WJPA News

The National Weather Service has now confirmed a total of six tornadoes in Western Pennsylvania during storms over the weekend.  Three of them were in Washington County.  A tornado was confirmed southeast of Ellsworth. On Monday, investigators determined that two other tornadoes touched down. One was in Centerville and the other was in Beallsville. West Penn Power is still reporting widespread power outages, but they are making headway on repairs.  The weather service also confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down briefly near Brownsville in Fayette County.  An EF-1 Tornado with winds of some 90 mph was also reportedly in Star Junction in Westmoreland County.  The weather service also reported that straight-line winds near 100 mph did considerable damage near Scottdale.

U.S. Steel plans to invest up to $2.5 billion into upgrades to its Mon Valley Works, which it forecasts will generate $1.7 billion for the state, according to a Monday report from the steelmaking giant. The economic impact is expected to include the combined dollars spent on things such as wages and construction costs associated with the upgrades. The investment will preserve the roughly 3,000 jobs at Mon Valley Works and create nearly 3,200 indirect and induced jobs over a three-year period, according to the report. It comes as a part of the company’s larger commitment to invest $11 billion into its domestic footprint by 2028, on the heels of a $15 billion acquisition by Japan-based Nippon Steel last year.

Chatbots on five different websites claimed to be licensed to practice medicine in the commonwealth when prompted by Spotlight PA — the same kind of output that led the Shapiro administration to file a lawsuit last month. A task force under Pennsylvania’s Department of State has been working since February to identify AI chatbots posing as licensed professionals and misleading users. Based on that work, the administration filed suit against the role-playing site Character.AI. Mirroring the investigation detailed in the lawsuit, Spotlight PA had conversations with AI characters on websites Talkie, Janitor, Kindroid, Replika, and Nomi.AI. All provided a false Pennsylvania medical license number when prompted, a key part of the state’s argument in its lawsuit against Character.AI.

PennDOT is alerting Washington County motorists of nightly single lane restrictions that will occur on Interstate 70 between exit 25 (519/Eighty Four/Glyde) and Exit 32B (917/Bentleyville). The restrictions began Tuesday evening at 6:00 and will be in place nightly, Sundays through Thursdays from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM. Lane restrictions will be active in both directions. The restrictions will last until early November. Drivers are asked to exercise caution driving through the work zone.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military announced that it has begun strikes against Iran following the crash of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter off the coast of Oman. In a statement posted to social media, U.S. Central Command said the strikes would be “a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.” It comes after President Donald Trump blamed Iran for downing the helicopter and vowed that the U.S. would respond

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump was booed loudly by fans inside Madison Square Garden when he was shown on video screens during the national anthem prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Trump was shown for about 10 seconds giving a military salute. The boos ended when the U.S. flag followed him on the screens, and fans cheered when New York Knicks players were shown. Trump is watching from Knicks owner James Dolan’s suite. His presence Monday led to enhanced security measures, the cancelation of a watch party outside the arena and a no-bag policy for ticket-holders. The president told reporters later that he heard “mostly cheers.”

Three more cases of the New World screwworm have been confirmed, including one outside Texas, demonstrating the difficulty of stopping a pest that could potentially devastate the nation’s cattle industry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday the new cases were found in a dog from New Mexico and hundreds of miles away in a goat and calf in Texas. The screwworm is actually a fly, which produces a larva that eats live flesh instead of dead material. Females lay their eggs in open wounds any any warm-blooded animal such as cattle, but wildlife, pets and occasionally even humans can be infested. Before it was irradicated in the 1960s, the fly was an annual warm-weather scourge of cattle ranchers.

GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines (AP) — Rescuers are searching ruined buildings in the southern Philippines to ensure no one was still trapped a day after the strongest earthquake to hit the country in a half-century killed at least 37 people and displaced more than 20,000. Only four people were considered missing on official records in the southern provinces near where the 7.8 magnitude quake struck Monday morning. However, the Office of Civil Defense acknowledged several collapsed and heavily damaged buildings must be thoroughly inspected for possible survivors or casualties. The earthquake was centered off Mindanao and displaced more than 20,000, most of whom fled to emergency shelters.