December 18, 2024 5:10 am
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas official who’s an informal adviser to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team on immigration issues doesn’t expect mass deportations to prompt arrests of migrants at sensitive locations such as schools and churches. But Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach does expect Trump to take action that will spark a legal challenge over the citizenship status of children born in the U.S. to immigrants living in the country illegally. He also expects Trump to encourage local and state law enforcement officers to help with efforts to arrest and detain migrants. Kobach said Wednesday during an Associated Press interview that he’s in regular contact with Trump’s team.
December 18, 2024 5:09 am
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — Indiana has carried out its first execution in 15 years by putting to death a man convicted of killing four people decades ago, including his brother and his sister’s fiancé. The Indiana Department of Correction said in a statement that 49-year-old Joseph Corcoran was pronounced dead at the state prison in Michigan, City Indiana. Corcoran was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the state agency’s statement did not mention that drug. Court records indicate that before Corcoran fatally shot the four men, he was under stress because the forthcoming marriage of his sister and her fiancé would necessitate him moving out of the home he shared with his brother and sister. (Photo: AP)
December 18, 2024 5:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has delivered a likely death blow to bipartisan congressional budget negotiations. He’s rejecting the measure as full of giveaways to Democrats. Billionaire ally Elon Musk whipped up outrage toward the bill and cheered on Republican lawmakers who announced their opposition. Trump’s joint statement Wednesday with Vice President-elect JD Vance, which stopped the bill in its tracks, punctuated a daylong torrent of social media posts by Musk attacking the budget legislation as full of excessive spending. “Kill the Bill!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X as he dangled primary challenges against anyone who voted for the budget deal, a threat Trump later echoed in a post of his own.
December 18, 2024 5:06 am
Washington County Commissioners are expected to vote Thursday on a new policy that will determine how to respond to any future cyber attack. It comes after a ransomware attack crippled County government back in January. Russian hackers got into the county’s network and Commissioners then approved a payment of some $400,000 in February to allow the county to restore its computer system. At Tuesday’s agenda meeting, County Solicitor Gary Sweat asked Commissioner’s to consider a ‘Business Continuity and Disaster Contingency Plan’. No details were released. Commissioners meet Thursday morning at ten in the public meeting room at the Crossroads Building.
December 18, 2024 5:02 am
HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — The suspect charged with shooting to death a health insurance company chief executive on a Manhattan street is being taken to hearings on related Pennsylvania criminal charges and efforts to extradite him to New York. Luigi Mangione faces a preliminary hearing on forgery and firearms charges and consideration of a fugitive from justice complaint on Thursday. Court officials say Mangione will attend the early morning proceedings at the courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. He’s accused of the Dec. 4 killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson.
December 18, 2024 4:54 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal appeals court is reversing lower court decisions that had blocked Pennsylvania from siphoning cash from a state-chartered medical malpractice insurer of last resort. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday against the Pennsylvania Professional Liability Joint Underwriting Association. It says state government created the insurer and holds the only interest in it. The decision came seven years after the underwriting association first sued the state. For three years, from 2017 to 2019, state lawmakers and then-Gov. Tom Wolf had sought at least $200 million from the association to help plug a deficit in the state’s operating budget. The association can appeal.
December 18, 2024 2:44 am
Peter Adamo, MBA, President of the Southwest Region, will depart Penn Highlands Healthcare for a leadership position in Eastern Pennsylvania where his family still resides. Adamo joined the health system in October 2022 as the Southwest Region President with the dual role as president of Penn Highlands Connellsville and Penn Highlands Mon Valley. During his tenure, Peter oversaw the completion of the CNX Foundation Substance Recovery Unit at Penn Highlands Mon Valley and reintroduced the Innovations in Medicine community education programming. “An opportunity arose that is a great fit for my family’s needs,” said Adamo. “It has been a privilege to work with our dedicated employees in the Southwest Region and I value the friendships that I made at Penn Highlands Connellsville and Penn Highlands Mon Valley.” It’s anticipated that Adamo will remain in his current role until late January 2025. A national search for a new Regional President will begin immediately. Mark Norman, System COO, will assume interim leadership in the Southwest Region during the transition.
December 18, 2024 2:40 am
The second person charged in a July 2023 driveby shooting in Canonsburg has entered a guilty plea. Jessica Chatman-Carroll, 35 of Houston, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor reckless endangerment charge. Chatman-Carroll received a two year probation sentence in exchange for the guity plea. She faced conspiracy to commit homicide and aggravated assault charges that were dropped. She was accused of driving the vehicle that carried Dillon Britt and Brett Carroll as they allegedly fired shots into a home in East End Canonsburg. Earlier this month, Brett Carroll, 31 of Washington, pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment. He had a previous probationary sentence revoked and he was resentenced to 18 months to 4 years in prison on both cases. He will then serve five years probation. Dillon Britt is still facing attempted homicide and other charges relating to the incident. He is scheduled for a plea court hearing on January 25th.
December 18, 2024 2:17 am
North Strabane Township Supervisors unanimously voted to adopt their budget for 2025. The good news for residents is that there will be no tax increase associated with the spending plan. The last tax increase came in 2021 to better fund the fire department and parks and recreation. The $22.9 million spending plan is balanced. Some of the bigger spending items will be the completion of the public safety building and the renovation of the former Lighthouse Electric building to become the township’s new municipal building. In other business, a measure to advertise changes to the township’s zoning ordinance that defines a personal warehouse failed due to a 2-2 tie. Supervisors Marcus Staley and Emily Holmes were in favor of the changes, Bob Ross and Neil Kelly were against them. Harold Close was absent from the meeting. A motion to table the item did pass unanimously. At issue were changes in parking restrictions suggested by the applicant CC Realty Advisors. The matter will be addressed again in January.
December 17, 2024 3:45 pm
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Investigators in Wisconsin are trying to determine a motive in a school shooting that left a teacher and a student dead and two other children in critical condition. Shon Barnes, the police chief in Madison, Wisconsin, says it appears to be a “combination of factors.” He’s urging anyone who knew the 15-year-old girl’s feelings to reach out. The shooting occurred Monday at Abundant Life Christian School. The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Six people were wounded.
