April 23, 2023 7:10 am
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa.-(WPXI)-A representative from Kennywood Park says that four teenagers are expected to face criminal charges after trying to gain entrance by climbing a fence. Police in the park were alerted to the teens trying to get into the park by climbing over the fence at around 2 p.m. Kennywood says their new camera system with AI technology was what spotted the group trying to get in. Three of the teens were arrested and will face charges. Kennywood says the fourth person will be charged with trespassing. All four of them will be banned from the park. “The safety and security of our guests and team members is our top priority. We are pleased that our enhanced security procedures, including enhancements to our perimeter, new technology and increased police presence enabled us to immediately detect and apprehend those responsible,” Kennywood said in a statement. The upgrades to the system came after three people were shot and injured inside Kennywood in September 2022.
April 23, 2023 7:06 am
Prior to a civil lawsuit being filed in Washington County Common Pleas Court, a Peters Township attorney was granted an injunction. Jeffery Wertz filed a lawsuit making claims that attorney client privileged conversations he had with his clients were inappropriately recorded and the recordings were handed over to the district attorney. In an April 4, 2023 motion, a judge granted an injunction against Inmate Calling Solutions, LLC, The County of Washington, The Prison Board of Washington County and Washington County Correctional Facility Warden Jeffery Fewell. The injunction states that no phone call may be intercepted or recorded nor any mail be intercepted of copied between Wertz and his clients while he is attorney of record. Wertz proceeded to file that lawsuit against the same parties on April 17. In a text exchange, Washington County Commissioner Chairwoman Diana Irey-Vaughn acknowledged the injunction and referred to earlier statements she issued about the lawsuit indicating that “all policies were followed and that there was no wrong doing on behalf of Washington County.” Irey-Vaughn’s statement went on to describe the situation as “nothing more than theatrics and meritless nonsense.”
April 22, 2023 4:32 am
The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and Department of military and Veterans Affairs are encouraging Pennsylvanians to take part in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Drug take back stations are set up throughout Washington County today. If you are not able to take part in the program today, there are hundreds of drug take back boxes placed throughout Pennsylvania 365 days a year. Most of those can be found at local police stations. Since the inception of Pennsylvania’s drug take back program in 2015, more than one million pounds of prescription medication has been destroyed across all 67 Pennsylvania counties.
April 22, 2023 4:05 am
Washington County Commissioners and the Observer-Reporter newspaper say they are considering legal action against Washington County Clerk of Courts Brenda Davis over a social media post she made. Davis reportedly copied-and-pasted the newspaper’s article about a lawsuit filed by a local attorney claiming that his telephone conversations with clients inside the County Jail were illegally recorded. The newspaper says its conferring with legal counsel on how to move forward with “Davis’ copyright infringement and misrepresentation of facts”. Commissioner’s Chairperson Diana Irey-Vaughan delivered a prepared statement about the post during Thursday’s Commissioner’s meeting. She says her quote in the newspaper was accurate. She said “there is no wrongdoing on behalf of Washington County. This is nothing more than theatrics and meritless nonsense” in reference to the lawsuit. She says Davis posted a “complete misstatement” of what she said. Irey-Vaughan says Davis’ Facebook post “contains several other inaccuracies”. She says the inaccurate quote is “a clear deliberate attempt to place the County, the Warden and myself in a false light with the citizens of Washington County and she is clearly doing so for her own political gains”. Irey-Vaughan says she is consulting with legal counsel to possibly pursue litigation to “put a stop to this outrageous behavior”.
April 22, 2023 3:58 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — As Ukrainian and Russian troops fight conventional battles on the front lines, Europe’s first major war of the internet age has also sparked a war of technology as both sides vie for advantage with their drones and satellite communications. Ukraine’s minister in charge of technology tells The Associated Press that both sides have been keeping pace with one another thus far. But Mykhailo Fedorov says he is confident his country has the motivation and abilities to out-innovate Russia in the end.
April 22, 2023 3:56 am
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The Chilean government’s newly announced plan to have the state take a majority stake in the lithium industry has disconcerted business leaders. But analysts cautioned Friday that the proposal appears to try to strike a middle ground between competing interests. President Gabriel Boric announced in a national broadcast Thursday night that private companies will have to partner with the government in exploiting Chile’s lithium, a metal used to make rechargeable batteries. Boric says the state will take a controlling interest in each partnership, leading some to call it a nationalization of the industry. Other disagree. One analyst says that the plan is more “a quasi-nationalization in that the playing field will now be leveled in favor of the state.”
April 22, 2023 3:54 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nothing will change for now. That’s what the Supreme Court said Friday evening about access to a widely used abortion pill. A court case that began in Texas has sought to roll back Food and Drug Administration approval of the drug, mifepristone. Lower courts had said that women seeking the drug should face more restrictions on getting it while the case continues, but the Supreme Court disagreed. The court’s action almost certainly will leave access to mifepristone unchanged at least into next year, as appeals play out, including a potential appeal to the high court.
April 22, 2023 3:53 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has agreed to let Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee question an ex-prosecutor about the criminal case against former President Donald Trump. Under the agreement, committee members will be able to question Mark Pomerantz under oath next month in Washington. The deal resolves a lawsuit in which Bragg had sought to block Pomerantz from testifying and ends a legal dispute that escalated to a federal appeals court just weeks after Trump’s historic indictment. Pomerantz will be accompanied by a lawyer from Bragg’s office, a condition the committee said it would have allowed even without Friday’s agreement.
April 21, 2023 5:35 pm
Washington County Commissioners continued their efforts to expand broadband access to unserved and underserved areas of the county. On Thursday they approved a more than $8 million project that will bring broadband services to Hanover Township and Burgettstown. The county is partnering with Comcast Cable Communications, LLC to bring 116 miles of fiber to 680 residential and commercial targets. Washington County will be using $3.186 million in American Rescue Plan funds for its share of the project. Comcast will cover the remaining $5 million of the project. Commissioners also approved a grant application to partner with the Appalachian Regional Commission for $2.5 million to address broadband in East Finley Township.
April 21, 2023 9:40 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. is setting a record pace for mass killings this year. In the last week, four people were fatally shot at a Sweet 16 party in Alabama, and a man shot and killed another four people in Maine. Data maintained by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows 88 people have died in 17 mass killings since Jan. 1. Fred Guttenberg’s daughter died in a mass shooting at a Florida high school in 2018. He says he’s outraged that more families are suffering. On average the data shows at least four people have died in mass killings once every 6 and 1/2 days this year. The numbers exclude perpetrator deaths.
