November 7, 2019 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine has told lawmakers in private that he understood President Donald Trump proposed a quid pro quo with Ukraine. Now he’s expected to repeat that testimony in the impeachment inquiry’s initial public hearings next week. The diplomat, William Taylor, will be the first to testify. The focus is on pressure placed on Ukraine by Trump to investigate political foe Joe Biden and the unsupported idea that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. election. In newly released transcripts of his private testimony, Taylor says it was his “clear understanding” that financial support would not come until Ukraine’s president committed to pursue an investigation. The chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, says Americans will a chance to decide for themselves if the impeachment inquiry is warranted.
November 7, 2019 4:09 am
MONONGAHELA, Pa. – (WPXI) – A former police officer accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a police cruiser while he was on duty is heading to trial. The alleged incident happened while Dustin Devault, 47, served as an officer in Monongahela. He then worked as a part-time officer with Forward Township and Highmark but is no longer at either department. Devault first met the woman during a traffic stop, a grand jury found. The two met and texted several times after. The woman told authorities it was her understanding that Devault was going to help her become a police officer and seek treatment for a loved one who was suffering from substance use, according to investigators. On one occasion that the two met, Devault allegedly showed up in full uniform in an unmarked car. While in the car, the woman claims Devault inappropriately touched her several times and repeatedly asked her to have sex with him. The grand jury found Devault lied to his superiors in the Monongahela Police Department — where he was removed from his position — about his interactions with the woman and encouraged a co-worker to also lie. Defense attorney Blaine Jones said this is the first allegation of inappropriate behavior against his client with a long history of service.
November 6, 2019 2:50 pm
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Surgeons at West Virginia University have performed the state’s first heart transplant. The university says in a news release that the six-hour surgery occurred Saturday in Morgantown on a 61-year-old male patient from Chesapeake, Ohio. It was performed by surgeons at the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute and the WVU Medicine Transplant Alliance. Transplant surgeon Dr. Vinay Badhwar says in a news release that WVU has “opened the doorway to a new future for West Virginians, who no longer have to travel out of state for heart transplantation.” The WVU Medicine program has several more heart transplant patients currently on a waiting list. (Photo: wboy.com)
November 6, 2019 1:48 pm
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is co-sponsoring a bill with West Virginia’s two U.S. senators and others aimed at preserving the pensions of about 92,000 retired coal miners and the health-care benefits of another 13,000 working miners. Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia announced the bill Wednesday. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, says in the statement that he raised the issue of protecting miner pensions and health benefits with President Donald Trump this week, and is “committed to continuing to work with him and my colleagues” toward a solution. The bill would transfer money from the Abandoned Mine Land fund to prevent the insolvency of a 1974 miners’ pension plan, and add coal company bankruptcies from 2018 and 2019 to 2017 health-care legislation.
November 6, 2019 5:52 am
The Fort Cherry School District operated on a two-hour delay Wednesday morning. According to reports, the district took the action because they are currently using portable heaters to warm some classrooms because of an on-going ventilation project. The delay allowed time for those rooms to be properly warmed.
November 6, 2019 4:04 am
MEXICO CITY (AP) – A relative of the extended family members killed in a drug cartel ambush in northern Mexico says five children who survived the shooting are in stable condition at an Arizona hospital. Aaron Staddon of Queen Creek, Arizona, said Tuesday that the children are recovering but that one who was shot in the jaw will need extensive plastic surgery. He said the family expects the children will transported from a Tucson hospital to a Phoenix facility Wednesday. Staddon’s wife is a relative of two of the women who were gunned down and she is devastated. Six children and three women died when their SUVs were attacked Monday. They were all U.S. citizens living in Sonora state and apparently related to the extended LeBaron family in Chihuahua.
November 6, 2019 4:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – House investigators have logged another key piece of corroborating testimony in their impeachment inquiry. American diplomat Gordon Sondland acknowledged what Democrats contend is a clear quid pro quo with Ukraine, pushed by President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Sondland added to his sworn testimony that military assistance to the East European ally was being withheld until Ukraine’s new president agreed to release a statement about fighting corruption as Trump wanted. Sondland’s additions were revealed Tuesday when Democrats released transcripts of some witnesses’ testimony. Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine’s president in which Trump pressed for a public investigation into Ukrainian activities by Democrats sparked the impeachment inquiry. Trump has denied any quid pro quo and maintains there was nothing wrong with his request.
