September 29, 2020 4:09 am
A Romanian Couple charged with felonies in two jurisdictions faced their preliminary hearing on Monday in front of District Justice Michael Manfredi. Ionel Mihai, 35 and Adela Chiciu, 27 were charged with felony conspiracy, theft, forgery and access device fraud for stealing checks and other valuables from mailboxes at churches in North Strabane Township and Peters Township. The preliminary hearing was a combination hearing between North Strabane and Peters Township judiciaries in order to streamline an already difficult case. The couple is from Romania and does not speak English. An interpreter was used to help the couple understand the hearing. Detectives Gary Scherer from the North Strabane Police Department and Evan Caruso from the Peters Township Police Department testified to video evidence of the couple stealing from mailboxes. Evidence turned over by Northwest Bank proved the forging of endorsements on checks deposited into accounts opened by the couple. The couple was arrested at a hotel near Washington. They have no address in the United States and are considered homeless. Manfredi was asked to modify bail but he declined to change the decisions of two other justices. Mihai and Chiciu are being held in the Washington County jail without bond.
September 29, 2020 4:05 am
Washington City Council Department reports included a review of the audit of the city’s expenditures for 2019. Reports also brought about complaints that have been plaguing the Seventh Ward playground. Comments from the public continued about people at the park at all hours of the night, illicit activities and people having parties and leaving their trash. Council authorized the erection of a fence around the property to eliminate access. Council will also be entering a cooperation agreement with The Dreamers Company to enhance and develop the property. The Dreamers Company will also assist in obtaining a grant to help offset the cost of the park’s improvements. Council will formalize the actions at their regular meeting on October 1.
September 29, 2020 4:01 am
Peters Township Council moved quickly through their agenda on Monday night. The highlight of the meeting was authorizing the acceptance of a grant from the Washington County Redevelopment Authority for $160,000. The matching grant will allow the development of a connector to allow people using Arrowhead Trail to gain access to the new Rolling Hills Park. Phase one of the park’s development is going out to bid this week, and the connector will be part of that development. At the other end of the park, the realignment of East McMurray Road is going on. The realignment is in place and paving is expected to begin shortly. Township Manager Paul Lauer says the project is on budget and on time. The brand new intersection with a traffic signal will be complete in January 2021.
September 28, 2020 5:23 pm
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Northern California’s wine country was on fire again as strong winds fanned flames in the already scorched region, prompting evacuation orders involving more than 50,000 people. Residents of the Oakmont Gardens assisted living home in Santa Rosa boarded brightly lit city buses overnight, some wearing bathrobes and using walkers. The Adventist Health St. Helena hospital suspended care and transferred all patients elsewhere. The fires that began Sunday in the famed Napa-Sonoma wine country north of San Francisco came on the third anniversary of deadly wildfires that erupted in 2017, including one that killed 22 people.
September 28, 2020 5:21 pm
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – The lone Kentucky detective charged in connection with the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor has pleaded not guilty. Brett Hankison’s plea Monday comes five days after a grand jury indicted him on three counts of “wanton endangerment” for firing into the home of Taylor’s neighbors. Hankison was one of three undercover narcotics detectives who opened fire inside Taylor’s house on the night of March 13 during a botched drug raid. A grand jury last week declined to charge Hankison or the other two officers who fired their weapons with Taylor’s fatal shooting. The decision set off protests in downtown Louisville and across the country.
September 28, 2020 3:37 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is expected to announce the shipment of millions of rapid coronavirus tests to states this week. He plans to urge governors to use them to reopen schools. An administration official tells the Associated Press the federal government aims to ship 100 million tests to states over the next several weeks. The move to dramatically expand testing comes just five weeks before the November elections as Trump continues to face criticism for his handling of the coronavirus. The rapid tests from Abbott laboratories can be used outside of medical facilities. But experts warn they are less accurate and harder to track than older laboratory tests.
September 28, 2020 3:21 pm
LAKE JACKSON, Texas (AP) – Environmental officials in Texas have lifted a warning for a final Houston-area community to stop using tap water because it might be tainted with a deadly brain-eating microbe, but with a warning that the water should be boiled before being consumed. Earlier this month, 6-year-old Josh McIntyre died after contracting the microbe, naegleria fowleri.
The investigation into his death led to the detection of the brain-eating amoeba after heath officials conducted water sample tests. Lake Jackson City Manager Modesto Mundo said in a news release that three of 11 sample tests indicated preliminary positive results for the brain-eating microbe, with one sample coming from a hose bib at the boy’s home, Mundo. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality late Saturday lifted a warning for Lake Jackson not to use the water and replaced it with a notice to boil the water for drinking and cooking. They also advised residents to prevent water from getting into their nose when bathing, showering, swimming and washing their face. State and local officials are working to flush and disinfect the water system. Until the flushing and disinfecting process is complete, the city remains under the boil notice.
September 28, 2020 2:50 pm
(WPXI) – Officials with the Pittsburgh Steelers will be speaking with the Pennsylvania Department of Health this week about allowing fans back in Heinz Field. A team spokesman confirmed the call but did not say exactly when it will take place. Last week, the team said they were “optimistic” a limited amount of fans could return for home games in October. A source close to the situation says Pitt officials will also be speaking with the state this week about fans returning in some capacity. So far, the governor’s office has not replied to a request for comment.
September 28, 2020 1:52 pm
A well-known entrepreneur in Washington County has died. Ninety-two-year-old Jack Piatt of Chartiers Township, died Friday. Piatt may be best-known for the launch of Millcraft in 1957, as a small machine shop that grew into a diverse company with ties to several industries, and as the visionary behind Southpointe, a mixed use development project that now covers some eight-hundred acres in Cecil Township. Funeral arrangements are private but the family says it hopes to hold a “Celebration of Life” sometime next year.
September 28, 2020 7:47 am
Classes continue under their normal hybrid schedule in the Trinity School District Monday. The district notified parents Sunday that an “individual that works at Trinity North and Trinity East has tested positive for COVID-19”. According to the letter, “the individual will not return to our schools until they have completed isolation procedures”. “Impacted areas of our schools have been thoroughly cleaned and sanitized”. The letter, signed by Assistant Superintendent Dr. Donald Snoke says the individual had “only a few close staff contacts” and “currently, we have not identified any students that would be considered close contacts with this staff member”. The district says that a second confirmed case at Trinity North or Trinity East prior to October 8 would result in a short closure of the school buildings. The district is currently surveying parents as they look to move to five-day-a-week in-class learning beginning next month. Students also have the option of all online learning five days a week.
