March 17, 2025 5:11 am
The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members. Flights were in the air at the time of the ruling. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued an order Saturday evening blocking the deportations but lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not and he did not include the directive in his written order.
March 17, 2025 5:07 am
HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – A man is accused of posing as a tree trimmer, then stealing guns and credit cards from a local home. The Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office alleges the incident happened last fall. They say Bobby Bryer, 33, of Greensburg, went to a Hempfield Township home in October to solicit business for a tree trimming service, but his offer was declined. He reportedly then later broke into the house and stole a passport, six guns and nine credit cards while the homeowner was at work. Bryer then reportedly spent $1,900 on the stolen credit cards at various retail stores over two days. Police say the victim learned his home was burglarized after his credit card company notified him of the charges. A neighbor told investigators that he saw a man walking around the victim’s home and leaving with a sack over his shoulder on the night of the alleged burglary. Police say surveillance video from the retail stores where the credit cards were used helped them identify Bryer as the suspect. Bryer now faces several charges, including theft, burglary, criminal trespass and access device fraud. He was already in jail for unrelated pending cases when new charges were filed. A woman seen with Bryer on surveillance videos is also facing charges of access device fraud, corrupt organizations and receiving stolen property.
March 17, 2025 5:03 am
PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic — The man identified as a person of interest in the case of missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki, who disappeared while on vacation in the Dominican Republic, was seen on the beach with investigators early Sunday morning. NBC News reports Joshua Riibe was spotted on a Punta Cana beach with his father and attorney, pointing toward the sea. Riibe, a tourist from Iowa, was possibly the last person to see 20-year-old Konanki. NBC previously reported that in an interview with local authorities, he said he had rescued her from drowning shortly before she disappeared. Riibe’s attorneys, in an email to NBC News, said that his passport was confiscated Friday as part of the ongoing investigation, and he’s “permanently escorted by the police anywhere he goes.” The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office told our news partners at Channel 11 that Riibe is considered a person of interest in the investigation, which is still being investigated as a missing persons case and is not a criminal case. Authorities in the Dominican Republic, on Thursday, said no one is considered a suspect.
March 17, 2025 5:03 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday he was ending “immediately” the Secret Service protection details assigned to Joe Biden’s adult children, which the former president had extended for six months shortly before leaving office in January. Trump on a social media objected to what he said were 18 agents assigned to Hunter Biden’s protective detail while he is in South Africa this week. He said Ashley Biden has 13 agents assigned to her detail and that she too “will be taken off the list.” Former presidents and their spouses receive life-long Secret Service protection under federal law, but the protection afforded to their immediate families over the age of 16 ends when they leave office.
March 17, 2025 2:41 am
(WPXI) – The National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-1 tornado touched down near Josephine in Indiana County on Sunday. This is the third tornado confirmed to have touched down in that area. The National Weather Service also confirmed two more tornadoes, an EF-1 near Ligonier (from the same part of the line that produced the tornado in Donegal), and an EF-1 near Josephine in Indiana County. Two of those tornadoes spun up in Westmoreland County. Officials say the first tornado traveled from Bear Rocks to Acme to Donegal. A second tornado touched down just southwest of Ligonier.
March 16, 2025 8:37 am
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A SpaceX capsule has arrived at the International Space Station, delivering the replacements for NASA’s two stuck astronauts. The new crew pulled up Sunday, just 29 hours after blasting off. The four newcomers will spend the next few days learning the station’s ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Then it will be time for those two to end their nine-month stay and head home. They expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeing’s first astronaut flight last June. The Starliner capsule had so many problems that NASA insisted it come back empty. Wilmore and Williams will come back via SpaceX. (Photo: AP)
March 16, 2025 8:31 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge barred the Trump administration Saturday from carrying out deportations under a sweeping 18th century law that the president invoked just hours earlier to speed removal of Venezuelan gang members from the United States. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg said he needed to issue his order immediately because the government already was flying migrants it claimed were newly deportable under Trump’s proclamation to be incarcerated in El Salvador and Honduras. Earlier, Trump claimed the Tren de Aragua gang was invading the United States and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a sweeping wartime authority.
March 16, 2025 8:30 am
PIEDMONT, Mo. (AP) — Violent tornadoes and high winds have decimated homes, wiped out schools and toppled semitractor-trailers as a monster storm that killed at least 32 people ripped its way across the central and southern U.S. Some of the initial storm deaths were reported Friday night in Missouri. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced six people died in three counties and three more people were missing late Saturday as storms moved further east into Alabama, where damaged homes and impassable roads have been reported. Officials confirmed three deaths in Arkansas, where Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has declared a state of emergency. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has declared an emergency in anticipation of the storm’s shift eastward. (Photo: AP)
March 16, 2025 8:29 am
KOCANI, North Macedonia (AP) — A massive fire in a nightclub in North Macedonia’s eastern town of Kocani has killed 59 people and injured more than 150 others, interior minister Panche Toshkovski said. The blaze began around 2:35 a.m. during a concert by a local pop group at Club Pulse, according to Toshkovski. He said the young clubgoers used pyrotechnics that caused the roof to catch fire. Video on social media shows chaos inside. Family members gathered in front of hospitals and Kocani’s city offices begging authorities for more information. Officials said the injured have been taken to hospitals around the country, including the capital, Skopje, many with severe burns. The effort was being assisted by multiple volunteer organizations.
March 16, 2025 8:27 am
(WPXI) – Police are looking for a missing Pittsburgh woman who they say may need medical assistance. Leta Pittman, 68, was last seen leaving Mayflower Street in Larimer on Friday at 11 a.m. She is believed to have been wearing a purple ballcap that reads, “Melbourne, Florida,” gray sweatpants and a black puffy coat. Pittman often also carries a black and red backpack. Police even shared photos of the last known sighting of Pittman, showing the clothes she may still be wearing. Pittman is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs around 200 pounds. She has brown eyes and gray hair. She drives a black Hyundai Tucson with a Florida license plate reading KYG-X49. That license plate was last picked up on a reader in the area of Harmar Township just after 6:30 p.m. on Saturday Anyone with information on her location is asked to call 412-323-7141 or 911.
