June 1, 2022 2:53 pm
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) – A jury has ruled in favor of Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, vindicating his stance that Heard fabricated claims that she was abused by Heard before and during their brief marriage. The jury also found in favor of Heard, who said she was defamed by Depp’s lawyer when he called her abuse allegations a hoax. Jury members found Depp should be awarded $15 million in damages, while Heard should receive $2 million. Depp sued Heard for libel in Virginia over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.
June 1, 2022 2:50 pm
WESTMORELAND, Pa. (AP) – A man has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to criminal homicide and other charges in a three-day crime spree in western Pennsylvania that included the ambush and murder of a couple in their driveway. The Tribune-Review reports that 54-year-old Victor Steban of North Huntingdon pleaded guilty Wednesday in Westmoreland County to more than 30 criminal charges in seven separate cases including the May 2021 deaths of 40-year-old Jacob Erdeljac and 27-year-old Mara Casale in Penn Township. Prosecutors dropped plans to seek the death penalty in exchange for the pleas. The Tribune-Review reports that Steban was sentenced to two life terms and concurrent sentences totaling 46 to 96 years.
June 1, 2022 1:22 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration foresees unnecessary deaths if lawmakers don’t approve billions of dollars more to brace for the pandemic’s next wave. Yet the push to provide the money is in limbo in Congress. It’s the latest victim of election-year gridlock that’s already stalled or killed a host of Democratic priorities. President Joe Biden’s request for funds for vaccines, testing and treatments has run into opposition from Republicans. And the GOP has complicated the election-year fight by fusing it with the politically precarious issue of immigration. If the issue isn’t resolved soon, the next best chance of handling it may not come until the fall.
June 1, 2022 1:14 pm
PIGEON KEY, Fla. (AP) – The U.S. Coast Guard says a woman from Illinois was killed and two young children injured when a sudden storm prompted a boat captain to cut loose their parasail in the Florida Keys. The inflated parasail then dragged the three tourists across the ocean and slammed them into a bridge. The trio was airborne and tethered to a speedboat when a sudden storm blew in. The winds were so strong that the boat below was being dragged, so the captain cut the line. They hit the water but the inflated parasail dragged them across the surface until they slammed into Old Seven Mile Bridge. A fishing guide raced to rescue them, but the 33-year-old woman from Schaumburg, Illinois was dead by the time they reached the dock. Her 10-year-old son and 9-year-old nephew were taken to hospitals.
June 1, 2022 4:21 am
UNDATED (AP) – The school district police chief who served as on-site commander during last week’s deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas, says he’s talking daily with investigators, contradicting claims from state law enforcement that he’s stopped cooperating. Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo told CNN in a brief interview Wednesday that he’s speaking regularly with Texas Department of Public Safety investigators. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School, the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. Also Wednesday, the district announced that students and staff would not be returning to the Robb Elementary campus. Plans are still being finalized on where students will attend classes in the fall. (Photo: Linkedin)
June 1, 2022 4:19 am
SAN ISIDRO DEL PALMAR, Mexico (AP) – Mexican authorities say Hurricane Agatha caused flooding and mudslides that killed at least 11 people and left 20 missing. The governor of the southern state of Oaxaca said Tuesday that rivers overflowed their banks and swept away people in homes, while other victims were buried under mud and rocks. Agatha made history as the strongest hurricane ever to come ashore in May in the eastern Pacific. It made landfall Monday afternoon on a sparsely populated stretch of small beach towns and fishing villages. It was a strong Category 2 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, but it quickly lost power while moving inland.
June 1, 2022 4:17 am
ATLANTA (AP) – The nation’s leading cybersecurity agency says electronic voting machines from a leading vendor used in at least 16 states have software vulnerabilities. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency says the vulnerabilities can leave the machines susceptible to hacking if the flaws go unaddressed. The information is contained in an advisory that CISA sent to state election officials. It is based on testing by a prominent computer scientist and expert witness in a long-running lawsuit. CISA says there’s no evidence the flaws in the Dominion Voting Systems’ equipment have been exploited to alter election results. In a statement Tuesday, Dominion defended the machines as “accurate and secure.”
June 1, 2022 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge in Washington is set to preside over an important hearing for the man who shot President Ronald Reagan more than 40 years ago. John Hinckley is set to be released from restrictive conditions he has lived under since he shot Reagan and several others in 1981. U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman said in September that he would free Hinckley from all the remaining restrictions on June 15 as long as Hinckley continued to do well. Officials say Hinckley has, and Wednesday’s hearing, which Hinckley will not attend, is not expected to alter those plans.
June 1, 2022 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration is sending Ukraine a small number of high-tech, medium-range rocket systems. Ukrainian leaders have been begging for the critical weapons as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region. The U.S. plan tries to strike a balance between the desire to help Ukraine battle ferocious Russian artillery barrages while not providing arms that could allow Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia. In an essay for The New York Times, President Joe Biden says the administration is not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. The rocket systems are part of a new $700 million tranche of security assistance from the U.S.
June 1, 2022 4:10 am
North Strabane Township Supervisors approved two items that will make use of two separate grants from Harrisburg. The first grant is from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for $38,000. It will partially fund a study conducted by a consultant to develop a master plan for the North Strabane Park. One of the requirements of that grant is to appoint a committee to act as a point of contact between the consultant and the community. Supervisors approved a nine person committee that includes a township supervisor, the current parks and recreation director and two members of the parks and recreation board and five other members of the community at large. The total cost of the study is $76,000. The township received an additional $15,000 grant from the Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency making the township responsible for only $23,000 of the total bill. A second $1 million grant was received from the Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. According to Township Manager Andrew Walz that grant will be used to offset costs associated with the recently completed fire station in Eighty Four and the ongoing construction of the Public Safety building now under construction at the former fire station on Rt. 19.Walz credited State Senator Camera Bartolotta and State Representative Tim O’Neal for their work on delivering that grant.
