January 8, 2023 8:06 am
PENN HILLS, Pa. (WPXI) — Penn Hills police are looking for a missing woman they consider to be endangered. Authorities say Nia Rash was last seen on Dec. 28. She was seen at a bus stop on Frankstown Road and Duff Road in Penn Hills at around 4:15 p.m. and later seen getting off of a bus at Penn Avenue and South Graham Street in Pittsburgh. Rash was wearing a black coat with a hood with fur, gray sweatpants and light brown Ugg boots when she went missing. Family members say Rash requires medication but it was left at her house when she left. Anyone with information on Rash’s location is asked to call 911 or to contact Penn Hills Police at 412-342-1167.
January 8, 2023 4:21 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican Kevin McCarthy has been elected House speaker on a historic post-midnight 15th ballot, overcoming holdouts from his own ranks. Floor tensions boiled over into shouting after a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern. But McCarthy prevailed in the end as he had said he would. “Now the hard work begins,” he declared as supporters cheered. During four days of grueling ballots, McCarthy flipped more than a dozen conservative holdouts to supporters. Then a few of the remaining holdouts switched to merely vote “present,” dropping the tally McCarthy needed to win. Members were finally sworn into office.
January 8, 2023 4:17 am
State Senator Camera Bartolotta (R-46) announced that she has been assigned to serve on five standing Senate committees during the 2023-2024 legislative session. Bartolotta will serve as vice chairperson on the Labor and Industry committee and will also serve on the Judiciary, Rules and Executive Nominations, Transportation and Veterans Affairs and Emergency Services. The purpose of each of the committees is to provide legislative oversight and help shape the language of bills that fall under their areas of responsibility.
January 8, 2023 2:14 am
Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh announced Thursday that he intends to seek the Republican nomination for District Attorney in the upcoming May Primary. Walsh assumed the role of district attorney in August of 2021 after the untimely death of Gene Vittone, following his battle with lung cancer. Walsh has been with the office since 2016 as a Deputy District Attorney, where he was responsible for prosecuting homicides and other violent crimes. He was then promoted to First Assistant District Attorney where he assumed managerial duties but also continued to prosecute homicides. Walsh is a lifelong Washington County resident and Donora native. He is a graduate of St. Francis University and the Ohio Northern University School of Law. Prior to joining the district attorney’s office, Walsh had a private law practice. In 2022, Walsh received the Robert Faulkner Memorial Award for Outstanding Prosecution for his role in the prosecution of the Pagan Motorcycle Gang. Walsh lives in Carroll Township with his wife Rebecca and their four children.
January 8, 2023 1:41 am
Joe Hardy, the legendary businessman who grew 84 Lumber into a billion-dollar home improvement empire, passed away Saturday at the age of 100. Hardy’s family said he died on his birthday. “It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Joseph A. Hardy, III. The Hardy family lost their patriarch and all-around great man,” his family said in a statement Saturday. “Joe proved that nothing is impossible by willing himself to his 100th birthday. His family is beyond proud of him for making this final accomplishment.” He began construction on the first 84 Lumber facility in North Strabane in 1957. Hardy also developed Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa in 1987.
January 7, 2023 4:28 am
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) – Police in the Virginia city of Newport News say a 6-year-old student shot and wounded a teacher at his school during an altercation inside a first-grade classroom. No students were injured during Friday’s shooting at Richneck Elementary School. Steve Drew, the city’s police chief, said this was not “a situation where someone was going around the school shooting.” One frightened parent said her “heart stopped” when she got a text message from the school saying one person was shot and another was in custody. Newport News is a city of about 185,000 people in southeastern Virginia known for its U.S. Navy shipyard.
January 7, 2023 4:26 am
A preliminary hearing for a Chartiers Township man and two Michigan men facing drug possession and delivery charges that were under seal was held Thursday. Christopher Lacks of Chartiers Township was arrested after The Pennsylvania State Police Vice and Narcotics Unit, using a confidential informant, arranged for Lacks to sell them cocaine on December 5, 2022. Earlier information to police from the confidential informant related that a large drug delivery would take place on that day. Lacks arrived to complete the transaction at the BP gas station on Racetrack Road in a leased Chevrolet Yukon with two additional unidentified men. Once the transaction was completed, other state police surveillance units followed the Yukon to Lacks’ home and then followed the Yukon once Lacks got out. The driver of the Yukon, Dmarco Marberry and his passenger Justin Gailliard, both of Michigan were stopped for traffic violations on Rt. 980 at its intersection with Rt. 50. The trooper detected a strong odor of marijuana and was granted permission to search the vehicle. The search revealed 4 cell phones, a laptop computer, marijuana blunts and a backpack containing a sum of money estimated to be in the area of $17,000. All charges for all three men were held for court. Marberry and Gailliard face felony possession and conspiracy possession charges along with a knowledge of proceeds from and illegal act charge. Lacks faces felony possession and conspiracy possession charges with a criminal use of a communications device charge. Marberry and Gailliard remain in the Washington County Jail. Lacks is free after posting bond. No formal arraignment date has been set.
January 7, 2023 4:25 am
BEIJING (AP) – China has suspended or closed the social media accounts of more than 1,000 critics of the government’s policies on the COVID-19 outbreak, as the country moves to further open up. The popular Sina Weibo social media platform said it had addressed 12,854 violations including attacks on experts, scholars and medical workers and issued temporary or permanent bans on 1,120 accounts. The ruling Communist Party has largely relied on the medical community to justify its harsh lockdowns, quarantine measures and mass testing, almost all of which it abruptly abandoned last month, leading to a further surge in cases that have stretched medical resources to the limit. The party allows no direct criticism and imposes strict limits on free speech.
January 6, 2023 4:21 am
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico’s capture of a son of the imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman thrust Sinaloa’s state capital into a day of terror unlike any its residents had experienced since October 2019 – the last time authorities tried to capture Ovidio Guzmán. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has railed against his predecessors’ aggressive efforts to capture drug lords, but his administration bagged the high-profile cartel figure just days before hosting U.S. President Joe Biden. At least in the short term, locals were paying the price. The arrest came in a pre-dawn military operation Thursday outside Culiacan, a stronghold of the Sinaloa drug cartel in western Mexico.
January 6, 2023 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – America’s employers added a solid 223,000 jobs in December, evidence that the economy remains healthy yet also a sign that the Federal Reserve may still have to raise interest rates aggressively to slow growth and cool inflation. áThe December job growth, though a decent gain, amounted to the lowest monthly increase in two years. The unemployment rate remained fell to 3.5%, matching a 53-year low. áLast month’s job growth capped a second straight year of robust hiring. Yet the rapid hiring and the hefty pay raises that accompanied it likely contributed to a spike in prices that catapulted inflation to its highest level in 40 years.
