May 12, 2024 8:30 am
Washington County 911 tells WJPA News there was a one vehicle crash Saturday afternoon in California on East Malden Drive. No information was available at the time regarding the cause of the crash. One person was injured and was taken to an area hospital. There’s been no word on their identity or the severity of their injuries.
May 12, 2024 8:22 am
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Schools across the U.S. are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence and video cameras to spot guns. Some states are considering multimillion-dollar grant programs for the technology. But many of those bills have been written with specific criteria so only one software provider can qualify. That company is ZeroEyes, which was founded a few years ago by military veterans. The chair of the National Council of School Safety Directors says the technology is good. But he has concerns about state laws giving preference to providers of particular security platforms.
May 12, 2024 8:21 am
BALTIMORE (AP) — Crews are preparing to conduct a controlled demolition to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland. The explosives are expected to be detonated Sunday. The steel span landed on the bow of a massive container ship that lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s support columns shortly after leaving Baltimore on March 26. Since then, the ship has been stuck amid the wreckage and Baltimore’s busy port has been closed to most maritime traffic. The controlled demolition will allow the Dali to be refloated and restore traffic through the port.
May 12, 2024 8:15 am
(WPXI) – Parishioners inside a Washington County church had a shake-up after a tornado lifted the roof of the building while they were in service. The National Weather Service said a tornado passed through Union Township from 6:05 p.m. until 6:15 p.m. While it was in the area, Washington County officials say it hit a church. Pastor Ken Barner said about 100 people, including babies, were inside at the time. “I go out and I see debris flying all over the auditorium, so I immediately tell everybody to go down into the basement,” he said. The pastor’s wife Rhonda, who is the worship leader at Crossroads Ministries, was singing on stage, mid-song, when she heard the noise. “I saw the lights were flickering and I saw they went out,” Rhonda Barner said. “I thought I heard the windows start to shatter, and then the sound was like a train coming through and more windows were shattering. ‘ The pastor said powerful winds ripped the roof off the office building that’s connected to the church. The tornado then took out the steeple throwing it about 50 feet into the parking lot crushing cars. The pastor said it was a miracle no one was seriously hurt. “There’s no way we should be here,” Ken Barner said. “God was with us. I explained to our people that God’s promise is to take care of his people and today we believe that God did that.” Services were not held at the church Sunday but were streamed on Facebook. Anyone who needs assistance after the tornado is encouraged to go to Trax Farms.
May 12, 2024 7:00 am
WPXI – UPMC will pay $38 million to settle a 12-year-old False Claims Act lawsuit. The settlement resolves a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2012 by neurosurgeon J. William Bookwalter, neurophysiologist Robert Sclabassi, and surgical technologist Anna Mitina. It had a partial settlement in 2016. The False Claims Act allows private citizens to file suit on behalf of the government to recover money back to the United States Treasury for false claims submitted to federal healthcare programs. Under the Stark Law, hospitals are prohibited from submitting claims to Medicare and Medicaid for procedures, surgeries, and other services furnished pursuant to referrals from physicians who have a financial relationship with the hospital, unless the relationship falls within a statutory exception. Claims submitted in violation of the Stark Law are false claims under the False Claims Act, and any money paid on such claims must be returned to the government, a press release said. Among other things, the allegations resolved by this settlement include that certain neurosurgeons were paid excessive compensation (well-above fair market value) by UPMC, and that those surgeons referred procedures and surgeries to UPMC in violation of the Stark Law, a press release said. Dr. Bookwalter, Dr. Sclabassi and Ms. Mitina alleged that UPMC and its employed neurosurgeons engaged in fraudulent schemes that boosted both the neurosurgeons’ pay and UPMC’s revenues. The $38 million settlement is believed to be one of the largest Stark Law recoveries in a False Claims Act case where the United States declined to intervene.
May 12, 2024 5:11 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump’s hush money trial is set to take the stand with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, is by far the most important witness in the case. And his expected appearance in court on Monday signals that the trial is entering its final stretch. Prosecutors say they may wrap up their presentation of evidence by the end of the week. Defense lawyers have teed up a bruising cross-examination of Cohen, telling jurors during opening statements that he is an “admitted liar” with an “obsession to get President Trump.”
May 11, 2024 5:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A promising start has given way to challenging political realities for supporters of a bipartisan commission to tackle the federal government’s growing debt challenges. House Speaker Mike Johnson lauded the idea of establishing such a commission on his first day in office. Then, a House panel passed with bipartisan support a bill to create a 16-member “fiscal commission” — 12 from Congress and four outside experts without voting power. But hits from the left and the right are taking a toll. Many Democrats and left-leaning advocacy groups worry that the commission would recommend cuts to Social Security benefits. Some Republicans and right-leaning groups worry that the commission would recommend tax increases.
May 11, 2024 5:16 am
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — The United Auto Workers is aiming for a key victory at Mercedes-Benz in Alabama. More than 5,000 workers at the facility in Vance and nearby battery plant will vote next week on whether to join the UAW. The vote comes a month after workers at a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee overwhelmingly voted to unionize. A win at Mercedes would be a major prize for the UAW, which is seeking to crack resistance to unions in the Deep South, where states have lured foreign auto manufacturers with large tax breaks, lower labor costs and a nonunion workforce.
May 11, 2024 5:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The alleged sexual encounter at the center of Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial got a graphic airing in court this past week as porn actor Stormy Daniels shared her account before a rapt jury. Daniels’ testimony about her time with Trump was by far the most awaited moment of the trial, which now enters its fourth week of witnesses as prosecutors come close to wrapping up their historic case. But it wasn’t all salaciousness. Manhattan jurors saw documentary evidence meant to directly tie Trump to the hush money payments that were sent to Daniels in what prosecutors say was an effort to buy her silence in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
May 11, 2024 5:13 am
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel has ordered new evacuations in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, forcing tens of thousands more people to move as it prepares to expand its operation. It has now evacuated the eastern third of Rafah, pushing the operation to the edges of the heavily populated central area, although the move into the city has so far been short of the full-scale invasion that Israel planned. The United Nations and other agencies have warned for weeks that an Israeli assault on Rafah would cripple humanitarian operations and cause a disastrous surge in civilian casualties. Israel also said Saturday that it is moving into an area in northern Gaza where Hamas has regrouped.
