September 28, 2019 7:47 am
Several area men were formally arraigned with attempted homicide charges in Washington County Court. The arraignment in front of Judge John DiSalle was in connection with an assault by alleged members of the Pagan Motorcycle Club. The assault occurred on April 18 at the Slovak Club in Charleroi. Troy Harris was the victim and suffered severe head trauma causing a stroke and cognitive problems. Arraigned before DiSalle were Matthew James Vasquez, 30 of Monessen; Joseph Olinsky, 46 of McKeesport; Corey Adam Volk, 24 of West Newton; Paul Corcoran, 54 of Charleroi; John Sadvary, 39 of Penn Hills; Joshua Pagliei, 43 of Monongahela and Jason Huff, 40 of Plum. All are charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault and other related conspiracies. Brian Keruskin, 57 of Charleroi is facing charges of conspiracy to attempt homicide, conspiracy to commit both simple and aggravated assault and solicitation to tamper or fabricate evidence. Arraigned earlier this month with charges of conspiracy were Zachary Yagnich, 27 a Slovak Club Officer and Jamie Granato, 28 of Monessen who was Vasquez’s fiancé at the time of the attack. The Judge set December 9 as the date for jury selection.
September 28, 2019 4:26 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A U.S. judge says she will block Trump administration rules for the detention of immigrant children, calling them inconsistent with a longstanding agreement that lays out conditions for their custody. The decision came Friday after a hearing where attorneys for detained immigrant children said the rules would let the U.S. government keep kids locked up indefinitely and in facilities that aren’t licensed by the state. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles said the Flores settlement reached in 1997 remains in place and she will issue an injunction blocking the new rules from taking effect. The longstanding settlement governs the detention conditions for immigrant children caught on the Mexico border.
September 28, 2019 4:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO caught in the middle of a whistleblower complaint over President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, has resigned from his post as special envoy to the Eastern European nation. A U.S. official says Volker told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday of his decision to leave the job, following disclosures that he had connected Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani with Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his family over allegedly corrupt business dealings. The official was not authorized to discuss the resignation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The State Department had no immediate comment on Volker’s resignation and has said only that he put Giuliani in touch with an aide to Ukraine’s president.
September 28, 2019 4:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Democrats have taken their first concrete steps in the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump, issuing subpoenas demanding documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and scheduling legal depositions for other State Department officials. At the end of a stormy week of revelation and recrimination, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi framed the impeachment inquiry as a somber moment for a divided nation. Trump, for his part, insisted anew that his actions and words have been “perfect” and the whistleblower’s complaint about his comments to the leader of Ukraine might well be the work of “a partisan operative.”
September 28, 2019 4:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s top law enforcement officer is joining several other top state Democratic officials in backing the legalization of marijuana for recreational use by adults.
Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a Friday statement on Twitter that he changed his mind after months of internal research and discussions with law enforcement colleagues. Shapiro’s announcement comes two days after Gov. Tom Wolf made a similar announcement that he supports it. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, both Democrats, have long supported the idea, too. However, leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature have pushed back forcefully and said they oppose it. Only two state legislatures, in Vermont and Illinois, have passed bills to legalize marijuana. Voters in nine other states legalized marijuana through referendum, an avenue that Pennsylvania law doesn’t allow.
September 28, 2019 4:09 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A man accused of providing a white powdery substance tainted with fentanyl at an after-party in Pittsburgh last weekend, leading to the death of three men, has pleaded not guilty to numerous charges. Peter Rene Sanchez Montalvo entered his plea Thursday during a brief hearing, one day a federal grand jury returned a seven-count indictment against him. The 25-year-old California man faces a single count of possessing drugs with the intent to distribute and six counts related to the three deaths as well as injuries suffered by four other men who used the drugs. Authorities have said all of the people who overdosed had been at the same bar Saturday night. They later attended a party at an apartment where Montalvo allegedly passed around what they thought was cocaine.
September 28, 2019 4:07 am
There will be some differences and some constants over the coming days as a Jewish congregation in Pittsburgh observes Rosh Hashana for the first time since three members were among 11 people killed by a gunman nearly a year ago. The man who last year blew the New Light congregation’s shofar for the Jewish New Year was among those killed. In the place of Richard Gottfried will be Rabbi Jonathan Perlman. Perlman’s wife says the congregation plans no changes in the substance of its services over the two-day holiday that starts Sunday evening. Leaders of the Tree of Life synagogue’s three congregations have been planning for commemorations Oct. 27 to mark the year since the massacre. The leaders say they plan to return eventually to the Tree of Life synagogue to worship there regularly. No date has been set.
September 27, 2019 5:26 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s top law enforcement officer is joining several other top state Democratic officials in backing the legalization of marijuana for recreational use by adults. Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a Friday statement on Twitter that he changed his mind after months of internal research and discussions with law enforcement colleagues. Shapiro’s announcement comes two days after Gov. Tom Wolf made a similar announcement that he supports it. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, both Democrats, have long supported the idea, too. However, leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature have pushed back forcefully and said they oppose it. Only two state legislatures, in Vermont and Illinois, have passed bills to legalize marijuana. Voters in nine other states legalized marijuana through referendum, an avenue that Pennsylvania law doesn’t allow.
September 27, 2019 1:54 pm
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Mylan has agreed to pay $30 million in a settlement tied to its failure to tell investors about a Justice Department investigation into whether the company overcharged Medicaid for the EpiPen. The Securities and Exchange Commission said today that Mylan NV classified the EpiPen as a “generic” drug under the Medicaid drug rebate program. This led to the pharmaceutical company paying much lower rebates to the government than if the EpiPen had been classified as a “branded” drug. Mylan disclosed in July that it had reached an agreement-in-principle with the SEC on the matter. The company said in their statement today that it neither admits nor denies the SEC’s allegations.
September 27, 2019 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Dogged by the threat of impeachment, President Donald Trump turned a meeting with U.S. sheriffs into a mini-pep rally. Sheriffs standing on staircases at the rear of the White House broke into cheers and applause when they saw Trump leave the Oval Office and walk up the driveway toward them. They shouted “We’ve got your back, Mr. President” and “Amen” and chanted “U-S-A, U-S-A.” The sheriffs met privately with Trump before presenting him with an award in front of the news media. They were in Washington to lobby Congress to act on border security and immigration policy. Trump is facing possible impeachment by the House after a whistleblower alleged he used his office to “solicit interference from a foreign country” in next year’s U.S. presidential election.
