WJPA News

Winter Storm Fern has arrived and snow is blanketing the area, essentially halting most traffic and most flights out of Pittsburgh International Airport.  Snow will continue to fall through Monday and become heavy at times with snowfall rates as high as 1 to 2 inches per hour in some areas. Travel will be most dangerous during this time span and may even be impassable, with reduced visibility and snow-covered roads.  Some areas south and southeast of Pittsburgh will see some sleet mixed in with the snow by late morning and during much of the afternoon. That would keep totals down a bit closer to Latrobe, Uniontown, and Morgantown. For areas from the city and points north, this will be mainly snow and could easily reach over a foot under any heavier banding.  Most areas that see all snow will have 8-14 inches by late Sunday evening, with locally higher amounts possible. The areas that see some sleet will see slightly lesser amounts.  Snow will taper to light snow and snow showers Sunday night, but continue off and on into Monday morning. It will stay very cold even behind the system as temperatures plunge below zero in some spots Monday night. Authorities across the state are urging residents to stay inside and off the roads, unless it is an absolute emergency.  Restrictions are up on all interstates and the speed limit has been reduced to 45 mph on most highways.  Once the storm has moved through, a stretch of bitter cold weather lies ahead, and warming shelters will be open and available to those who may need them.  For a complete listing, Click Here.

Governor Josh Shapiro has declared a Disaster Emergency for Pennsylvania to make resources available to prepare for and support response efforts for Winter Storm Fern, which is impacting that state this weekend. “Our teams at the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP), and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) have been working to prepare to support Pennsylvanians as this winter storm impacts our Commonwealth,” said Governor Josh Shapiro.  The Governor’s disaster declaration will allow the Commonwealth to quickly draw down funding and provide state agencies with the resources needed to assist counties and municipalities with winter storm response efforts. The 2025-26 budget, signed into law by Governor Shapiro, doubled the amount of state funding available from $20 million to $40 million to enable state agencies to respond to disasters in the Commonwealth to keep visitors and residents safe.

Authorities say a local youth softball coach is facing child porn charges.  Police say they received a CyberTip about a person using the “Kik” messaging app who had uploaded multiple files of child sexual abuse material to their account, saying it showed children between the ages of 10 and 13 in a sexual manner.  After some investigation, they say they were able to determine that the IP address belonged to a Verizon customer and in tandem with the Attorney General’s Office, they were able to subpoena Verizon.  Police say that information led them to forty-one-year-old Michael A. Charlton of Charleroi.  Police say they served a search warrant at Charlton’s house on the 100 block of Park Street in September and he admitted to using the Kik accounts and said that he had been in group chats on the app that shared child sex abuse material, but added that he “was not in it for that.”  The criminal complaint notes that Charlton has a rose tattoo on his right forearm and investigators said they were able to identify him in videos where he talked about underage children in a sexual manner by matching the tattoo to the videos.  Charlton was a softball coach for Steel City Athletics.  Charlton is facing a total of nineteen charges, eighteen of which are felonies. He is currently being held at the Washington County Jail.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Thousands of flights across the U.S. set to take off over the weekend were canceled as a monster storm started to wreak havoc Saturday across much of the country, knocking out power and snarling major roadways with dangerous ice.  Widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain threatened nearly 180 million people — more than half the U.S. population — in a path stretching from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England, the National Weather Service said Saturday night. It warned people to brace for a string of frigid days.  “The snow and the ice will be very, very slow to melt and won’t be going away anytime soon, and that’s going to hinder any recovery efforts,” said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.  (Photo:  AP)

(AP) – A second fatal shooting in Minneapolis again led tensions to boil over as local, state and national leaders weighed in with conflicting accounts of how the situation unfolded. On the frigid Saturday morning, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti after a scuffle. The shooting occurred amid daily protests in the Twin Cities. Numerous videos posted online offered different perspectives, and political leaders reached different conclusions from the footage. Democratic leaders say it showed the deadly encounter was the result of untrained federal officers overreacting, and the Trump administration saying the man provoked the violence.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is threatening to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor goes ahead with its trade deal with China. Trump is intensifying a feud with Prime Minister Mark Carney, who’s become a rising voice in the West’s pushback to Trump’s new world order. Trump said in a social media post Saturday that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a “Drop Off Port” for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.” It’s unclear when Trump might impose the threatened tariff and the White House isn’t offering additional details.

NEW YORK (AP) — Toyota has announced that it would recall about 162,000 pickup trucks in the United States after it was discovered that the vehicles’ multimedia displays could compromise driver safety. The recall affects the company’s model year 2024-2025 Tundra and Tundra Hybrid line of trucks. Affected customers are currently being notified, according to a statement from Toyota.