November 10, 2024 8:13 am
(WPXI) – A Tarentum man is facing several charges after police said his dogs ran loose on Halloween and attacked three people. Brandon Baynes, 36, of Tarentum is charged with 3 counts of recklessly endangering another person and animal neglect. According to a criminal complaint, the dogs did not have adequate food and water and were kept in “deplorable” conditions. Neighbors described that Halloween night as horrific and said the dogs were out for blood. Cell phone video taken from inside a neighbor’s house showed Shawn Flynn running out of his friend’s house to help a man, Michael Shutack, who was being viciously attacked by two Pit bulls when the dogs suddenly turned on him. “Instinct took over,” Flynn said. “I ran out this house. I didn’t have a plan. I looked to see to grab anything. I grabbed this old carpet and ran up and tried to get them off. Eventually, they broke away and two started going after me.” Flynn said he was still traumatized by that night. “If I hear a dog bark, I jump,” he said. Police said three Pit bulls broke through the screen door of their 6th Avenue home and chased after trick-or-treaters in the street. Their neighbor, Shutack got the kids out of harm’s way when two of the dogs started biting his face, neck and legs. The dogs then targeted Flynn, sinking their teeth into his hands and leg.
November 10, 2024 8:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host President-elect Donald Trump for a traditional postelection meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, the White House said Saturday. Such a meeting is customary between the outgoing president and the incoming president, and is meant partly to mark the start of a peaceful transfer of power under America’s democracy. But Trump, a Republican, did not host Biden, a Democrat, for a sit-down after the 2020 election, when Trump lost his reelection bid. Trump sought the presidency four years later, and this week he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat. Trump is the first former president to return to power since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election. The White House said Biden called Trump this past Wednesday to congratulate him and invite him to meet in the Oval Office. In a speech Thursday, Biden said he had assured Trump “that I would direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That’s what the American people deserve.” Their upcoming meeting is set for 11 a.m. (Photo: AP)
November 10, 2024 8:03 am
(WPXI) – Firefighters in western Pennsylvania are urging residents to avoid burning outdoors due to an elevated risk of brush fires. A combination of dry air and very dry brush is creating an increased risk of wildfire spread. “When you have these heavy drought conditions it runs rampant,” said South Strabane Assistant Fire Chief Paul Winter. Winter said his department has responded to multiple brush fires recently. “We’ve been having a lot of high volume calls with brush fires turning into wildland fires,” he said. “We’ve had wind-driven conditions so any small embers can easily travel and can consume large properties of land. It can spread 30-40 feet in seconds. He said these fires can become extremely dangerous for crews to extinguish. “We run a lot of risk. The fire can easily jump and spread around you. Your resources are stretched thin trying to get water and personnel into the areas depending on location can get rather difficult.. On Friday, one of his firefighters was hit by a falling tree while working a brush fire in Amwell Township. That firefighter was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital, and released Saturday morning. Winter said it takes multiple departments and resources to fight these fires, and many of these departments are volunteer based or stretched thin to begin with. “The biggest thing we ask is for community support,” he said. “Not only for not burning but to also help support their local fire departments because without their support we can not continue.” “We advise people to please stop burning trash,” he said. “Stop burning brush. Don’t even have a small contained brush fire because once an ember gets into leaves or brush it’s going to spread very fast.” (AP File Photo)
November 9, 2024 9:29 am
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say a suicide bomber blew himself up at a train station in restive southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 26 people, including soldiers, and wounding 62 others. Saturday’s attack happened when about 100 passengers were waiting for a train to travel to the garrison city of Rawalpindi from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, a senior government administrator said. A separatist group, the Balochistan Liberation Army, claimed the attack in a statement, saying a suicide bomber targeted troops present at the railway station. The outlawed BLA has long waged an insurgency seeking independence from Islamabad.
November 9, 2024 4:52 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Several federal and state agencies are investigating how racist mass texts were sent to Black people across the country in the wake of the presidential election this week. The messages invoking slavery raised alarm across the country this week after they were sent to Black men, women and students, including middle schoolers, prompting inquiries by the FBI and other agencies. Experts say the culprit likely took advantage of a bulk-messaging industry designed to help legitimate marketers reach people on their phones. Phone service provider TextNow said that “one or more” of its accounts were used to send the text messages and that it quickly disabled those accounts for violating its terms of service.
November 9, 2024 4:50 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has unsealed criminal charges in a thwarted Iranian plot to kill President-elect Donald Trump before this week’s presidential election. A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan alleges that an unnamed official in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed a contact this past September to put together a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump. The plot reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target U.S. government officials, including Trump, on U.S. soil. The charges were unsealed Friday, just days after Trump’s defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris,
November 9, 2024 4:45 am
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Authorities say 43 monkeys bred for medical research that escaped a compound in South Carolina have been spotted in the woods near a fence surrounding the site and that workers are using food to try to recapture them. Officials say the Rhesus macaques made a break for it Wednesday after an employee at the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee didn’t fully lock a door as she fed and checked on them. The monkeys are about the size of a cat. They are all females weighing about 7 pounds. Alpha Genesis, federal health officials and the police all say the monkeys pose no risk to public health.
November 9, 2024 4:38 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case has canceled any remaining court deadlines after prosecutors said they need time to assess “the appropriate course going forward” after the Republican’s presidential victory this week. Smith’s team has been evaluating how to wind down the two federal cases before the president-elect takes office in light of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Wednesday. In a court filing Friday in Trump’s election interference case, Smith’s team said it needs “time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.”
November 9, 2024 3:27 am
LAS VEGAS (AP) — U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada has won reelection. The Democrat won her second term over Republican challenger Sam Brown, who was endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump. Rosen positioned herself as a nonpartisan advocate for her state while hammering Brown for his opposition to abortion rights. Brown tried to tie Rosen to the rising cost of living in Nevada and leaned on his own biography as a former Army captain who was badly wounded in Afghanistan.
November 9, 2024 3:22 am
There has been no update on the condition of a South Strabane Firefighter who was hit by a tree yesterday while battling a brush fire. Authorities say they received a call for a fire along Dynamite Road around 3pm. About an hour after fire crews were dispatched to the scene they received word about the firefighter’s injury. He was flown to a local hospital. The South Strabane Fire Department urges residents to stop burning until it is safe to do so.
