October 27, 2019 8:04 am
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (WPXI)– A flight attendant based out of Phoenix, Arizona has filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines, alleging she witnessed two pilots livestreaming video from the plane’s bathroom to an iPad in the cockpit and saying she was retaliated against when she brought the concerns to light, according to the Arizona Republic. Renee Steinaker filed the suit in federal court for the District of Arizona and claims the alleged incident occurred on Flight 1088 between Pittsburgh and Phoenix on Feb. 27, 2017. According to reports, several hours into the flight, Steinaker was asked to come to the cockpit so the pilot could use the restroom. Southwest’s policy requires two crew members in the cockpit at all times. Steinaker claims in the lawsuit that as she entered the cockpit, she saw an iPad mounted on the windshield with a livestream showing the pilot in the bathroom. The pilot allegedly told Steinaker that it was a new, top-secret security measure installed in all Southwest Airlines planes. As claimed in the suit, she reported the incident to Southwest and was told to not talk to anybody about the alleged incident. Southwest sent a statement to the Arizona Republic, saying in part: “The safety and security of our employees and customers is Southwest’s uncompromising priority. As such, Southwest does not place cameras in the lavatories of our aircraft. At this time, we have no other comment on the pending litigation.”
October 26, 2019 10:08 am
MOSCOW (AP) – Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman says Maria Butina, who returned to Moscow on Saturday after serving a sentence in the United States for being a covert agent, is a victim of entrenched anti-Russian attitudes. “This is what, unfortunately, the previous U.S. administration started – trying to destroy the bilateral relationship,” Maria Zakharova told reporters at Sheremetyevo airport after Butina arrived. Since the election of President Donald Trump, Russian officials have consistently blamed troubled relations on so-called “Russophobia” carried over from the administration of President Barack Obama. Butina, 30, admitted that she and a former Russian lawmaker worked to leverage contacts in the National Rifle Association to pursue back channels to American conservatives. “She really did no harm to anybody. She’s just a girl, she’s just a young woman. She tried to invest her youth, if you wish, her gift, her talent, into people-to-people contacts,” Zakhar
October 26, 2019 4:18 am
ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) – General Motors workers voted 57.2% in favor of a new contract with the company, ending a 40-day strike. The United Auto Workers union says Friday that the contract was approved 23,389 to 17,501. The vote means that workers will put down their picket signs and return to their jobs. Some will start as early as Friday night, and some production could resume on Saturday. Skilled trades workers will begin restarting factories that were shuttered when 49,000 workers walked out on Sept. 16. The deal includes a mix of wage increases and lump-sum payments and an $11,000 signing bonus. But GM will close three U.S. factories. The union has decided that it will now bargain with Ford.
October 26, 2019 4:17 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The Pentagon has awarded Microsoft a $10 billion cloud computing contract called JEDI . The contentious bidding process for the contract pitted Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle, among others, against one another. Bidding for the huge government contract has attracted more attention than usual, sparked by speculation early in the process that Amazon would be awarded the deal. Tech giants Oracle and IBM pushed back with their own bids. Oracle also challenged the bid process in federal court, but lost . The resulting system will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the U.S. military to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities. Microsoft and Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
October 26, 2019 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A judge has ordered the Justice Department to give House Democrats secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell made the directive in a brief order on Friday. Democrats had requested that the department provide the material, which was redacted from Mueller’s report, as part of their ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. Justice Department lawyers argued at a hearing earlier this month that House Democrats already had sufficient evidence from Mueller’s investigation, including copies of summaries of FBI witness interviews.
October 26, 2019 4:06 am
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (WPXI) – A person was taken to the hospital after being hit by a Port Authority bus on a Route 65 on-ramp in Pittsburgh. The incident happened around 7 p.m. Friday on the ramp leading to Route 65 (Ohio River Boulevard) from Beaver Avenue, according to Port Authority officials. That bus, which was not in service at the time, struck a person who was in the street. PAT officials said the victim was not in a crosswalk or in an area designed for pedestrians. That person, who has not yet been identified, was taken to the hospital for arm and facial injuries. Their condition was not specified. Police are currently investigating the crash.
October 26, 2019 4:02 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) – Sharena Nancy has been charged with homicide two months after she allegedly kidnaped 2-year-old Nalani Johnson and abandoned her in a park. Nalani was abducted in Penn Hills on Aug. 31 and her body was discovered on Sept. 4 in Pine Ridge Park in Indiana County. The coroner has determined that Nalani’s manner of death was homicide. Nancy is now charged with criminal homicide and abuse of a corpse on top of her previous charges of kidnapping a minor, concealing the whereabouts of a child and interference with custody of children.
October 26, 2019 4:01 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. – Sixty-six-year-old Jan Ondra, the South Strabane Township man accused of violating his bond on a child luring charge from June of this year had his bond revocation hearing continued once again. Ondra is accused of violating a court order to not have contact with children. He is accused of approaching 3 children at the Synergy Performing Arts Academy, in North Strabane Township, by offering them candy on September 28th. The October 25th hearing was a continuance from an earlier hearing where defense counsel asked for more time to produce video evidence that could clear Ondra. During the hearing both sides presented evidence and testimony to the events of September 28th but ultimately the District Attorney’s Office asked for a second continuance to allow them time to secure further video surveillance evidence and contact a new possible eye witness to the alleged encounter. Judge Gary Gilman granted the prosecution’s request and scheduled a hearing for November 1 at 10:00 a.m.
October 25, 2019 5:54 pm
DUBLIN, Calif. (AP) – Authorities say actress Felicity Huffman has been released from a federal prison in California on the 11th day of a 14-day sentence for her role in the college admissions scandal. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons says the “Desperate Housewives” star was released from the low-security prison for women in the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday morning. Under prison policy, inmate scheduled for weekend release are let out on Friday. (Photo: CNN)
October 25, 2019 5:45 pm
Sixty-six-year-old Jan Ondra, the South Strabane Township man accused of violating his bond on a child luring charge from June of this year had his bond revocation hearing continued once again. Ondra is accused of violating a court order to not have contact with children. He is accused of approaching 3 children at the Synergy Performing Arts Academy, in North Strabane Township, by offering them candy on September 28th. The October 25th hearing was a continuance from an earlier hearing where defense counsel asked for more time to produce video evidence that could clear Ondra. During the hearing both sides presented evidence and testimony to the events of September 28th but ultimately the District Attorney’s Office asked for a second continuance to allow them time to secure further video surveillance evidence and contact a new possible eye witness to the alleged encounter. Judge Gary Gilman granted the prosecution’s request and scheduled a hearing for November 1 at 10:00 a.m.
