December 12, 2019 4:03 am
LATROBE, Pa. (WPXI) — A former Westmoreland County sheriff’s deputy has been arrested after a lengthy police investigation into allegations that he was sexually inappropriate with female inmates while he was on duty, officials said. Daniel Gradischek, 32, is accused of bribing the inmates with tobacco products in exchange for sexual related favors. State police said he also allegedly allowed the inmates to “intimately touch him above his uniform” while handcuffing them and during transports and prison security details. The investigation revealed that this became a pattern for Gradischekin at various court facilities within the county, officials said. Gradischek is facing several charges, including sexual assault and bribery.
December 12, 2019 4:02 am
ALLEGHENY CO., Pa. — (WPXI)- New data shows a surge in flu cases in Allegheny County. The state of Pennsylvania has seen about 4,400 cases already this season. And Allegheny County makes up 28% of those cases – the most of any county in the state. Doctors said flu season has started early here and everywhere else, but they won’t know exactly why our area is seeing so many cases until after the flu season ends. “We begin to see almost sometime a November rise, but this particular year we’re starting to see Influenza cases in numbers that we would typically see in January,” said Joe Suyama, chief of emergency services at UPMC Magee. Of the confirmed cases in Pennsylvania – Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties account for 2,338 (or 53%).
December 12, 2019 2:00 am
Officials with the Washington City Mission say they have long had the dream of being able to offer residents and the surrounding community access to primary healthcare on a regular basis. Wednesday, that dream came true as the City Mission and Centerville Clinics teamed up to make that dream a reality when the ribbon was cut on the new facility. City Mission President and CEO Dean Gartland says he is very happy with what the collaboration brings. He says that for the first time, City Mission residents and the community will be able to access primary healthcare for children, adults and seniors. The collaboration between the two parties began in November. Barry Niccolai, Executive Director of the Centerville Clinics looks at the partnership as one that fulfills both organizations primary goals, health care to those who find it difficult to obtain. Gartland explains that this will give residents a health care opportunity that many have not been able to obtain for many years. Centerville Clinics will staff the facility with staff twenty hours per week. The staff consists of a primary care physician, primary care nurse practitioner and a pediatric nurse practitioner. Both organizations say they look forward to expanding services in the future. (Pictured: Dr. Kyle Duff, one of the doctors from Centerville Clinics who will be on-site at City Mission twice a week to provide medical services.)
December 11, 2019 1:28 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has become the youngest person ever to be named Time’s “person of the year.” The U.S. news magazine gave the 16-year-old Thunberg the honor on Wednesday for “sounding the alarm about humanity’s predatory relationship with the only home we have.” Leaving a United Nations climate conference in Madrid, Thunberg told The Associated Press she was “a bit surprised” by Time’s recognition. She dedicated it to all young activists. Thunberg emerged as the face of the youth climate movement after she started skipping school once a week to protest outside her country’s parliament. In the past year and a half, she has drawn large crowds at international conferences and demonstrations outside Sweden.
December 11, 2019 12:39 pm
ELKLAND, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say a gunman who barricaded himself inside his house after shooting a Pennsylvania State Police trooper has been shot and killed. State police say the man fired at troopers multiple times throughout a 14-hour standoff in rural northern Pennsylvania. They say police shot and killed him around 2 a.m. Wednesday. Troopers had been conducting a welfare check at the home when they were met with gunfire. One trooper was hit. He’s listed in stable condition at the hospital. The shooting and standoff took place on a sparsely populated road just over the New York state line in Tioga County.
December 11, 2019 11:13 am
It will be next year before any steps are taken to resolve the missing money from the Washington County Clerk of Courts office. The Wednesday preliminary hearing for County Clerk of Courts Frank Scandale has been continued until January. Scandale is charged with 7 counts of theft by unlawful taking and one count each of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds and misapplication of entrusted government property. Scandale’s rescheduled preliminary hearing is on January 8th in front of District Magistrate Robert Redlinger. Scandale, who is a Democrat, was seeking his second term in office but lost in November to Republican Brenda Davis.
December 11, 2019 7:43 am
DALLAS (AP) – Philip McKeon, who as a child actor was featured as the son of Linda Lavin’s Alice Hyatt in the 1980s CBS situation comedy “Alice,” has died in Texas at age 55, a family spokesman said. Spokesman Jeff Ballard said McKeon died Tuesday after a long illness. He said further details on where and how McKeon died were being withheld at his family’s request. McKeon acted in the role of Tommy Hyatt in “Alice” from 1976 to 1985. His most recent acting role was in the video “Ghoulies IV,” which was released in 1994. Ballard says McKeon had worked for 10 years in the news department of a Los Angeles radio station before moving to Texas about five years ago to be better able to care for his family. He settled in the Central Texas Hill Country town of Wimberley, about 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) southwest of Austin, where he hosted a local radio show. Survivors include his mother and Nancy McKeon, his sister best known for playing Jo Polniaczek in the 1980s NBC situation comedy “The Facts of Life.”
December 11, 2019 4:17 am
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) – Fears that a deadly shooting at a Jewish market in Jersey City, New Jersey, was an anti-Semitic attack are mounting, with authorities recounting how a man and woman deliberately pulled up to the place in a rental van with at least one rifle and got out firing. Six people in all were killed on Tuesday – the attackers, a police officer and three people who were in the store. State and federal law enforcement officials warn they have not established the motive. But a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity tells The Associated Press that investigators are looking into possible connections between the attackers and the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, some of whose members have railed against whites and Jews.
December 11, 2019 4:16 am
WHAKATANE, New Zealand (AP) – The death toll from the eruption of a New Zealand island volcano is now believed to be 16 after authorities announced two people who had been hospitalized died. Thursday’s announcement of the new deaths came as the volcano vented more steam and mud. That prompted authorities to delay plans to recover bodies still on the volcanic White Island. The deaths of the two came after authorities said they had confirmed that six people died and and that the bodies of eight other people are believed on the ash covered island. Many of those who survived the initial blast Monday suffered horrific burns.
December 11, 2019 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – House leaders are racing the clock on an emerging government-wide spending bill that’s likely to largely maintain President Donald Trump’s tactical ability to fund his much-sought border wall. Progress has slowed, though a top-level meeting between House Speaker NancyáPelosi, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the frustrated chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees generated pledges to redouble their efforts. A stopgap spending bill expires at the end of next week, and another temporary funding bill could be needed to avert a repeat of last year’s 35-day partial federal shutdown.