November 6, 2019 4:00 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The State Department’s third-ranking official is expected to tell Congress that political considerations were behind the agency’s refusal to deliver a robust defense of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. People familiar with the matter say the highest-ranking career diplomat in the foreign service, David Hale, plans to tell congressional impeachment investigators on Wednesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior officials determined that defending Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch would hurt the effort to free up U.S. military assistance to Ukraine. Hale will also say that the State Department worried about the reaction from Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, also one of the strongest advocates for removing the ambassador. The officials are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
November 6, 2019 3:59 am
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky’s bitter race for governor went into overtime as Democrat Andy Beshear declared victory while Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, a close ally of President Donald Trump, refused to concede with results showing he trailed by a few thousand votes. Kentucky has some sorting out to do before inaugurating its next governor. With 100% of precincts reporting, Beshear – the state’s attorney general and the son of Kentucky’s last Democratic governor, Steve Beshear – had a lead of 5,333 votes out of more than 1.4 million counted, or a margin of nearly 0.4 percentage points. The Associated Press has not declared a winner. In competing speeches late Tuesday, Beshear claimed victory while Bevin refused to concede. Bevin hinted there might be “irregularities” to look into but didn’t offer specifics.
November 6, 2019 1:08 am
Washington County Election Results
Washington County Republicans won control of the Board of Commissioners and every row office on the general election ballot with unofficial results in from all 180 precincts late Tuesday night. Incumbent Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan was elected to a seventh term with 23,489 votes, most among the four candidates. Democrat Larry Maggi was second with 21,662, followed by Republican Nick Sherman (20,342) and incumbent Harlan Shober, Jr. (17,845). Sherman passed Shober about one-third of the way through the evening and increased his margin over the two-term Democrat through the rest of the night.
District Attorney Gene Vittone easily turned back his Democrat challenger, Jacob Mihalov, 28,200 to 16,277, to win a third four-year term as the County’s chief prosecutor.
Republican James Roman edged Suzanne Archer, 22,468 to 21,709 to take over for the retiring Register of Wills Mary Jo Poknis.
Longtime Democrat Treasurer Francis King is also retiring. His office will be taken by Republican Tom Flickinger, a 23,142 to 21,075 winner over Deputy Treasurer Lisa Carpenter.
An audit outlining nearly $100,000 dollars in unaccounted for funds in the Clerk of Courts Office and an on-going State Police investigation into the matter, proved far too much for Democrat incumbent Frank Scandale to overcome, losing to former Washington City Mayor Brenda Davis, 24,158 to 18,618. Davis’ vote total was second only to Vittone.
A newcomer to the county political scene, two-term West Pike Run Township Supervisor Laura Hough defeated incumbent Democrat Prothonotary Joy Schury Ranko, 22,544 to 21,388. Hough trailed until the 120-precinct tally then put enough distance on the 17-year office veteran to win.
Jim Saieva will succeed David Mark as Magisterial District Judge (27-1-01) in Canonsburg, Chartiers, Houston and Canton, beating Chuckie Tenney, 3,029 to 2,905.
Incumbent County Coroner Tim Warco was unopposed, joining Maggi as the only Democrats to win county-wide races. Traci McDonald-Kemp was officially elected as the County’s newest Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Eric Porter and Michael Manfredi won unopposed elections to succeed retiring Magisterial District Judges and Joshua Kanalis was reelected to his magistrate post.
Greene County Election Results
Greene County results in contested races mirrored those in Washington County. Republicans Mike Belding and Betsy Rohanna-McClure finished 1-2 in the race, more than a thousand votes ahead of Democrat incumbent Blair Zimmerman. Fellow Democrat incumbent Dave Coder was a distant fourth.
In-fighting between rival Democrats opened the door for Republican David Russo to win the District Attorney’s race over Jessica Phillips and a hearty write-in campaign by Patrick Fitch. Phillips beat Fitch in the primary election to be listed on the ballot. Combined, the two Democrats garnered 5,700 votes, far more than Russo’s plurality of 3,371.
The other Greene County Row Offices were filled by unopposed candidates including Clerk of Courts, Treasurer, Controller, Register of Wills/Recorder of Deeds and Prothonotary. Incumbent Sheriff Marcus Simms was elected to vacancy left by the death of Brian Tennant. The Sheriff position will be on the ballot again in 2021 for a full, four-year term.
