July 13, 2022 4:01 am
A no contact order between attorneys set up a difficult hearing for a Waynesburg couple at their plea court hearing on Tuesday. Cortland Rogers and Shawna Smith are both facing homicide charges and if convicted, the death penalty, in the February killings of Kevin Williford and Judy Hunter. They also face aggravated assault charges for the assault of Jacqueline Rutan in separate cases. In both Rogers’ and Smith’s plea court hearings the judge laid out the trial procedures going forward. Rogers’ hearing was first and he requested a continuance. Rogers’ attorney Joe Zupancic requested permission that he appoint a second attorney to help with the cases. Zupancic requested that James Jeffries be appointed co-counsel and the judge granted that request. In the second hearing with Smith, defense attorney Kimberly Furmanek was made aware of who the second counsel would be for Rogers and immediately began discussions with the court. Furmanek is charged in Washington County with wiretapping over recorded calls from the Washington County Jail with her client John Lazear. Those calls that were recorded were between Furmanek and Zupancic’s second counsel James Jeffries. Furmanek alerted the court to her no contact order with Jeffries resulting from her charges. The judge, in an unsworn colloquy questioned Smith of her understanding of Furmanek’s charges and whether she wishes to have Furmanek continue as her attorney. Smith said she wishes Furmanek to continue. The judge took the situation under advisement and will make a ruling in the future. It is unclear whether Furmanek will remain counsel for Smith or if another attorney will be appointed for her.
July 13, 2022 2:39 am
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – A man has been charged in Ohio with the rape of a 10-year-old girl whose case drew national attention when a doctor said the child had to travel to Indiana for an abortion because of new restrictions in her home state. The suspect was arraigned Wednesday. Some conservatives such as Ohio’s Republican governor and attorney general questioned whether the case was real. Abortion rights supporters had pointed to the story to highlight fallout from the Supreme Court ruling. An Indianapolis physician told The Indianapolis Star an abortion was provided because the girl couldn’t get the procedure in Ohio. A new law there bans abortions after heart activity is detected.
July 12, 2022 5:23 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration is calling on people to exercise renewed caution about COVID-19, emphasizing the importance of getting booster shots and wearing masks indoors. The warning comes as two new highly transmissible variants are spreading rapidly across the country. The new variants, labeled BA.4 and BA.5, are offshoots of the omicron strain that has been been responsible for nearly all of the virus spread in the U.S. and are even more contagious than their predecessors. White House doctors pressed the importance of getting booster doses, and says people shouldn’t wait until the fall for vaccines targeted at the variants in addition to the original strain.
July 12, 2022 4:48 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Nursing home trade associations in Pennsylvania said Monday they have agreed to boost staffing levels as part of a deal with Gov. Tom Wolf to increase aid to an industry struggling with high turnover. With Pennsylvania awash in surplus tax collections, Wolf on Monday signed legislation authorizing nearly $300 million a year, almost 20% more annually, in additional Medicaid payments to nursing homes, which were wracked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Trade associations had worked out a compromise on staffing levels with Wolf’s administration and SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, a labor union that represents about 5,000 nursing home workers, prior to the legislations being signed . “This is a major step forward for Pennsylvania’s long-term care industry,” Wolf told a Capitol news conference after signing the legislation. Officials say the money should boost worker salaries, staffing levels and retention while stabilizing the facilities’ finances and improving the quality of care.
July 12, 2022 4:24 am
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – The implications of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade are reverberating nationwide as states reemerge as the new battlefields for abortion rights. A Utah judge on Monday granted a request from Planned Parenthood to delay implementing the state’s trigger law banning most abortions. The decision keeps them legal up to 18 weeks until the court rules on a lawsuit challenging a stricter ban. Meanwhile, a Minnesota judge has declared most of the state’s restrictions on abortion unconstitutional. And in Michigan, an abortion rights campaign turned in a record-breaking number of signatures so voters can be asked on the November ballot whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
July 12, 2022 4:22 am
The first image from NASA’s new space telescope is the deepest view of the universe ever captured. The image from the James Webb Space Telescope was unveiled at the White House on Monday. The picture is the farthest humanity has ever seen in both time and distance, closer to the dawn of time and the edge of the universe. The world’s biggest and most powerful space telescope launched last December. It reached its lookout point 1 million miles from Earth in January. On Tuesday, four more galactic beauty shots will be released from the telescope’s initial outward gazes.
July 12, 2022 4:20 am
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) – As a Russian offensive intensifies in eastern Ukraine, authorities there are urging residents to evacuate for other, safer cities and towns in the west of the country. And yet, there are still people who refuse to leave. Many of them are pensioners living alone. Some say they don’t earn enough money to support themselves away from home. Others have more complex reasons, including a dislike of the current government in Kyiv or believing that life under a Russian flag won’t be much different than it is now. Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko has urged residents to evacuate, saying it would allow the Ukrainian army to better defend towns. He added that about 80% of the region had left by Monday.
July 12, 2022 4:19 am
TOKYO (AP) – Japanese have bid their final goodbye to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as a family funeral was held at a temple days after his assassination that shocked the nation. Abe, the country’s longest-serving prime minister who remained influential even after he stepped down two years ago, was gunned down Friday during a campaign speech. Hundreds of people filled pedestrian walks outside of the Zojoji temple in downtown Tokyo to bid farewell to Abe. Mourners waved, took photos, and some called out “Abe san!” as a motorcade including a hearse slowly drove by the packed crowd. Only his widow, other close family members and senior party leaders including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attended the funeral.
July 12, 2022 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The vice chair of the House Jan. 6 committee says Donald Trump has attempted to contact a witness who was talking to the panel investigating the attack on the Capitol. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Tuesday that the Justice Department has been notified. She says, “We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously.” The Jan. 6 committee has revealed details of an “unhinged” late-night meeting at the White House as defeated President Donald Trump’s outside lawyers suggested the military seize state voting machines. At Tuesday’s hearing, the panel also highlighted the ways that violent far-right extremist groups answered what one lawmaker said was Trump’s “siren call” to come to Washington.
July 12, 2022 4:16 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf asked the state’s high court Monday to weigh in on a legal battle over Pennsylvania’s plan to charge power plants for their emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection appealed lower court rulings that temporarily block the Wolf administration from implementing its carbon pricing policy, under which power plants fueled by coal, oil and natural gas are required to buy a credit for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit. The Wolf administration estimates that the initiative — the centerpiece of Wolf’s plan to fight global warming — will reduce Pennsylvania’s carbon dioxide emissions by up to 225 million tons through 2030. Power plant operators say the regulation will dramatically raise their costs and consumers’ electricity bills. Fossil-fuel interests and Republican leaders of the state Senate have been waging a legal battle against Pennsylvania’s entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate consortium that sets a price and declining limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants run by coal, oil and natural gas. On Friday, Commonwealth Court granted a preliminary injunction that prohibits the state from “implementing, administering, or enforcing” the new regulation while a lawsuit by power plants, labor unions and coal mine owners is ongoing. The lower court granted a second injunction to GOP lawmakers in a related case.
