December 23, 2022 4:13 am
PITTSBURGH — The City of Pittsburgh announced that the Fern Hollow Bridge has reopened to traffic a day earlier than anticipated because of the incoming winter storm. The city said around the bridge opened to a single lane in both directions around 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Additionally, the path on the southern side of the structure is open to bicycles and pedestrians. The bridge, which carries Forbes Avenue over Frick Park, collapsed on Jan. 28, injuring drivers and riders on a Port Authority bus. Gov. Tom Wolf and other dignitaries held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the bridge Wednesday morning.
December 23, 2022 4:10 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – Temperatures quickly dropped into the single digits Friday morning and wind chills will head below zero. Wind chills will stay below zero into Christmas day with winds gusting to 50 mph at times Friday night and Saturday. A Wind Chill Watch has been issued for the entire area for Friday night and Saturday as wind chills will approach -20 degrees. Most areas will only see one to three inches of snow total through the day, but with frozen water underneath the snow layer, it will make for very dangerous travel conditions. There are power outages. As of 10:30 am, West Penn Power was reporting more than 900 customers without power countywide. The temperature was near 40-degrees at 3 a.m but quickly dropped causing numerous problems. There were numerous reports of trees and wires down. A tractor-trailer jack-knifed and went off of Interstate 70 westbound just past the Taylorstown exit. The driver was not injured. there were other reports of accidents and fire crews were called out to a reported structure fire in the 600-block of Speers Avenue in Speers Borough just before 9 a.m. Tune to WJPA 95.3FM/1450AM for the very latest.
December 22, 2022 2:40 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate has passed a $1.7 trillion bill to finance federal agencies through September, aid Ukraine and provide assistance to communities recovering from hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters. The bill passed by a vote of 68 to 29 and now goes to the House for action later in the day. Lawmakers are working to complete action on the bill before a partial government shutdown begins at midnight Friday. Supporters say the bill will boost national security with a 10% increase slated for defense programs, but detractors criticize the amount of overall spending with the country already facing a $31 trillion national debt.
December 22, 2022 2:35 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – A judge says cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried can post $250 million bond and live in his parents’ home in California while he awaits trial. Bankman-Fried is accused of swindling investors and looting customer deposits on his FTX trading platform. He is expected to be released Thursday after an electronic monitoring device is attached. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos said in U.S. District Court in New York that the 30-year-old Bankman-Fried “perpetrated a fraud of epic proportions.” Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein largely agreed to bail terms proposed by lawyers on both sides.
December 22, 2022 8:50 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Slightly more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market continues to show strength even as the Federal Reserve has tried for nearly a year to slow the economy by raising its main lending rate. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless claims for the week ending Dec. 17 inched up by 2,000 to 216,000 from the previous week’s 214,000. Jobless claims are generally viewed as a representation of layoffs. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out some of the week-to-week swings, fell by 6,250 to 221,750.
December 22, 2022 6:22 am
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Pa. – (WPXI) – A driver was flown to a hospital after a semi truck rolled over in Washington County. According to Bentleyville Fire-Rescue on Facebook, the crash happened at around 6:45 a.m. near mile marker 33.8 on Interstate Highway 70 east. Emergency crews updated the call to entrapment when they saw the tractor trailer on its roof on the side of the road. The driver was flown to a local trauma center. There’s no word on their condition.
December 22, 2022 4:27 am
NEW YORK (AP) – A federal prosecutor says two associates of Sam Bankman-Fried have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in cooperation deals related to the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Wednesday night that Carolyn Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, a trading firm started by Bankman-Fried, and Gary Wang, who co-founded FTX along with Bankman-Fried, pleaded guilty to charges “related to their roles in the fraud that contributed to FTX’s collapse.” The guilty pleas were announced as Bankman-Fried was being flown to the U.S. from the Bahamas by U.S. law enforcement to answer to charges tied to his role in FTX’s failure.
December 22, 2022 4:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – An 800-page report set to be released by House investigators will conclude that then-President Donald Trump criminally plotted to overturn his 2020 election defeat and “provoked his supporters to violence” at the Capitol with false claims of voter fraud. The resulting Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection threatened democracy and the lives of lawmakers and police. The report is expected to be released by the House Jan. 6 committee in full on Thursday. It will largely mirror nine hearings that laid out evidence from live testimony, 1,000 private interviews and millions of pages of documents. Trump still falsely disputes his 2020 loss.
December 22, 2022 4:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has paid a defiant wartime visit to Washington to thank Americans for helping to fund the war against Russia. In a speech to Congress, he said the money is “not charity” but an “investment” in global security and democracy. The whirlwind visit was his first known trip outside his country since Russia invaded in February. It was aimed at reinvigorating support for Ukraine at a time when there is concern that allies are growing weary of the costly war and its disruption to global food and energy supplies. Zelenskyy met earlier in the day with President Joe Biden in the White House.
December 22, 2022 4:23 am
PITTSBURGH — As if the upcoming holiday weekend weren’t hectic enough, a big winter storm is threatening to delay and cancel flights across the country. Luggage was packed, and lines were long at the Pittsburgh International Airport as travelers tried to make it out of town before storm makes its way in. Airport executives predict Thursday and Friday to be the busiest travel days.
