Agency Response Center for two days at the American Legion along Park Avenue in Washington.   It will be held Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.   Officials say the event is in partnership with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and will bring together multiple agencies, volunteer organizations, and State agencies including the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and Washington County  Department of Human Services.   They will provide assistance in regards to understanding insurance coverage, information on avoiding fraud and repair scams, and connections to local community support services.

MONESSEN, Pa. — A Monessen man is in custody following an investigation into child sexual assault allegations.  The Monessen Police Department says it helped Homeland Security execute a search warrant at 26-year-old Joshua Rioux’s Aliquippa Avenue home on Sept. 26.  Police say federal investigators alerted them about videos depicting a juvenile being sexually assaulted by Rioux before executing the search warrant.  Rioux was taken into custody and questioned, where police say he admitted to sexually assaulting a male juvenile on several occasions over an approximate two-year period. Police reported that one of the incidents was recorded on video.  Rioux faces more than 50 charges, including several counts of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child, indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age, endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors.  He’s being held at the Westmoreland County Jail without bail.

FAIRFORD, England (AP) — British police say that five men arrested under counterterrorism laws near a U.S.-run air base in England will be released on bail but are still under investigation. The head of U.K. Counter Terrorism Policing said Monday that the men face stringent conditions and “absolutely remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of inquiry.” Investigators haven’t concluded whether the incident was state-backed. They are investigating a possible link to Iran, Russia or non-state-backed militant groups. RAF Fairford is home to long-range U.S. bombers that have been used in the Iran conflict and has also been the focus of protests by anti-war campaigners.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — As tech titans warned an AI-weary world that their own advanced systems could endanger humanity, the question emerged: What do they have to gain? The answer may lie in the companies’ efforts to score political goals ahead of the U.S. midterm elections and the money top artificial intelligence labs and their investors stand to make in much-anticipated listings on a jittery stock market. Experts, analysts and former government evaluators tell The Associated Press that Anthropic and OpenAI appear with their rhetoric to be seeking public favor and to set the terms for their own safety protocols in the unregulated market.

BOSTON (AP) — A powerful nor’easter is pummeling the shoreline in the eastern U.S. for a second day. The storm has caused another round of flooding in low-lying areas in New Jersey and New York City and knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes into New England. The slow-moving storm is expected to linger through Sunday with heavy rain, strong winds and dangerous surf. One death has been linked to the storm. A New York City Housing Authority worker was killed when a tree fell Saturday. The storm has disrupted travel up and down the coast, canceling and delaying flights again on Sunday in Boston and New York.

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — Hurricane Nolo is moving away from the Hawaiian Islands amid a lingering threat of heavy rain and flash flooding. A high-wind warning, wind advisory and high surf advisory remained in effect for parts of the island through Sunday evening as Nolo had top sustained winds near 105 mph. Far to the east, Mexico’s Baja California peninsula braced, meanwhile, for the expected arrival of major Hurricane Polo on Monday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Polo is a dangerous Category 3 storm with top sustained winds of 125 mph. It was expected to reach the Baja peninsula on Monday amid a threat of storm surge, high winds and heavy rains.

The Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war has surpassed 74,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The war began nearly three years ago. Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister says Tehran has not been formally notified of U.S. President Donald Trump’s rejection of its proposed deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Trump told Axios he expects U.S. negotiators to engage in more talks this week. And the World Health Organization says almost 700 people in Yemen have been killed since an escalation in fighting last month between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and government forces.