November 16, 2021 7:57 am
Matthew Vasquez, 33 pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to commit fraud in the latest chapter for the Pagan Motorcycle Club member who was convicted of a brutal assault of a rival club member in 2019. Vasquez was heard on recorded phone calls making plans to hide two motorcycles to keep them from being repossessed while he was serving time in the Washington County Jail. Vasquez is currently serving 21 ½ to 43 years in SCI Albion for aggravated assault. Vasquez was sentenced to an additional two years of probation that will begin once he is done serving his current sentence.
November 16, 2021 7:56 am
A Hickory man who took his laptop computer to an office supply store for service and was found to have child pornography pleaded no contest to felony child pornography and criminal use of a communications device. Riley Carl, 87 also pleaded no contest to indecent assault of a minor under 13. In addition to the child pornography charge, Riley was arrested for fondling a five year old girl in his residence between 2011 and 2017. Riley was sentenced to 9-23 months in the Washington County Jail for the indecent assault of a minor charge. After that sentence, he will serve two-five year probation sentences for the child pornography and criminal use of communications charges. Those sentences will run concurrently. Carl is being held currently in the Washington County Jail.
November 16, 2021 7:24 am
LONDON (AP) – Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has signed a deal with a U.N.-backed group to allow other manufacturers to make its experimental COVID-19 pill. The move could help make the treatment available to more than half of the world’s population. In a statement on Tuesday, Pfizer said it would grant a license for the antiviral pill to the Medicines Patent Pool. The agreement lets generic drug companies make the pill for use in 95 countries. The deal excludes some large countries with manufacturing capacity. But health officials say the fact that the deal was struck before Pfizer’s pill has been authorized anywhere could help end the pandemic more quickly.
November 16, 2021 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon has appeared before a judge to face federal contempt charges for defying a subpoena from a House committee investigating January’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Bannon appeared briefly before a federal magistrate judge in Washington on Monday, hours after he surrendered to FBI agents. But he did not enter a plea and is due back in court on Thursday. The 67-year-old was indicted on Friday on two counts of criminal contempt. He said combatively outside court that he would be “taking on the Biden regime” in fighting the charges His indictment came as a second expected witness, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, defied a separate subpoena from the committee on Friday.
November 16, 2021 4:15 am
AURORA, Colo. (AP) – Police say six teenagers were wounded in a drive-by shooting in a park near a suburban Denver high school, but all are expected to survive. The victims in Monday’s shooting range in age from 14 to 18. Aurora police chief Vanessa Wilson says are all students at Aurora Central High School. She says multiple rounds from different guns were found at the scene and some may have also been fired by someone on foot. Police are asking for neighbors and other bystanders to share any videos or photos from phones or house surveillance systems that might help detectives identify suspects, who still haven’t been apprehended.
November 16, 2021 4:14 am
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) – The jury has begun deliberating at Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial after two weeks of testimony in which they were given starkly different portrayals of his actions the night he shot three men on the streets of Kenosha. Prosecutors say Rittenhouse was a “wannabe soldier” who provoked a confrontation, while the defense says he feared for his life and acted in self-defense after being ambushed by a “crazy person.” Eighteen jurors have been hearing the case; the 12 who will decide Rittenhouse’s fate and the six who were designated alternates were determined by a drawing from a raffle drum. Rittenhouse, then 17, shot two men to death and wounded a third during a tumultuous night of protests against racial injustice in the summer of 2020.
November 16, 2021 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden has signed his hard-fought $1 trillion infrastructure deal into law before a bipartisan, celebratory crowd on the White House lawn. Biden declared that the infusion of cash for roads, bridges, ports and more is going to make life “change for the better” for Americans. But prospects are grim for further bipartisanship ahead of the 2022 midterm elections as Biden pivots back to more difficult negotiations for his broader $1.85 trillion social spending package. The president hopes to use the infrastructure law to build back his popularity, which has taken a hit amid rising inflation and the inability to fully shake the risks of COVID-19.
November 16, 2021 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping are agreeing they need to tread carefully as their nations find themselves in an increasingly fraught competition. The two leaders talked for more than three hours Monday by video amid mounting tensions in the U.S.-China relationship. Facing domestic pressures at home, both Biden and Xi seemed determined to lower the temperature in what is their most significant – and frequently turbulent – relationship on the global stage. Biden said they have a responsibility to ensure that competition between their countries doesn’t veer into conflict. Xi also was cordial, saying China and the U.S. need to increase communication and cooperation.
November 16, 2021 4:08 am
The Washington County Coroner’s office has identified the woman killed in a one-vehicle crash late Monday night in South Franklin Township. 35 year old Abbey Rhoades of Washington was pronounced dead in the emergency room of Washington Hospital. The coroner’s office says she was traveling north along Moore Road around 10:30 p.m. when she lost control of the vehicle. It struck a tree and then caught fire. A cause and manner of death are pending investigation. State Police are handling the investigation.
November 16, 2021 1:45 am
COVID-19 is hitting the Washington City Police Department hard. Washington’s Finance Director, Joe Manning, has confirmed to WJPA News that five additional police officers have contracted COVID – in addition to six officers who tested positive last week. This brings to eleven, out of thirty officers in the department who are out with the coronavirus. Manning says they are still okay as far as public safety goes, because officers are continuing to work overtime in order to maintain minimum staffing. Manning says most of the officers who have tested positive are okay and are not dealing with serious issues. He says they are still not sure how they contracted the virus, but, since the first case was detected they have been sanitizing their work areas and most of the staff at the police station are getting tested out of an abundance of caution. Chief Robert Wilson had said earlier that some of the officers who tested positive were vaccinated and some were not. For the foreseeable future, Manning says officers will continue to run one-man cars, wearing masks inside the police station and when dealing with the public and maintaining social distancing with one another.
