January 3, 2022 4:14 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Scientists have released a size and mass estimate of an exploding meteor believed to have caused a loud boom and shaking of the ground across portions of suburban Pittsburgh on New Year’s Day. NASA’s Meteor Watch social media site says a nearby infrasound station registered the blast wave from the meteor as it broke apart – releasing energy equivalent to about 30 tons of TNT. Officials said a “reasonable assumption” of the speed of the meteor at about 45,000 miles per hour would allow a “ballpark” estimate of its size as about a yard in diameter with a mass close to half a ton.
January 3, 2022 4:11 am
ROSTRAVER, Pa. — (WPXI) – A 25-year-old man was arrested after police said he shot twice into a woman’s car and killed her hours into the new year. Anthony Montel Hairston was charged with first-degree murder, gun charges and driving with a suspended license. Investigators said Hairston was following closely behind 59-year-old Holly Vandella’s vehicle as she drove home after spending New Year’s Eve with her family. Police said Hairston passed her before shooting twice into her vehicle. Officials said Vandella was hit once and died at the scene. Hairston was taken to the Westmoreland County Prison and his bail was denied.
January 3, 2022 4:09 am
WASHINGTON CO. — (WPXI) – A body was found in the Monongahela River in Washington County on Sunday morning, according to the Washington County Coroner’s Office. The coroner’s office said a homeowner in the 500 block of 1st Avenue, Borough of Elco, Pennsylvania, called 911 at 10:36 a.m. to report a person unresponsive in the river. The body has been identified as 69 year old Joseph Passafiume of California Borough. The body was entangled in debris about eight feet off the river bank. The Roscoe fire department responded and brought the body to the river bank. Pennsylvania State Police are investigating.
January 2, 2022 8:12 am
SUPERIOR, Colo. (AP) — Investigators are still trying to determine what sparked a massive fire in a suburban area near Denver that burned neighborhoods to the ground and destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and other buildings. Three people are missing following the inferno that broke out Thursday. Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said Saturday authorities were pursuing a number of tips and had executed a search warrant at “one particular location.” He declined to give details. A sheriff’s official who declined to provide his name confirmed one property was under investigation in Boulder County’s Marshall Mesa area, a region of open grassland about 2 miles ( 3.2 kilometers) west of Superior. A National Guard Humvee blocked access to the property, which was only one of several under investigation, the official said. Utility officials found no downed power lines around where the fire broke out in the area located between Denver and Boulder. The wildfire came unusually late in the year, following an extremely dry fall and amid a winter nearly devoid of snow, conditions experts say certainly helped the fire spread. At least 991 homes and other buildings were destroyed, Pelle said: 553 in Louisville, 332 in Superior and 106 in unincorporated parts of the county. Hundreds more were damaged. Pelle cautioned that the tally from the wind-whipped wildfire is not final.
January 2, 2022 8:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — They’ve interviewed more than 300 witnesses, collected tens of thousands of documents and traveled around the country to talk to election officials who were pressured by Donald Trump. Now, after six months of intense work, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is preparing to go public. In the coming months, members of the panel will start to reveal their findings against the backdrop of the former president and his allies’ persistent efforts to whitewash the riots and reject suggestions that he helped instigate them. The committee also faces the burden of trying to persuade the American public that their conclusions are fact-based and credible. But the nine lawmakers — seven Democrats and two Republicans — are united in their commitment to tell the full story of Jan. 6, and they are planning televised hearings and reports that will bring their findings out into the open. Their goal is not only to show the severity of the riot, but also to make a clear connection between the attack and Trump’s brazen pressure on the states and Congress to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate election as president.
January 2, 2022 8:09 am
It may be a new year, but for Powerball players it was the same old result — no jackpot winner. No one matched the five numbers and Powerball on Saturday night, meaning that Monday’s jackpot will be worth at least $522 million, lottery officials said. The numbers drawn were 6-12-39-48-50 and the Powerball number was 7, according to the Powerball website. According to Powerball officials, jackpot-winning numbers have not been selected in the past 38 drawings. No one has won a Powerball jackpot since Oct. 4, when one player claimed $699.8 million. That was Powerball’s fifth-largest and the seventh-largest for any lottery in the United States. Meanwhile, the largest Powerball jackpot to date is the $1.586 billion payout split by three winners in 2016, CNN reported. If somebody wins the jackpot on Monday, they can take the full amount in an annuity payment or take a lump sum option of $371.5 million before taxes. Powerball is played in 44 states, according to lottery officials, with drawings held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million.
January 2, 2022 8:06 am
ROSTRAVER, Pa. (WPXI) — Police are asking for the public’s help after a woman was found shot and killed in Rostraver. The Rostraver Township Police Department and The Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office Detective Bureau are investigating the shooting death of a 59-year-old woman that occurred on Rostraver Road in the area of Rankins Crossroads at approximately 1:30 in the morning on Jan. 1, 2022. There is evidence that there were several vehicles traveling within the vicinity of the shooting. Anyone with information should call Rostraver Twp Police at 724-929-8811.
January 2, 2022 8:05 am
ALLEGHENY CO. (WPXI) — The region started off 2022 with a loud boom heard and felt by many around the region at 11:30 Saturday morning. From the North Hills to Carnegie, to the South Hills, Greensburg, Westmoreland County and beyond, people shared on social media their experiences witnessing the boom. Some posts said the boom shook people’s houses. The National Weather Service said the boom was not an earthquake. It also ruled out thunder and lightning as a possible cause. The organization’s theory is a meteor that entered the atmosphere and exploded. The NWS said a satellite loop captured activity over Washington County that likely showed the meteor. The organization is still not 100% sure whether it was a meteor, but noted that a meteor explosion over West Virginia in September caused similar activity. The National Weather Service is still investigating what exactly happened, but said there is no cause for concern at this time. Officials with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh reported the source may have been a meteor explosion. Information from the GOES-16 Geostationary Lightning Mapper satellite, which specifically searches for light emitted by lightning, detected “a flash that was not associated with lightning” at the time of the incident. This has not been confirmed as the source yet, however. (Photo: NWS Pittsburgh Facebook Page)
January 2, 2022 8:00 am
NEW EAGLE, Pa. — Mon Valley Fire crews were busy Saturday evening with a residential trailer fire in New Eagle Borough. Officials say everyone was out of the structure on Crestview Estates Drive when fire departments arrived just after 6:00 p.m. New Year’s Day. The New Eagle Volunteer Fire Department was joined on scene by Monongahela, Valley Inn, and Bentleyville to put out the blaze. There was no word on the cause of this fire. (Photo: Monongahela Fire Department Facebook Page)
January 2, 2022 4:04 am
BENTLEYVILLE, Pa. — No injuries were reported after a fire broke out in a home off of Main Street in Bentleyville Friday evening. Crews were called to a scene of heavy smoke coming out of a residence at around 5:00 p.m. New Year’s Eve. Bentleyville Fire-Rescue worked with the Ellsworth and Cokeburg Volunteer Fire Departments as well as Ambulance and Chair EMS during the incident. Officials say responders were on scene for an extended period of time for clean up. The fire is currently under investigation by the State Fire Marshal. (Photo: Bentleyville Fire-Rescue Facebook Page)
