March 20, 2024 4:58 am
North Strabane Township Supervisors held a conditional use hearing for a proposed housing development near Peters Lake Park. The Collective at Peters Lake is a proposed 41 unit development that will be situated on both sides of North Spring Valley Road. The concept design calls for 12 units on the west side of the road and 29 units on the east side. The 35.5 acre development is seeking approval for a conservation subdivision that will allow houses to be built on quarter acre lots with dedicated greenspace set aside to make up for the difference of the required half acre minimum lot size in an R-2 residential zone. Steven Victor of Victor Wetzel Associates presented the plan on behalf of developer Laurel Communities, LLC. He indicated that this meeting is the first step in the process and the design presented is conceptual. The developer was attentive to traffic concerns not only along the rugged North Spring Valley Road but also its impact on traffic on Waterdam Road. Pedestrian safety along with environmental impact concerns regarding Peters Lake Park were also raised. Supervisors will address the item in their April meeting.
March 20, 2024 4:55 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Josh Shapiro’s plan to boost funding for public transportation systems has been approved by Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives. But it faces tough odds in the Republican-controlled Senate. The Democratic-controlled House voted 106-95 on Wednesday, nearly along partisan lines. The Democratic governor wants the 20% increase for transit systems still trying to recover pre-pandemic ridership numbers and facing a drop-off in federal funding. Republicans, however, are protesting the amount of the funding increase and say public transit systems have structural problems that can’t be fixed by more money alone. Democrats defended the increase as an economic good and necessary to keep transit systems from cutting services or increasing fares.
March 19, 2024 3:46 pm
MIAMI (AP) — Peter Navarro is now the first senior Trump administration official to serve prison time related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. The former trade advisor under President Donald Trump has reported to prison to begin serving his sentence for refusing to cooperate with the House Jan. 6 committee. Navarro was defiant in remarks to reporters near a prison complex in Miami on Tuesday, where he will serve a four-month sentence after being found guilty of contempt of Congress charges. Navarro has maintained that he couldn’t cooperate with the committee because former President Donald Trump had invoked executive privilege. Courts have rejected that argument, finding he couldn’t prove Trump had actually invoked it. (Photo: ABC)
March 19, 2024 1:13 pm
(WPXI) – A man has been charged in a Tuesday morning Blawnox shooting that killed a woman and left a man in critical condition. The Allegheny County Police Department says officers took Sean Black, 42, of Allegheny Township, Westmoreland County, into custody at Tri-Arc Manufacturing. He faces charges of homicide, attempted homicide, aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person. Police accuse Black of walking into Tri-Arc Manufacturing on Fountain Street and shooting two people. Courtney Smith, 30, was pronounced dead at the scene. Another man was taken to the hospital. Police say Black and the two victims were employees at Tri-Arc Manufacturing and they believe the shooting is “domestic in nature.” Company officials say the plant will be closed until further notice.
March 19, 2024 5:16 am
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to a long list of state and federal charges for torturing two Black men will be sentenced by a federal judge starting Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Tom Lee will sentence two defendants each day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Each faces the potential of decades behind bars. The former law officers have admitted to subjecting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to numerous acts of racially motivated torture. In a January 2023 episode, the group of six burst into a Rankin County home without a warrant and assaulted the men with stun guns, a sex toy and other objects.
March 19, 2024 5:15 am
(AP) – A divided Supreme Court has lifted a stay on a Texas law that gives police broad powers to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally while a legal battle over immigration authority plays out. The Biden administration is suing to strike down the measure, arguing it’s a clear violation of federal authority that would hurt international relations and create chaos in administering immigration law. Texas has argued it has a right to take action over what authorities have called an ongoing crisis at the southern border. Opponents said the law known as Senate Bill 4 marks the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since an Arizona law more than a decade ago.
March 19, 2024 5:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is making the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol a cornerstone of his bid to return to the White House. Trump opened his first rally as the presumed Republican Party presidential nominee standing in salute with a recorded chorus of Jan. 6 prisoners singing the national anthem. It’s not just rewriting the violent siege of the Capitol and the effort to overturn the 2020 election. It’s an attempt to normalize their behavior — and his — as the indicted Trump faces charges stemming from Jan. 6. Those who study authoritarian regimes say voters should pay attention as Trump vows to pardon Jan. 6 offenders.
March 19, 2024 5:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss with Biden administration officials a prospective Rafah operation, according to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Sullivan says each party is “making clear to the other its perspective.” The White House has been skeptical of Netanyahu’s plan to carry out an operation in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following its deadly Oct. 7 attack. Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Monday for the first time in more than a month.
March 19, 2024 5:12 am
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A new report says famine is imminent in northern Gaza, where 70% of the remaining population is experiencing catastrophic hunger. It says a further escalation of the war could push around half of Gaza’s total population to the brink of starvation. The report came from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an initiative set up by U.N. agencies, aid groups and others to determine the severity of food insecurity. Israel faces mounting pressure from even its closest allies to streamline the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip and to open more crossings. Israeli forces, meanwhile, launched another raid on the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, saying it killed a Hamas commander who was hiding there.
March 19, 2024 5:11 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and hate “their religion,” igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders. Trump, in an interview, had been asked about Democrats’ growing criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of the war in Gaza as the civilian death toll continues to mount. He responded, “I actually think they hate Israel.” He went on to say that: “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”
