December 17, 2024 5:05 am
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has refused to dismiss President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money conviction because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. But the overall future of the historic case remains unclear. Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan’s decision Monday blocks one potential off-ramp from the case ahead of Trump’s return to office next month. His lawyers have raised other arguments for dismissal, however. It’s unclear when — or whether — a sentencing date might be set. A jury convicted Trump in May of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016. Trump denies wrongdoing.
December 17, 2024 5:04 am
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian officials says Lt. General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces, has been killed by an explosive device planted near an apartment building in Moscow. Russia’s Investigative Committee said the bomb, which was triggered by the device placed in a scooter, also killed Kirillov’s assistant. Kirillov, who was named the head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces in April 2017, was under sanctions from several countries including the U.K. and Canada for his role in Ukraine. Ukraine’s Security Services on Dec. 16 charged Kirillov with the use of banned chemical weapons during Russia’s military operation in Ukraine that started in Feb. 2022.
December 17, 2024 4:59 am
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Drone-detecting devices deployed in New Jersey within the past week have shown little to no evidence of anything nefarious or threatening. That’s according to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who said Monday that 12 sightings of suspected drones were reported in the state overnight Saturday and one on Sunday. He also has echoed calls by officials in other states for Congress to give them more authority to deal with drones. Federal officials say there is no evidence that drones are being operated with bad intent or by foreign governments, and many sightings over the eastern U.S. have actually been of manned aircraft that look like drones.
December 17, 2024 4:56 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say security guards at the federal courthouse in Harrisburg shot and wounded a knife-wielding man who attempted to attack one of them. Few details of Monday’s shooting were immediately available, and authorities said the FBI was leading the investigation. In a statement, the U.S. Marshals Service says the security officers moved to stop the man after he entered the courthouse, brandishing a knife. The marshals service says the suspect attempted to attack one of the security officers before they shot him, striking him multiple times. He was in stable condition at a hospital, while the security officers were uninjured.
December 17, 2024 2:50 am
The Peters Township School Board held a public hearing pertaining to an application filed by the Dogwood Charter School to locate its facilities inside the school district. Beth Opat is the founder of the school and she said that she is searching for an appropriate building to house their kindergarten through eighth grade program. Dogwood had been open earlier this year in a former church school in Bethel Park. Township officials indicated that according to their zoning rules, the building did not conform to building codes designated for schools. Those decisions forced the closure of the school. Opat said that her school is looking to partner with the school district to offer an education based on the Charlotte Mason curriculum approach to education. That approach takes an active engagement process to education as opposed to the passive engagement found in traditional schools. Opat said that the approach is effective for divergent students and students identified with ADHD or ADD. After the presentation, school board members asked pointed questions about the organizational skills of the school. They asked about their successes academically and how they were measured. Questions about academic measures were not able to be answered. Directors seemed concerned about the ability for the school to operate. Several audience members did speak. All of them spoke of the emotional turnarounds their children experienced once they attended Dogwood Charter. The hearing was continued. Another hearing will be scheduled in early 2025 before directors vote on allowing the charter school to locate in the township.
December 17, 2024 2:48 am
Peters Township Council adopted their budget for 2025. There will not be a tax increase on the balanced budget. The numbers come in at $29.5 million in revenue and $43.8 in expenditures. The gap between revenue and expenditures will be made up from previously borrowed funds and funds that will be borrowed if council approves capital projects throughout the year. According to Council Chairman Dr. Tom Pirosko, council is pleased to hold the line on taxes but that may not be the case next year. According to Township Manager Paul Lauer, real estate development has leveled off compared to previous years. The earned income tax has remained flat also. Recreational projects will highlight the township’s spending this year. Artificial turf will be installed on baseball fields 1 and 2 at Peterswood Park. A splash pad is being built at Rolling Hills Park. Phase 2 of the development of Rolling Hills Park will also be considered. Amenities that could be included in that expansion are increased parking, basketball courts, pickleball courts and dek hockey. A dog park is also under consideration. The splash pad could open in early summer of 2025. If council approves any or all of the Rolling Hills Park expansion, those improvements could begin in early fall of 2025.
December 17, 2024 2:45 am
(WPXI) – Transportation Security Administration officers at Pittsburgh International Airport stopped a .25 caliber handgun at the security checkpoint on Monday. The handgun, which was loaded with six bullets, was in a Washington County man’s backpack. Police confiscated the gun after the bag was removed from the X-ray machine. Monday marked the 41st firearm that TSA officers have intercepted at Pittsburgh so far this year.
December 17, 2024 2:19 am
Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh has filed a Notice of Aggravating Factors against a Charleroi woman, who, along with her husband, are facing multiple charges in the death of their fourteen-month-old son, Paxton. Thirty-two-year-old Brooke Whitehead is facing a criminal homicide charge while her 32-year-old husband Ryan faces a charge of endangering the welfare of a child. On Monday, Walsh announced that he would be seeking the death penalty against Brooke Whitehead for the alleged incidents that occurred on October 24, 2023 at their home on Prospect Avenue in Charleroi Borough. Police say they were called to the home for reports of a fourteen-month-old child who wasn’t breathing. The child was later pronounced dead at a hospital. During a preliminary hearing, a pathologist identified blunt force trauma to the head, torso and extremities as the cause of death. The pathologist detailed multiple skull fractures that led to lacerations of the brain and multiple fractures of the legs and arms that occurred over a period of time. Some of those fractures were healed, others were re-fractures of previous injuries. Police testimony detailed two interviews with Brooke Whitehead. In the first, she said she was the only adult caring for her children that night. In a subsequent interview, police said she provided four other scenarios of how the child received the injuries that ultimately claimed his life. The couple fled their home and detectives found them living in the Bellefonte area and had to have them extradited back to Washington County, where they are being held in the Washington County Jail without bond, awaiting trial. Walsh says he expects the case to go to trial sometime in February. (Photo: WPXI)
December 16, 2024 5:46 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — TikTok is asking the Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis to block the federal law that would ban the popular platform in the United States unless its China-based parent company agrees to sell it. Company lawyers and China-based ByteDance on Monday urged the justices to act before the law’s Jan. 19 deadline. Content creators who rely on the platform for income and some of TikTok’s more than 170 million users in the U.S. filed a separate plea. The companies say a shutdown lasting just a month would cause TikTok to lose about a third of its daily users in the U.S.
December 16, 2024 5:44 pm
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Drone-detecting devices deployed in New Jersey within the past week have shown little to no evidence of anything nefarious or threatening. That’s according to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who said Monday that 12 sightings of suspected drones were reported in the state overnight Saturday and one on Sunday. He also has echoed calls by officials in other states for Congress to give them more authority to deal with drones. Federal officials say there is no evidence that drones are being operated with bad intent or by foreign governments, and many sightings over the eastern U.S. have actually been of manned aircraft that look like drones.
