WJPA News

A statewide 911 outage is affecting services in the area.  The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency sent  out an emergency phone alert shortly after three-thirty, reporting a 911 outage that disrupting systems across the state, including here in Washington County.  Because of the outage, normal 911 calls may not go through and our local 911 officials say that if you have an emergency, until further notice, call their non-emergency landline at 724-229-4600.  They also encourage you to visit their Facebook page at:  washington county public safety for further updates. The public is told to follow instructions from their local 911 centers or public safety agencies. The City of Washington’s Police Department is asking that citizens do not call 911 to test their phones, as it is being overwhelmed currently. Only contact 911 if there is an emergency, and no one should call 911 and then hang up to test if it is working. Officials say this would be considered a “hang-up call” and would lead to an investigation. CBS News Philadelphia reports that the problem lies with an IT issue with a third party company.

City Council unanimously approved the installation of “No Parking” signs along Locust Avenue from Murtland Avenue to Wilson Avenue, a stretch Mayor JoJo Burgess described as a high-accident area. “This area has seen far too many accidents,” Burgess said. In related parking matters, council authorized the addition of one new handicap parking space on North Franklin Street and one on Broad Street. However, one existing handicap space on Broad Street will be removed as part of the adjustment. The city also announced several new personnel decisions. Two new firefighters, Ryan Hess and Ryan Kmetz, were officially hired to join the Washington Fire Department. The city also conditionally hired Jennifer Winters as the Police Department’s new Data Entry/Clerk, pending the completion of a pre-employment screening process. Additionally, City Administrator Rich Cleveland was appointed as the city’s liaison to the Pennsylvania Legislative League.

Officials have announced that the beach at Raccoon Creek State Park has been closed for swimming after an elevated level of E. coli was detected in the water. It is closed until further notice. The park uses Department of Health standards and they monitor sample results and notify the park when a closure is required. The swimming area will remain closed until levels drop, but the beach will remain open.

State police said they’ve arrested two men, including the victim’s ex-boyfriend, in the deadly shooting of a mother during a home invasion in Washington County last month. Police said Renee Gill, 37, was shot and killed in June after confronting two masked men who broke into her home overnight. According to investigators, the suspects, identified as Michael “Coury” Pyles and Walter Winland, planned to burglarize her home but ended up shooting Gill and her son, who tried to intervene. Gill died at the scene. Her son was shot in the hand and survived. Detectives say Walter Winland had recently moved out of Gill’s home, and they’d been in a relationship. According to police, the situation escalated quickly once Gill confronted the intruders, who were reportedly there to steal drugs. Both Pyles and Winland remain in custody, facing charges including homicide, attempted homicide, burglary, conspiracy and more.  (Photo:  WPXI)

(WPXI) PITTSBURGH — Multiple traffic changes and ramp closures will begin soon for long-term bridge repair work on Interstate 579. PennDOT officials say a new traffic configuration from southbound I-279 (Parkway North) to southbound I-579 will begin in Pittsburgh Sunday at 10 a.m., weather permitting. The changes are being made so crews from Swank Construction can repair bridges on I-579, after inspectors found several deteriorated piers on I-579 and its HOV lanes. Here’s what the new configuration will look like: southbound I-279 traffic to southbound I-579 will be crossed over into the I-279 HOV lanes approximately 500 feet south of the Swindell Bridge. The crossover into the I-279 HOV lanes will be made from the left-hand lanes of southbound I-279. Crossed over traffic will continue from the I-279 HOV lanes into the I-579 HOV lanes. Once on the Veterans Bridge, traffic from the southbound I-579 HOV lanes will be crossed back over into the southbound I-579 lanes. Two 11-foot lanes will be maintained in this new configuration.

