July 17, 2019 4:10 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike will be going up 6% next year for both E-ZPass users and cash customers. Turnpike officials announced Tuesday that the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission had approved the increase slated to start Jan. 5 on all sections and extensions except for three “cashless” toll facilities in western Pennsylvania. Officials said the increase is needed to meet escalating debt service costs and to maintain aging roads. Officials said the most common toll for a passenger vehicle next year will increase from $1.40 to $1.50 for E-ZPass customers and from $2.30 to $2.50 for cash customers. The most common tractor-trailer toll will rise from $3.70 to $4.00 for E-ZPass and from $16.30 to $17.30 for cash. Three western Pennsylvania highways will see increases Oct. 27.
July 17, 2019 4:09 am
WILKINSBURG, Pa. (AP) – Two people have been sentenced to decades in prison after pleading guilty in the slaying of a young mother near Pittsburgh that authorities said was part of a scheme to rob her of her tax refund. Dane Taylor was sentenced to 30 to 60 years and Laya Whitley to 20 to 50 years after both pleaded guilty Tuesday to third-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy.
Authorities said 27-year-old Keiauna Davis was carrying $3,000 cash when she was killed in February 2018 in Wilkinsburg. Prosecutors alleged that Whitley, a co-worker, conspired with Taylor to rob her. Twenty-three-year-old Whitley also pleaded to evidence-tampering and criminal use of a phone. Twenty-two-year-old Taylor also pleaded to a firearms crime. Whitley apologized, saying “This is not what I intended to happen.” A third defendant awaits trial.
July 17, 2019 4:07 am
FORT HILL, Pa. – (WPXI) – The YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh confirmed to Channel 11 that a 15-year-old boy died after a fall at a wilderness camp in Somerset County. YMCA officials said early Monday afternoon, the teen boy, identified Tuesday as Nathan Kanczes, was attending Teen Wilderness Camp through YMCA Camp Kon-O-Kwee Spencer in Beaver County. Campers from that location were on an outing near YMCA Deer Valley Camp in Fort Hill, which is in Somerset County. It was near the Deer Valley Camp where the teen was critically injured. Kanczes was airlifted to Conemaugh Meyersdale Medical Center where he died. “It was horrifying. I yelled for my husband ‘Oh my God, you have to come see this'”, said Leslie Truver. Truver attended the wilderness camp herself along with her older children, and one of her kids was at the camp when the incident occurred. Officials from the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh were on site, and staff from both Deer Valley Camp and Camp Kon-O-Kwee Spencer are working with authorities in their investigation. “We are devastated by this tragic loss and our hearts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time,” the YMCA said in a statement.
July 17, 2019 3:22 am
John Sadvary had his preliminary hearing Tuesday in front of District Magistrate Larry Hopkins. The 39-year-old Sadvary is accused of attempted homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide among other charges relating to an April 18 assault of Troy Harris at the Charleroi Slovak Club. The charges and docket were sealed by Judge John DiSalle and when the hearing began, five other defendants were brought out to have similar charges brought against them. Harris was president of the Pagan Motorcycle Club. He left the Pagans to join a rival group and witness testimony suggested that retaliation may have been in store. Sadvary and the five other defendants were held for trial on all charges brought against them. A bail hearing in front of Judge John DiSalle is scheduled for Thursday.
July 16, 2019 4:54 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Donald Trump is “not a racist” after Trump tweeted over the weekend that four congresswomen of color should return to their native countries. All of the congresswomen are American citizens. McConnell said at a news conference Tuesday that political rhetoric has gotten “way, way overheated across the political spectrum.” He pointed to Democratic comments, saying “we’ve seen the far left throw accusations of racism at everyone.” He also took a mild swipe at Trump, saying everyone “from the president to the speaker to the freshmen members of the House” should take a lesson from the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who said he attacked ideas, not people. Pressed by reporters as to whether he thought the president is a racist, McConnell said: “the president is not a racist.”
July 16, 2019 4:53 pm
CHICAGO (AP) – A federal judge has ordered R&B singer R. Kelly held in a Chicago jail without bond on sex crime charges. U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber handed down the ruling Tuesday after Kelly was arrested last week and charged in Chicago and New York with sex crimes including having sex with minors and trying to cover it up. Kelly, wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackled at the ankles, did not speak except to say “yes sir” when the judge asked if he understood the charges. His attorney, Steve Greenberg, submitted a not guilty plea. Prosecutors argued that Kelly would be an extreme risk if released, especially to minors, and that he might flee.
July 16, 2019 2:54 pm
PennDOT is advising area motorists that beginning the week of July 29, crews will begin to install stop signs at the intersection of Route 136 and Brownlee Road in Somerset Township. The intersection will be fully converted to a 4-way stop by the end of this month.
July 16, 2019 10:39 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal prosecutors won’t bring civil rights charges against a New York City police officer in the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner. That’s according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke Tuesday to The Associated Press. The person wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Officers were attempting to arrest Garner on charges he sold loose, untaxed cigarettes outside a Staten Island convenience store. Garner refused to be handcuffed, and officers took him down. Garner’s dying words, “I can’t breathe,” became a rallying cry for police reform activists. A state grand jury refused to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo on criminal charges. Chokeholds are banned under police policy. Pantaleo maintained he used a legal takedown maneuver called the “seatbelt.” The medical examiner found a chokehold contributed to Garner’s death.
July 16, 2019 10:24 am
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins has returned to the exact spot where he and two other astronauts flew to the moon 50 years ago. At NASA’s invitation, Michael Collins spent the golden anniversary Tuesday morning at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida. He marked the precise moment – 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969 – that their Saturn V rocket departed on humanity’s first moon landing. Buzz Aldrin was an unexplained no-show. Mission commander Neil Armstrong – who took the first lunar footsteps – died in 2012. Collins says he wishes Aldrin and Armstrong could have shared the moment Tuesday at the pad. The 88-year-old astronaut was interviewed live on NASA TV. The event kicks off a week of celebrations marking each day of Apollo 11’s eight-day voyage.
July 16, 2019 10:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says his tweets telling four female Democratic lawmakers of color to “go back” to the broken countries from which they came were “NOT Racist.” Trump sought to defend himself Tuesday, a day after saying he wasn’t concerned that critics considered the tweets to be racist. Trump tweeted Tuesday: “Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!” Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib are U.S. citizens, and three were born in the U.S. They say Trump made “xenophobic bigoted remarks.” Trump also criticized plans by the House to vote on a resolution condemning his comments. He called Tuesday’s expected vote on the resolution a “Democrat con game” and said Republicans “should not show ‘weakness’ and fall into their trap.” Trump says the vote should instead be on the language used by the congresswomen.
