July 19, 2022 4:13 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washington and Fayette counties have now been elevated to medium-risk level for COVID-19. State health officials say if you’re at high risk for severe illness, this is when you should talk to your doctor about possibly taking precautions like wearing a mask or getting tested if you have symptoms. Allegheny County is still considered low risk. Dr. Donald Yealy is the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s chief medical officer and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine. He told us across the health system’s 40 hospitals, the number of admissions has been steady, admitting somewhere between 130 and 180 people over the past several weeks. “What we really focus on is how many people come to the hospitals and have positive tests and how many need more extensive care,” Yealy said. Meanwhile, the White House is urging caution this summer, as new COVID-19 subvariants are becoming more common. BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of omicron are currently spiking across Europe. Washington Health System’s chief medical officer says they don’t track variants in-house, but he expects they are seeing it.
July 19, 2022 4:07 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – While gas prices are steadily declining across the state, Pennsylvanians are still paying more on-average than drivers who are filling up their tanks in several other parts of the nation. On Monday, Pennsylvania’s average for a regular gallon of gas was $4.67. That cost is about a dime below last week’s average, of $4.78, but still higher than the current national average of $4.52. According to Jim Garrity, Director of Public Affairs for AAA East Central, that disparity is “something that we consistently see happening,” as the result of Pennsylvania’s gas tax. “The gas tax in Pennsylvania is consistently one of the highest,” Garrity said. “At some points, it is the highest in the entire country.” And yet, gas prices tend to also range region to region. According to AAA data, counties within Southwest PA are tending to pay closer to $4.72, while counties in Southeast PA are paying closer to $4.63. Here in Washington, AAA put the average price at $4.78 a gallon.
July 18, 2022 5:20 pm
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia police are looking for a man they say raped a woman on a subway platform while holding her boyfriend at gunpoint early Monday. This is the third reported sexual assault since October on a Philadelphia-area commuter train or train platform. The rape happened at around 4:30 a.m. on the Snyder Avenue station platform on the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s Broad Street Line, said Philadelphia Police Capt. James Kearney, the head of the special victims unit, at a news conference Monday afternoon. The 40-year-old woman was in the station with her boyfriend, trying on clothes he had bought her, police said. The suspect entered the station with his bicycle, and the three acknowledged each other. A few minutes later the suspect came back to where the victim was, and demanded sex while pointing a handgun with an extended magazine at the victim and her boyfriend, Kearney said. In surveillance video from the station, Kearney said the boyfriend can be seen holding his hands up while the suspect points the gun at him. After the assault, the man exited the station on his bicycle and the victim and her boyfriend left the station through a different exit to call police. Authorities said it was unclear if the station was open to the public when the three entered. The first SEPTA train arrives at the station around 4:45 a.m. The assault Monday comes just a few months after police charged a man in an April sexual assault aboard a SEPTA train, also on the Broad Street Line.
July 18, 2022 4:19 pm
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – A prosecutor says the gunman who attacked the high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 should be executed because he killed his victims in a cold and calculated manner. Prosecutor Mike Satz told the 12 jurors who will decide whether Nikolas Cruz is sentenced to death or life in prison without parole how he killed each victim. Cruz pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The 23-year-old is contesting only his sentence. The case is expected to last for four months. It is the nation’s deadliest mass shooting to go before a jury. (Photo: AP)
July 18, 2022 12:16 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – After a two-decade, on-again, off-again romance, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez finally “have papers” on each other. The celebrity pair got married over the weekend in Las Vegas. Lopez announced the news in an online newsletter for her fans yesterday. Lopez, who will now use the name Jennifer Lynn Affleck, says they flew to Vegas on Saturday and waited in line with four other couples to say their “I do’s” just after midnight at a wedding chapel featuring a drive-thru tunnel-of-love. Affleck and Lopez began dating in the early 2000s and even got engaged before breaking up. They rekindled their romance last year – and Lopez announced they were engaged in April. (Photo: Facebook)
July 18, 2022 9:51 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — Pennsylvania’s Move Over Law is over a year old and Pennsylvania State Police said they are stepping up their efforts to make sure it is enforced. The law requires drivers to move over or slow down when they see an emergency vehicle or a disabled one. This includes moving over to a lane farther away when an emergency response driver is approaching. If this is not possible, the law states that drivers should slow to no more than 20 mph below the posted speed limit. Officers said that many drivers are ignoring this rule. First responders said the law is designed to help keep people safe in emergency situations. Troopers will be adopting a “zero tolerance” enforcement approach during a six-state trooper project. Drivers who violate the law could face a fine of $500 on their first offense and up to $2,000 on their third. Drivers who violate the law three times could also face a license suspension.
July 18, 2022 3:34 am
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – The white gunman charged with killing 10 Black people in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges punishable by the death penalty. Along with hate crimes and weapons counts, the 27-count indictment returned last week accuses nineteen-year-old Payton Gendron of engaging in substantial planning to commit an act of terrorism. It also alleges he took aim at vulnerable older people at the Tops Friendly Market on May 14. Gendron pleaded not guilty to federal charges at an arraignment Monday. The store reopened to shoppers last week. (Photo: ABC News)
July 18, 2022 3:33 am
GREENWOOD, Ind. (AP) – Authorities say a gunman who shot five people at a suburban Indianapolis shopping mall, killing three of them before a shopper shot and killed him, was a 20-year-old local man who was apparently facing eviction. Greenwood Police Chief James Ison said at a news conference Monday that Jonathan Sapirman, of Greenwood, began firing after leaving a bathroom at the Greenwood Park Mall shortly before it closed Sunday evening. He says Sapirman continued shooting people until 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, of Seymour, shot and killed him. Authorities say Dicken was shopping at the mall with his girlfriend and that he acted heroically. Ison says investigators are still trying to determine a motive, but that Sapirman’s relatives say he was facing eviction.
July 18, 2022 3:32 am
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — A report says nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to a mass shooting that left 21 people dead at a Uvalde elementary school. But “egregiously poor decision-making” resulted in a chaotic scene that lasted more than an hour before the gunman was finally confronted and killed. The report is the first to criticize both state and federal law enforcement, and not just local authorities in Uvalde, Texas, for the bewildering inaction at Robb Elementary School. The Texas House of Representatives report released Sunday says the gunman fired approximately 142 rounds inside the building and it is “almost certain” that 100 shots came before any officer entered. A hallway surveillance video also was released Sunday showing a hesitant and haphazard tactical response.
July 18, 2022 3:31 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the trial of former presidential adviser Steve Bannon. He faces criminal contempt of Congress charges after refusing for months to cooperate with the House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection. Bannon is charged in Washington’s federal court with defying a subpoena that sought his records and testimony. Bannon is one of the most prominent of former President Donald Trump’s allies to refuse to testify before the committee. A conviction on each count carries a minimum of 30 days of jail and as long as a year behind bars.
