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 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 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 18, 2024 5:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point — its third cut this year — but also signaled that it expects to reduce rates more slowly next year than it previously envisioned, mostly because of still-elevated inflation. The Fed’s policymakers projected that they will cut their benchmark rate by a quarter-point just twice in 2025, down from their estimate in September of four rate cuts. Their new projections suggest that consumers may not enjoy much lower rates next year for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. The Fed’s expectation of just two rate cuts in 2025 rattled Wall Street, sending stock prices plummeting in the worst day for the market in four months.
December 18, 2024 5:13 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO is charged with murder as an act of terrorism. Prosecutors disclosed the indictment Tuesday as they worked to bring Luigi Mangione to New York from a Pennsylvania jail. The 26-year-old already had been charged with murder in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson. But the terror allegation is new. New York law allows prosecutors to bring such a charge when an alleged crime is “intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policies of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion and affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination or kidnapping.” Mangione’s New York lawyer declined to comment.
December 18, 2024 5:14 am
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Community members in Wisconsin are continuing to wrestle with grief and calling for change in the aftermath of a school shooting that killed a teacher and a student and wounded six others. Investigators are trying to determine a motive. The police chief says it appears to be a “combination of factors.” He’s urging anyone who knew the 15-year-old shooter’s feelings to reach out. The shooting occurred Monday at Abundant Life Christian School. The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Barnes said police are talking with the shooter’s father and other family members, who are cooperating.
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 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 17, 2024 5:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk’s attachment to President-elect Donald Trump has created an unprecedented alliance between America’s most powerful politician and its richest businessman. Roughly the same percentages of Americans have favorable views of both of them, according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Experts are split on whether that overlap in public opinion is a good or bad thing for Musk’s businesses or for Trump’s politics. But it could have far-reaching effects in both realms. Musk, whose net worth tops $400 billion, oversees six businesses while continuing to work closely with Trump. And for Trump, Musk is an important validator with his conservative base. (Photo: AP)
December 17, 2024 3:43 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO has been charged with murder as an act of terrorism. Prosecutors disclosed the indictment Tuesday as they worked to bring Luigi Mangione to a New York court from a Pennsylvania jail. The 26-year-old Mangione already had been charged with murder in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson. But the terror allegation is new. Under New York law, such a charge can be brought when an alleged crime is “intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policies of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion and affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination or kidnapping.” Mangione’s New York lawyer hasn’t commented. (Photo: AP)
