June 22, 2022 3:42 am
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Firefighter groups are applauding steps taken by the Biden administration this week to temporarily raise wages for the men and women on the front lines of the nation’s largest wildfires. But they say the temporary wage hikes won’t be enough to combat staffing problems, as federal agencies compete with local fire departments and a tight labor market. The National Interagency Fire Center has grown less able to fill crew mobilization orders as climate change makes the U.S. West hotter, drier and more prone to wildfires. Labor experts, firefighter advocates and federal officials say the land management agencies that employ federal firefighters must do more to keep pace and compete with other fire departments and industries.
June 22, 2022 3:41 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders says it believes that a Ukrainian photojournalist and a soldier who was accompanying him were “coldly executed” in Russian-occupied woodlands in the first weeks of Russia’s invasion. The bodies of Maks Levin and serviceman Oleksiy Chernyshov were found April 1 in woods north of the capital, Kyiv. Reporters Without Borders said it went back to the wooded spot to investigate the circumstances of their deaths. It said it found 14 bullet holes in the burned hulk of their car. Disused Russian positions, one of them still booby-trapped, were also found close by. The group released its findings in a report Wednesday and said it has turned over evidence to Ukrainian investigators.
June 22, 2022 3:40 am
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – Afghanistan’s state-run news agency reported a powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of the country’s east, killing 1,000 people and injuring 1,500 more. Wednesday’s quake was the country’s deadliest in two decades. Officials warned that the already grim toll may still rise. Information remained scarce on the magnitude 6.1 earthquake near the Pakistani border. But early footage from villages tucked among the rough mountains showed residents picking through rubble of collapsed stone and mud-brick houses. The disaster posed a major test for the Taliban-led government. The Taliban seized power last year as the U.S. and its allies were withdrawing from the country.
June 22, 2022 3:37 am
North Strabane Township Supervisors held a public hearing on Tuesday to gather input on their plan to make Garden St. a one way road. Plans call for traffic to enter Garden St. and travel to its intersection with Locust St. At that point drivers would travel Locust St. to its intersection with Rt. 19 to exit the neighborhood. According to Township Manager Andrew Walz, several complaints from residents and proposed development prompted traffic studies that indicated that the sight distance looking left as drivers would exit Garden St. to Rt. 980 was severely deficient according to PennDot policy. The recommended sight distance is 340 feet, only a 215 foot sight distance exists at that intersection. Walz did indicate that discussions with PennDot will continue to try to come up with a solution to return Garden St. to a two way road. Walz indicated that this plan was the best short term solution to provide a safer intersection. A vote on the proposal will be held at the legislative meeting next Tuesday.
June 22, 2022 3:35 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — State House Republicans are blocking a proposal to prevent those ages 18 to 21 from possessing assault-style rifles. They voted in a legislative committee on Tuesday to completely change the bill into a constitutional amendment to allow anyone to carry concealed guns. It’s the second week in a row that Republicans in the Judiciary Committee have used their majority to defeat Democratic proposals to address the country’s gun violence plague. The bill would have prevented those under age 21 from purchasing, possessing or transporting the types of weapons that have often been used to kill and wound people in mass shootings.
June 22, 2022 3:31 am
ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. (WPXI) — There’s now an online obituary for 3-month-old Kayden Nguyen that says “he will be deeply missed, and will always be in his family’s hearts.” The baby boy died last week, when he was left in a hot car for hours on one of the hottest days of the season. The Peters Township baby was left in an Upper Saint Clair parking lot, outside of Envy Nail Spa. An employee at the salon told us it’s where the child’s father worked. Days after Kayden died, no one has been charged. County police say they are still waiting for the medical examiner’s report. Local defense attorney Blaine Jones weighed in on the case as a legal analyst and thinks that charges are imminent. “This is not a Murder 1 case. I don’t think anyone will argue that this was intentional. This isn’t a Murder 2 either because that’s a felony murder. So therefore, in my opinion, I think you’re looking at Murder 3, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter,” Jones said. A county spokesperson says it sometimes takes the medical examiner reports so long to process due to tests or exams that need to be executed.
June 22, 2022 3:27 am
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — The Burgettstown man charged with the death of a three-year-old child who was in his care earlier this year has pleaded guilty to murder. Tyler Scott Mason, 25, was left in charge of his girlfriend’s’ son Aiden Lombardi in early February. According to the criminal complaint, Mason called Megan Meyers to tell her Lombardi was not breathing. Allegheny County Police found the boy unresponsive that night in the 900 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in Coraopolis. Lombardi was rushed to UPMC Children’s Hospital where he later died that night due to blunt force trauma to the head according to the medical examiner. Paramedics who responded reported the child had significant bruising and swelling on his forehead, eye, jaw and ear, and that he was in cardiac arrest. While in the medics’ care, Aiden was unresponsive, not breathing, and had no pulse, the complaint states. Mason appeared before Judge Kelly Bigley Tuesday and pleaded guilty to one count of 3rd degree murder and one count of endangering the welfare of children. There was no sentencing agreement so a sentencing hearing has been set for September 19, 2022.
June 22, 2022 1:42 am
A resident of West Alexander, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court in Pittsburgh to 6 months imprisonment and one-year supervised release on her conviction of filing a false income tax return. United States District Judge Marilyn J. Horan imposed the sentence on Tina L. Beck, age 53, of West Alexander, Pennsylvania. According to information presented to the court, Beck filed federal income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the calendar years 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018, on which she willfully underreported gross receipts by more than $980,000 from the operation of the garbage collection business she jointly operated with her husband known as “Beck’s Refuse Service”. In February 2022, Beck pleaded guilty to filing a false income tax return for 2018 on which she under-reported business income resulting in a tax loss to the IRS of more than $50,000. She further accepted responsibility for tax losses incurred by the IRS in 2014, 2015, and 2017, totaling more than $232,000. Judge Horan ordered Beck, following imprisonment, to serve the first six months of supervised release in home
June 21, 2022 3:12 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – In another sign that the world of entertainment is returning to pre-pandemic normal, Broadway theaters will no longer demand audiences wear masks starting in July. The Broadway League announced Tuesday that mask-wearing will be optional next month onward, a further loosening of restrictions. In May, most Broadway theaters lifted the requirement that audience members provide proof of vaccination to enter venues. The policy will “be evaluated on a monthly basis as we continue to monitor the science,” according to the League, which represents Broadway producers. It also said that “audience members are still encouraged to wear masks in theaters.”
June 21, 2022 12:30 pm
(WPXI) – Eleven people, including eight children, were injured in an overnight crash along Route 28. The crash happened around 11:40 p.m. Monday in the southbound lanes between Etna and Millvale in Shaler Township. Shaler police said eight children and three adults were taken to hospitals with minor injuries. The children range in age from 1-11 years old. Shaler police said a minivan was traveling northbound in the southbound lanes and appeared to have entered the wrong direction from the Millvale off-ramp. The minivan driver had eight kids in the vehicle, according to police. Two adults were in the other vehicle. Route 28 was shut down for around two hours but has since reopened. Shaler police said there was no evidence of impairment in either driver, but charges are pending against the minivan driver. Police said she did not have a driver’s license.
