WJPA News

The former Washington Crown Center Mall is being redeveloped into Franklin Crossroads Park, a mixed-use business and commercial campus. PREP Funds and IRG are behind the transformation of the property. There will be 100,000 square feet of retail space and 350,000 square feet of business park space. Chris Salata, a partner with PREP Funds, says that the location and structure of the former mall made it a great spot for this development. Salata expects that once the project is fully stabilized, total tax revenues to the state, county, township, and school district will be north of $190 million. The project will also create over 400 new jobs. Keith Brandt, a partner with PREP Funds, explains that the goal is to have a well-balanced retail mix that services the demographics of the area and corporate users that will bring jobs and stability to the county.

A Fayette County man is now behind bars charged with hitting and killing a volunteer firefighter with a truck and then taking off.  It’s just still sinking in for us because we can’t imagine life without him right now,” Hostetler’s niece, Hope Moreau, said.  Hostetler was a volunteer firefighter and EMT in Confluence, Pa.  Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele said Mark DiMatteo was drunk and, without a license, behind the wheel of a maroon pickup truck that hit and killed Hostetler on Stone Church Road.  He says DiMatteo stopped his truck and looked back at Hostetler before taking off.  Police arrested him six hours later.  “There was no line-of-sight issue. There was no weather issue. It was daylight. It was clear. There was at least several hundred feet to a quarter mile where you could see the trailer on that road. It’s something that did not have to happen,” Aubele said.

An investigation is underway after police shot and killed a 22-year-old college student in Pennsylvania. Police in Upper Pottsgrove Township responded to a 911 call about a possible home break-in early Sunday. A local district attorney’s office said police found Glenwood Pysher IV at the rear of the home and ultimately shot him. Pysher’s father, Glen, says his son took a wrong turn after a night out celebrating a friend’s birthday and thought he was at a friend’s house when he tried to enter the home. He says his son was unarmed and had been sitting on the porch waiting for his friends to come get him.

A federal judge is once again blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to limit mail voting in the midterm elections. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani put a new 14-day hold on the plan following a fresh round of lawsuits just days before mail ballots begin to go out. The case could be headed back to the Supreme Court, which sided with Trump earlier this week. The justices on Monday found Talwani had acted prematurely, but they pointedly did not rule on the legality of Trump’s order. The whipsawing legal battle has major ramifications for the midterms.

A federal judge has ruled in favor of artificial intelligence company Anthropic in its legal battle against the Pentagon. The government labeled the company a supply chain risk earlier this year. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin issued a written order Thursday night stating the Pentagon acted illegally by punishing Anthropic for criticizing the Department of Defense’s views on AI use. The dispute began in February when President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Anthropic of endangering national security. The government is expected to fight the ruling. Anthropic says it welcomes the decision and remains focused on working with the government.

PHOENIX (AP) — The Tohono O’odham Nation says armed federal agents accompanied contractors who trespassed on tribal land this week as they began construction of an Arizona section of a border wall. The nation says the contractors violated tribal law despite a federal judge’s order from June clearing the way for work to begin at the border with Mexico. Tribal officials reported that the masked agents of Customs and Border Protection blocked tribal police from removing the contractors Tuesday. The tribe had posted “No Trespassing” signs and the contractors entered tribal land without permission. Federal officials say the wall is direly needed, citing the area’s history as a drug and immigrant smuggling corridor.

McMINNVILLE, Tenn (AP) — U.S. officials report about 90 U.S. citizens remain unaccounted for after catastrophic flash floods hit a border area of China and Nepal. Wednesday’s flooding killed hundreds of people. The U.S. State Department says it is not aware of any U.S. deaths, but three Americans have been rescued. Many of the missing were on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus and Buddhists. Indian spiritual guru Jaggi Vasudev, also known as Sadhguru, says 77 people from his Isha Foundation were at an immigration center in Tibet when the floods struck. The foundation said that 22 were Americans.