May 10, 2024 5:06 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania will join the majority of states that ban motorists from handling a cell phone for almost any purpose while driving as state lawmakers hope to reduce distracted driving accidents. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office said Thursday he’ll sign the bill. The ban takes effect a year after he signs it. The bill also includes a provision long sought by the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus as a bulwark against racial profiling. That provision requires many police departments to collect and report data on traffic stops, including a driver’s race. The bill passed the Legislature this week. Currently, Pennsylvania’s restriction on cell phone use while driving applies only to texting.
May 10, 2024 5:04 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — (WPXI) – A McMurray man who worked in the Washington County probation department has been arrested on child pornography charges. 24 year old Zachary Nee was arrested after a lengthy investigation that started in Ohio. Parents of a 13-year-old girl contacted police after Nee allegedly sent their daughter sexual items in the mail. Police say the two had been communicating over Snapchat. In one exchange the teen mentioned their age gap and Nee allegedly said, “I know I said I’m sorry. I need you though, I want to be with you until I die.” Police in Peter’s Township confiscated electronic devices from Nee’s home and filed nearly 100 child pornography charges. Police say Nee worked in adult probation and was set to transfer to juvenile probation shortly before this investigation began. Nee is free after posting $150,000 bond. He is to face a preliminary hearing May 22.
May 9, 2024 5:38 pm
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Senegal’s transport minister says a Boeing 737 plane carrying 85 people caught fire and skidded off a runway at an airport near the country’s capital, Dakar, and that 10 people were injured. The minister says the Air Sénégal flight operated by TransAir was headed to Bamako, in neighboring Mali, late on Wednesday with 79 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew. The injured were being treated at a hospital. A Malian musician says he “saw my life flash before my eyes” and that he thought about his mother, wife and kids. He also described “complete panic during the evacuation” out of the plane.
May 9, 2024 5:37 pm
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — The World Video Game Hall of Fame has inducted its 10th class of honorees. The games Asteroids, Myst, Resident Evil, SimCity and Ultima were recognized Thursday for their impacts on the video game industry and popular culture. This year’s inductees debuted across decades, advancing technologies along the way and expanding not only the number of players, but the ages and interests of those at the controls. Anyone can nominate a game to the World Video Game Hall of Fame online. The final selections are made by members of an international committee, along with public votes. (Photo: AP)
May 9, 2024 5:27 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s defense attorney accused Stormy Daniels of slowly altering the details of an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. Attorney Susan Necheles is trying to persuade the jury in Trump’s hush money trial that the key prosecution witness cannot be believed. But Trump’s case doesn’t rise or fall on Daniels’ account. It’s a trial about money changing hands in business transactions and whether those hush money payments were made to illegally influence the 2016 election. Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records.
May 9, 2024 12:36 pm
Reggie is a four and a half-year-old Springer Spaniel owned by Judy and Dennis Krivacek of North Strabane Township and on Sunday night he made his television debut on American’s Funniest Home Videos. Dennis Krivacek tells WJPA that Reggie became infatuated with a stair-lift chair in their home and would jump on the seat, waiting for a ride up or down the stairs. Dennis says it was cute and funny at first, as they would send him up or down the stairs for a ride, but after a while, he said it was like, enough is enough, no more rides. That wasn’t good enough for Reggie, who wanted more rides. So, somehow, Reggie learned how to operate the stair-life chair himself and they found him putting the seat down on the device and using his nose to get it moving – so he can enjoy a ride whenever he feels like it. Dennis tells us his wife suggested filming Reggie’s rides and sending it to America’s Funniest Home Videos. Much to their surprise, he says they were contacted and told that Reggie had made it into the final three and was in line to win several thousand dollars, depending on the final outcome. The episode – called, “Doggy Don’t Do Stairs,” was the grand prize winner and Reggie (the Krivacek’s) won the grand prize of twenty-thousand-dollars.
May 9, 2024 8:23 am
A Freedom Transit bus crashed Thursday morning in Charleroi. Washington County 9-1-1 dispatchers say two people were transported by ambulance to Penn Highlands Mon Valley Hospital. We have no word on the severity of their injuries. It happened just before 7 a.m. at 11th Street and upper Crest Avenue. Charleroi Fire Chief Robert Whiten says there were ten people on the bus at the time. He says the bus was coming down Upper Crest Avenue and crossing 11th Street when it went into the storage building. He says the bus may have lost its brakes or something was happening on the bus that caused the crash. Freedom Transit Executive Director Sheila Gombita tells WJPA News that the bus was “operated by Freedom Transit’s contractor Tri County Access.” She says an investigation into the accident is ongoing.
May 9, 2024 5:11 am
MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Torchbearers are carrying the Olympic flame through the streets of France’s southern port city of Marseille, a day after it arrived on a majestic three-mast ship for the welcoming ceremony. The torch begins its 11-week journey across the country with about 10,000 bearers passing through more than 450 towns until the Games’ opening ceremony in Paris on July 26. Former soccer player Basile Boli, who played with the Marseille team in the 1990s, kicked off Thursday’s relay from the Notre Dame de la Garde basilica. Basketball player Tony Parker will take his turn in the relay later Thursday. One of the torchbearers is Ukrainian gymnast Mariia Vysochanska. It’s an expression of solidarity with Ukraine as well as a symbolic gesture to mark Europe Day,
May 9, 2024 5:10 am
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia is wrapping itself in patriotic pageantry for Victory Day, a celebration of its defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II that President Vladimir Putin has turned into a pillar of his nearly quarter-century in power and a justification of his move into Ukraine. Even though few veterans of what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War are still alive 79 years after Berlin fell to the Red Army, the victory over Nazi Germany remains the most important and widely revered symbol of the country’s prowess and a key element of national identity. The Soviet Union lost about 27 million people in the war, an estimate that many historians consider conservative. Thursday’s festivities honor that sacrifice.
May 9, 2024 5:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says he will not supply offensive weapons that Israel can use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza — over concern for the well-being of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there. Biden, in an interview Wednesday with CNN, says the U.S. is still committed to Israel’s defense and will supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms. But he says that if Israel goes into Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used.” The interview marked Biden’s toughest public comments yet about the potential Israeli military operation and followed his decision to pause a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel last week.
