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.
December 16, 2024 5:30 pm
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 16, 2024 2:09 pm
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The shooter who opened fire at a private Christian school in Wisconsin was a 17-year-old female student, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. Police say the shooter killed a teacher and another student. Authorities say the shooter also died and wounded six others at Abundant Life Christian School. Someone from the K-12 school of about 400 students called 911 to report an active shooter shortly before 11 a.m. Monday. Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said the motive for the shooting was not immediately known.
December 16, 2024 5:28 am
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras (AP) — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office in January with a promise of carrying out mass deportations, leaving Honduras and other Central American countries bracing for a potential influx of vulnerable migrants — a situation they are ill-prepared to handle. Migrants and networks aiding deportees in Central America’s Northern Triangle worry their return could thrust them into even deeper economic and humanitarian crises, fueling migration down the line. “We don’t have the capacity” to take so many people, said Antonio García, Honduras’ deputy foreign minister. “There’s very little here for deportees.” People who return, he said, “are the last to be taken care of.”
December 16, 2024 5:26 am
NEW YORK (AP) — When Donald Trump takes office as president for a second time, many journalists anticipate a hostile climate toward them and their work. This is, after all, a man who once labeled journalists as enemies and has talked about retribution toward enemies. Former Washington Post editor Martin Baron says he expects Trump to come after the press with every tool in his toolbox, “and there are a lot of tools.” Lawsuits, efforts to unmask anonymous sources, day-to-day demonization are all on the table. But some experts urge the press not to go into war footing, but to do its work and see how everything plays out.
December 16, 2024 5:23 am
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Health officials in the Gaza Strip say the death toll from the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas militants has topped 45,000 people. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
December 16, 2024 5:21 am
Firefighters were called to a house fire in Charleroi Sunday evening. Our news partners at WPXI say it was a reported kitchen fire in the 800-block of Meadow Avenue. Heavy fire was reported in the rear of the structure. Crews were on the scene for some two-hours. Fallowfield Township fire fighters were also called in to assist. There are no reports of any injuries and it’s unclear what may have sparked the blaze.
December 16, 2024 5:16 am
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — (WPXI) – Police at WVU are urging students to be cautious after a reported burglary near campus. In a campus alert, WVU officials say the burglary happened at 216 Belmar Ave., near the Downtown area of campus, on Saturday morning. Surveillance video shows one of two suspects entering the building through an unlocked basement window. University Police are investigating the incident and are working to determine if it’s related to burglary and larceny reports in a similar area at the end of November. Anyone with information that may help in the ongoing investigations should call UPD at 304-293-313. Callers can remain anonymous. With this reported burglary, police are urging students to take action. “We cannot stress enough how important it is that members of our University community secure their property — whether that be their homes or vehicles,” Chief Sherry St. Clair said. If you witness a potentially dangerous situation or a crime, call 911 or WVUPD. If you encounter an emergency situation on campus, utilize the blue light emergency call system, if available.
