September 26, 2024 4:51 am
A federal judge has approved a $600 million class-action settlement involving last year’s disastrous derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Attorneys for the residents and a railroad spokesperson says the judge approved it Wednesday despite the objections of a few residents who questioned the deal. Most residents supported it although a vocal group of objectors questioned whether the deal will provide enough and whether it was rushed through too quickly. The approval clears the way for payments to start going out quickly. The lawyers previously said they hoped to get the first checks in the mail before the end of the year.
September 25, 2024 5:29 pm
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is pledging to build an economy that is both pro-business and helps the middle class as she pushes back against Republican nominee Donald Trump’s claims that she’s advancing “communist” ideas. The Democratic nominee stressed in remarks at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh that she “would take good ideas from wherever they come” as she works to double the number of people being trained in registered apprenticeships and outlined her support for more home ownership. Trump offered his own competing vision of the economy during a visit to a furniture-maker in Mint Hill, North Carolina. He pledged tariffs high enough that there would be an “exodus” of auto factory jobs from Japan, Germany and South Korea. (Photo: AP)
September 25, 2024 5:00 am
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Forecasters are warning that huge Hurricane Helene will intensify as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico on a path to Florida. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Wednesday that the hurricane is about 500 miles southwest of Tampa, Florida, with sustained winds of 80 mph. Helene became a tropical storm Tuesday in the western Caribbean Sea and strengthened into a hurricane Wednesday. Forecasters say it is expected to become at least a Category 3 hurricane with its center making landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida’s northwestern coast as soon as late Thursday. In the Pacific, former Hurricane John re-formed as a tropical storm and again threatened parts of Mexico’s western coast.
September 25, 2024 3:29 pm
(WPXI) – An arrest warrant has been issued for the man accused of stealing a local veteran’s car with his dog inside. According to the criminal complaint, the car was stolen from the Tractor Supply in East Huntingdon Township at around 9 a.m. on September 23rd. The victim, Willard Martz, told police he parked his car and went into the store, leaving his dog Lucky inside the vehicle. Before he got into the store, a man forcibly removed his keys from his front pocket, the complaint said. The suspect then ran toward the car, got in and fled with Lucky still inside. The suspect was identified as Kenneth Wilson Crider through video surveillance from the Connellsville Walmart. Crider is seen arriving at the store in Martz’s car, letting Lucky out to pee, then going inside.
September 25, 2024 1:29 pm
(WPXI) – Former President Donald Trump will return to the Butler Farm Show grounds for an October 5th rally, marking the first time he’s visited the site since he was shot in an assassination attempt.Trump first announced in late July that he planned to return to Butler, after a gunman opened fire at his rally on July 13th. Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief, was killed at the rally and Trump says he plans to honor him and the two men who were injured in the assassination attempt when he returns. “I will be going back to Butler, Pennsylvania for a big and beautiful rally, honoring the soul of our beloved firefighting hero Corey and those brave patriots injured two weeks ago. What a day it will be – fight, fight, fight!” the former president said on Truth Social over the summer.
September 25, 2024 4:51 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Washington County violated state law when election workers refused to tell voters whether their mail-in ballot would be counted in April’s primary election, an appeals court ruled Tuesday. The case is one of several election-related lawsuits being fought in courts in Pennsylvania, a presidential battleground state where November’s contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris could be close. Through a 2-1 decision, the statewide Commonwealth Court panel upheld Judge Brandon Neuman’s month-old order. The order requires county employees to notify any voter whose mail-in ballot is rejected because of an error — such as a missing signature or missing handwritten date — so that the voter has an opportunity to challenge the decision. It also requires Washington County to allow those voters to vote by provisional ballot. In the 19-page majority opinion, Judge Michael Wojcik wrote that the county’s past policy “emasculates” the law’s guarantees that voters can protest the rejection of their ballot and take advantage of the “statutory failsafe” of casting a provisional ballot. The local NAACP branch, the Center for Coalfield Justice and seven voters whose ballots had been rejected in the April 23 primary sued the county earlier this summer, accusing Washington County of violating the constitutional due process rights of voters by deliberately concealing whether their ballot had been counted.
September 25, 2024 10:51 am
Emergency responders were called to a pair of accidents Wednesday morning. The first occurred along Clare Drive in South Strabane Township just before 7 a.m. Washington County 9-1-1 says it was a one-vehicle crash. The driver was transported by ambulance from the scene. The second happened about an hour later along Interstate 70 westbound near the Eighty Four exit. Dispatchers say two vehicles were involved including a tractor trailer. One person was transported from the scene by ambulance. No other details were available. There is no word on the identity or condition of those injured.
September 25, 2024 5:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Multiple Secret Service failures ahead of the July rally for former President Donald Trump where a gunman opened fire were “foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day.” That’s according to a bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday. Similar to the agency’s own internal investigation and an ongoing bipartisan House probe, the interim report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found multiple failures on almost every level ahead of the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting, including in planning, communications, security and allocation of resources. Each probe has found new details that show a massive breakdown in the former president’s security.
September 24, 2024 2:51 am
(AP) – Counties in Pennsylvania have started testing their voting equipment to ensure that it’s working properly ahead of the November election. All election equipment used to count votes is tested during the process. This includes everything from machines that tabulate mail ballots to devices used by voters who cast ballots in person. The procedure, known as a logic and accuracy test, involves running a predetermined collection of sample ballots through the machines to confirm that they’re tabulating and processing ballots correctly. The testing helps officials ensure not only that the equipment is functioning properly but that ballots don’t have any proofing errors, such as missing candidates. (Photo: AP)
September 25, 2024 4:45 am
North Strabane Township Supervisors took steps to advance a project that appeared before them earlier this spring. Supervisors voted to schedule a public hearing on the definition of a “personal warehouse.” The hearing will take place on October 15 at 6:00 PM. CC Realty Advisors is looking to develop the personal warehouse. They want to build it at the corner of Morganza and Curry Roads. Supervisors voted to not change the zoning on that parcel to industrial. It will remain under a highway commercial zoning use. Supervisors also voted to change the weight restriction on Demar Blvd. It will now have a 10 ton weight limit. According to Township Manager Andrew Walz, residents have been complaining about excessive traffic from large trucks using the road as a shortcut from Interstate 79 to Route 19. Finally, Supervisors approved a development package of $1,632,890 to remodel their new municipal building at 1957 Route 519. The Waller Corporation will be the general contractor on the project.
