January 10, 2025 2:24 am
Washington City Council approved their measure to implement the 2025 fee for solid waste collection and alter the fee collection calendar. The fee for this year will be $300 until June 1. A late fee of $50 will be assessed from June 2 through October 31. On November 1 through December 31 the charge will be $350 plus fines and penalties. Council also had a first reading of two ordinances that expect to be passed next month. Those ordinances will address fees and collection timelines for the Business Privilege Tax and Mercantile Tax. According to Mayor JoJo Burgess, council has worked with their solicitor to determine practices to more aggressively collect taxes not being paid by businesses in the city and assess fines for non-compliance. A 2025 tax hike in the city has angered council and they are determined to make sure that residents are not saddled with taxes that should be paid by business owners. In other city business council hired two new police officers and two new fire fighters. They also re-allocated $152,000 in LSA funding to be used for the “President’s Pathway Project.” It is a pathway that will lead students from Washington And Jefferson into the city so they may take advantage of the restaurants and shops.
January 10, 2025 2:20 am
Washington County Commissioners unanimously approved a new person to serve as Chairman of the Local Share Account Committee. Mark Hrutkay of South Strabane was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Jeff Kotula earlier this week. Hrutkay is the former Director of Human Resources at CONSOL Energy. According to Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman, Hrutkay has also worked with the Republican Party in Washington County, he is a philanthropist and he and his wife have established a veternary service facility in South Strabane. Hrutkay has never served on the LSA Committee. Kotula served as chairman of the LSA Committee since 2008. Given Kotula’s lengthy term as chairman we asked if term limits on appointed positions to the committee could be a possibility. Sherman said that term limits would be a good thing to have but no plans are under consideration at this time.
January 10, 2025 12:48 pm
(WPXI) – The man accused in the shooting death of another man found inside an abandoned building on 11th Street in Beaver Falls was arrested Thursday. Daniel Felo II was captured by the U.S. Marshal Service task force in Connellsville, with the help of Beaver Falls police and Connellsville police. Felo is charged in the shooting death of Eric Mason. Mason was shot and killed and his body was discovered on the afternoon of Dec. 30. Witnesses have provided critical details to investigators. One witness overheard Felo discussing the murder, claiming Mason had “ratted” on his friend leading to a 15-year prison sentence. Another witness came forward saying Felo demonstrated how Mason fell after being shot.
January 10, 2025 2:15 am
(WPXI) – An elected state constable is behind bars and facing drug charges out of Fayette County. Michael Scott Mucy, 58, is a state constable for Redstone Township. Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele said he was charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. Police say that the drug was methamphetamine. Charges were filed on Wednesday. Court dockets say Mucy was unable to post bail. He will appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 28th.
January 10, 2025 5:03 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Officials say the two biggest wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area this week have burned at least 10,000 homes, buildings and other structures. Officials have urged more people to heed evacuation orders Thursday after a new blaze ignited. The fast-moving Kenneth Fire started in the late afternoon in the San Fernando Valley near the West Hills neighborhood and has moved into Ventura County. Only hours earlier, officials expressed encouragement after firefighters aided by calmer winds saw the first signs of successfully beating back the fires. At least 10 people have died.
January 10, 2025 5:05 am
DALLAS (AP) — Another blast of winter storms is closing schools, snarling flights and putting millions of residents on alert across parts of the Deep South and south-central U.S. The National Weather Service says heavy snowfall and icy conditions are likely Friday in Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Schools have been closed in many places expecting nasty weather as far east as South Carolina. The storm started dumping a mix of sleet and heavy snow Thursday in north Texas and Oklahoma, where schools canceled classes for more than 1 million students. Closures also kept students home in Kansas City and Arkansas.
January 10, 2025 5:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has denied a bid to block the public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down a emergency challenge aimed at keeping under wraps the report expected to detail unflattering revelations about Trump’s failed effort to cling to power in the election he lost to President Joe Biden. A separate volume of the same special counsel report — related to Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate — will not become public while the case against two co-defendants of the president-elect remains pending, the Justice Department has said.
January 10, 2025 5:09 am
Global temperatures in 2024 soared to yet another record level, but this time it was such a big jump that Earth temporarily passed a major symbolic climate threshold. Three government climate agencies in Europe and Japan say last year’s global average temperature easily passed 2023’s record heat and kept pushing even higher. It breaks the long-term warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s that was set as a target by the 2015 Paris climate pact. A European team calculated 1.6 degrees Celsius (2.89 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming. American agencies are expected to have similar results later Friday.
January 10, 2025 12:43 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Anita Bryant, a former Miss Oklahoma and popular singer who became known over the second half of her life for her outspoken opposition to gay rights, has died. She was 84. Starting in the early 1960s, she had several hit singles and had performed at the White House and the political conventions for both parties. But in the late 1970s, her life and career began a dramatically new path. Bryant led a successful campaign to repeal an ordinance in Florida’s Miami-Dade County that would have prohibited discrimination against gay people. Her career in entertainment soon declined. Supported by the Rev. Jerry Falwell among others, she continued to oppose gay rights around the country. The family did not list a cause of death. (Photo: AP)
January 9, 2025 2:25 pm
Police have identified the three people found dead in a home in Butler City on Tuesday. Officers said they were called to 109 College Street in Butler City for reports of a dead person. They found that person and two other people dead from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning. Two other people were taken to a hospital from the scene. The three victims were identified as Thomas Reges, 62, from Butler, Wendy Schettig, 48, of Butler, and Jimmy Anderson, 69, from Virginia. Firefighters said they detected extremely high levels of Carbon Monoxide in the house. Police have learned another person was at the house a few days before the three people were found dead. That person was also taken to a hospital. That person was unaware of what made them sick and was released in good condition. The CO detectors were disabled in the house. They believe that could have been done by the residents. There is not a gas leak issue, police said. The house is currently inhabited. All residents in the area are considered safe.
