March 16, 2023 4:07 am
CANONSBURG, Pa. — (WPXI) – While Sarris Candies has a boundless number of Easter candies and chocolates for the season, customers won’t be able to purchase their jelly beans this year. The unique recipe contains both pectin and starch, which come from Ukraine, according to President/CEO Bill Sarris. The Canonsburg-based company makes all of its chocolates in-house, but the jelly beans are produced by an outside supplier. With pectin and starch in short supply, the supplier has been using its machinery for different purposes. Sarris said the issue has been ongoing for quite some time. Last year, they tried to sell a different type.“The repercussions were so bad!” he said. They didn’t want to let people down with an alternative this year, so they decided not to sell jelly beans at all. Sarris said that they sampled other jelly beans, even some imported from Europe, but they just didn’t have the special taste that longtime Sarris customers have come to expect. Prior to the issues, Sarris sold hundreds of thousands of jelly beans each year. Not being able to sell them has impacted their bottom line, he said.
March 15, 2023 2:53 pm
A former Uniontown man was sentenced to nearly 18 years in prison and lifetime supervised release for molesting a child in live videos and pictures. According to the Department of Justice, Zachary Bosh, 39, was sentenced in a federal court to 210 months behind bars and lifetime supervision on his conviction of production of visual depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. On April 12, 2019, an undercover officer entered a public chat group called #parentstoys using an internet-based and free mobile app. A user by the handle “ascott55055? initiated a private chat with the officer, sending the officer around seven videos and/or images of a minor, one of which shows the sexual exploitation of the victim. The user was later identified as Bosh. “This defendant will spend the next 17.5 years in prison for preying upon, exploiting and abusing a young girl who was under the defendant’s care for his own sexual gratification,” said Acting United States Attorney Rivetti. “This sentence sends a clear message that predatory crimes, such as child exploitation offenses, will continue to be vigorously prosecuted by this office.”
March 15, 2023 12:21 pm
(WPXI) – A mistrial has been declared in the case of 34-year-old Christian Bey, the man accused of shooting and killing an off-duty Pittsburgh police officer in 2019. A witness for the commonwealth mentioned they knew Bey because he had been in and out of jail. One of the stipulations was that Bey’s prior convictions could not be brought into this trial. Bey was accused of shooting and killing off-duty Pittsburgh Police officer Calvin Hall at a street party in Homewood in 2019. Bey will face a retrial. No date has been set. The mistrial was declared just one day after the trial began. The prosecution and defense made their opening statements to the jury Tuesday morning.
March 15, 2023 9:13 am
NEW YORK (AP) — America’s consumers trimmed their spending in February after a buying burst in January, underscoring the volatility of the economic environment. The government said Wednesday that retail sales slipped 0.4% after jumping a revised 3.2 % in January, helped by an increase in auto sales. Retail sales were down in November and December, the critical holiday period. Excluding gas and autos, retail sales were unchanged from January, according to the Commerce Department. Sales at furniture sores fell 2.5%, while business at restaurants slipped 2.2%. Sales at department stores declined 4%.
March 15, 2023 9:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale price increases in the United States slowed sharply last month as food costs declined, a sign that inflationary pressures may be easing. From January to February, the government’s producer price index fell 0.1%, after a 0.3% rise from December to January, which was revised sharply lower. Compared with a year ago, wholesale prices rose 4.6%, a big drop from the 5.7% annual increase in January.
March 15, 2023 4:58 am
DETROIT (AP) — Honda is recalling a half-million vehicles in the U.S. and Canada because the front seat belts may not latch properly. The recall covers some of the the automaker’s top-selling models including the 2017 through 2020 CR-V, the 2018 and 2019 Accord, the 2018 through 2020 Odyssey and the 2019 Insight. Also included is the Acura RDX from the 2019 and 2020 model years. Honda says in documents posted Wednesday by U.S. safety regulators that a manufacturing issue can cause the seat belt buckle channel to interfere with the release button, stopping the buckle from latching. Dealers will replace the release buttons or assemblies if needed. Owners will be notified by letter starting April 17.
March 15, 2023 4:28 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a matter of days, Saudi Arabia carried out blockbuster agreements with the world’s two leading powers. It signed a Chinese-facilitated deal aimed at restoring diplomatic ties with the Saudi’s arch-nemesis Iran, and announced a massive contract to buy commercial planes from U.S. manufacturer Boeing. The two announcements spurred speculation that the Saudis were laying their marker as a dominant economic and geopolitical force that has the flexibility to play Beijing and Washington off each other. It also cast China in an unfamiliar leading role in Middle Eastern politics. And it has raised questions about whether the frosty U.S.-Saudi relationship has reached a détente.
March 15, 2023 4:20 am
AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — A federal judge will hear arguments in a high-stakes court case that could threaten access to medication abortion and blunt the authority of U.S. drug regulators. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Texas is weighing a lawsuit from Christian conservatives aimed at overturning the Food and Drug Administration’s more than 2-decade-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. The drug, when used with a second pill, has become the most common method of abortion in the U.S. Wednesday’s hearing is the first in the case, which is being intensely tracked after last year’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.
March 15, 2023 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — After a frenetic weekend of round-the-clock briefings, U.S. policymakers took the audacious step of guaranteeing all the deposits of the failed Silicon Valley Bank — even those exceeding the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s $250,000 limit. The hope is that it will restore confidence in the financial system after the second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history. The plan came together as the government was unable to sell off the defunct institution on time. But the FDIC may try to auction it off again. Meanwhile, policymakers and lawmakers are starting to look ahead for ways to prevent the next crisis.
March 15, 2023 4:13 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — As part of a yearlong investigation, The Associated Press obtained the data points underpinning several algorithms deployed by child welfare agencies to understand how they predict which children could be at risk of harm. They offer rare insight into the mechanics driving these emerging technologies. Among the factors they use to measure a family’s risk, whether outright or by proxy: race, poverty rates, disability status and family size. The tool’s developers say their work is transparent and that they make their models public. The AP has learned that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating one Pennsylvania county’s child welfare system to determine whether its use of an algorithm discriminates against people with disabilities or other protected groups.
