December 23, 2023 4:51 am
GREEN TREE, Pa. — (WPXI) – Two men died in a murder-suicide in Green Tree Friday evening. First responders were called to the 200 block of Woodridge Drive around 6 p.m. Investigators said one of the men was rushed to a hospital where he later died. SWAT was called to the scene. When they arrived, they found the other man dead from a gunshot wound. The men were related to each other, according to police. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-833-ALL-TIPS.
December 23, 2023 2:28 am
An Allegheny County man faced his preliminary hearing Friday, accused of selling a fatal dose fentanyl to a Peters Township man. William Hockett, 23 of North Braddock faces felony drug delivery resulting in death, drug possession and criminal use of communications devices for his alleged role in the death of Vincent Knight, 21 of Peters Township. Hockett waived all charges to court. According to the criminal complaint, Peters Township police and paramedics were called to Knight’s home on August 28, when a relative who had not heard from him found him unresponsive in the bathroom of his home. Cell phone data extracted from Knight’s cell phone revealed text messages between him and Hockett regarding a sale of heroin on the day Knight died. The data placed Knight at Hockett’s residence that day as well. Cash transactions via phone app also implicated Hockett. Hockett is in the Washington County Jail, unable to post a $25,000 bond. He will be arraigned on January 25.
December 22, 2023 2:52 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court says it will not immediately take up a plea by special counsel Jack Smith to rule on whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted for his actions to overturn the 2020 election results. The court revealed its decision Friday. The issue will now be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which has signaled it will act quickly to decide the case. Special counsel Jack Smith had cautioned that even a rapid appellate decision might not get to the Supreme Court in time for review and final word before the court’s traditional summer break.
December 22, 2023 1:55 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of prices fell last month, another sign that inflation is easing and that consumers should expect to see lower interest rates in 2024. Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that U.S. consumer prices slid 0.1% last month from October and rose 2.6% from November 2022. The month-over-month drop was the largest since April 2020 when the economy was reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. The numbers show somewhat more progress against inflation than economists had expected. Inflation is steadily moving down to the Fed’s year-over-year target of 2% and appears to be clearing the way for Fed rate cuts in 2024.
December 22, 2023 1:52 pm
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council has adopted a watered-down resolution calling for immediate speeded-up aid deliveries to hungry and desperate civilians in Gaza – but without the original call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas. Friday’s long-delayed vote in the 15-member council was 13-0 with the United States and Russia abstaining. The vote came immediately after the United States vetoed a Russian amendment that would have restored a call to immediately suspend hostilities. The U.S. abstention on the resolution avoided a second U.S. veto of a Gaza resolution following Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks inside Israel. A relieved U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council after the resolution’s adoption: “This was tough, but we got there.”
December 22, 2023 5:20 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Rudy Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy. The former New York City mayor is acknowledging severe financial strain that’s grown as a result of his pursuit of Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and was made worse when jury last week required him to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers he defamed. In a bankruptcy filing Thursday in New York, Giuliani listed nearly $153 million in existing or potential debts. That includes almost $1 million in state and federal tax liabilities, as well as money he owes lawyers and many millions of dollars in potential judgments in lawsuits against him. He estimated he had assets worth $1 million to $10 million.
December 22, 2023 5:19 am
PRAGUE (AP) — Prague’s police chief says a lone gunman opened fire in a university, killing at least 14 people and injuring 25 more. Police and the Czech Republic’s interior ministry say the gunman in the mass shooting Thursday is also dead. Authorities have not released the shooter’s name, but the police chief says he was a student at the university. Police officers sealed off Jan Palach Square and evacuated the philosophy department building of Charles University, where the shooting took place. Authorities are searching the area, including the building’s balconies, for explosives.
December 22, 2023 5:17 am
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Health officials in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip say more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas. The figure amounts to nearly 1% of the territory’s prewar population. It is a new reflection of the staggering cost of the war. Over 11 weeks, the conflict has displaced nearly 85% of Gaza’s people and devastated wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Friday it has documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting. It does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths. Israel declared war after Hamas militants stormed across the border on Oct. 7 and killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 240 others.
December 22, 2023 5:11 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – Another piece of Steelers history is now on display at the Heinz History Center. The latest addition is one of the iconic Heinz Ketchup bottles from Heinz Field. The 35-foot, 4-ton ketchup bottle was trucked in just before daybreak Thursday. “This is an exciting day here in Pittsburgh,” said the Heinz History Center President Andy Masich. It was a delicate process for construction crews to mount the giant bottle onto the southwest corner of the Heinz History Center on 12th and Smallman Streets. It is fitting that the bottle is 57 feet off the ground and only steps away from another Steelers artifact, the goalposts from Three Rivers Stadium.
December 22, 2023 5:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Joe Biden believes “serious scrutiny” is warranted for the planned acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel. The transaction has drawn alarm from the steelworkers union and others. Lael Brainard, the director of the National Economic Council, said in a statement that Biden believes a close look at the deal is necessary, even for a close ally. That’s important, she said, in terms of its potential impact on national security and supply chain reliability. She indicated that the deal would be reviewed by the secretive Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which includes economic and national security agency representatives.
