February 1, 2022 3:58 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation says the bridge that collapsed in Pittsburgh last week showed deterioration during a September inspection that wasn’t bad enough to require its closure. PennDOT spokesperson Alexis Campbell said Monday that state and federal laws and the ongoing investigation mean her agency won’t release the full inspection report. The Forbes Avenue bridge over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park collapsed early Friday. Five cars and a municipal bus plummeted into a ravine. A team from the National Transportation Safety Board is using cranes to lift the vehicles out. No one died in the collapse.
February 1, 2022 2:54 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. health regulators have given full approval to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine after reviewing additional data on its safety and effectiveness. The decision Monday by the Food and Drug Administration comes after many tens of millions of Americans have already received the shot under its original emergency authorization. Full approval means FDA has completed the same rigorous, time-consuming review for Moderna’s shot as dozens of other long-established vaccines. Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine received full approval last summer. Public health advocates initially hoped the distinction would boost public confidence in the shots. But there was no discernable bump in vaccinations after the Pfizer decision.
February 1, 2022 2:23 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s highest court is signaling that it may get involved in the process of redrawing Pennsylvania’s congressional district boundaries. The state Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision Monday, put a hold on a lower court’s consideration of proposals for a new map and said it would hear arguments on Democrats’ appeals for it to exercise its “extraordinary jurisdiction” in the matter. A Commonwealth Court judge, Patricia McCullough, has held hearings on competing proposals for new district boundaries after Gov. Tom Wolf and lawmakers deadlocked. Democrats had argued that McCullough should only recommend a map to the high court, not issue an order adopting a particular map that she selects.
February 1, 2022 1:49 am
An East Bethlehem Township man has been accused of dumping a woman’s body by the side of a road in Cecil Township. Twenty-four-year-old Matthew Allen Shashura (right) faces misdemeanor charges of abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence. He is also charged with criminal conspiracy. According to court documents, Shashura is accused of leaving the body of 33-year-old Rebecca Kloster in a wooded area near the 300 block of Hahn Drive, State Police reported her as a missing person on Friday afternoon. The Washington County Coroner’s Office says Kloster’s cause of death is pending an autopsy. A third person is involved has been identified as Christian Panyko (left), who told police that he had been using drugs with Kloster and Shashura in a local hotel. Shashura and Panyko left the hotel to buy more drugs and returned to find Kloster unresponsive. After they tried to revive her they stuffed her body into a car to dump it. State Police are asking that if you have any information about this incident to contact them at 724-223-5200.
January 31, 2022 12:21 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Cheslie Kryst, the 2019 winner of the Miss USA pageant and a correspondent for the entertainment news program “Extra,” has died. Police said the 30-year-old Kryst jumped from a Manhattan apartment building. She was pronounced dead at the scene Sunday morning. Her family confirmed her death in a statement. They said she “embodied love and served others.” Kryst was a former Division I athlete and North Carolina attorney. She was crowned Miss USA in May, 2019. Kryst’s win marked the first time three Black women were the reigning Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss America. (Photo: AP)
January 31, 2022 4:19 am
BOSTON (AP) – The sun was shining on much of the East Coast on Sunday, a day after a vicious nor’easter brought blizzard conditions to many areas, and left more than 100,000 customers without power. Winds that had gusted to more than 80 mph on Saturday had died down, and temperatures climbed into the upper teens and 20s as people emerged from their homes to dig out. The storm dumped snow from Virginia to Maine, but Massachusetts bore the brunt of the fury. The towns of Sharon and Stoughton got more than 2 1/2 feet of snow before the storm moved out. About 35,000 remained without power in Massachusetts by Sunday afternoon.
January 31, 2022 4:17 am
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) – A federal judge has rejected a plea agreement that would have averted a hate crimes trial for the man convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery. Arbery’s parents had denounced the proposed deal for Travis McMichael, and the judge proceeded with plans to summon potential jurors next week. Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, asked the judge to reject the deal and described the U.S. Justice Department’s decision to propose it as “disrespectful.” Proposed plea agreements for father and son Greg and Travis McMichael were filed with the court late Sunday.
January 31, 2022 4:16 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Howard Hesseman, who played the radio disc jockey Dr. Johnny Fever on the sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati” and the actor-turned-history teacher Charlie Moore on “Head of the Class,” has died. He was 81. His manager Robbie Kass said Sunday that Hesseman died Saturday in Los Angeles due to complications from colon surgery. Hesseman, who had himself been a radio DJ in the ’60s, earned two Emmy nominations for playing Johnny Fever on CBS’ “WKRP in Cincinnati,” which ran for four seasons from 1978-1982. The role made Hesseman a counterculture icon at a time when few hippie characters made it onto network television.
January 31, 2022 4:13 am
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Russia accused the West of “whipping up tensions” over Ukraine and said the U.S. had brought “pure Nazis” to power in Kyiv as the U.N. Security Council held a stormy and bellicose debate on Moscow’s troop buildup near its southern neighbor. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield shot back that Russia’s growing military force of more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders was “the largest mobilization” in Europe in decades. The harsh exchanges in the Security Council came as Moscow lost an attempt to block the meeting and reflected the gulf between the two nuclear powers. It was the first open session where all protagonists in the Ukraine crisis spoke publicly even though the U.N.’s most powerful body took no action..
January 31, 2022 4:09 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party committee members are deadlocked on their endorsement vote in the party’s hotly contested primary race for U.S. Senate. Winning an endorsement at Saturday’s meeting was a high hurdle to clear, requiring two-thirds of the party’s roughly 350 committee members. Third-term suburban Pittsburgh Congressman Conor Lamb came closest at 60%. His campaign has worked for months to win favor with committee members. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman suggested that even if his campaign lagged Lamb in popularity with committee members, he is leading the pack in other important ways, including in polls and fundraising.
