October 28, 2021 4:03 am
NORTH STRABANE TWP., Pa. — (WPXI) – The family of a woman killed while driving home on Interstate 79 is speaking out for the first time. Holly Davis was just one exit from home when a driver going the wrong way hit her vehicle head-on. Her family has learned someone has anonymously paid for all of her funeral expenses. Jamar Davis lost his mother last weekend. Holly Davis leaves behind her two sons and a 2-year-old grandson, who has spent the last few days asking where her grandmother is. Holly was driving north on Interstate 79 near the Houston exit, as drivers were calling 911 to say someone was driving in the wrong direction. One of those drivers even captured some of it on cellphone video. Kristina Coyne, 26, of Washington, was driving in the wrong direction on her way to a Pittsburgh hospital. Officials are still investigating. Davis was a certified nursing assistant for more than 35 years. As they were making funeral arrangements Tuesday, they discovered everything had been paid in full by someone anonymous. “They told us not to worry if she had the best insurance or any insurance. An anonymous donor was going to take care of everything and that’s a blessing.” he said. Holly’s family believes the anonymous donation came from someone she took care of.
October 28, 2021 3:40 am
North Franklin Township is in the process of installing an advanced early warning siren system. The service will be tied into the National Weather Service that will initiate the alarm during a severe weather event. The county 9-1-1 system will also be able to set off the alarm in the event of a severe accident. Township Supervisor Chairman Bob Sabot states the supervisors have been working on the $60,000 system since September. He states that if the system saves one life, it is well worth the investment. Residents will be able to differentiate between a traditional fire siren that has an up and down wail that will last for a minute and the weather alert siren that will be an upward wail that will last between three to five minutes. Both the township and fire department will be educating residents about the system in their respective newsletters. The system is currently under design to make sure the 7.4 square mile township and its 5000 residents will be able to hear the alarms that will be placed at each of the township’s three fire stations.
October 27, 2021 10:49 am
WJPA & WJPA) – A man was run over by a truck that was carrying a wood chipper Wednesday morning in Cecil Township, emergency dispatchers said. The accident happened shortly before 9 a.m. along Fawcett Church Road. Investigators say the truck carrying the chipper either lost its brakes or the driver lost control and ran into a man who was standing in front of a stump grinder, trapping him between the truck and the stump grinder. The victim was taken to the hospital with a leg injury. OSHA has been called in to investigate.
October 27, 2021 7:55 am
LONDON (AP) – Pharmaceutical company Merck has agreed to allow other drug makers worldwide to make its COVID-19 treatment, the first pill that has been shown to be effective against the disease. The move aims at helping millions of people in poorer countries access to the drug. The U.N.-backed Medicines Patent Pool said in a statement on Wednesday that it had signed a voluntary licensing agreement for molnupiravir with Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. The deal will allow the Medicines Patent Pool to grant further licenses to qualified companies wishing to make the drug. Neither drug maker will receive royalties under the agreement for as long as the World Health Organization deems COVID-19 to be global emergency.
October 27, 2021 4:22 am
HUIXTLA, Mexico (AP) – After three days of walking along a scorching highway in southern Mexico, a couple thousand migrants decided to rest here, receive medical attention for badly blistered feet, wash clothing in the river and doze in any shade they could find. Nitza Maldonado and Omar Rodríguez sprawled on the sidewalk beside a local church with their 6-year-old son on Tuesday. The Honduran family had paid a smuggler $12,000 last year to get to the United States, but they were nabbed in Texas and deported. They decided the risks of rough handling or deportation by Mexican authorities were worth joining the large group effort to walk north.
October 27, 2021 4:21 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden’s big domestic policy bill is now half its original size and being pulled apart and reconfigured as Democrats edge closer to satisfying their most reluctant lawmakers. They’re trying to wrap up talks on what’s now about a $1.75 trillion package. A proposed billionaires’ tax is running into criticism as cumbersome, leaving the revenue needed to pay for the package deeply in flux. That’s forcing difficult reductions of proposals for health care and paid family leave, among others. Biden met Tuesday with lawmakers at the White House, including two holdout Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
October 27, 2021 4:18 am
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – New Mexico authorities said Wednesday they have recovered a lead projectile believed to have been fired from the gun used in the fatal movie-set shooting. Investigators discussed their initial findings in the shooting in which actor Alec Baldwin fired a gun, killing a cinematographer and wounding the director. Testing is being done to determine whether the lead projectile recovered from director Joel Souza’s shoulder was fired from the gun used by Baldwin. Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said it’s too early to comment on whether any charges will be filed. He also noted that 500 rounds of ammunition – a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and live rounds – were found while searching the set. The sheriff would not comment on how the rounds got on set.
October 27, 2021 4:10 am
North Strabane Township Supervisors held their Legislative meeting on Tuesday night and traffic concerns were addressed. Supervisors approved a measure to purchase and install cameras at three intersections. Those intersections are Route 19 and McClelland Road, Morganza Road and McClelland Road and Route 19 and Houston Hill Church Road. Township Manager Andrew Walz indicated that they are needed to enhance coverage for police related incidents as opposed to trying to catch people who are speeding. Supervisors also voted to approve a measure to join a lawsuit with South Fayette Township. South Fayette asked that North Strabane lend its name in an effort to prevent tolls from being charged on Interstate 79 near the Bridgeville exit. Supervisors also will appropriate $154,800 of American Rescue Plan funds to complete their MS4 storm water management project for the year 2022 that is required by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Supervisors also approved a zoning change from R-2 to C-2 on Burkett Road to allow for construction of an outdoor wedding venue and they approved the construction of a billboard off of McClelland Road to advertise to drivers heading north on Interstate 79.
October 27, 2021 2:54 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. health advisers have endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for young children. The vote Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration panel moves the nation closer to vaccinating children ages 5 to 11. The FDA isn’t bound by the recommendation and is expected to make its own decision within days. If regulators agree, shots could begin as early as late next week. Young kids would get just a third of the dose given to teens and adults. A study found kid-size vaccinations are nearly 91% effective at preventing symptomatic infections.
October 27, 2021 2:23 am
HARRISBURG (AP) – Victims of a crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Westmoreland County that killed five people and hurt nearly all the dozens of passengers on a bus nearly two years ago claim in a lawsuit that one of the drivers was wearing noise-canceling headphones. The wrongful death and negligence lawsuit filed last week in Philadelphia claims FedEx driver Brandon Stowers’ use of the headphones prevented him from hearing warnings that he was about to crash into the scene of the bus wreck near Mount Pleasant. The complaint includes a photo of the driver in the cab wearing headphones. The FedEx truck plowed into a bus headed from the New York area to Cincinnati around 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 5, 2020. The lawsuit says one of the plaintiffs, a child identified by his initials, was decapitated in the crash. The plaintiffs are 18 victims or their next of kin. The 95-page complaint names as defendants Z&D Tour Inc., the bus operator based in Rockaway, N.J.; Ohio Coach Inc.; Sioux Trucking Inc.; and FedEx Ground Package System Inc. FedEx issued a statement Tuesday saying safety is its top priority and expressing “our thoughts and condolences” to the people involved.
