June 13, 2023 4:57 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Check fraud is back in a big way, fueled by a rise in organized crime that is forcing small businesses and individuals to take additional safety measures or to avoid sending checks through the mail altogether. Banks reported roughly 680,000 reports of check fraud to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, also known as FinCEN, last year. That’s up from 350,000 reports in 2021. Officials are warning Americans to avoid mailing checks if possible, or at least to use a secure mail drop such as inside the post office.
June 13, 2023 4:55 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A regional governor says at least three people have been killed and 25 wounded after missiles hit civilian buildings in an overnight attack in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. Serhiy Lysak, head of the regional administration, said the strike hit a five-story residential building early Tuesday and the area was engulfed in fire. He said in a Telegram post that rescue operations were ongoing. The devastation in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown is the latest bloodshed in Russia’s war in Ukraine. Now in its 16th month, Ukrainian forces are mounting counteroffensive operations using Western-supplied firepower to try to drive out the Russians.
June 13, 2023 4:53 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A gunman who killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue ranted incessantly on social media about his hatred of Jews before the 2018 attack. That’s according to evidence introduced at his federal death penalty trial Tuesday. Prosecutors are trying to show Robert Bowers was motivated by extreme hostility toward Jewish people when he opened fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018 and committed the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. The 50-year-old truck driver is charged with hate crimes, among other counts. The defense acknowledges Bowers was the shooter but is trying to raise questions about motive.
June 13, 2023 4:53 am
MIAMI (AP) – Donald Trump became the first former president to face a judge on federal charges as he pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom Tuesday to dozens of felony counts that he hoarded classified documents and refused government demands to give them back. The history-making arraignment, centering on charges that Trump mishandled government secrets that as commander-in-chief he was entrusted to protect, kick-starts a legal process that will unfold at the height of the 2024 presidential campaign and carry profound consequences not only for his political future but also for his own personal liberty. Trump approached his arraignment with characteristic bravado, posting social media broadsides against the prosecution from inside his motorcade and insisting as he has through years of legal woes that he has done nothing wrong and was being persecuted for political purposes. But he sat scowling inside the courtroom with his arms crossed as a lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in a brief arraignment that ended without him having to surrender his passport or otherwise restrict his travel. But the gravity of the moment was unmistakable as he answered to 37 felony counts that accuse him of willfully retaining classified records that prosecutors say could have jeopardized national security if exposed, and the trying to hide them from investigators who demanded them back.
June 13, 2023 4:51 am
BEIRUT (AP) — The United States military says a helicopter accidents in northeastern Syria over the weekend has left 22 U.S. service members injured to various degree. The military said in a statement on Tuesday that the cause of the “mishap” is under investigation. The military statement said the service members are receiving treatment and 10 have been moved to “higher care facilities” outside the region. It said the accident occurred on Sunday and that no enemy fire was reported. There are about 900 U.S. troops in Syria advising and assisting the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the fight against the militant Islamic State group.
June 13, 2023 4:46 am
CANONSBURG, Pa. — (WPXI)- A man who formerly lived in Canonsburg was sentenced in federal court for possessing child pornography. Kevin Francisco Torres-Gerena, 29, was identified on a peer-to-peer network where offenders could access and share child pornography materials. While executing a federal search warrant at his house in 2018, police found 116 videos and 36 pictures depicting the exploitation of minors, according to the Department of Justice. Officials also said that most of the material found in Torres-Gerena’s home involved children under the age of 12. According to officials, Torres-Gerena told investigators he would view the videos and images and then delete them. He would then use the same search terms again in order to conceal his activity. Torres-Gerena was sentenced to four years in prison and ten years of supervised release.
June 13, 2023 2:48 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg promised Tuesday to help repair the East Coast’s main north-south highway as quickly as possible and said that the destruction of a section of I-95 will likely raise shipping costs because truckers must now travel longer routes. Speaking near the site where an out-of-control tractor-trailer hauling gasoline flipped over on an Interstate 95 off-ramp and caught fire, Buttigieg said he expected that disruptions in trucking routes will put “upward pressure” on costs along the East Coast. Buttigieg toured the site and then, over the sounds of heavy machinery and demolition, told reporters that “every resource that is needed will be made available” to help Pennsylvania repair the bridge as quickly and safely as possible. The collapse is snarling traffic in Philadelphia as the summer travel season starts, upending hundreds of thousands of morning commutes, disrupting countless businesses and forcing trucking companies to find different routes.
June 13, 2023 2:39 am
Peters Township Council on Monday passed three measures to spend more of the U. S. Food and Drug Administration Task Force forfeited funds it received earlier this year. Council first approved a measure that will spend $206,813 over 65 months for in car cameras that will provide enhanced images and include license plate readers. A second measure provides for the purchase of a new Harley Davidson Motorcycle for $27,174.64. It will replace the existing motorcycle that will be sold. The final measure is to purchase a laser scanner and associated equipment that will be used by the South Hills Area Council Of Governments. The equipment will be used by the Accident Reconstruction Team. The cost of that purchase is $111,280.52 and the ownership of the equipment will stay with the township.
June 13, 2023 2:24 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Organizers warned at an annual gun rights rally at the Pennsylvania Capitol on Monday that with a slim Democratic majority in the House, there could be more attempts to pass gun control measures, weeks after they narrowly advanced the first gun control legislation in years that Republicans criticized as attempts to “dwindle away at our Second Amendment rights.” One of the event’s organizers, Rep. Abby Major, a Republican from Armstrong County, says that gun rights supporters find themselves at a disadvantage with Democrats empowered by a one-vote majority in the House. (Photo: AP)
June 13, 2023 2:09 am
Firefighters were called out around one-thirty Tuesday afternoon for reports of a structure fire at 706 Meadow Avenue in Charleroi. Charleroi Fire Chief Bobby Whiten tells WJPA that several fire departments were called in to help fight the blaze which broke out in a three story duplex. Whiten says the individual who lived in the apartment where the fire started suffered minor smoke inhalation and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. Whiten says the cause of the fire was electrical in nature and has been ruled accidental. He says crews were able to knock it down in just about fifteen minutes. In addition to damages in the apartment where the fire started, Whiten says the two ground-floor apartments sustained smoke and water damage.
