May 3, 2024 5:02 am
HONOLULU (AP) — Maui County is suing major cellular carriers for failing to properly inform police of widespread service outages during the height of last summer’s deadly wildfire. The county is suing Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Spectrum Mobile and AT&T. The county says it sent at least 14 alert messages to cellphones, warning residents to evacuate. But the county didn’t know those messages weren’t received because of cell tower failures across the island. The lawsuit says the county would have used other warning methods if the carriers reported the service outages as required by federal law.
May 3, 2024 5:00 am
HOUSTON BOROUGH, Pa. — (WPXI) – The Pittsburgh Pirates jumped in to help save the season for the Chartiers-Houston Girls Softball Association after a series of floods put it in doubt. President of the association James Hollenbach said he was at a loss for words when he saw the flooding on April 9. It was the second time in a week that heavy rains forced a nearby creek to overflow and flood the nearby softball field. The season for the girl’s softball program was set to begin in only a few weeks, but at the time, that felt like an unreachable goal. Everyone rushed to help. Parents, local businesses and even the Pirates pitched in. The Pirates’ Fields For Kids program specializes in renovating community fields. Team president Travis Williams told Channel 11 that the organization jumped in to help as soon as they saw the photos of the flooding. Hollenbach added that without the community’s help, they still may not have a season. Instead, they were able to start on time last week. The Pirates and the Chartiers-Houston Girls Softball Association celebrated the renovation ahead of a game on the field Thursday. Players and coaches will also attend a Pirates game on Saturday to celebrate a job well done.
May 3, 2024 2:36 am
A big weekend is on tap in the city of Washington (rain or shine). On Saturday, the Main Street Pavilion will feature agricultural exhibits, educational displays, a children’s area, and craft vendors. The day will also showcase local downtown businesses with a breakfast crawl and a kitchen clash, and will culminate with the Running of the Wools. where champion sheep will take on Main Street. Running of the Wools is a relatively new event in downtown Washington that highlights the close relationship the city and region has had with the farming and sheep industry and is a way want to show appreciation for the county’s farmers and all they do for us! The event continues through Sunday when the weekend wraps-up with a community blessing service at the pavilion.
May 3, 2024 2:11 am
Washington County Commissioners met Thursday and what began as a very run of the mill meeting, took a sudden turn during public comment. Washington County Controller April Sloane took the microphone and announced results of her audit of county spending for the first quarter of this year. Sloane indicated troubling results from last year and the beginning of this year. According to Sloane, the county jail was just over $1 million over budget in 2023. The county is already exceeding its 2024 budget by approximately $1 million. Sloane alleges that the ransom paid to rectify a cyber attack earlier this year was illegally funded by funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). She further questioned some payroll usage of ARPA funds. She also stated that nearly $46,000 in hotel taxes were not collected in 2022. Most recently Sloane stated that a salary request from Chief of Staff Daryl Price was sent back for review before being presented to the salary board. That review of numbers saved taxpayers $12,000 in annual salary for one position. Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman says that Sloane’s statement is inaccurate. Spending is up because of the use of the $98 million the county received through ARPA and that all expenditures are legal under the act. He further stated that if anyone has a dispute with the spending of those funds, they can file a complaint with the District Attorney. Sherman says that he and his colleagues will do everything in their power to keep that ARPA money in Washington County.
May 2, 2024 4:22 pm
A Pennsylvania man who authorities say killed his girlfriend in a Nevada desert has been convicted. A jury in U.S. District Court in Nevada on Wednesday found John Matthew Chapman, 44, guilty of one count of kidnapping resulting in death, for the death of 33-year-old Jaime Feden of Bethel Park. He faces life in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled for August 2nd. They say that after killing Feden in September 2019, Chapman pretended to be her on her Facebook messenger account and lived at her residence. The woman’s neighbors in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, became suspicious when they hadn’t seen her or her vehicle for months but saw Chapman around the house, prosecutors said. Police conducted a welfare check and found identification cards with Chapman’s name and photo, the victim’s cellphone, zip ties and a roll of duct tape, they said. (Photo: WPXI)
May 2, 2024 6:26 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Duane Eddy, a pioneering guitar hero whose reverberating electric sound on instrumentals such as “Rebel Rouser,” “Forty Miles of Bad Road” and “Cannonball” helped put the twang in early rock ‘n’ roll and influenced George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen and countless other musicians, has died at age 86. With his raucous rhythms, and backing hollers and hand claps, Eddy sold more than 100 million records worldwide, and mastered a distinctive sound based on the premise that a guitar’s bass strings sounded better on tape than the high ones.
May 2, 2024 4:57 am
NEW DELHI (AP) — Misinformation about India’s election is surging online as the world’s most populous country votes. Researchers who track disinformation in India say the country is particularly vulnerable to misinformation and hate speech because of its linguistic and cultural diversity as well as weak enforcement of anti-misinformation policies by social media companies. The country has a huge online ecosystem, with the largest number of WhatsApp and YouTube users in the world. Nearly 1 billion people are eligible to vote in the multiphase election that ends next month.
May 2, 2024 4:56 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump faces the prospect of additional sanctions in his hush money trial as he returns to court for another contempt hearing followed by testimony from a lawyer who represented two women who have said they had sexual encounters with the former president. Prosecutors are seeking $1,000 fines for each of four comments by Trump that they say violated a judge’s gag order barring him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others closely connected to the case. Such a penalty would be on top of a $9,000 fine that Judge Juan M. Merchan imposed on Tuesday related to nine separate gag order violations that he found.
May 2, 2024 4:54 am
JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with Israeli leaders in his push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas to impress on them that “the time is now” for an agreement that would free hostages and bring a pause in the nearly seven months of war. The current round of talks appears to be serious, with Hamas considering a new proposal. But the sides remain far apart on the key issue of whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal. In talks with Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his determination to carry out an offensive on the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering.
May 2, 2024 4:53 am
PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is following through on promises to undo a long-dormant law that bans all abortions except those done to save a patient’s life. A signing ceremony was scheduled for Thursday on a bill to repeal the state’s near-total abortion ban. There may be a monthslong period during which nearly all abortions would still be outlawed. The repeal may not take effect until 90 days after the end of the legislative session, in June or July. The effort to repeal the ban won final approval on Wednesday at the Arizona Legislature.
