July 12, 2021 4:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – With just a year and a half left in office, Gov. Tom Wolf’s primary focus will be convincing the Republican-controlled Legislature to modernize how state aid is distributed to Pennsylvania’s public schools. Doing so would direct more money to Pennsylvania’s poorest school districts as well as to growing districts. In an interview Thursday, Wolf told The Associated Press he remains dedicated to two initiatives that have drawn stiff resistance from many Republicans. That’s adding tolls to nine major interstate bridges in need of upgrades and forcing fossil fuel-fired power plants to pay a price for the carbon dioxide they emit. The 72-year-old Democrat is term-limited.
July 12, 2021 4:10 am
A Mt. Morris woman has died from injuries suffered last week in a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer on Interstate 79 in Greene County near the Welcome Center in Whitely Township. State Police say 45-year-old Donna Philips was driving south on the interstate just before five o’clock on Wednesday when she apparently lost control of her vehicle and crossed the median. She crashed into a tractor-trailer traveling in the northbound lanes. She and a sixteen-year-old girl in the vehicle were taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. There’s been no word on the identity of the teen or her condition. The driver of the truck and a passenger, both from Florida, were not injured.
July 12, 2021 4:09 am
BETHEL PARK, Pa. — (WPXI) – The Bethel Park Police Department took to social media to ask for the public’s help in searching for a man caught on video wandering around and knocking on doors of multiple homes on Sarah Street. The video is of a man ringing a doorbell at a home on Sarah Street just after 5 a.m. According to investigators, he didn’t only ring the doorbell at this house, but at another one too, before going around to the back of the house. Police say none of the neighbors recognize the man.
July 11, 2021 7:56 am
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — The mangled concrete and twisted rebar from the collapsed high-rise near Miami triggered flashbacks for retired Oklahoma City Fire Chief Greg Marrs, who spent weeks with his crew digging through the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in 1995. From afar, Marrs empathized with the Florida teams searching the debris that was once the 12-story Champlain Tower South condominium complex. The scenes in Surfside brought back memories of the urgent search for survivors after the Oklahoma City bombing, followed by the heartbreak of pulling out nothing but bodies, he said. It was the same for other rescuers who responded to past tragedies. They say the crews in Surfside will carry on with the same commitment and care, even though authorities this past week officially gave up on finding any survivors. Joseph Pfeifer, former counterterrorism and emergency preparedness chief for the New York Fire Department, was one of the first commanders on the scene after the World Trade Center towers came down in 2001. He said the Florida crews will preserve any human remains and separate any building pieces that provide clues to the cause of the collapse. When Marrs first saw photos of the Florida collapse, he said, the images were reminiscent of the destruction at the federal building after a truck filled with explosives was detonated outside. The blast killed 168 people.
July 11, 2021 7:55 am
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday made his first public appearance since major intestinal surgery last week, greeting well-wishers as he stood for 10 minutes on a hospital balcony, offering hearty thanks for all the prayers for his recovery and calling health care for all a “precious” good. Francis, 84, has been steadily on the mend, according to the Vatican, following his July 4 scheduled surgery to remove a portion of his colon which had narrowed due to inflammation. But it hasn’t said just when he might be discharged. On the morning after his surgery, a Holy See spokesperson said his hospital stay was expected to last seven days, “barring complications.” At first the pontiff’s voice sounded on the weak side as he began his remarks after stepping onto a balcony outside his special suite at Gemelli Polyclinic at noon (1000 GMT; 6 a.m. EST). That is the hour when traditionally he would have appeared from a window at the Vatican overlooking St. Peter’s Square. Exactly a week earlier, in his noon remarks he had given no hint that in a few hours he would have entered the hospital for surgery that same night.
July 11, 2021 7:54 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The North Korean and Chinese leaders expressed their desire Sunday to further strengthen their ties as they exchanged messages marking the 60th anniversary of their countries’ defense treaty. In a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said it is “the fixed stand” of his government to “ceaselessly develop the friendly and cooperative relations” between the countries, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said. Xi said in his message that China and North Korea have “unswervingly supported each other,” according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. North Korea has been expected to seek greater support from China, its major ally and aid benefactor, as it grapples with economic hardship exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and crippling U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons program. China, for its part, sees preventing a North Korean collapse as crucial to its security interests and would need to boost ties with North Korea and other traditional allies amid fierce rivalry with the United States, some experts say.
July 11, 2021 7:52 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — With just a year and a half left in office, Gov. Tom Wolf’s primary focus will be convincing the Republican-controlled Legislature to modernize how state aid is distributed to Pennsylvania’s public schools — a shift that could carry a price tag of $1 billion. Doing so would direct more money to Pennsylvania’s poorest school districts — including districts with the state’s biggest proportions of Black students — as well as to growing suburban districts whose share of state aid reflects early 1990s demographics or political compromises in the Legislature. In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, the Democratic governor also said he remains dedicated to two initiatives opposed by many Republicans: adding tolls to nine major interstate bridges in need of upgrades and forcing fossil fuel-fired power plants to pay a price for the carbon dioxide they emit. On the proposed bridge tolls, Wolf said he hasn’t seen a better idea to fill the growing highway construction-funding gap worsened by stagnating gasoline tax revenues. On the other, the centerpiece of his agenda to fight climate change, Pennsylvania’s coal-fired power plants have been closing anyway, Wolf said, and his plan at least promises aid to coal communities that lose plants in the future. Wolf, 72, is term-limited and must leave office in January 2023.
July 11, 2021 7:48 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — Allegheny Technologies, Inc. is investigating an incident in which a striking employee was reportedly seen carrying a scythe and wearing a “Grim Reaper” mask and a noose around his neck outside of the company’s plate mill in Washington, Pa., a company spokeswoman said Thursday. Craig Smalls, 53, a replacement worker from Charlotte, N.C., said he and others saw the picketer as they left the plant on Tuesday. An overhead crane operator, Smalls said he’s been working there for two weeks, according to Trib Live. Smalls said that at one point, the employee grabbed the rope to the noose and pointed it at them. “As a Black man, I was very offended,” he said. “We are human. We have families. We are just making a living, too.
July 11, 2021 3:56 am
Antonio Gonzalez pleaded not guilty to nine different charges, including aggravated assault, simple assault, and attempted homicide, at his preliminary hearing. Gonzalez, alongside accomplice Juan Garcia-Hernandez, allegedly attacked an individual on May 24th. Two different surveillance videos caught the incident, which occurred near a Charleroi Sunoco. The victim contacted the EMT after the brawl, where he was later found at a Sunoco with head and back injuries. The exact reason behind their assault is unknown, according to Gonzalez’s defense attorney Renee Colbert. However, Colbert plans to further investigate the footage to “determine how to best defend” Gonzalez. “The District Attorney is going to be providing copies of a video and all written police reports”, said Colbert. Magisterial District Judge Eric Porter waived the case after Gonzalez pleaded not guilty. A formal arraignment will now be scheduled for the Court of Common Pleas.
July 11, 2021 3:49 am
MONESSEN, Pa. (WPXI) — Police are asking for the public’s help to identify a man who robbed a bank in Monessen Friday afternoon. The man entered Citizens Bank on Grand Boulevard shortly after 1:15 p.m. and passed a note to a teller. The teller gave an undisclosed amount of money to the man, who walked out of the bank. The robber was wearing a white Puma hooded sweatshirt, baseball cap, sunglasses and a face covering. Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to call Monessen Police at 724-684-4620. (Photo: WPXI)