PITTSBURGH — The Pirates have announced plans to install permanent bronze plaques at PNC Park, showcasing fan messages from the Bucco Bricks program. Final plans were submitted to the Pittsburgh Sports Exhibition Authority, which approved the installation of 60 bronze plaques on the ballpark’s facade. These plaques will display over 10,000 messages originally engraved on bricks around PNC Park. “We know how important these messages and memories are to our fans,” said Pirates President Travis Williams. “This plan accomplishes our stated goal of improving upon the permanence of the display while maintaining the essence of the original program.” The bronze plaques, designed by architect Janet Marie-Smith and The Canopy Team, will be placed along West General Robinson Street and Mazeroski Way. Each plaque will be approximately 5 feet tall and 6 feet in length, holding nearly 170 messages. The park said the updated vertical design will allow fans to locate their messages more easily. The installation is scheduled to be completed by Opening Day 2026. (Photo:  Pittsburgh Pirates)

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — President Donald Trump is visiting Texas to assess catastrophic flooding that has killed at least 120 people. Despite his past calls to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Republican president has praised the federal response to the disaster. Trump plans to tour affected areas by air, meet first responders and speak with victims’ families. Top members of Trump’s administration have also shifted focus from reducing federal disaster management efforts to addressing the tragedy’s human impact. Before Trump left on Friday, his director of the Office of Management and Budget suggested FEMA needs reform but didn’t answer questions about whether the agency should be shuttered.  (Photo:  AP)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The State Department is firing over 1,300 employees in line with a dramatic reorganization plan initiated by the Trump administration earlier this year. A senior State Department official said Friday the department is sending layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the United States. While lauded by President Donald Trump’s administration as overdue and necessary to make the department leaner and more efficient, the cuts have been roundly criticized by current and former diplomats who say they will weaken U.S. influence and its ability to counter existing and emerging threats abroad.

President Donald Trump has announced in a letter on social media that Canadian goods will be subject to a 35% tariff rate starting Aug. 1. It marks an aggressive increase to the 25% tariff first announced by Trump in February. Trump justified the tariffs as necessary to manage America’s opioid crisis, which he said was partially due to fentanyl being smuggled into the U.S. via Canada. Trump closed the letter by suggesting if Canada assists the U.S. in preventing fentanyl from entering the country, then he would “perhaps” consider adjusting the tariff rates.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says he will impose retaliatory tariffs on the United States if President Donald Trump follows through on a pledge to boost import taxes by 50%. Lula’s comments raise the risk of a tariffs war erupting between the two countries, similar to what has happened between the U.S. and China. Trump has vowed to respond forcefully if countries seek to punish the U.S. The letter that Trump sent to Brazil on Wednesday railing against the “witch hunt” trial against former President Jair Bolsonaro opened up a new front in his trade wars.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein files flap is cascading, further roiling a Justice Department and FBI that have struggled for months to appease the demands of far-right conservative personalities and influential members of President Donald Trump’s base. In a sign of continued tumult, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino were revealed to have had a contentious conversation at the White House earlier in the week over the Epstein documents and a recent story that described divisions between the FBI and Justice Department. The turmoil arising from the Epstein investigation lays bare the struggles of FBI and Justice Department leaders to resolve the conspiracy theories and amped-up expectations that they had stoked.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — South Sudan has accepted eight third-country deportees from the U.S. and Rwanda says it’s in talk with the administration of President Donald Trump on a similar deal. Nigeria meanwhile says it’s rejecting pressure to do the same. These initiatives in Africa mark an expansion in U.S. efforts to deport people to countries other than their own. It has sent hundreds of Venezuelans and others to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama but has yet to announce any major deals in Africa, Asia or Europe. While proponents see such programs as a way of deterring what they describe as unmanageable levels of migration, human rights advocates have raised concerns over sending migrants to countries where they have no ties.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says the United States is selling weapons to its NATO allies in Europe so they can provide them to Ukraine as it struggles to fend off a recent escalation in Russia’s drone and missile attacks. Trump said in an NBC interview, “NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday some of the U.S.-made weapons Ukraine is seeking are deployed with NATO allies in Europe. Rubio says those weapons could be transferred to Ukraine, with European countries buying replacements from the U.S. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says talks with the U.S. president have been “very constructive.”

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Fighters with a Kurdish separatist militant group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey have begun laying down their weapons. About 30 fighters took part in a symbolic ceremony Friday in northern Iraq. The move was the first concrete step toward a promised disarmament as part of a peace process. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, announced in May it would disband and renounce armed conflict to end four decades of hostilities. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm. Öcalan has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999.