October 22, 2019 3:08 am
A Washington man has been sentenced to fifteen to thirty-years in a state correctional facility on four separate cases, after pleading guilty to a variety of crimes, including several deliveries of heroin, possession with intent to deliver controlled substances and terroristic threats. State Police say the cases involving William Shaw date back to December of 2015 and involve undercover purchases of heroin, the discovery of various other drugs, domestic assault with a firearm, and a threatening letter from Shaw to his wife while he was in prison on unrelated charges.
October 21, 2019 2:51 pm
State Police are investigating the death of a Charleroi man Monday morning in Finleyville. The Washington County Coroner’s Office says 25-year-old Dominic Salvio jumped from the southbound span of the Joe Montana Bridge on Route 43 in Union Township. His body was found at the intersection of Route 88 and Ginger Hill Road. Emergency responders were called out around nine-thirty but the coroner’s office has not yet released a cause of death, nor the time of death. They say both are under investigation.
October 21, 2019 1:17 pm
PITTSBURGH – (WPXI) – In preparation for President Donald Trump’s visit to Downtown Pittsburgh on Oct. 23, the city announced some security measures that will impact a lot of people. Several streets surrounding the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, where Trump will speak at the Shale Insight conference, will be closed Wednesday after the morning rush hour – that will likely cause heavy delays during the evening commute. Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich recommended in a release that people who work downtown should consider working from home that day or leaving early. He also suggested city schools allow early dismissals for students. Traffic will also be affected by rolling road closures to accommodate Trump’s motorcade as he travels to and from the convention center. The specific timing and exact road closures will be released closer to the event.
October 21, 2019 9:47 am
CLEVELAND (AP) – State attorneys general who are negotiating with drug companies say they’re confident that other state and local governments will sign on to a settlement in principle with five companies over the opioid crisis. The announcement from the top state government lawyers in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas came hours after two Ohio counties said they had settled their lawsuits against a drugmaker and the three distributors to avert the first federal trial on the opioid crisis. Opening statements in the Cleveland trial had been scheduled for Monday. The plan being hammered out by the attorneys general was worked on last week. It would be worth up to $48 billion over time in cash and treatment drugs. Paul Hanly, a lead lawyer for local governments, said it was the same deal that was already rejected. He said the companies should pay more.
October 21, 2019 4:39 am
CHARLEROI, Pa. – (WPXI)- Open your windows, flush soapy water down sewer drains and call 911 if you’re feeling sick: That’s what people living in Charleroi are being instructed to do as officials say “there is nothing more the fire department can do” following gas fumes seeping up through sewers. According to a post on social media, fire officials said they were called Friday for a smell of gasoline at a home. As the day went on, more people started calling about the smell in their homes. Fire officials said they were able to track down the source of the gasoline leak but at this point, they are not able to do much more. Fire officials said the smell was being reported all along McKean Avenue and was moving into other areas.
October 21, 2019 4:24 am
BEIRUT (AP) – An international aid group says about 70,000 children have been displaced since the start of the Turkish offensive in northeastern Syria. The United Nations has said more than 176,000 people have been uprooted. Save the Children says many of the displaced have sought shelters in two dozen schools in Hassakeh city, southeast of the area where Turkey had launched an offensive earlier this month. The aid group says power lines of a water station have been damaged by fighting, so there is no steady flow of water to the city and its surrounding areas. That’s left both the displaced and city residents dependent on water trucks. The organization’s Syria response team director, Sonia Khush, called for unrestricted access to children in need. She said in a statement late Sunday that residents of northeastern Syria had already been reliant on humanitarian aid before the violence and were in acute need. A cease-fire has been negotiated by the United States, securing a reduction in violence. However, it ends Tuesday.
October 21, 2019 4:19 am
CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) – A pioneer in marketing CBD as a health product has acknowledged selling large quantities of synthetic marijuana which was secretly added to vapes, sickening dozens of people. Janell Thompson helped popularize CBD, the cannabis extract that isn’t supposed to get users high. CBD products from a Southern California company Thompson co-founded were in Oscar nominee gift bags in 2014. Federal prosecutors say that’s also when she started selling synthetic marijuana, known as spice or K2. Thompson pleaded guilty last month to allegations of supplying synthetic marijuana nationwide. Vapes spiked with the street drug poisoned more than 40 people in North Carolina, including around military bases. Prosecutors also tied Thompson to a product called Yolo!, which sickened at least 33 people in Utah. Thompson didn’t respond to requests for comment.
October 21, 2019 4:18 am
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) – A Jewish civil rights group says at least 12 white supremacists have been arrested on allegations of plotting, threatening or carrying out anti-Semitic attacks in the U.S. since the massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue nearly one year ago. The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism also counted at least 50 incidents in which white supremacists are accused of vandalizing or otherwise targeting Jewish institutions’ property since a gunman killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. The ADL’s tally includes the April 2019 arrest of John T. Earnest, who is charged with killing one person and injuring three others in a shooting at a synagogue in Poway, California. The group says many of the cases it counted, including the Poway shooting, were inspired by previous white supremacist attacks.
October 21, 2019 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Mick Mulvaney is struggling with the job of defending his boss, the president. President Donald Trump’s acting chief of staff went on “Fox News Sunday” to speak up for Trump – and ended up raising more eyebrows. Explaining why Trump had tried to steer an international summit to one of the president’s own properties, Mulvaney said Trump “still considers himself to be in the hospitality business.” That did nothing to allay concerns that the president has used his office to enrich his business interests. Days earlier, Mulvaney acknowledged the Trump administration had delayed aid to Ukraine in part to prod that country to investigate the 2016 elections. Then he tried to walk back that comment. Trump now has dropped his plan to host the summit at his Doral, Florida, resort.
October 21, 2019 4:15 am
ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AP) – Defense Secretary Mark Esper says that under current plans all U.S. troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq and the military will continue to conduct operations against the Islamic State group to prevent its resurgence. Speaking to reporters traveling with him to the Middle East, Esper did not rule out the idea that U.S. forces would conduct counterterrorism missions from Iraq into Syria. But he said those details will be worked out over time. He left Washington Saturday. His comments were the first to specifically lay out where American troops will go as they leave Syria and what the counter-IS fight could look like.
