August 23, 2023 5:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says a witness in the federal prosecution of Donald Trump over the hoarding of classified documents retracted “prior false testimony” after switching lawyers last month and provided new information that implicated the former president. The new information from the witness, a Trump staffer identified only as the director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago, was presented weeks before special counsel Jack Smith secured an updated indictment accusing Trump and two others in a plot to delete surveillance video at the Florida property.
August 23, 2023 5:00 am
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Authorities in Hawaii are pleading with relatives of those missing after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century to come forward and give DNA samples. Officials said Tuesdsay that the low number provided so far threatens to hinder efforts to identify any remains discovered in the ashes. Some 1,000 to 1,100 names remain on a tentative, unconfirmed list of people unaccounted for after wildfires destroyed the historic seaside community of Lahaina on Maui. But authorities say that so far, DNA samples have been collected from from just 104 families. That’s lower than what has been seen in other disasters. It’s not immediately clear why. As of Tuesday, there are115 confirmed deaths from the fire.
August 23, 2023 4:58 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Officials say that Russia and Ukraine have traded nighttime drone attacks again. They say Kyiv targeted Moscow and the Kremlin’s forces launched another bombardment of Ukrainian grain storage depots early Wednesday. Those strikes in what have recently become signature strategies of the almost 18-month war. Authorities said a three-hour nighttime Russian drone attack in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight Tuesday caused a blaze at grain facilities. Russian officials claim to have downed Ukrainian drones in Moscow and the region around the capital, though one smashed into a building under construction.
August 23, 2023 4:55 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A legal challenge in Pennsylvania over the viability of a particular manufacturer’s voting system has ended in a new settlement that advocates say will boost accountability and transparency by requiring election officials to publicly report problems with voting machines. The advocates who sued say it’ll provide a contemporary account of which voting machines are working well and which ones aren’t. Some election officials see the potential to help suppress conspiracy theories and misinformation. Others worry, though, that it could be used to undermine confidence in elections in a key presidential battleground. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s top election official says the settlement “will provide additional public transparency.”
August 23, 2023 2:40 am
A Homestead man requested a jury trial for his case during a plea court hearing on Tuesday. Calvin Ortiz, 23 is charged with conspiracy of drug delivery resulting in death after selling fentanyl laced painkillers to Bradley Remerowski, 32, of Washington, which led to him overdosing and dying in 2020. Remerowski came in contact with Ortiz through a friend, Duane Berry Jr., 30, who helped facilitate the meeting between the two. Berry contacted Ortiz after learning that Remerowski was looking to buy drugs, which resulted in Remerowski purchasing six Percocet pills from Ortiz. Remerowski was found dead in his apartment by a work colleague the next morning after purchasing the drugs. According to cell phone records, Ortiz was in the Washington area during the time of the drug purchase. Ortiz’s jury trial has been set for December 2023.
August 23, 2023 2:28 am
The southbound lanes on Interstate 79 near the Houston Exit were closed for several hours, after a chain-reaction accident involving four vehicles that occurred just before ten o’clock Wednesday morning. Washington County 911 confirms that one person was killed, one person was flown by medical helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh and another was taken by ambulance to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. The cause of the crash is under investigation by State Police, but according to the Washington County coroner’s office, the victim was driving a car south when a another car in the northbound lane lost control, crossed the median and collided with the victim’s car. The Washington County Coroner’s office says the identity of the person killed will be released pending notification of next of kin. (Photo: WPXI)
August 22, 2023 5:15 pm
(AP) – The union representing 340,000 UPS workers says its members voted to approve the tentative contract agreement reached last month. The vote results announced Tuesday put a final seal on contentious labor negotiations that threatened to disrupt package deliveries for millions of businesses and households nationwide. The Teamsters said that 86% of the votes casts were in favor of ratifying the contract. Voting on the new five-year contract began Aug. 3 and concluded Tuesday. After negotiations broke down in early July, UPS reached a tentative contract agreement with the Teamsters just days before an Aug. 1 deadline. (Photo: ABC)
August 22, 2023 10:42 am
ATLANTA (AP) — John Eastman, the conservative attorney who pushed a plan to keep Donald Trump in power, has turned himself in to authorities on charges in the Georgia case alleging an illegal plot to overturn the then-president’s 2020 election loss. Eastman was booked at the Fulton County jail on Tuesday before being released by authorities. Eastman is expected to face a judge to be arraigned in the sprawling racketeering case. Eastman is charged alongside Trump and 17 others, who are accused by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis with scheming to subvert the will of Georgia voters in a desperate bid to keep Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House.
August 22, 2023 9:32 am
PITTSBURGH — Two people have been charged in a fatal hit-and-run that took place on Pittsburgh’s South Shore in January. Zachary Gleason, 35, a father of four, was struck around 3 a.m. on Jan. 14 while he was walking on West Carson Street. He was taken to Mercy Hospital where he died. Police say Markel Anthony Pulliam Jr., 25, of Washington, was driving a Honda Civic with a suspended license when he hit Gleason and fled the scene. Gleason was down in the road when he was then hit by a Chrysler 300 driven by Anthony Leon Baldwin, 55, of Pittsburgh, police said. Pulliam is charged with accidents involving death, accidents involving death while not licensed, driving with a suspended license and failing to stop and give aid. Baldwin is charged with accidents involving death.
August 22, 2023 9:29 am
Pennsylvania Superior Court has rejected an appeal by Washington County Clerk of Courts Brenda Davis and affirmed a contempt of court judgement against her. The three-judge panel issued the decision Friday. It backed County President Judge John DiSalle’s decision one-year ago when he sentenced Davis to 15 days in the county jail and a $5,000 fine for defying his order to turn over juvenile case files from her office. That led to a wild scene between Davis and Sheriff’s deputies at the Courthouse. Security footage showed Davis resisting deputies and then sliding down the wall of a hallway claiming she had been injured. Superior Court found that Davis “took matters into her own hands in defiance” and that because of her “outrageous” behavior Judge DiSalle was within his right to find her in contempt.
