December 10, 2024 4:57 am
WEST BETHLEHEM TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – Brittany Crile, 36, and her husband, Joseph Crile, 46, were killed after their car missed a turn onto Clarksville Road and rolled 150 feet down a steep hillside late Saturday night. The two were coming home from a holiday party and were less than a mile away. Sunday morning, someone driving by spotted the car and called 911. When first responders got there, they found Brittany Crile near the car. She had been thrown from the car and did not survive. The woman who owns the car said she couldn’t get a hold of her son, Joseph Crile and her Ford App sent a notification that all of the tires were deflated. State Police pieced it together and searched for Joe Crile all day Sunday. Trooper Rocco Gagliardi with Pennsylvania State Police said investigators searched multiple properties including an abandoned home 400 feet from the scene of the crash. That’s where Joe Crile was found dead. Trooper Gagliardi says there are still so many unanswered questions. “Did something else happen at that crash site and then he gets into an abandoned house? Is he looking for assistance or medical aid or did something else happen that we’re not aware of,” Gagliardi said. State Police say the coroner will be able to determine exactly how Joe Crile died. Until then, the crash will remain under investigation.
December 10, 2024 2:56 am
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) is updating its Regional Active Transportation Plan. They were in Washington on Monday for a listening session so that residents of Washington County could weigh in on transportation that is not dedicated to automobiles. This plan aims to improve biking, walking, and other active transportation options to create safer, more accessible communities. Leann Chaney is the Senior Active Transportation Planner for the SPC. She says the update is needed because the original plan is five years old and much has changed in active transportation in the region. There has been a growth in trails. Bike lanes have been extended and, in some areas recently installed. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, work patterns and transportation patterns have changed that reflect an increased need for improvements and access for people to walk and ride bikes. Leisure activity is not the only criteria of concern. Connectivity is also important. Can a person easily access a trail or bike lane to use it for a work commute or a shopping trip. Can the user limit use of a car to use an active transportation mode. Residents are still able to weigh in with their thoughts about improvements and even concerns and frustrations with transportation by foot or by bike. A survey is available at https://arcg.is/1TSifn2 .
December 10, 2024 2:03 am
Peters Township Council acted to approve stop signs at two intersections. Currently at the intersection of Crossbow Court and Crosswinds Drive, there is a single stop sign. A recommendation from the township’s traffic engineer suggested that the intersection be an all stop intersection. Limited sight distance is the reason for the addition. The intersection of Royalbrooke and Sutherland Drives will also become an all stop intersection. Limited sight distance at the intersection is also causing the need for additional stop signs. In other township business, council was briefed on a request for proposal to update the township’s Comprehensive Plan. The township hopes to award a contract to a consultant in March. Also discussed was the size and make up of the committee to draft the updates to the plan. It could take at least a year for the proposal to be complete. Council will meet again next Monday, December 16. The meeting was moved one week earlier due to the Christmas Holiday.
December 9, 2024 4:45 am
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — Court records show New York prosecutors have charged a man with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO. Luigi Nicholas Mangione is currently being held without bail in Pennsylvania after he was arrested and arraigned on gun, forgery and other charges on Monday. He’s expected to be extradited to New York eventually. It’s unclear whether 26-year-old Mangione has an attorney who can comment on the allegations. Authorities say he was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a McDonald’s customer noticed another patron who resembled the man in security-camera photos that New York police had publicized.
December 10, 2024 4:41 am
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Donald Trump’s second term comes with the specter of the world’s richest man serving as his political enforcer. Within the president-elect’s team, there is a feeling that Elon Musk not only supports Trump’s agenda and Cabinet appointments, but is intent on seeing them through to the point of threatening Republicans who may be less devout. A week after Trump won the election, Musk suggested on his social media site that he would “play a significant role in primaries.” One Trump adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal political dynamics, noted Musk had come to enjoy his role on the campaign and that he clearly had the resources to stay involved.
December 10, 2024 4:48 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, is making her case on Capitol Hill. The former Democrat-turned-Republican is facing fresh scrutiny about her proximity to Russian-ally Syria amid that country’s sudden collapse of its hardline Assad regime. Trump wants Gabbard to be his director of national intelligence. But nearly 100 former national security officials have implored senators to hold a closed-door briefing on her work. Gabbard ignored shouted questions about her 2017 visit to war-torn Syria as she ducked into private meetings with senators Monday. She delivered a statement saying she stands by Trump’s approach to foreign affairs.
December 10, 2024 7:38 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The grinding war pitting Ukraine against its Russian invaders has escalated ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration. President Joe Biden is rushing out billions more in military aid before U.S. support for Kyiv’s defenses is thrown into question under the new administration. Russia, Ukraine and their global allies are scrambling to put their side in the best possible position for any changes that Trump may bring to American policy in the nearly 3-year-old war. The president-elect insisted in recent days that Russia and Ukraine immediately reach a ceasefire, and said Ukraine should likely prepare to receive less U.S. military aid. A Ukrainian military commander says his forces will keep fighting but when the aid runs out, they’ll be destroyed.
December 10, 2024 4:47 am
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s prime minister says most cabinet ministers are still at work after rebels overthrew President Bashar Assad. But some state workers failed to return to their jobs, and a United Nations official said the country’s public sector had come “to a complete and abrupt halt.” Meanwhile, streams of refugees crossed back into Syria from neighboring countries, hoping for a more peaceful future and looking for friends and relatives who disappeared during Assad’s brutal rule. There were already signs of the difficulties ahead for the rebel alliance now in control of much of the country.
December 9, 2024 12:50 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s police commissioner says police have arrested a 26-year-old with a weapon “consistent with” the gun used in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Thompson died in a dawn ambush Wednesday as he walked to the company’s annual investor conference from his hotel to the company’s annual investor conference across the street. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Luigi Nicholas Mangione was taken into custody Monday. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said said at a news conference that Mangione was taken into custody after police got a tip that he had been spotted at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
December 9, 2024 4:26 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — A Marine veteran who put an agitated subway rider in a choke-hold on a New York subway has been acquitted in the man’s death. A Manhattan jury cleared Daniel Penny on Monday of a criminally negligent homicide charge. The verdict came after a more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed because the jury deadlocked on that count. The case arose from Jordan Neely’s May 2023 death and became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism. The 26-year-old Penny gripped Neely around the neck for about six minutes. Penny’s defense said he was protecting fellow subway passengers.
