October 14, 2022 2:53 am
A North Charleroi man learned his sentence for possession of child pornography on Thursday. John Eckert, 62 will spend the next four to sixteen years in state prison. Eckert pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts of possession of child pornography in June. During his hearing Eckert asked for leniency in his sentence suggesting a probationary sentence. The Attorney General asked for a prison sentence in the general range of sentence guidelines. He will be required to register with state police to be listed on the Megan’s Law list of sexual offenders.
October 14, 2022 2:18 am
United States Attorney Cindy K. Chung says a Charleroi man has been sentenced in federal court to 188 months (approximately 15.6 years) of imprisonment and four years of supervised release on his conviction for violating federal narcotics laws. United States District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand imposed the sentence on 47-year-old Keith McCrae. According to information presented to the court, on or about March 31, 2021, Keith McCrae possessed. with the intent to distribute, 28 grams or more of cocaine base, in the form commonly known as crack, along with a quantity of cocaine. On that day, federal and state law enforcement executed a warrant to search McCrae’s residence in Charleroi. During the search, they say McCrae was found with approximately 34 grams of cocaine base on his person, and approximately three grams of cocaine was found in the same room. Elsewhere in the house, investigators say they found $3,300, multiple cell phones, and drug packaging materials, as well as a digital scale with white residue.
October 13, 2022 4:43 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump for personal testimony about the 2021 Capitol attack. The panel voted unanimously Thursday to compel the former president to appear. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the committee’s vice-chair, said, “We must seek the testimony under oath of January Sixth’s central player.” Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, the last before next month’s congressional elections, the panel presented video of interviews with former Trump aides, including several testifying that he had said he knew he had lost the election to Joe Biden.
October 13, 2022 11:48 am
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to life without parole for the 2018 massacre of 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. That sentence comes after the jury announced Thursday that it could not unanimously agree that Cruz should be executed. The decision ends a three-month trial that included graphic videos and photos, and heart-wrenching testimony from victims’ family members. A judge will formally sentence Cruz on November 1st. (Photo: AP)
October 13, 2022 9:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Inflation in the United States accelerated in September, with the cost of housing and other necessities intensifying pressure on households, wiping out pay gains that many have received and ensuring that the Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates aggressively. Consumer prices rose 8.2% in September compared with a year earlier, the government said Thursday. On a month-to-month basis, prices increased 0.4% from August to September after having ticked up 0.1% from July to August.
October 13, 2022 4:19 am
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Las Vegas police say a veteran patrol officer is dead after being shot during an exchange of gunfire with a man who was later arrested. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo told reporters that Officer Truong Thai was fatally wounded early Thursday after he and a partner stopped a vehicle while answering a domestic violence call east of the Las Vegas Strip. Both officers fired their weapons. A woman nearby was wounded but is expected to survive. Lombardo says the suspect, 24-year-old Tyson Hampton, was stopped in his vehicle several blocks away and was injured by a police dog during his arrest. Records did not immediately reflect if he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. Thai was a police officer for more than 20 years.
October 13, 2022 4:18 am
WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) – A Connecticut jury has ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $965 million to Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims’ relatives and an FBI agent. They said Jones turned their loss and trauma into years of torment by promoting the lie that the rampage was a hoax. The verdict is the second big judgment against Jones for claiming the massacre was staged. Jones says he now believes the shooting was real, but he says he had a right to publicly question whether it happened. A Texas jury in August ordered Jones to pay $50 million to the parents of another slain child.
October 13, 2022 4:17 am
BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) – Authorities say they believe that two police officers who were shot dead in Connecticut had been drawn into an ambush by a 911 call about possible domestic violence. State police said Thursday that the 911 call about a dispute between two siblings appears to have been “a deliberate act to lure law enforcement to the scene” in Bristol. Sgt. Dustin Demonte and Officer Alex Hamzy were killed. A third officer, Alec Iurato, was wounded but expected to recover. Police say 35-year-old suspect Nicholas Brutcher was also shot dead, and 32-year-old brother Nathan Brutcher was wounded. Nathan Brutcher is hospitalized, and it’s not immediately clear whether he or his family have an attorney or someone else who can speak for them.
October 13, 2022 4:15 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s capital region has been struck by Iranian-made kamikaze drones. Rescue workers rushed to the scene as residents awoke to air raid sirens for the fourth consecutive morning following Russia’s major assault across the country earlier this week. Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said the strike early Thursday occurred in the area around the capital. It wasn’t immediately clear if there were any casualties. Attacks on Kyiv had become rare before the capital city was hit at least four times during Monday’s Russian strikes. The attacks killed at least 19 people and wounded more than 100 across Ukraine.
October 13, 2022 4:12 am
NEW YORK (AP) — An NBC News correspondent who interviewed Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman says an on-air remark she made about him having difficulty following part of their conversation should not be seen as a commentary on his fitness for office after he suffered a stroke. But reporter Dasha Burns’ comment that Fetterman appeared to have trouble understanding small talk prior to their interview has attracted attention — and Republicans have retweeted it as they seek an advantage in the closely followed Senate race between Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz. Fetterman, a Democrat, suffered a stroke on May 13, and his health has emerged as a major issue in the campaign. Burns’ Friday interview with Fetterman, which aired Tuesday, was his first on-camera interview since his stroke. He used a closed-captioning device that printed text of Burns’ questions on a computer screen in front of him. Fetterman appeared to have little trouble answering the questions after he read them, although NBC showed him fumbling for the word “empathetic.” Burns said that when the captioning device was off, “it wasn’t clear he was understanding our conversation.” “This is just nonsense,” business reporter and podcaster Kara Swisher, who had a stroke herself in 2011, said on Twitter. “Maybe this reporter is just bad at small talk.”
