July 23, 2025 2:35 am
Washington County Coroner Tim Warco has identified the man who died in a fiery head-on crash Tuesday morning on Route 40 as 18-old Chayse Allen of South Strabane Township. The crash happened just after five o’clock when Allen was traveling east on Route 40 and collided with another vehicle traveling west in the 1600 Block of East National Pike near Valleyview Road. Warco says both vehicles were engulfed in flames and it’s unknown at this time if Allen was wearing a seat-belt. The driver of the other vehicle was flown from the scene by medical helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital. Route 40 was closed for several hours after the crash. State Police are handling the investigation.
July 23, 2025 2:33 am
A Belle Vernon man has been sentenced in federal court to thirty months in prison and ordered to pay $3,630,479.13 for his convictions of failing to pay employment taxes and harboring individuals who were not legally authorized to be in the United States. United States District Judge Cathy Bissoon imposed the sentence on 28-year-old Andy Ha after he pleaded guilty to the charges in February of 2025. According to information presented to the Court, Ha was the president and owner of the Charleroi staffing agency Prosperity Services, Inc., where he employed individuals who were not legally authorized to be in the United States, and paid for such workers to stay in a former hotel. Ha signed false employment tax returns on behalf of the agency, in which Ha reported less than 10% of Prosperity’s employees. Ha and Prosperity failed to pay taxes on the other unreported employees, resulting in a tax loss of at least $3.1 million over the course of a year.
July 23, 2025 2:42 am
The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) released findings of a preliminary report on the cause of the intermittent outages within the Next-Generation 911 (NG911) system across the Commonwealth earlier this month. The preliminary root cause analysis found that the issues were due to a defect in an operating system, which resulted in intermittent disruptions to NG911 call delivery. The disruptions are not believed to be the result of a cyber-attack. “As soon as the intermittent outages started, our vendors and partner public safety organizations began to investigate the cause and take steps to resolve the issue,” said PEMA Executive Deputy Director Jeff Boyle. “We activated the Emergency Alert System and issued Wireless Emergency Alerts as a precautionary measure to notify everyone in Pennsylvania of the issue and to follow county-based back up plans should they not be able to reach the 911 centers by calling the traditional three-digit phone number.” Next Generation Core Services (NGCS) are the systems and components used to process and route calls from phones to 911 centers. There are four instances of the NGCS which are located at two data centers within the NG911 system in Pennsylvania. PEMA suggests as a part of your personal preparedness plan, save your county 911 center ten-digit non-emergency number on your cellphone or write it down in an easily accessible place if you have an emergency and for some reason cannot reach 911.
July 23, 2025 4:44 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he’s reached a trade agreement with Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr. following a meeting at the White House. Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. will slightly drop its tariff rate for the Philippines without paying import taxes for what it sells there. The online announcement of a loose framework of a deal comes as the countries are seeking closer security and economic ties in the face of shifting geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region. Marcos’ government had indicated ahead of the meeting he was prepared to offer zero tariffs on some U.S. goods.
July 23, 2025 4:47 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is leaving Washington early as Republicans clash over the Jeffrey Epstein files. House Speaker Mike Johnson is rebuffing pressure to act on the investigation into Epstein as some Republicans push for a vote on the matter. Johnson said Tuesday morning that he wants to give the White House “space” to release the Epstein information on its own. The speaker’s stance seemed unlikely to satisfy many Republicans who are threatening to support a bipartisan bill to pry information from the Justice Department. Even before Johnson spoke, a Republican-controlled committee was advancing a resolution to subpoena Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
July 23, 2025 4:50 am
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Trump administration has announced that it will once again withdraw from the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO. The move Tuesday was expect and has the U.S. further retreating from international organizations. The decision to pull U.S. funding and participation from UNESCO comes two years after the Biden administration rejoined following a controversial, five-year absence that began during President Donald Trump’s first term. The White House cited similar concerns as it did in 2018, saying it believes U.S. involvement is not in its national interest and accusing the agency promoting anti-Israel speech. The UNESCO chief said she “deeply” regrets the U.S. decision but said the agency “has prepared for it.” She denied accusations of anti-Israel bias,
July 23, 2025 4:48 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles prosecutors have announced charges in connection with a car crash outside a nightclub over the weekend that injured 37 people and led to the driver being shot. LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman on Tuesday charged the driver, who was identified as 29-year-old Fernando Ramirez. Partygoers were leaving the Vermont Hollywood venue at the end of a reggae hip-hop event early Saturday when a vehicle rammed into the crowd. Injuries ranged from minor to serious fractures and lacerations, and some people were briefly trapped beneath the vehicle. A phone number for Ramirez could not be found and the public defender’s office said that they are not representing him.
July 23, 2025 4:50 am
FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — Investigators say a fire that killed 10 people at a Massachusetts assisted-living facility was likely caused by smoking or an oxygen machine’s electrical problem. The Massachusetts fire marshal, Jon Davine, said Tuesday that the July 13 blaze at Gabriel House spread quickly due to the presence of medical oxygen. Thomas Quinn, the county district attorney, said investigators are still collecting evidence on numerous aspects of the case, including whether the facility’s sprinkler system worked as it should. So far, investigators have remained mum on the possibility of criminal charges.
July 23, 2025 3:26 pm
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations’ top court in a landmark advisory opinion says countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change, and nations harmed by its effects could be entitled to reparations. Advocates immediately cheered the International Court of Justice opinion on nations’ obligations to tackle climate change and the consequences they may face if they don’t. Notably, the court said a “clean, healthy and sustainable environment” is a human right. That paves the way for other legal actions, including states returning to the ICJ to hold each other to account as well as domestic lawsuits.
July 23, 2025 2:15 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A doctor has pleaded guilty to illegally supplying ketamine to Matthew Perry before the overdose death of the ‘Friends’ star. On Wednesday, Dr. Salvador Plasencia admitted in federal court to providing Perry with ketamine vials, lozenges, and syringes in the weeks leading up to his death on October 28, 2023. Prosecutors say Plasencia also injected Perry with the drug and taught his assistant how to administer it. Prosecutors outlined the charges in court before the plea, and said that he did not sell Perry the dose that killed the actor. Perry had struggled with addiction for years. Plasencia faces up to 40 years in prison but has not yet been sentenced and may get a lighter sentence.
