November 24, 2019 8:00 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. – According to our news partner WPXI, a Florida man who operated multiple Asian massage parlors in Western Pennsylvania and others in Virginia and Florida is facing a possibility of 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges. David Williams, 41, pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering, transporting women for prostitution and harboring illegal aliens for commercial purposes. Search warrants were executed at six Western Pa. businesses:
Ci Ci Wellness – 639 Brown Ave., Turtle Creek, Pa.
Thai Massage – 39 W. Main St., Carnegie Pa.
Massage 10 – 6545 US 30, Jeannette, Pa.
Thai Massage – 423 Chartiers St., Bridgeville, Pa.
1407 Peninsula Massage – 1702 Peninsula Dr., Erie, Pa.
Undisclosed location – McKees Rocks
Many of the women who Williams employed were trafficked from Flushing, N.Y, according to the court documents. The records from financial institutions also revealed that Williams and his conspirators laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars through bank accounts that were opened in others’ names in an effort to distance Williams from the illegal activity. According to TribLIVE, Williams faces up to 10 years imprisonment on charges related to transporting women for purposes of prostitution and harboring them for financial gain. He also faces up to five years imprisonment for racketeering and up to 20 additional years imprisonment for engaging in a money laundering conspiracy. He also could be fined up to $1 million.
November 23, 2019 9:10 am
TOKYO (AP) – Pope Francis will fulfill his dream to be a missionary in Japan when he arrives for a three-day visit with two main aims: to appeal for nuclear disarmament and minister to a tiny Catholic flock with a rich but bloody history. Francis travels Saturday from Thailand to another Asian country where Catholics are a minority – less than 0.5% of Japan’s 127 million people, most of them loosely affiliated with Buddhism or Shinto, or both. The community he will find has changed dramatically with an influx of foreign workers, who make up more than half of Japan’s Catholic population of 440,000. Francis will minister to them, including in Nagasaki, which remains a center of Catholicism centuries after St. Francis Xavier first brought Christianity to the archipelago in 1549.
November 23, 2019 8:54 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Prosecutors say a political fundraiser who funneled foreign money into U.S. elections offered more than $6 million to silence witnesses. The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles made those claims Friday just before Imaad Zuberi pleaded guilty there to tax evasion and campaign-finance violations. The venture capitalist has been under federal scrutiny over large political contributions, including donations to the inaugural committees of both President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump. Zuberi has not been charged with bribing witnesses, but prosecutors intend to present the allegations as evidence at his sentencing hearing. Prosecutors say he also acted as an unregistered agent for Sri Lanka and Turkey and Libyan government officials, as well as a Bahraini national, a Ukraine national and Pakistani nationals. Zuberi’s attorney declined to comment on the allegations.
November 23, 2019 8:49 am
BAGHDAD (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence is making an unannounced visit to Iraq in the highest-level American trip since President Donald Trump ordered a pullback of U.S. forces in Syria two months ago. Pence is meeting with Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani in a move meant to reassure the U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State after Syrian Kurds suffered under a bloody Turkish assault last month after the withdrawal.
November 23, 2019 4:51 am
The lawsuit brought against Washington County Clerk of Courts Frank Scandale will be prosecuted by the attorney general’s office. That confirmation comes from the press secretary for Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Scandale, 51 of Canonsburg has been charged with theft, failure to make required disposition of funds received and misapplication of governmental entrusted property. All of these charges are based on missing county funds of approximately $96,000. He has entered a plea of “not guilty”. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for December.
November 23, 2019 3:55 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A former campus minister at Villanova University who admitted possessing child pornography has been sentenced to nearly seven years in prison. Timothy O’Connell must also serve 10 years of supervised release once he’s freed from prison. The 52-year-old Drexel Hill resident had pleaded guilty in June to obtaining images that depicted the sexual abuse and exploitation of pre-pubescent children. One of the victims was a 2-year-old child identified by the FBI in another investigation. O’Connell is the former associate director of campus ministry at Villanova. Federal prosecutors say the case is particularly disturbing because O’Connell was a spiritual leader who was trusted on campus. Before receiving a 78-month sentence Thursday, O’Connell told the judge “I’m disgusted by my behavior.”
November 23, 2019 3:53 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – President Donald Trump will make his fourth visit to Pennsylvania this year, this time to Hershey as he makes his case in the presidential battleground state.
Trump’s campaign announced a rally on Dec. 10 at Hershey’s Giant Center. Trump has previously traveled to Pennsylvania this year to stump for Republican Fred Keller in a special congressional election in rural northern Pennsylvania and to boost the natural gas industry in two separate Pittsburgh-area trips. Pennsylvania backed Trump in the 2016 election by about 44,000 votes, or less than 1 percentage point over Democrat Hillary Clinton.That made Trump the first Republican presidential candidate to win the state since 1988.
November 22, 2019 4:48 pm
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Amazon has pulled more than a dozen skin-lightening products with dangerous mercury levels off its website after pushback from Minnesota public-health and environmental activists. The Seattle-based company’s change came after the BeautyWell Project and the Sierra Club’s state branch delivered a petition on Wednesday with over 23,000 signatures to Amazon’s fulfillment center in Shakopee. That day, the two organizations also took out a full-page ad in a local newspaper demanding that Amazon stop selling toxic skin-lightening creams. The ad had three words in bold print – “Dangerous, racist, and illegal.” An Amazon spokesperson told Minnesota Public Radio News in an email Thursday that such products are “no longer available.” As of Thursday, all but one of the 15 products with high mercury levels appeared to be removed from Amazon’s website.
November 22, 2019 4:46 pm
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) – Florida authorities say they responded to a rogue vehicle spinning in reverse around a suburban cul-de-sac with a lone occupant inside: a Black Labrador. News outlets report residents called police Thursday after seeing the dog trapped and clambering around in the car as it spun in circles in a Port St. Lucie neighborhood. Police say they think the dog’s owner stepped away from the running car and that’s when the pet knocked it into reverse. Neighbor Anne Sabol says she watched the furry speed racer take out a mailbox and a trash can. Sabol says the dog was in high spirits after being rescued, adding it “jumped out of the car, wagging his tail.” Police stopped the joyride by punching a passcode into the driver’s door. No one was hurt.
November 22, 2019 12:59 pm
Washington City Councilman Matt Staniszewski attended his preliminary hearing Friday morning over DUI charges from an incident on August 26th. District Justice Ethan Ward continued the hearing at the district attorney’s request and issued a $25,000 straight cash bond to Staniszewski. Defense Attorney Sean Logue says he was disappointed in the bond. He stated that it is Justice Ward’s blanket policy to issue that bond for multiple DUI offenses. Logue argued that technically it is Staniszewski’s first offense since the last DUI occurred over 10 years ago. Staniszewski was led away in handcuffs. Logue stated that Staniszewski and his father were immediately posting bond at the end of the hearing. Logue went on to explain that the District Attorney’s office asked for a continuance to the case because they wanted to review all that Staniszewski has been doing since he enrolled in a rehabilitation program immediately after his arrest. Staniszewski’ s next hearing is scheduled for December 6.
