December 10, 2022 4:10 am
Washington City Council wrapped up 2022 by approving a budget for 2023 with no tax increase. The budget comes in just shy of $15 million and is approximately $39,000 less than last year. Finance Chair Ken Westcott credits staff and their hard work for being able to close a deficit and return a balanced budget. Mayor Scott Putnam states that this will be the fourth year that the city has not seen a tax increase. Council tabled a first reading of 3 ordinances that were modified or created to keep blight at a minimum in the city. One ordinance would create a Quality of Life ordinance to help expedite the clean up of properties that have become overgrown with weeds or that suffer other maintenance issues. An ordinance regulating junk vehicles and accessories was also tabled. A third ordinance modification would be the inspection and monitoring of vacant properties. Additionally, council approved four properties to be demolished beginning in 2023.
December 10, 2022 2:26 am
SOUTH FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WPXI) – State police say someone stole fuel from a Washington County volunteer fire department over the weekend. An unknown person in a four-door pickup truck stole diesel fuel from the South Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Department on Jolly School Road some time from 2:35 a.m. on Dec. 3 to 3:35 a.m. on Dec. 4. The theft was captured on video surveillance. Anyone with information is asked to contact state police in Washington. (Photo: South Franklin VFD Facebook Page)
December 9, 2022 7:41 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona says she’s registered as an independent. But the first-term senator also says she doesn’t plan to caucus with Republicans and that will ensure Democrats retain their narrow majority in the Senate. Sinema has modeled her political approach on the renegade style of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and has frustrated Democratic colleagues at times with her overtures to Republicans and opposition to party priorities. She writes in a newspaper column that she’s “declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington.” Democrats were set to hold a 51-49 edge in the Senate come January after the victory Tuesday by Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia’s runoff election.
December 9, 2022 4:18 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The former Minneapolis police officer who held down George Floyd’s back as one of his colleagues kneeled on the Black man’s neck has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison. J. Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty in October to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. He is already serving a federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights, and the state and federal sentence will be served at the same time. Kueng appeared at his sentencing via a video feed from a federal prison in Ohio. When given the chance to address the court, he declined.
December 9, 2022 4:17 am
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) – The Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooter had charges dropped in a 2021 bomb threat case after family members who were terrorized in the incident refused to cooperate. That’s according to the district attorney and court documents unsealed Thursday. The documents say the charges were dropped despite warnings from other relatives that sut Anderson Lee Aldrich was “certain” to hurt or kill a set of grandparents if freed. The district attorney said Aldrich tried to reclaim guns that were seized after the threat, but authorities did not return the weapons. The district attorney spoke hours after a judge unsealed the prior case.
December 9, 2022 4:16 am
BEIJING (AP) – Social media users are reporting a rash of COVID-19 cases in schools and businesses across China after the ruling Communist Party loosened anti-virus rules as it tries to reverse a deepening economic slump. Official data showed a fall in new cases, but those no longer cover big parts of the population after this week’s decision to end mandatory testing for many people. That was part of dramatic changes aimed at gradually emerging from “zero-COVID” restrictions that sparked protests and demands for President Xi Jinping to resign. Social media users in Beijing and other cities said coworkers or classmates were ill and some businesses closed due to lack of staff.
December 9, 2022 4:15 am
SAN ANTONIO (AP) – American basketball star Brittney Griner has returned to the United States after being freed in a high-profile prisoner exchange following nearly 10 months in detention in Russia. The deal saw her swapped for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout. It secured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad and achieved a top goal for President Joe Biden. But the U.S. failed to win freedom for another American, Paul Whelan. Griner’s status as an openly gay Black woman, locked up in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LBGTQ community, injected racial, gender and social dynamics into her legal saga and brought unprecedented attention to the population of wrongful detainees.
December 9, 2022 2:17 am
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has rejected a proposed settlement with Columbia Gas regarding a natural gas explosion that destroyed a home in Washington County in 2019, injuring several people and damaging other nearby homes. The explosion happened at 100 Park Lane and was caused by the over-pressurization of the house piping and appliances because Columbia Gas had failed to equip the home with a service regulator. In Thursday’s motion, the chairman raised a series of concerns following review of the settlement along with public comments that were received about the settlement – which had proposed a civil penalty of $990,000, along with corrective actions by Columbia Gas. Per the motion, the Commission is seeking to further develop the record in this case before rendering a decision, including, whether any remedial measures stemming from a 2018 over-pressurization event in Massachusetts were recommended for Columbia Gas of PA and, if so, whether they were effectuated – which could be relevant to the Pennsylvania case; an estimated timeline for completion of each of the corrective actions proposed in this settlement, and an accounting of the monetary damage caused by the explosion and if Columbia Gas ratepayers are responsible for the financial liability, which is a factor in determining civil penalties.
December 9, 2022 1:44 am
Sherman “Detroit Shawn” Springer learned his fate Thursday morning after his two day trial on drug delivery resulting in death and drug possession charges. The jury of 9 men and three women delivered a unanimous verdict of guilty. Springer was convicted of delivering cocaine laced with fentanyl to Lonnie Barnes of Washington. Barnes and Chelsea Cox ingested the cocaine delivered by Springer and both quickly overdosed. Barnes died of his overdose, Cox survived her overdose and became the key witness that pointed to Springer as the person that delivered the fatal drugs. Springer will be subject to a pre-sentencing investigation. His sentencing is scheduled for March 6.
December 8, 2022 12:25 pm
Nearly 66 years after the battered body of a young boy was found stuffed inside a cardboard box, Philadelphia police have identified him as 4-year-old Joseph Augustus Zarelli. Authorities said Thursday that the investigation into who is responsible for his death remained ongoing. Police say detective work and DNA analysis helped them learn the name of the youngster who’d been known to generations of Philadelphians as the “Boy in the Box.” His naked, badly bruised body was found in a wooded area on Feb. 25, 1957. The case is Philadelphia’s oldest unsolved homicide.
