January 30, 2022 8:01 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI)— A team of more than a dozen investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board arrived in Pittsburgh late Friday. Their mission: comb through the debris field left behind to find out why the bridge at Frick Park crumbled. On Friday evening the crew peered out over what once was a bustling thoroughfare for people in the city’s eastern neighborhoods. A crash reconstructionist is on the way and that the team first needs to map the entire area. The NTSB is in charge of investigating significant events related to transportation and infrastructure, finding out how and why incidents happened, preventing them from happening again and to document the scene. The investigator in charge, Dennis Collins, said they will coordinate with local agencies, map the scene and then start removing concrete, steel and vehicles left in the ravine. While too early to tell what happened in this case, Collins described the investigation as “removing layers of an onion.” He said engineers will start by looking for signs of stress in the materials of the bridge, signs of fracture, signs of deterioration and even signs of rust. Collins said every collapse is different and they will not know anything until they get into the debris. NTSB officials said they aim for 12-18 months to complete an investigation but it could be longer depending on the difficulty.
January 30, 2022 1:23 am
Several fire companies were called out to a structure fire in Nottingham Township Friday night. Fire engines from Valley Inn, Finleyville and North Strabane responded to a garage fire on Rocky Lane. The garage was located about 20 yards from a house and fire fighters had the fire under control in about an hour. Water used from fighting the fire caused slick roads and salt trucks were deployed. There were no reported injuries. (Photo credit: North Strabane Twp. Fire Dept. Facebook Page)
January 29, 2022 9:37 am
BANGKOK (AP) – The army takeover in Myanmar a year ago that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi unexpectedly aborted the ongoing restoration of representative democracy in the Southeast Asian country after decades of military rule. But at least as surprising has been the level of popular resistance to the seizure of power, which has blossomed into a low-level but persistent insurgency. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of Myanmar’s military, seized power on the morning of Feb. 1, 2021, arresting Suu Kyi and top members of her government and ruling National League for Democracy party, which had won a landslide election victory in November 2020.
January 29, 2022 9:33 am
HOUSTON (AP) – Two Houston police officers wounded in a Thursday shootout with a suspect have been discharged from the hospital. In a statement Friday, the Houston Police Department said one officer remains hospitalized in stable condition. The statement also identified the man suspected of exchanging gunfire with the officers. Thirty-one-year-old Roland Caballero, who is hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the neck, is charged with three counts of attempted capital murder of a police officer and an aggravated robbery count. It’s unclear from jail and court records if he has an attorney. The shootout came at the end of a police chase.
January 29, 2022 9:29 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection has subpoenaed more than a dozen individuals who it says falsely tried to declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election. The panel is demanding information and testimony from 14 people who the panel says met and submitted false Electoral College certificates from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. President Joe Biden won all seven states. The Justice Department has also received referrals from lawmakers regarding the fake certifications and prosecutors are reviewing them.
January 29, 2022 9:27 am
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) – Authorities say a house fire in central Arkansas left four people dead, including two children. Arkansas State Police say the fire was reported shortly after 10 a.m. Friday. First responders arrived to find the home, located about 3 miles northeast of Hot Springs, fully involved in flames. Firefighters found the bodies of 29-year-old Kayle Arriaga, her two children, 2-year-old Mattie Cummins and 4-year-old Wesley Cummins, and 31-year-old Kenneth Ingram after extinguishing the blaze. No cause has been determined. State Police and fire marshals of the three responding fire departments will investigate.
January 29, 2022 9:24 am
The highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus is driving the daily American death toll higher than during last fall’s delta wave. Deaths are likely to keep rising for days or even weeks. The seven-day rolling average for daily new COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. has been climbing since mid-November. It reached 2,267 on Thursday. That surpasses a September peak of 2,100 when delta was the dominant variant. Now omicron is estimated to account for nearly all the virus circulating in the nation. Andrew Noymer is a public health professor at the University of California, Irvine. He says omicron will push the U.S. over a million deaths.
January 29, 2022 9:21 am
BOSTON (AP) – People from New York City to Maine are awakening to deep snow and high winds as a powerful nor’easter kicks up blizzard conditions. There is potential with Saturday’s storm for widespread power outages and coastal flooding. Parts of 10 states and the population centers of Philadelphia, New York and Boston are in the path of the storm. Boston could get as much as 2 feet of snow. Airlines canceled more than 4,500 flights. Officials warned people to stay off the roads. The storm’s saving grace is its timing. It is hitting on a weekend when schools are closed and few people are commuting to work.
January 29, 2022 3:45 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Rescuers had to rappel nearly 150 feet down a Pittsburgh ravine and form a human chain to reach a few people after a bridge collapsed and took a municipal bus down with it. The collapse early Friday came hours before President Joe Biden visited the city to promote his $1 trillion infrastructure law. At least four people were injured, but there were no deaths. The bridge in a park over Fern Hollow Creek came down just before 7 a.m. The cause was being investigated. The bus driver told WPXI-TV that he believed the bridge was collapsing as soon as he reached it.
January 29, 2022 3:44 am
South Strabane Township will get what they need to formally dissolve the South Strabane Township Sanitary Authority (SSTSA). A hearing on Friday answered debt questions from the Washington-East Washington Joint Authority (WEWJA). In a hearing earlier this week WEWJA made it clear that any further expanded partnership with South Strabane Township would be dependent upon the pay off of all debts from the SSTSA. Township solicitor Dennis Makel presented testimony indicating that a nearly $22,000 loan to PennVest would be paid early next week. Another $600,000 listed as debt is actually two agreements to repay based on sewer tap in fees and not general obligation debts. Makel enlisted testimony from the Washington County Redevelopment Authority’s solicitor to back up that information. Judge Gary Gilman will be granting a permanent injunction against the SSTSA preventing it from any further operation.
