January 16, 2024 5:11 am
DENVER (AP) — Court documents show the shooter who killed five people and endangered the lives of over 40 others at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs plans to plead guilty to new federal charges. A plea agreement made public Tuesday would allow the defendant to avoid the death penalty. The documents show Anderson Aldrich made a deal to plead guilty to 50 hate crime charges and 24 firearm violations. Aldrich previously was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to five state charges of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder — one for each person at Club Q during the November 2022 attack.
January 16, 2024 5:08 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Writer E. Jean Carroll convinced a jury last year that Donald Trump sexually abused her decades ago. Now she’s set to take the stand again to describe how his verbal attacks affected her after she came forward. Carroll is due to testify Wednesday in the second federal civil trial over her claims against Trump. He denies them all. The former president and current Republican front-runner sat in on jury selection Tuesday. The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.
January 16, 2024 5:06 am
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A Pittsburgh company’s lunar lander will soon burn up in Earth’s atmosphere after a failed moonshot. Astrobotic Technology says its lander is now headed back from the vicinity of the moon. Company officials expect the mission to end Thursday. They stress that the lander poses no safety risk during its fiery reentry. The lander rocketed from Florida last week. It quickly developed a fuel leak that forced Astrobotic to abandon its attempt to make the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years.
January 16, 2024 5:05 am
PITTSBURGH — Dangerously cold wind chills of -15 to -5 will make for a brutal start to your Wednesday morning and a Wind Chill Advisory continues for all areas through noon. Icy spots will also be possible as treated surfaces refreeze, so watch sidewalks, driveways and parking lots. Many Washington County Schools are operating either on two-hour delays or have switched to remote learning. Tune to WJPA 95.3FM/1450AM for the very latest. Temperatures will stay below freezing for the rest of the week and more snow moves in Thursday and again Friday. More rounds of snow are likely Thursday and Friday with fresh coatings on the ground heading into the weekend.
January 16, 2024 2:22 am
A Burgettstown man who drove drunk causing an accident that killed his wife pleaded guilty on Tuesday. Stewart Wilson, 47, will serve five and a half years on probation for pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and DUI charges. Wilson was driving on Stuebenville Pike in April of 2022 when according to police he did not see a vehicle trying to make a turn. He tried to avoid the vehicle by passing it but sideswiped it, over-corrected his maneuver and crashed his car directly into a guide-rail. Both Wilson and his wife Denise Pierce-Wilson were ejected from the vehicle. Pierce-Wilson died of her injuries at Weirton Hospital, Wilson was flown to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. A blood draw at the hospital showed Wilson had a blood alcohol content of .088%, over the limit of .08% that assumes intoxication. A state police accident reconstruction unit determined that Wilson was driving at 65 mph at the time of the accident. Wilson avoided more serious homicide by vehicle charges. Several people wished to make victim impact statements before final sentencing. A sentencing hearing for Wilson is scheduled for March 25.
January 16, 2024 2:20 am
A Washington Man avoided arson charges in his plea court hearing on Tuesday. Ryan Johnson, 38 pleaded guilty to an amended charge of failure to report or control a dangerous fire and reckless endangerment. First responders were called to Johnson’s home in November after he got into an argument and lit a Steelers jersey on fire and it quickly got out of control. He told police that he was responsible for the incident. Johnson was sentenced to time served to two years in jail on the fire charge. He will be on probation for three years for the reckless endangerment charge. Johnson was released from jail after the hearing.
January 15, 2024 4:52 pm
CHICAGO (AP) — A plane taxiing for departure clipped another aircraft at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Sunday evening, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. No injuries were reported, both planes were of Boeing design, and the FAA will investigate the incident. The left wing tip of Flight 11 from All Nippon Airways, a Japanese airline, struck the rear of Delta Air Lines Flight 2122 on Sunday around 6:30 p.m. Boeing is facing increasing scrutiny following mechanical failures and the subsequent grounding last week of its Boeing 737 Max 9 model — a different model than the planes involved in Sunday’s collision. It was not immediately clear what caused the incident on Sunday and whether it was related to a manufacturing flaw.
January 15, 2024 4:50 pm
ATLANTA (AP) — Communities across the nation have been celebrating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with acts of service, prayer services and parades. But with the November presidential election as a backdrop, some events on Monday took on an overtly political turn. In Atlanta, Liz Cheney spoke at the the annual commemorative service at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King served as pastor. The former U.S. Representative who served on the U.S. House Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection, had especially harsh words for Trump. She referred to him only as “a former president” and said he “threatens the foundations of our nation and everything Dr. King persevered to save.”
January 15, 2024 5:20 am
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Dangerously cold wind chills are continuing to affect much of the Rockies, Great Plains and Midwest, with wind chills below minus 30 degrees being recorded Tuesday in many parts of the central U.S. About 110,000 U.S. homes and businesses were without power late Monday, the bulk of them in Oregon after widespread outages that started Saturday. Classes were canceled Tuesday for students in Portland and other major cities including Chicago, Denver, Dallas and Fort Worth. The storms and frigid temperatures were affecting everything from air travel to NFL playoffs games to Iowa’s presidential caucuses, and were also the cause of several deaths around the country.
January 15, 2024 5:18 am
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Donald Trump has scored a record-setting win in the Iowa caucuses with his rivals languishing far behind. Trump’s victory sends a resounding message that the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination is his to lose. He is on track to smash the record for a contested Iowa Republican caucus with a margin of victory exceeding the nearly 13 percentage points that Bob Dole won by in 1988. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finished second over former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Caucus voters endured life-threatening cold and dangerous driving conditions to meet in hundreds of schools, churches and community centers across the state.
