March 13, 2024 2:25 am
The chair of the Local Share Account Committee, Jeff Kotula, says that, at the request of the Washington County Board of Commissioners, the Washington County Local Share Account Review Committee will convene virtually on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at 9:00 a.m. to review the City Mission’s recent application to the Washington County Local Share Account program for a 50-bed Women’s Homeless Shelter. He says the committee will honor the commissioners’ recommendation to limit its review solely to the City Mission’s application. The public will be welcome to view the proceedings. The committee has also invited Diana Irey Vaughan, President & CEO of the City Mission, to attend the meeting and address the committee’s questions over the project’s readiness, availability of additional dollars to complete the shelter, and the alignment of the application with the county’s comprehensive plan. The committee has requested Ms. Irey Vaughan bring any necessary financial information or other documentation to support and clarify their application. Kotula says the LSA Review Committee reviewed 94 projects during this funding cycle and recommended 50 projects to the Washington County Board of Commissioners at a public meeting on February 6, 2024. Commissioners Sherman, Janis, and Maggi unanimously approved all 50 of the committee’s recommendations at their public meeting on February 15, 2024. The City Mission project was one of 44 projects not recommended by the committee nor approved by the commissioners at their respective public meetings. The commissioners have been disagreeing on the City Mission’s grant. Democratic Commissioner Larry Maggi said that the LSA Committee issued a list on January 30th, of recommended projects to be funded in 2024. Number 38 on the list was the homeless shelter with recommended funding of $500,000, but on February 6th, he says a new list was issued and the shelter project was removed. Maggi further stated that phone calls from the commissioner’s office were made to the LSA Committee indicating that the City Mission project be removed.
March 13, 2024 2:20 am
Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh on Tuesday announced criminal charges against a California man for allegedly setting fire to the California Manor apartment building on March 1. According to the criminal complaint, Christopher Grasty, 38 confessed to police that he intentionally started the fire in his apartment. According to a Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal report, the fire caused approximately $750,000 in damage and displaced all 25 residents of the building. Grasty is charged with multiple counts of arson, aggravated arson, reckless endangerment, causing a catastrophe, risking a catastrophe and criminal mischief.
March 12, 2024 6:30 pm
U.S. lawmakers are threatening to ban TikTok but also say they are giving its Chinese parent company a chance to keep it running. The premise of a bipartisan bill headed for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives is that TikTok fans in the U.S. can keep scrolling through their favorite social media app so long as Beijing-based ByteDance gives up on owning it. But it’s not going to be as simple as lawmakers are making it sound, according to experts.
March 12, 2024 6:27 pm
CRESCENT, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a massive explosion killed two people and destroyed a house in the Pittsburgh area near the Ohio River. Allegheny County emergency dispatchers say the blast in Crescent Township in the northwest Pittsburgh suburbs was reported shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday. Aerial images from the scene show smoking ruins with the structure reduced to rubble and some large pieces lodged in trees above. The Crescent Township fire chief says a man and woman were found dead at the scene. The county medical examiner’s office will confirm their identities and determine the cause and manner of death. The cause of the explosion is under investigation.
March 12, 2024 8:56 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer prices in the United States picked up last month, a sign that inflation remains a persistent challenge for the Federal Reserve and for President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, both of which are counting on a steady easing of price pressures this year. Prices rose 0.4% from January to February, a pickup from the previous month’s figure of 0.3%. Compared with 12 months earlier, consumer prices rose 3.2% last month, faster than January’s 3.1% annual pace. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so called “core” prices also climbed 0.4% from January to February, matching the previous month’s increase and a faster pace than is consistent with the Fed’s 2% target.
March 12, 2024 5:11 am
Eric Carmen, the singer-songwriter known for the hit song All By Myself, has died at age 74, his wife has announced. He rose to fame with the power pop group the Raspberries before establishing himself as a solo artist. Hungry Eyes, one of his huge solo hits, featured in 1987 cult movie classic Dirty Dancing. “Our sweet, loving and talented Eric passed away in his sleep, over the weekend,” Carmen’s wife Amy said in a statement on his official website. “It brought him great joy to know, that for decades, his music touched so many and will be his lasting legacy.” The Ohio-born singer co-founded the Raspberries in the early 1970s alongside Jim Bonfanti and Wally Bryson, who were later joined by Dave Smalley after the departure of John Aleksic. After four albums together, the band broke up in 1975 with Carmen then embarking on a solo career. Among the solo tracks he is most well-known for is All By Myself. As a songwriter, Carmen had hits including Almost Paradise from the Footloose soundtrack, as well as Never Gonna Fall In Love Again and Make Me Lose Control.
March 12, 2024 5:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press has reviewed transcripts of President Joe Biden’s interviews with special counsel Robert Hur before they were turned over to Congress by the Department of Justice. Hur is set to testify Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee about his investigation into the handling of classified documents by the Democratic president. Biden repeatedly told the special counsel that he never meant to retain classified information after he left the vice presidency. But Biden was at times fuzzy about dates and the paper trail for sensitive documents. Hur concluded in his report Biden should not face criminal charges over his mishandling of documents but also impugned his age and competence.
March 12, 2024 5:03 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Joe Biden and Donald Trump hope to clinch their parties’ presidential nominations with dominant victories in a slate of low-profile state primaries as the 2024 fight for the White House lurches into a new phase. Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, don’t face any significant opposition in Tuesday’s primary contests across Georgia, Washington State, Mississippi and Hawaii. The question is whether they will earn the necessary delegates in each state to hit the 50% national threshold necessary to become their party’s presumptive nominees. Whether it happens Tuesday night or later, the 2024 presidential contest is on the verge of a crystallizing moment as it becomes clear that a general election rematch between Biden and Trump is happening.
March 12, 2024 5:02 am
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail from Cyprus to Gaza. The shipment, which departed Tuesday, is a test for the opening of a sea corridor to supply aid to the territory, where starvation is spreading five months into the Israel-Hamas war. Associated Press live footage showed it being towed out of a harbor. The United States also plans to construct a sea bridge near Gaza to deliver aid, likely to take weeks. The war triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel has killed over 30,000 Palestinians. The U.N. says a quarter of the population is starving.
March 12, 2024 4:58 am
ROSTRAVER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – Yukon Deputy Fire Chief, John Stants is now facing four new felony charges out of Westmoreland County, in addition to the felony charges he’s facing out of Fayette County. All of the charges are related to services he was paid for as a contractor that allegedly were never completed. Detectives say Stants entered into a contract with the Rostraver/West Newton Ambulance Company on Aug. 9, 2021, to replace two garage doors and put in one, large, single door instead. Court documents say Stants asked for an $8,500 deposit for the $9,820 project and he was paid. Court documents say as of January 2024, no work had been done and no materials had been purchased for the work at the station. Detectives say they talked to Stants, who agreed on Jan. 22, 2024, to pay back the money within 30 days. Detectives say the money was never repaid. On March 7, Stants was booked into the Westmoreland County Prison. His lawyer, Jill Devine, said her client was under the impression he had until the end of March to pay back the $8,500.
