July 1, 2025 2:01 pm
(WPXI) PITTSBURGH — Building a safer Pittsburgh, that’s the goal of the Stop the Violence Trust Fund. Established in 2021, it’s meant to help address gun violence as a public health crisis. But now, the money is in jeopardy. Currently, the city has $16 million allocated to stopping the violence. Each year, that fund grows by $10 million. But, if action isn’t taken to add accountability about who gets the money, it could be lost. Last week, Pittsburgh City Council introduced legislation to restructure the city’s violence prevention fund. Councilman Khari Mosley, who co-sponsored the bill, says it would add transparency and ensure annual funding. The Stop the Violence funds are allocated to various organizations addressing violence prevention. Bill opponents have suggested repurposing the fund to support items like blight or policing, but bill sponsors say the fund is working, citing recent crime statistics from 2024.
July 1, 2025 12:48 pm
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Jimmy Swaggart, the televangelist whose multi-million-dollar ministry was crippled by his encounters with prostitutes, has died. He was 90. His death was announced Tuesday. The Louisiana native was best known for being a captivating Pentecostal preacher with a massive following before being caught on camera with a prostitute in New Orleans in 1988, one of several TV preachers brought down in the 1980s and ’90s by sex scandals. He continued preaching for decades, but with a reduced audience. In a tearful 1988 sermon, he wept and apologized, telling parishioners across the nation, “I have sinned against you.” (Photo: AP)
July 1, 2025 9:47 am
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has struck down the state’s 176-year-old abortion ban. The court’s liberal majority ruled 4-3 on Wednesday that the ban is no longer valid because newer abortion restrictions superseded it. State lawmakers adopted the total ban in 1849. It was in effect until 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nullified it, and was never repealed. Conservatives argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe reactivated the prohibition. Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul sued, arguing that a 1985 state law that prohibits abortions after viability essentially repealed the ban.
July 1, 2025 4:58 am
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) — A 20-year-old man’s life appeared to have begun to unravel in the months before law enforcement say he fatally shot two firefighters and severely wounded a third as they responded to a wildfire near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Wess Roley was living out of his vehicle and his former roommate, T.J. Franks Jr., said he shaved off his long hair and started to “kind of go downhill.” Authorities say the man had set a fire and the firefighters who rushed to put out the blaze instead found themselves under fire. They took cover behind fire trucks. Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris says it appears the man later killed himself.
July 1, 2025 4:54 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — An emboldened Russia has ramped up military offensives on two fronts in Ukraine. The renewed fighting has scattered Kyiv’s precious reserve troops and threatened to expand the fighting to a sixth Ukrainian region as each side seeks an advantage before the fighting season wanes in the autumn. Analysts and military commanders said Moscow aims to maximize its territorial gains before seriously considering a full ceasefire. Ukraine wants to slow the Russian advance for as long as possible and extract heavy losses. Kremlin forces are steadily gaining ground in the strategic eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk, the capture of which would hand them a major battlefield victory and bring them closer to acquiring the entire Donetsk region.
July 1, 2025 4:53 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has passed President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, with Vice President JD Vance breaking a 50-50 tie to push it over the top. The bill next goes back to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana warned off big revisions from his chamber’s version. But senators did make changes, particularly to Medicaid health care. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota worked through the night and into Tuesday to strike a last-minute agreement between Republicans worried the bill’s health care reductions will leave millions without care and his conservative flank seeking steeper cuts to hold down deficits. Rand Paul was among three Republicans opposing the bill.
July 1, 2025 4:50 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania’s politically divided Legislature will miss Pennsylvania’s deadline to pass a budget for the new fiscal year, amid closed-door talks to try to produce a compromise. Without the governor’s signature on a new spending plan by Tuesday, the state loses some of its spending authority, particularly on discretionary payments. The impact of such missed payments generally takes until August to be felt by schools and counties. Shapiro said at a news conference Monday he anticipates negotiators will agree on a plan “very soon.” All state employees under a governor’s jurisdiction are typically expected to report to work and be paid as scheduled during a budget stalemate.
July 1, 2025 4:45 am
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Bryan Kohberger has agreed to plead guilty to murdering four University of Idaho students as part of a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty. Shanon Gray, an attorney for the family of victim Kaylee Goncalves, has confirmed that families of the victims received the news in a letter from prosecutors Monday. A change of plea hearing is set for Wednesday. Kohberger, 30, is accused in the stabbing deaths of Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen at a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania weeks after the killings. He had been a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University.
July 1, 2025 2:42 am
An early morning stabbing on Monday in the City of Washington has left one person hospitalized and another in police custody. Washington Police Chief Steve Devenney tells WJPA News that officers were called to the 300-block of East Hallam Avenue around 3:30. A man was found with multiple stab wounds and was transported to UPMC Washington before being flown by medical helicopter to a Pittsburgh Hospital. The man’s identity and condition have not been released. Chief Devenney says one man is in custody in connection with the stabbing but police are not releasing his identity at this time as the investigation continues.
June 30, 2025 2:43 pm
