July 8, 2022 4:14 am
A Pittsburgh man who sold fentanyl laced heroin to two Washington residents causing their overdose deaths was sentenced to state prison on Thursday. Thirty year old William Greene will spend the next 35 to 70 years in prison for causing the deaths of David Chappel and Megan Peacock in 2019. Greene was on trial in January for the death of Chappel when part way through the trial he decided to enter an open plea of guilty to that case, the Peacock case and several other possession with the intent to deliver cases. Greene faced charges in six separate cases. Greene received two sentences of 9-18 years for the delivery causing death charges. He received four other sentences totaling 17-34 years on possession with intent to deliver charges. The sentences on all cases will run consecutively. Greene chose to deliver his allocution statement himself. He apologized to the families who lost loved ones, he accepted responsibility for his actions and asked for forgiveness stating that his heart is filled with peace and love. The defense attorney for Greene indicated that they are weighing their future options.
July 8, 2022 2:47 am
(WPXI) – A member of the Mount Lebanon school board was arrested in Florida after police said he sexually battered a minor. 34-year-old Andrew Freeman was arrested in Davenport by the Polk County sheriff on Wednesday. Police said that a 17-year-old victim told a family friend Freeman had kissed her, put his hands under her clothes and sexually battered her. The victim was allegedly in the same area for vacation with family and friends, which included Freeman. Authorities said that a family member entered the victim’s room and saw Freeman nearly nose-to-nose with her. After Freeman left the room, the family member began asking what had happened. Police said that Freeman admitted to the incident during an interview with a detective and said, “mistakes were made.” District officials say they are closely monitoring the developments. Freeman is being charged with unlawful sexual activity with a minor.
July 7, 2022 1:54 pm
(AP) – James Caan, the curly-haired tough guy known to movie fans as the hotheaded Sonny Corleone of “The Godfather” and to television audiences as the dying football player in the classic weeper “Brian’s Song” and the casino boss in “Las Vegas,” has died. He was 82. His manager Matt DelPiano said he died on Wednesday. A tweet from Caan’s official account said, “The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.” Caan introduced himself to a new generation playing Walter, the workaholic, stone-faced father of Buddy’s Will Ferrell in “Elf.” (Photo: Twitter)
July 7, 2022 10:17 am
MOSCOW (AP) – Russian news agencies say jailed American basketball star Brittney Griner has pleaded guilty to drug possession and smuggling charges during her trial in Moscow. The reports quoted Griner as pleading guilty to the charges at Thursday’s court hearing. They said that speaking through an interpreter, Griner said she had acted unintentionally because she was packing in haste. Griner was detained in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after vape canisters with cannabis oil allegedly were found in her luggage. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of large-scale transportation of drugs. The trial of the Phoenix Mercury star and two-time Olympic gold medalist began last week.
July 7, 2022 9:53 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania lawmakers are hoping to start wrapping up the state budget just as Senate Republican leaders are talking about a potential deadlock. It’s been a week since the annual spending plan was due to be completed when the state’s fiscal year ended last Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward’s spokeswoman says Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s push for greater education spending has become a problem and that discussions “are deteriorating.” Senate Republicans are calling the basic education funding increase that Wolf wants unrealistic, while Wolf’s press secretary says he’s not stuck on a hard number. Legislators had hoped to meet privately Thursday morning to go over details of a budget agreement.
July 7, 2022 4:44 am
LONDON (AP) – Boris Johnson has stepped down as Conservative Party leader. But the scandal-tarnished politician remains Britain’s prime minister for now. Johnson’s resignation Thursday sparks a party contest to replace him as leader. All Conservative lawmakers are eligible to run and party officials could open the nominations within hours. Party lawmakers will vote in a series of elimination rounds until two candidates are left. The winner will then be decided by all members of the Conservative Party nationwide. The winner will become both Conservative leader and prime minister. Johnson says he intends to stay in office until that happens. But many in the party say he must leave sooner because he no longer has the authority to govern.
July 7, 2022 4:19 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A new report on the Uvalde elementary school massacre in Texas says a police officer had a chance to open fire on the gunman but missed it while waiting for permission to shoot. The report also says some of the 21 victims at Robb Elementary School likely “could have been saved” on May 24 had they received medical attention sooner. The report is yet another damning assessment of how police failed to act on opportunities that might have saved lives in what became the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012.
July 7, 2022 4:18 am
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Derek Chauvin to 21 years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, telling the former Minneapolis police officer that what he did was “simply wrong” and “offensive.” U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson sharply criticized Chauvin for his actions on May 25, 2020, when he pinned Floyd to the pavement outside a Minneapolis corner store for more than 9 minutes as he lay dying. Even so, Magnuson’s sentence was at the low end of the 20 to 25 years called for in a plea agreement in which he will serve the federal sentence at the same time he serves his 22 1/2-year sentence on state charges of murder and manslaughter.
July 7, 2022 4:18 am
KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) – As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grinds into its fifth month, some residents close to the front lines remain in shattered and nearly abandoned neighborhoods. One such place is Kharkiv’s neighborhood of Saltivka, once home to about half a million people. Only perhaps dozens live there now, in apartment blocks with no running water and little electricity. While some towns and villages around the capital, Kyiv, have begun rebuilding, other places cannot. In Saltivka, shops are closed and apartment blocks gape with broken windows. Tall grass overtakes abandoned playgrounds. Soldiers’ trenches are abandoned. In a few apartments that are now ripped open, laundry still hangs on the line.
July 7, 2022 4:13 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Doug Mastriano, Pennsylvania’s Republican nominee for governor, has made a campaign staple out of the allegation that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s policy of readmitting COVID-19 patients from hospitals to nursing homes caused thousands of deaths — a baseless claim for which no investigator or researcher has provided any evidence. In fact, layers of inspections by researchers have pointed to entirely something different — nursing home employees ushering in the virus every day — while investigators found administrators flouting staffing requirements or infection-control procedures. Further, no Pennsylvania nursing home has leveled any such claim like Mastriano’s, and a national nursing home trade association has agreed with the findings of researchers who say the spread of the virus in nursing homes directly correlated to community spread. Mastriano, a state senator and retired U.S. Army colonel who won the Republican nomination while trafficking in conspiracy theories, seemingly came out of nowhere to become a rising force in right-wing politics primarily by leading anti-shutdown rallies in the pandemic’s early days.
