December 17, 2024 3:45 pm
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Investigators in Wisconsin are trying to determine a motive in a school shooting that left a teacher and a student dead and two other children in critical condition. Shon Barnes, the police chief in Madison, Wisconsin, says it appears to be a “combination of factors.” He’s urging anyone who knew the 15-year-old girl’s feelings to reach out. The shooting occurred Monday at Abundant Life Christian School. The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Six people were wounded.
December 17, 2024 2:48 am
Peters Township Council adopted their budget for 2025. There will not be a tax increase on the balanced budget. The numbers come in at $29.5 million in revenue and $43.8 in expenditures. The gap between revenue and expenditures will be made up from previously borrowed funds and funds that will be borrowed if council approves capital projects throughout the year. According to Council Chairman Dr. Tom Pirosko, council is pleased to hold the line on taxes but that may not be the case next year. According to Township Manager Paul Lauer, real estate development has leveled off compared to previous years. The earned income tax has remained flat also. Recreational projects will highlight the township’s spending this year. Artificial turf will be installed on baseball fields 1 and 2 at Peterswood Park. A splash pad is being built at Rolling Hills Park. Phase 2 of the development of Rolling Hills Park will also be considered. Amenities that could be included in that expansion are increased parking, basketball courts, pickleball courts and dek hockey. A dog park is also under consideration. The splash pad could open in early summer of 2025. If council approves any or all of the Rolling Hills Park expansion, those improvements could begin in early fall of 2025.
December 17, 2024 2:50 am
The Peters Township School Board held a public hearing pertaining to an application filed by the Dogwood Charter School to locate its facilities inside the school district. Beth Opat is the founder of the school and she said that she is searching for an appropriate building to house their kindergarten through eighth grade program. Dogwood had been open earlier this year in a former church school in Bethel Park. Township officials indicated that according to their zoning rules, the building did not conform to building codes designated for schools. Those decisions forced the closure of the school. Opat said that her school is looking to partner with the school district to offer an education based on the Charlotte Mason curriculum approach to education. That approach takes an active engagement process to education as opposed to the passive engagement found in traditional schools. Opat said that the approach is effective for divergent students and students identified with ADHD or ADD. After the presentation, school board members asked pointed questions about the organizational skills of the school. They asked about their successes academically and how they were measured. Questions about academic measures were not able to be answered. Directors seemed concerned about the ability for the school to operate. Several audience members did speak. All of them spoke of the emotional turnarounds their children experienced once they attended Dogwood Charter. The hearing was continued. Another hearing will be scheduled in early 2025 before directors vote on allowing the charter school to locate in the township.
December 17, 2024 2:19 am
Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh has filed a Notice of Aggravating Factors against a Charleroi woman, who, along with her husband, are facing multiple charges in the death of their fourteen-month-old son, Paxton. Thirty-two-year-old Brooke Whitehead is facing a criminal homicide charge while her 32-year-old husband Ryan faces a charge of endangering the welfare of a child. On Monday, Walsh announced that he would be seeking the death penalty against Brooke Whitehead for the alleged incidents that occurred on October 24, 2023 at their home on Prospect Avenue in Charleroi Borough. Police say they were called to the home for reports of a fourteen-month-old child who wasn’t breathing. The child was later pronounced dead at a hospital. During a preliminary hearing, a pathologist identified blunt force trauma to the head, torso and extremities as the cause of death. The pathologist detailed multiple skull fractures that led to lacerations of the brain and multiple fractures of the legs and arms that occurred over a period of time. Some of those fractures were healed, others were re-fractures of previous injuries. Police testimony detailed two interviews with Brooke Whitehead. In the first, she said she was the only adult caring for her children that night. In a subsequent interview, police said she provided four other scenarios of how the child received the injuries that ultimately claimed his life. The couple fled their home and detectives found them living in the Bellefonte area and had to have them extradited back to Washington County, where they are being held in the Washington County Jail without bond, awaiting trial. Walsh says he expects the case to go to trial sometime in February. (Photo: WPXI)
December 17, 2024 4:56 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say security guards at the federal courthouse in Harrisburg shot and wounded a knife-wielding man who attempted to attack one of them. Few details of Monday’s shooting were immediately available, and authorities said the FBI was leading the investigation. In a statement, the U.S. Marshals Service says the security officers moved to stop the man after he entered the courthouse, brandishing a knife. The marshals service says the suspect attempted to attack one of the security officers before they shot him, striking him multiple times. He was in stable condition at a hospital, while the security officers were uninjured.
December 16, 2024 5:01 am
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Police say a 15-year-old student opened fire inside a study hall at a small Christian school in Wisconsin, killing a teacher and teenager. Monday’s shooting prompted a swarm of police officers responding to a second grader’s 911 call. Police say the female student wounded six others in the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, including two students who were in critical condition. Police say the shooter was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound when officers arrived and died en route to a hospital. Police say a motive for the shooting was not immediately known, nor was it clear if the victims were targeted.
December 17, 2024 4:59 am
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Drone-detecting devices deployed in New Jersey within the past week have shown little to no evidence of anything nefarious or threatening. That’s according to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who said Monday that 12 sightings of suspected drones were reported in the state overnight Saturday and one on Sunday. He also has echoed calls by officials in other states for Congress to give them more authority to deal with drones. Federal officials say there is no evidence that drones are being operated with bad intent or by foreign governments, and many sightings over the eastern U.S. have actually been of manned aircraft that look like drones.
December 17, 2024 5:05 am
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has refused to dismiss President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money conviction because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. But the overall future of the historic case remains unclear. Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan’s decision Monday blocks one potential off-ramp from the case ahead of Trump’s return to office next month. His lawyers have raised other arguments for dismissal, however. It’s unclear when — or whether — a sentencing date might be set. A jury convicted Trump in May of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016. Trump denies wrongdoing.
December 16, 2024 5:09 am
President-elect Donald Trump has held a wide-ranging news conference in which he took questions from reporters for the first time since winning the election. He said Monday that he would preserve access to the polio vaccine but equivocated on other vaccines. He pledged to look at bringing down the costs of pharmaceuticals and expressed doubts that his daughter-in-law might be Florida’s next senator. The event harkens back to his long-winding news conferences from his first term and is a stark contrast from President Joe Biden, who doesn’t often take questions from reporters.
December 17, 2024 5:08 am
After months of deadlock, Israel and Hamas appear to be moving closer toward a ceasefire to end their 14-month war. Top officials from the U.S., Qatar and Egypt have resumed their mediation efforts in recent weeks and reported greater willingness by the warring sides to wrap up a deal. In a key concession, Hamas officials say they are prepared to show more “flexibility” on the timing of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza. Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said Monday that a deal is closer than ever. The agreement is expected to take place in phases and include a halt in fighting, an exchange of captive Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and a surge in aid to Gaza.
