April 23, 2021 4:10 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A Pittsburgh suburb is honoring pro wrestler Bruno Sammartino by renaming a park in the longtime resident’s honor. Relatives and friends on Friday will be on hand as Sangree Park in Ross Township becomes Sammartino Park. Sammartino lived in the community for more than 50 years. Sammartino appeared in the ring between 1963 and 1987. He was the longest reigning champion in World Wrestling Entertainment history and was a member of its Hall of Fame. Sammartino was born in Italy and his family joined his father in Pittsburgh in 1950. Sammartino died in 2018 at age 82.
April 23, 2021 4:08 am
MEHOOPANY, Pa. (AP) – A helicopter crashed in rural northeastern Pennsylvania, killing one, authorities said Friday. The wreckage of a privately owned Robinson R44 copter was found in a remote area of Wyoming County on Thursday night after the agency had issued an alert about a missing aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration said. According to the FAA, the flight had departed Allentown Queen Municipal Airport in Allentown and was headed to Bradford County Airport in Towanda when it went down. The crash sparked a fire. One person was killed, state police said, but that person’s name has not been released. The Robinson R44 is a four-seat light helicopter that has been in production since 1992. The National Transportation Safety Board will be in charge of the investigation.
April 23, 2021 4:06 am
Authorities are investigating the cause of a fire in Monessen late Thursday night. Firefighters from several departments were called out around ten-thirty to reports of a fire at a three-story wooden-frame house on McKee Avenue. Emergency dispatchers said that when crews arrived on the scene, flames could be seen going through the roof. The flames became so intense that at one point, firefighters were ordered out of the structure and told to fight the blaze from the exterior. Authorities say everyone inside was able to make it out safely.
April 22, 2021 12:43 pm
Power has been restored to more than three-hundred customers of West Penn Power in Cecil Township. The power was knocked out around six-thirty Thursday morning after a rollover crash at 285 Papp Road. Authorities say the driver, who refused treatment, was driving a vehicle that slammed into a utility pole and brought down power lines. A section of the roadway between Klinger and Cecil-Henderson Road was closed while crews repaired the damage.
April 22, 2021 9:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republicans have unveiled a public works proposal with a much smaller price tag than what President Joe Biden wants. The $568 billion plan unveiled Thursday shows there are big differences between the two sides that will be hard to overcome. The Republican proposal would spend $568 billion over five years, while Biden has proposed spending $2.3 trillion over eight years. To help pay for their plan, the Republicans would rely on user fees and on redirecting unspent federal dollars. The Republicans reject Biden’s proposal to pay for infrastructure by raising the corporate tax rate.
April 22, 2021 4:17 am
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The fatal shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Kiah Bryant as she swung a knife toward another girl has raised questions about why the Ohio officer chose to fire his weapon. Interim Columbus Police Chief Michael Woods has been forced to defend training policies common to police agencies that allow for the use of deadly force to stop a threat. Woods has also defended the use of a gun over a stun gun and firing at Bryant’s torso instead of her leg. Ma’Kiah was shot four times just seconds after Officer Nicholas Reardon arrived responding to a disturbance call.
April 22, 2021 4:15 am
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) – A prosecutor says the man accused of killing 10 people at a crowded Colorado supermarket last month had armed himself with 10 high-capacity ammunition magazines. The devices have been banned in the state since 2013 after previous mass shootings in the state. Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told reporters Thursday that 22-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa possessed the magazines unlawfully but that investigators don’t believe Alissa purchased the magazines illegally. Magazines that hold more than 15 rounds were banned in Colorado after the 2012 mass shootings at a suburban Denver movie theater and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
April 22, 2021 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A decades-long movement to reshape the American political map took has taken a further step. The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill to make the nation’s capital the 51st state. That’s áthe easy part, though. Now the proposal faces a far tougher fight in the Senate, where simple Democratic control of the chamber won’t be enough, and where full party-line unity among Democrats is no guarantee. The legislation proposes creating a 51st state with one representative and two senators, while a tiny sliver of land including the White House, the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall would remain as a federal district. The new state would be known as Washington, Douglass Commonwealth – named after abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
April 22, 2021 4:13 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Delivering the eulogy at Daunte’s Wright’s funeral Thursday, the Rev. Al Sharpton called the 20-year-old father a prince. Wright, a Black man, was shot and killed by a white police officer during an April 11 traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb. Sharpton says mourners came “from all over the country because you hurt one of our princes.” Wright’s mother says he called her just before he was shot, telling her he had been pulled over for having an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror, which is a traffic violation in Minnesota. Sharpton says the police “thought he was just some kid with an air freshener. He was a prince!” Police have said Wright was pulled over for having expired license plate tags. A white Brooklyn Center police officer shot the 20-year-old during a traffic stop. Her chief said it appeared the officer mistakenly used her gun instead of her Taser. The officer resigned soon after and is charged with second-degree manslaughter. Wright’s killing came amid increasing tension during the weekslong trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer who killed Floyd.
April 22, 2021 4:11 am
PITCAIRN, Pa. (AP) – A rabid bat has bitten one child in Pennsylvania, and health officials are urging the parents of three other children who might have handled the bat to seek medical attention for them. The animal was captured on Monday in Pitcairn, about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh. A resident brought it to the Allegheny County Health Department for testing the following day. County health officials said Thursday that the bat tested positive for rabies. At least one child was bitten and was taken to a hospital for treatment. The Health Department says that several children might have passed the bat around.
