January 5, 2024 4:15 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — The longtime head of the National Rifle Association is resigning, just days before the start of a New York civil trial that’s poised to scrutinize his leadership of the powerful gun rights organization. A trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against the NRA, Wayne LaPierre and others who have served as organization executives is scheduled to start on Monday. LaPierre is among the witnesses expected to testify. James, a Democrat, accuses LaPierre and other executives of illegally diverting tens of millions of dollars from the NRA and spending organization funds on personal trips, no-show contracts and other questionable expenditures. (Photo: ABC)
January 5, 2024 11:35 am
LONDON (AP) — The actor who earned fame as blond half of crime-fighting duo “Starsky and Hutch” in a popular 1970s television series, has died. David Soul was 80. His wife, Helen Snell, said Friday that Soul died on Thursday “after a valiant battle for life in the loving company of family.” Soul portrayed detective Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson alongside Paul Michael Glaser as detective David Starsky in “Starsky and Hutch.” It ran on ABC between 1975 and 1979. At the height of his fame, Soul also hit the music charts with the single “Don’t Give Up on Us.” Soul had lived in Britain for many years, taking several stage roles. (Photo: AP)
January 5, 2024 5:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the Biden administration grapples with an increasingly tense and unstable situation in the Middle East, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to the region this weekend for the fourth time in three months on a tour expected to focus largely on easing resurgent fears that the Israel-Hamas war could erupt into a broader conflict. The Biden administration had breathed a sigh of relief about the potential for a broader Mideast war in the immediate aftermath of Israel’s military response to the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. Two-and-a-half months later, though, the chances of a regional war have increased. The State Department says Blinken will visit Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt.
January 5, 2024 5:06 am
WAJIMA, Japan (AP) — A woman was pulled carefully from the rubble 72 hours after a 7.6 magnitude quake rattled Ishikawa Prefecture. Deaths climbed Friday to 94 people, and 222 people were missing after a series of powerful quakes rattled Japan’s western coast and triggered tsunamis. The Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo found that the sandy coastline had shifted by up to 820 feet seaward in some places. Thousands of Japanese troops have joined the disaster relief effort. With some routes cut off by the destruction, worries were growing about communities in which water, food, blankets and medicine have yet to arrive.
January 5, 2024 5:02 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – At the end of last year, U.S. Steel announced that a Japanese-based company would take ownership of the corporation. The U.S. Steelworkers union wasn’t notified. This week, the union and lawmakers penned a letter to the Biden administration with a request to block the sale. “I think for folks in western Pennsylvania it’s a gut punch,” said congress member Chris Deluzio. Deluzio represents Congressional District 17. U.S. Steel was once the biggest company on the planet. For more than 100 years workers from right here in western Pennsylvania were instrumental in the production of steel. However, in the last decade, there was a decline, and the corporation began to look for new ownership in 2023. But union workers and lawmakers made their stance clear they would only support American ownership. Two weeks ago U.S. Steel announced that Nippon Steel, Japan’s biggest steel producer, would take ownership. “We want to make sure our national security is protected, and those good solid union jobs are protected,” Deluzio said. The Biden administration will now review the $14 billion sale and make a final decision.
January 5, 2024 4:56 am
Mayor JoJo Burgess presided over his first voting meeting as Mayor of the City of Washington on Thursday. At the very top of the meeting, there was a renewed request for youth activities. Avery Turner, Founder and Director of the non-profit LOYAL, Leading Our Youth to an Abundant Life, asked council to consider a recreation center for teens that have outgrown programs at the LeMoyne Community Center. Turner said that youth are getting in trouble with the law and participating in unhealthy activities like drinking and drugs because there is no outlet for them to pass their free time. He asked for a center similar to those found in Peters Township and Upper St. Clair, that not only offer athletic activities, but educational opportunities for them and their parents. He pointed to a sponsored center like the EQT Rec Center in Waynesburg as another example. In response, Burgess told him that the city is in the beginning stages of formulating a comprehensive plan. In that plan he has already made a center like Turner was requesting a piece of the plan. Burgess went on to say that he has met with state and federal representatives to put together a roadmap of how construction of a recreation center may be funded through grants and other funding sources.
January 5, 2024 4:55 am
Only minor injuries are reported after a vehicle went through a fence and crashed into the rear of a home in the City of Washington early Friday morning. Washington County 9-1-1 tells WJPA News it happened just before 3 a.m. in the 600-block of Henderson Avenue. According to dispatchers, the driver of the truck was not injured. The homeowner was treated at the scene but was not transported. HAZMAT was called to the scene. Dispatchers say they are there for structural support for the home. Dispatch says all crews cleared the scene by 6 a.m. No other information is currently available.
January 5, 2024 2:17 am
A Brownsville man has been sentenced in federal court to fifty-one months’ imprisonment, ten years of supervised release, and has been ordered to pay $28,000.00 in restitution on his conviction of possessing material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor. United States District Judge Cathy Bissoon imposed the sentence on 52-year-old Karl D. Lutes. Authorities say Lutes had been sharing images over the Internet which depicted the sexual exploitation of minors. He was identified through an investigation undertaken by agents of Homeland Security Investigations. On February 11, 2020, agents executed a search warrant at Lutes’s residence and found him in possession of hundreds of videos and still images in computer graphics files depicting the sexual exploitation of minors, some of whom had not yet attained the age of 12 years. Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Bissoon stated that a sentence that included 51 months in prison served to protect the public, to provide for just punishment, and to afford Lutes with needed rehabilitation. Judge Bisson further highlighted that the submitted victim impact statements provided a view of the real harm to children stemming from crimes involving their sexual exploitation.
January 4, 2024 5:27 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie “Mary Poppins” and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be “Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100. Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes. Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree Armfeldt in “A Little Night Music,” for which she won a Tony in 1973. Sondheim wrote the show’s hit song “Send in the Clowns” to suit her distinctive husky voice, but she lost the part in the 1977 film version to Elizabeth Taylor. (Photo: ABC)
January 4, 2024 1:44 pm
Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding unveiled the 2024 PA Farm Show Butter Sculpture, a 1,000-pound diorama in dairy titled, A Table for All: Pennsylvania Dairy Connects Communities. The sculpture was designed and crafted by Jim Victor and Marie Pelton of Conshohocken to reflect the 2024 Farm Show theme, Connecting Our Communities, and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of PA Preferred®, Pennsylvania’s statewide brand for locally grown and made agricultural products. “Pennsylvania’s $14 billion dairy industry provides jobs 53,000 Pennsylvanians and makes up a third of our state’s food agriculture industry,” Secretary Redding said. “Our hardworking dairy farm families are connecting Pennsylvanians to opportunity and feeding our prosperity together. The Shapiro Administration is working hard to connect our dairy industry to future economic opportunities. We are proud to invest in dairy and highlight the industry and its innovative leaders during the Farm Show and year-round.” Pennsylvania dairy farmer Walt Moore of Walmoore Holsteins in Chester County, and a host of PA dairy industry leaders joined Redding to unveil the sculpture, which depicts urban and rural Pennsylvanians connecting around a meal of delicious local food against a backdrop of a cityscape and farm skyline. The diners are celebrating a harvest of PA products with a centerpiece of the keystone-and-check-mark PA Preferred logo.
