May 2, 2024 2:53 am
A Natrona Heights woman and former nurse pleaded guilty Thursday to harming and killing patients she was supposed to care for. It comes nearly a year after Heather Pressdee, 41, was first arrested and charged with harming and killing patients. As the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General continued to investigate, it found more victims going back to late 2020. Pressdee, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, received life in prison with no possibility for parole. Investigators said Pressdee admitted to unnecessarily injecting her patients with insulin, killing them or attempting to kill them and even injecting some patients on more than one occasion if they did not die. The incidents happened at nursing home facilities in Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler and Westmoreland counties. Her alleged victims range in age from 43 to 104 years old.
May 2, 2024 2:40 am
Police have filed charges against a Chartiers Township woman who was involved in a deadly “chain reaction” crash on Interstate 79 South in Washington County last August. The crash left a man dead, shut down the interstate and sent multiple victims to the hospital. Authorities say 35-year-old Rachel Ann Phillips faces a felony charge of homicide by vehicle and misdemeanor charges of recklessly endangering another person along with driving under the influence. The accident happened around ten in the morning near the Canonsburg interchange. Authorities say witnesses saw Phillips vehicle swerve from the right lane of northbound 79 and cross over the median into opposing traffic. Killed in the crash was 58-year-old Gary Reinhardt of Lancaster, New York. Two other vehicles were also involved. Phillips was flown to Allegheny General Hospital where a blood test came back positive for cocaine and marijuana.
May 1, 2024 5:53 pm
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — United Methodist delegates have repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate. They removed a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers. Delegates voted 692-51 at their General Conference — the first such legislative gathering in five years. That overwhelming margin contrasts sharply with the decades of controversy around the issue. Past General Conferences of the United Methodist Church had steadily reinforced the ban and related penalties amid debate and protests. But many of the conservatives who had previously upheld the ban have left the denomination in recent years, and this General Conference has moved in a solidly progressive direction.
May 1, 2024 5:52 pm
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Legislature has approved a repeal of a long-dormant ban on nearly all abortions. The vote to undo the 19th century law will send the bill to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Two Republicans joined with 14 Democrats in the Arizona Senate on Wednesday to give final legislative approval to the repeal, which narrowly won approval a week ago from the Arizona House and is expected to be signed by Hobbs once it arrives at her office. The near-total ban permits abortions only to save the patient’s life and provides no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest.
May 1, 2024 5:04 am
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with Israeli leaders in his push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, saying that “the time is now” for an agreement that would free hostages and bring a pause in the nearly seven months of war. He has said that Hamas would bear the blame for any failure to get a deal off the ground. Blinken is on his seventh visit to the region since the war erupted, seeking to secure what’s been an elusive deal between Israel and Hamas that could avert an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering.
May 1, 2024 5:03 am
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — Donald Trump will use a one-day break from his hush money trial to rally voters in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan. The visits on Wednesday come a day after he was held in contempt of court and threatened with jail time for violating a gag order. Judge Juan M. Merchan has said that if Trump continued to violate his orders, he “will impose an incarceratory punishment.” The former president is trying to achieve a balancing act unprecedented in American history by running for a second term as the presumptive Republican nominee while also fighting felony charges in New York.
May 1, 2024 5:00 am
BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy has gone into effect, and some doctors are concerned that women in the state will no longer have access to needed health care. Fertility specialist Dr. Leah Roberts says the anti-abortion laws being enacted by Florida and other red states are being vaguely written by people who don’t understand medical science. Many women don’t even know they are pregnant by six weeks. The ban that went into effect Wednesday affects not just women who want to terminate viable pregnancies because of personal choice, but also nonviable pregnancies for women who want to have babies.
May 1, 2024 4:59 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The pro-Palestinian demonstration that paralyzed Columbia University ended in dramatic fashion. Police carrying riot shields burst into a building late Tuesday that protesters took over the previous night and made dozens of arrests. On the other side of the country, clashes broke out early Wednesday between dueling groups at the University of California, Los Angeles. A university spokesman said New York City officers entered Columbia’s campus after the school requested help. A tent encampment on the school’s grounds was cleared, along with Hamilton Hall. Protesters calling on the Ivy League university to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza seized the hall about 20 hours earlier.
May 1, 2024 4:55 am
BROWNSVILLE, Pa. — (WPXI) – Students in the Brownsville Area School District will learn remotely on Wednesday as police investigate a possible threat. A note to parents said the district received a Safe2Say report of a possible threat at the high school. District leaders do not have enough information to determine if the threat is credible, prompting the switch to remote learning. State police and Redstone Township police were notified.
May 1, 2024 4:53 am
North Strabane Supervisors approved a 41 home development that is to border Peters Lake Park. Laurel Communities requested and received approval for a conditional use application for the project on Tuesday night. Before supervisors voted, public comment continued mostly from Allegheny County residents that enjoy the lake that is owned by neighboring Peters Township. The comment was sometimes emotional and when it came time to vote on the measure, it took nearly a minute for anyone to move to vote on the measure. In the end, supervisors approved the application 4-0 with supervisor Harold Close absent. A group formed on Facebook, Friends of Peters Lake, were on hand to express their disappointment with the vote. They challenged supervisors to make sure that they do all that they can to make sure no harm comes to the lake. Terry Bove, developer for Laurel Communities that wants to build The Collective at Peters Lake says that they will do everything in their power to be good stewards of the lake. Supervisors did add 11 conditions to the application. Some of the biggest were traffic sight distance studies at each new intersection with North Spring Valley Road and at the intersection of North Spring Valley Road and Waterdam Road. An operational study for emergency vehicles and school buses is required, as is a water quality study, pre and post construction of all private wells and streams along North Spring Valley Road. Supervisors Emily Holmes and Neil Kelly addressed the group after the meeting, indicating that they empathize with the group and thanked them for their concerns.
