May 7, 2024 5:27 pm
(WPXI) – The man accused of trying to shoot a local pastor during a sermon is now charged in the homicide of a family member. Twentyh-six-year-od Bernard Polite was charged with criminal homicide Tuesday afternoon. The Allegheny County Police Department in a press release said Bernard is charged in the death of 56-YEAR-OLD Derek Polite, his cousin. This new charge comes two days after he was arrested for allegedly trying to shoot a pastor who was giving a sermon at a church in North Braddock. The disturbing moment was captured on the church’s live stream of the service. Hours after Bernard was taken into custody, Derek Polite was found dead around 8:15 p.m. Sunday at a home on the 500 block of Stokes Avenue in North Braddock. Police say Derek was found dead when his family went to check on him after learning of the attempted shooting at the church. In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, police said there was no evidence of any kind of altercation between the two men and it appears Derek was shot once as he was walking upstairs.
May 7, 2024 12:50 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The go-broke dates for Medicare and Social Security have been pushed back as an improving economy has contributed to changed projected depletion dates. That’s according to Monday’s annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report. Still, officials warn that policy changes are needed lest the programs become unable to pay full benefits to retiring Americans. Medicare’s go-broke date for its hospital insurance trust fund was pushed back five years to 2036. Meanwhile, Social Security’s trust funds — which cover old age and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035, instead of last year’s estimate of 2034.
May 7, 2024 5:11 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Porn actor Stormy Daniels has testified at Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial about a sexual encounter she says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid off to keep silent during the presidential election a decade later. Daniels’ testimony Tuesday included a detailed and at times graphic accounting of an encounter Trump has denied. Daniels’ testimony is central to the case because in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign, his lawyer Michael Cohen paid her $130,000 to keep quiet. Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the hush money payments. The former president has pleaded not guilty. (Photo: AP)
May 7, 2024 1:24 pm
IRVING, Texas (AP) — The Boy Scouts of America is changing its name for the first time in its 114-year history. The Texas-based organization is announcing at its annual meeting in Florida on Tuesday that it will become Scouting America. It’s a significant shift for the organization as it emerges from bankruptcy after a flood of sexual abuse claims, and focuses on including everyone after decades of turmoil. The organization steeped in tradition has made seismic changes, from finally allowing gay youth to welcoming girls throughout its ranks. CEO Roger Krone says the organization wants any youth in America to feel very, very welcome. (Photo: AP)
May 7, 2024 4:51 am
Cecil Township Supervisors worked quickly through an agenda filled with contract payments and land subdivisions on Monday night. Supervisor Chairman Tom Casciola indicated that the public hearing for updates to the township’s oil and gas ordinance will reconvene on Wednesday. The hearing will be held at the municipal building and begin at 6:00 PM. According to Casciola, supervisors will present proposed changes based on the previous public hearing. They will also take further testimony for possible additional changes. Casciola said that an additional meeting will be scheduled to present the ordinance in its final draft.
May 7, 2024 4:56 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – TSA stopped a loaded gun from getting on a plane at Pittsburgh International Airport on Friday. Officials say a Greensburg woman was stopped at a TSA checkpoint when officers caught her with gun that was loaded with six bullets, plus one in the chamber. This is the 12th gun stopped at the airport so far in 2024. “I would like to acknowledge my appreciation to the TSA officers who acted to ensure that the woman did not maintain control of her loaded weapon inside the terminal,” said Karen Keys-Turner, TSA’s federal security director for the airport. “The fact that there was a bullet in the chamber is an accident waiting to happen. Responsible gun owners know where their firearms are at all times and they know not to bring one in their carry-on bags.” Civil penalties for bringing a weapon into a checkpoint can reach up to $15,000, depending on the specific weapon and the circumstances. TSA prevented 44 guns from getting on planes at Pittsburgh International Airport in 2023, which is the most ever recorded for the airport.
May 6, 2024 4:59 am
NORTH BRADDOCK, Pa. — A man is dead after a shooting in North Braddock. Allegheny County dispatchers say police were called to the 500 block of Stokes Avenue at 8:15 p.m. on Sunday. When police arrived they found a man who had been shot dead inside a house. He was later identified as Derek Polite, 56, by the medical examiner’s office. Police say witnesses told them that Bernard Junior Polite lives in the house with a family member. Polite was taken into custody Sunday afternoon after state police say he tried to shoot a pastor during a sermon in North Braddock. Anyone with information is asked to call the Allegheny County Tip Line at 1-833-ALL-TIPS.
May 7, 2024 5:06 am
CAIRO (AP) — An Israeli tank brigade has seized control of the Gaza Strip side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, moving ahead with an offensive in the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remain on a knife’s edge. The development on Tuesday comes after hours of whiplash in the Israel-Hamas war. The militant group on Monday said it accepted an Egyptian-Qatari mediated cease-fire proposal. Israel, meanwhile, insisted the deal did not meet its core demands. The high-stakes diplomatic moves and military brinkmanship left a glimmer of hope alive — but only barely — for an accord that could bring at least a pause in the 7-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
May 7, 2024 5:08 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology retook a barricaded encampment, those at the Rhode Island School of Design occupied a building, and Columbia University said its university-wide commencement ceremony will not happen following weeks of protests. At MIT, protesters were given an afternoon deadline in which to voluntarily leave the protest site or face suspension. An MIT spokesperson said many left but protesters breached fencing after the arrival of demonstrators from outside the university. Officials at Columbia said it will focus on smaller school-level graduation ceremonies. Campus protests have sprung up across the U.S. in recent weeks stemming from the conflict that started when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel in October.
May 7, 2024 1:15 pm
(AP) – TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are suing the U.S. federal government over a law that would ban the popular video-sharing app unless it’s sold to another company. The lawsuit filed on Tuesday may be setting up what could be a protracted legal fight over its future in the United States. The popular social video company alleged the law, which President Joe Biden signed as part of a larger $95 billion foreign aid package, is so “obviously unconstitutional” that the sponsors of The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act are trying to portray the law not as a ban, but as a regulation of TikTok’s ownership. (Photo: AP)
