December 11, 2021 2:42 am
(WPXI) – A convicted sex offender was arrested after he allegedly tried to take a 13-year-old girl he’d been messaging on social media out of Connellsville Area Middle School on Wednesday. Jason Meals, 32, drove three hours from his home in Erie, Pennsylvania, to pick up the victim from school. According to the criminal complaint, Meals identified himself as the victim’s uncle and said he was there to take her to a doctor’s appointment. The complaint says that Meals stated the victim told him that she did not have anyone to take her to the appointment and her parents were OK with him doing so. The victim and her sister told school officials they did not know who he was, according to the complaint. Meals also said that he never spoke with the victim’s parents or anyone at the school to confirm. The criminal complaint says that during a police interview, Meals admitted that he had been talking to the victim on Snapchat for a few days and that he knew she was 13. He claimed she knew he was 32 years old.
December 11, 2021 1:52 am
The Little Lake Theatre is always looking to be more inclusive for its audiences. Next fall they will take a big step in having deaf audience members and performers take part in a live stage performance. Little Lake Theatre and the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf will team up and perform the musical “Captain Louie, Jr.” employing both deaf and hearing actors. The hearing actors will take part in a 10 week course in American Sign Language (ASL). The production will be performed using voice and ASL. The production is the first of its kind for this area as far as local theatre goes. Normally this mixed performance is reserved for professional troupes that travel the country. This project was made possible through the Pennsylvania Neighborhood Assistance Program funded through the Department of Community and Economic Development. They reached out to Little Lake Theatre and John LaCarte of LaCarte Enterprises in Charleroi and teamed them up to allow LaCarte to make a donation and receive a $16,500 tax credit. A project like this is close to the hearts of both LaCarte and Jena Oberg, Artistic Director of Little Lake Theatre. LaCarte has a child with disabilities and he says this project checked all of his boxes for donation. It is an inclusive program for those with disabilities and he feels theatre is an activity that promotes inclusiveness. Oberg has a daughter who is deaf and a student of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. She is particularly proud to be able to bring this performance not just to Little Lake Theatre, but also to the students of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. The performance of “Captain Louie, Jr.” will open October 6, 2022.
December 10, 2021 1:56 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Michael Nesmith, the wool-hatted, guitar-strumming member of the 1960s, made-for-television rock band The Monkees, has died at 78. His family says Nesmith died Friday of natural causes. Nesmith was a struggling singer-songwriter in 1966 when he saw a trade-publication ad seeking “four insane boys” for a zany TV show about a rock band modeled after the Beatles. He quickly became Mike, the show’s serious but often naive lead guitarist. After the show ended, Nesmith went on to several successful careers. He recorded more than a dozen non-Monkees albums, wrote several books and dozens of songs. He also founded two entertainment companies.
December 10, 2021 10:24 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court has ruled that Texas abortion providers can sue over the state’s ban on most abortions, but the justices are allowing the law to remain in effect. The court acted Friday, more than a month after hearing arguments over the law that makes abortion illegal after cardiac activity is detected in an embryo. That’s around six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. áThe law has been in place since Sept. 1.
December 10, 2021 9:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Prices for U.S. consumers jumped 6.8% in November compared with a year earlier as surging costs for food, energy, housing and other items left Americans enduring their highest annual inflation rate since 1982. The Labor Department also reported Friday that from October to November, prices jumped 0.8%. Inflation has been intensifying pressure on consumers, especially lower-income households and particularly for everyday necessities. It has also negated the higher wages many workers have received, complicated the Federal Reserve’s plans to reduce its aid for the economy and coincided with flagging public support for President Joe Biden.
December 10, 2021 7:48 am
LONDON (AP) – A British appellate court has opened the door for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States. The High Court in London overturned a lower court that found Assange’s mental health was too fragile to withstand the American penal system. A judge earlier this year refused a U.S. request to extradite Assange to face spying charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago. The judge said Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. The appellate court ruled Friday that U.S. assurances were enough to guarantee Assange would be treated humanely. Assange’s fiancé says the decision will be appealed.
December 10, 2021 4:19 am
CHICAGO (AP) – A jury has convicted Jussie Smollett on five of six charges he staged a racist, anti-gay attack on himself and lied to Chicago police about it. The jury returned the verdict Thursday afternoon against the former “Empire” actor. Smollett’s attorney says he will appeal. Defense attorney Nenye Uche says Smollett is disappointed and “100% innocent.” Special prosecutor Dann Webb says the jury’s verdict is “a resounding message” that the performer staged the attack and lied about it to police. Two brothers testified during the nearly two-week trial that Smollett paid them to fake the January 2019 attack in downtown Chicago. Smollett repeatedly denied their claims.
December 10, 2021 4:17 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Ralph Tavares, the eldest of the five brothers in the Grammy-winning R&B singing group Tavares, has died. The group’s hits included 1975’s “It Only Takes a Minute” and 1976’s “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel.” Tavares manager David Oriola says Ralph Tavares died Wednesday at his home in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. He was 79. His group’s version of the Bee Gees’ “More Than a Woman” appeared on the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack along with the original. The soundtrack won a Grammy for album of the year and was a massive hit, giving the brothers wider fame.
December 10, 2021 4:15 am
TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico (AP) – Mexican rescue workers rushing to a highway accident found a horrific scene of death and injury after a freight truck jammed with as many as 200 migrants tipped over and crashed into the base of a steel pedestrian bridge Mexico. The migrants inside the cargo trailer were flipped, tossed and crushed into a pile that mingled the living and the dead. By late Thursday, the death toll stood at 53, and authorities said at least 54 people had been injured in the crash in southern Mexico. It was one of the worst single-day death tolls for migrants in Mexico since the 2010 massacre of 72 migrants by the Zetas drug cartel in the northern state of Tamaulipas.
December 10, 2021 4:13 am
HELENA, Mont. (AP) – This winter, more motorists may find themselves stuck on snowy highways or have their travel delayed due to a shortage of snowplow drivers. States from Washington to Pennsylvania and some in the Rocky Mountains are having trouble finding enough people willing to take the comparatively low-paying jobs that require a Commercial Driver’s License and often entail working at odd hours in dangerous conditions. States are warning that it could take longer for the plows to clear highways during winter storms. State transportation departments are competing for drivers with trucking companies with the ability to increase pay and offer signing bonuses. And trucking companies are short on drivers, too.
