June 15, 2023 4:45 am
The Canon-McMillan School Board held their agenda meeting Wednesday night. The biggest agenda item that will be voted on at the next meeting will be the Operating Budget for the 2023-2024 academic year. According to information supplied by Director of Business and Finance, Joni Mansmann, the final budget proposal is for $107,757,359. That is a $6.8 million increase over last year. The budget will necessitate a tax increase of .26 mills. What that means to district residents is that school taxes will increase $26 for every $100,000 of assessed value of their home. The budget as proposed will have a $111,000 fund balance. Mansmann indicated that contractual obligations, transportation and utility costs are drivers to budget increases. Also on the agenda for consideration is an offer to sell the middle school building in Canonsburg. Council is scheduled to vote on these items at their next meeting on June 21.
June 15, 2023 2:54 am
WJPA News was alerted on Thursday to a major problem in the Washington County Recorder of Deeds Office in which more than fifty-eight-hundred properties were mistakenly transferred from private owners to a local gas company. Recorder of Deeds Carrie Perrell issued an emailed statement saying her office was aware of the issue and has already taken corrective measures with their software provider Landex. She says a new category for recording will prevent this from happening in the future and the tax office is currently working with Tyler software system to ensure that this court ordered recording is a transfer of oil and gas leases only.
June 15, 2023 2:21 am
Pennsylvania’s plan for rebuilding a collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia involves tons of small glass nuggets, each one about an inch wide and light as Styrofoam. Gov. Josh Shapiro won’t say how long it’ll take to get traffic flowing again, but he says union crews will work nonstop until the job is done. The plan is to fill the space where a gasoline truck fire destroyed an overpass with 2,000 tons of recycled glass recovered from landfills. Workers will pave over it to reopen the critical East Coast highway. After that, they’ll build another bridge to reroute traffic so they can remove the fill and reopen the underpass.
June 14, 2023 5:58 pm
(AP) – After more than two decades as America’s best-selling beer, Bud Light has slipped into second place. Mexican lager Modelo Especial overtook Bud Light in U.S. retail dollar sales in the month ending June 3, according to Bump Williams Consulting. Modelo controlled 8.4% of U.S. grocery, convenience and liquor store sales; Bud Light fell to 7.3%. It’s a milestone in Bud Light’s months-long sales decline since early April, when critics vowed to boycott the beer after the company sent a commemorative can to a transgender influencer. Bud Light’s U.S. sales were down 24% in the week ending June 3.
June 14, 2023 4:13 pm
(WPXI) – Closing arguments are set to begin Thursday in the trial of a Baldwin truck driver accused in the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill in 2018. On Tuesday, the jury heard from white supremacy and terrorism experts who reviewed Robert Bowers’ Gab posts, communications with police, and selfies on his phone. Bowers trial began eleven days ago. The fifty-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 63 charges, including obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death. Eleven people were killed and several others injured. If convicted of any of the capital charges, the trial will move to a separate penalty phase, in which the same jury will listen to further evidence and decide whether to sentence him to death.
June 14, 2023 5:10 am
LONDON (AP) — Paul McCartney says artificial intelligence has been used to extract John Lennon’s voice from an old demo to create “the last Beatles record,” decades after the band broke up. McCartney told the BBC on Tuesday that the technology was used to separate the Beatles’ voices from background sounds during the making of director Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary series “The Beatles: Get Back.” He said the new song is set to be released later this year. McCartney told BBC radio that Jackson was “able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette and a piano.” He said: “We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI so then we could mix the record.”
June 14, 2023 5:06 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Prosecutors are accusing the weapons supervisor on the film set where Alec Baldwin shot and killed a cinematographer of drinking and smoking marijuana in the evenings during the filming of “Rust.” They say she was likely hungover when she loaded a live bullet into the revolver. They leveled the accusations Friday in response to a motion filed last month by Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys that seeks to dismiss her involuntary manslaughter charge. Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney said Tuesday that the prosecution’s case is weak and they’re resorting to character assassination claims. Prosecutors also said in the filing that they expect to decide within the next 60 days whether to recharge Baldwin.
June 14, 2023 5:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate unchanged after having raised it 10 straight times to combat high inflation. But in a surprise move, the Fed signaled that it may raise rates twice more this year, beginning as soon as next month. The Fed’s move to leave its benchmark rate at about 5.1%, its highest level in 16 years, suggests that it believes the much higher borrowing rates it’s engineered have made some progress in taming inflation. But top Fed officials want to take time to more fully assess how their rate hikes have affected inflation and the economy. The central bank’s 18 policymakers envision raising its key rate by an additional half-point this year, to about 5.6%.
June 14, 2023 4:58 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced a nearly $150 million grant to Pittsburgh Regional Transit for the new Downtown-Uptown-Oakland bus rapid transit (BRT) line. The $149.9 million reward was funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The new line will provide fast, convenient transit along a heavily congested route from Downtown to Oakland, the FTA said. The new line will include bus-only lanes with traffic lights that will automatically turn green and faster boarding, according to the FTA. A bus will arrive every five minutes during peak periods for 22 hours a day. The FTA said that more than 40,000 people use the current bus options in the communities the BRT will cover per day. The BRT project is projected to cost an estimated $291 million.
June 14, 2023 2:54 am
A man from Manor, Westmoreland County was sentenced on Thursday avoiding sexual assault charges of a minor. Clayton Warmus, 30 pleaded guilty to aggravated indecent assault of a person less than 16. He avoided indecent sexual assault and statutory sexual assault of a minor charges. For his plea of guilty, Warmus received 3-8 years in jail with a mandatory 3 year probation after his release. He will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Warmus was accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15 year old from August of 2020 through March of 2021. According to police 30 encounters took place in Canton and Union Townships.
