October 28, 2022 4:08 am
Charges have been filed against four men related to the sexual assault of 19 children. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro was in Pittsburgh Thursday to announce the arrests and criminal charges against Jesse Hill, formerly of Berks County and now a resident of Georgia; Jose Serrano of Lancaster County; Robert Ostrander, formerly of Cambria County and now a resident of New York; and Eric Eleam of Butler County for the sexual assault and exploitation of children. In each case, all of the victims were minors and members of Jehovah’s Witness congregations. Shapiro said that when agents and police from Butler County attempted to take Eleam into custody, he retreated to his bathroom and killed himself. The charges against the men range from aggravated indecent assault to rape and endangering the welfare of children.“These are they types of cases that haunt us,” Shapiro said.He said the investigation is open and ongoing. Anyone with information regarding child sexual abuse is encouraged to report information to the Office of Attorney General’s hotline at 888-538-8541.
October 28, 2022 4:05 am
Although no one won the $700 million Powerball top prize Wednesday, there are some winners in the drawing. According to the Pennsylvania Lottery, four tickets purchased in Pennsylvania matched four of five numbers and the Powerball to win $50,000.
October 28, 2022 2:56 am
The Washington County Chamber of Commerce sponsored its Anatomy of a Cyber Attack forum on Thursday. Experts is cyber security, cyber law and cyber insurance presented information critical to businesses and individuals in helping them prevent and if necessary, recover if they fall victim to a cyber attack. Jason Hawks, an Information Security Officer with Defy Security stepped the audience through methods that cyber criminals try to attack. His summation was that prevention was a three pronged approach of user education, technology products available and computer hygiene. Think before you click, keep software updated and frequent changing of passwords using sentences instead of words go a long way toward preventing attacks. Legally, Frank Botta from the Lynch Law Group outlined legal consequences that companies can face from a cyber attack. Financial loss is first and foremost but reputation harm and breach of legal obligations are some consequences that companies face if confidential data is breached. Will Simpson from Simpson McCrady Insurance explained that with all of the education and technology along with the proper legal expertise previously presented, cyber insurance should not be overlooked. He stated that even small companies can afford cyber insurance with policies costing only several hundred dollars each year.
October 27, 2022 5:26 pm
MOSCOW (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied having any intentions of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine but described the conflict there as part of alleged efforts by the West to secure its global domination. Speaking to international policy experts on Thursday, Putin accused the U.S. and its allies of trying to dictate terms to other nations in a “dangerous and bloody” domination game. Putin, who sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, claimed that “humankind now faces a choice: accumulate a load of problems that will inevitably crush us all or try to find solutions that may not be ideal.”
October 27, 2022 12:51 pm
(WPXI) – Homicide charges have been filed four years after the disappearance of Cassandra Gross. Thomas Stanko, who was Gross’ estranged boyfriend, is facing several charges including criminal homicide, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. Stanko was a person of interest in the case but was never criminally linked to her disappearance until now. Gross went missing on April 7, 2018 and was never found. A judge declared her legally dead from a homicide about nine months later. In July this year, Stanko was sentenced to seven years in prison for illegally possessing guns. He is a convicted felon, meaning he isn’t allowed to own or carry any guns. Investigators found 17 guns inside his properties in Unity Township when they were searching for evidence in the disappearance of Gross. Three of the guns were stolen property.
October 27, 2022 8:56 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Slightly more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market remains one of the healthiest parts of an uneven U.S. economy. Jobless claims for the week ending Oct. 22 inched up by 3,000 to 217,000 from 214,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week moving average rose to 219,000 from 212,250 the previous week. Applications for jobless claims, considered a proxy for layoffs, remain historically low. The total number of Americans collecting unemployment aid rose by 55,000 to 1.44 million for the week ending Oct. 15, its highest level in seven months.
October 27, 2022 5:52 am
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – No one won an estimated $700 million Powerball jackpot Wednesday night, meaning the big prize will grow to an estimated $800 million for the next drawing. The numbers drawn were: á19-36-37-46-56-24. No one has matched all six numbers and won the Powerball jackpot since Aug. 3, allowing the prize to grow to the fifth-largest in U.S. history. That amounts to 36 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner. The next drawing is Saturday. The new $800 jackpot amount is for winners who take their winnings through an annuity, paid annually over 29 years. Nearly all winners actually choose the cash option, however, which would be $383.7 million after taxes.
October 27, 2022 4:19 am
(AP) – Elon Musk is telling Twitter advertisers he is buying the platform to “help humanity” and doesn’t want it to become a “free-for-all hellscape” where anything can be said with no consequences. The message to advertisers posted Thursday on Twitter came a day before Musk’s deadline for closing his $44 billion deal to buy the social-media company and take it private. He said in the post that he’s buying the company because “it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square.”
October 27, 2022 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The problems have hardly gone away. Inflation, still near a 40-year high, is punishing households. Rising interest rates have derailed the housing market and threaten to inflict broader damage. And the outlook for the world economy grows bleaker the longer that Russia’s war against Ukraine drags on. But for now anyway, the U.S. economy has likely returned to growth after having shrunk in each of the first two quarters of 2022. At least that’s what economists expect to see Thursday when the Commerce Department issues its first of three estimates of gross domestic product – the broadest measure of economic output – for the July-September period.
October 27, 2022 4:16 am
CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) – Europe’s energy crisis is forcing some people to turn to cheaper sources to stay warm as the weather gets colder. After Russia slashed natural gas flows to Europe amid its war against Ukraine, demand for wood is surging in poorer nations like Moldova and Kosovo as well as in the richer nations of Western and central Europe. It’s led to higher prices, growing concerns about theft and even scams. Some German foresters are putting GPS devices into logs to track the valuable stocks and deter theft. There are also environmental risks to burning firewood, from the particles that people breathe to increased felling of trees.
