April 10, 2022 4:39 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — The Virginia truck driver who struck and killed another truck driver while tending to his disabled truck on Interstate 70 last year has been sentenced to jail. Hosea Holcomb, 28 was found guilty of striking and killing John Isenberg of Ohio back in late January. Video testimony showed Holcomb falling asleep at the wheel of his truck and swerving between lanes of traffic and the shoulder of the road before striking Isenberg in January of 2021. Holcomb did not stop after the accident and was pulled over by state police roughly 10 miles further east on Interstate 70. Holcomb is guilty of felony homicide by vehicle and accident causing death. He was also found guilty of four other summary offenses. Judge Gary Gilman sentenced Holcomb 3 1/2 to 7 years in jail for the incident. Reports say Holcomb was sorry for killing Isenberg and causing so much grief for the family, but still claimed that he was not aware of hitting Isenberg at the time of the incident. Holcomb’s lawyer says they will appeal the case.
April 10, 2022 4:20 am
WEST PIKE RUN TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A Fredericktown teen was killed in a single vehicle crash in West Pike Run Township on Friday. According to a release from the Washington County Coroner’s office, 13-year-old Jayden Anderson was the front seat passenger of the car, when the driver failed to negotiate a curve and lost control of the vehicle near the 100 block of Sunset Drive late Friday afternoon. Anderson was ejected from the vehicle and was transported to Penn Highlands Mon Valley Hospital. He died in the emergency room at 5:53 p.m. The release says that the driver and another occupant were transported to a Pittsburgh-area hospital. None of the other identities were released. Responding to the scene included crews from Ambulance and Chair Service, Brownsville Ambulance, UPMC Paramedic Response, Bentleyville Fire Department and Richeyville Fire Department. This crash is now under investigation by Pennsylvania State Police. A GoFundMe page has been created for Anderson’s family following his death. (Photo: GoFundMe)
April 10, 2022 1:24 am
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Dwayne Haskins was working on a second chapter for his young NFL career. The 24-year-old quarterback was spending time with some teammates with the Pittsburgh Steelers, getting ready to compete for a starting job. That’s when his life was cut short. Haskins was killed early Saturday morning when he was hit by a dump truck while he was walking on a South Florida highway. Florida Highway Patrol spokeswoman Lt. Indiana Miranda said Haskins was pronounced dead at the scene. “He was attempting to cross the westbound lanes of Interstate 595 when there was oncoming traffic,” Miranda said in an emailed statement. Miranda didn’t say why Haskins was on the highway at the time. The accident caused the highway to be shut down for several hours, and Miranda said it’s “an open traffic homicide investigation.” A 2019 first-round draft pick by Washington, Haskins was released by the team after going 3-10 over two seasons. He was signed by Pittsburgh as a developmental QB, but he didn’t appear in a game last season. Haskins appeared to be in South Florida this week with several teammates, including fellow quarterback Mitch Trubisky, running back Najee Harris and tight end Pat Freiermuth.
April 9, 2022 11:53 am
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky’s Democratic has vetoed a Republican-backed measure to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The bill also would regulate the dispensing of abortion pills. Gov. Andy Beshear issued the veto Friday. He raised doubts about the bill’s constitutionality. And he criticized it for not including exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. Lawmakers will have a chance to override the veto when they reconvene next week. The abortion measure won overwhelming support in the GOP-dominated legislature. The state GOP says the veto is the latest example of the governor’s “ideological war” on conservative values.
April 9, 2022 11:48 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal jury has begun deliberating in the case against a former Virginia police officer charged with storming the U.S. Capitol to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. The jury for the trial of former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson deliberated for more than four hours Friday without reaching a verdict. They will resume Monday. One of Robertson’s attorneys conceded that he broke the law when he entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The lawyer encouraged jurors to convict him of misdemeanor offenses but urged them to acquit Robertson of felony charges that he armed himself with a weapon and stormed the Capitol to overturn the election results.
April 9, 2022 4:45 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Actor Kevin Spacey is asking a judge to throw out a sex abuse lawsuit that his lawyers say was unjustly brought by an actor who alleges he was abused by Spacey in the 1980s. The lawyers wrote in papers filed Friday in Manhattan federal court that the allegations made by Anthony Rapp about an encounter when he was 14 are false and never occurred. The lawyers say the actor claims that Spacey surprised him by picking him up, putting him on a bed and putting some body weight against him before the actor “wriggled out” with no resistance. Lawyers for Rapp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
April 9, 2022 4:44 am
BEIJING (AP) – A series of deaths at a hospital for elderly patients in Shanghai is underscoring the dangerous consequences of China’s stubborn pursuit of a zero-COVID approach amid an escalating outbreak in the city of 26 million people. Relatives say multiple patients have died at the Shanghai Donghai Elderly Care hospital. They say their loved ones weren’t properly cared for after caretakers infected with the virus were taken away to be quarantined, in adherence to the strict pandemic regulations, depleting the hospital of staff. Family members have taken to social media to plea for help and answers and are demanding to see surveillance video after getting little to no information about their loved ones from the hospital.
April 9, 2022 4:43 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump Jr. texted White House chief of staff Mark Meadows two days after the 2020 presidential election with strategies for overturning the result if Trump’s father lost. That’s according to CNN, which reported that the text was sent two days before Joe Biden was declared the winner. Trump Jr.’s lawyer Alan S. Futerfas told CNN that “this message likely originated from someone else and was forwarded.” Separately Friday, Ali Alexander, a conservative activist who helped found the “Stop the Steal” movement, said he had received a subpoena to provide testimony to a federal grand jury as part of the Justice Department’s wide investigation into the insurrection.
April 9, 2022 4:17 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz is worth more than $100 million. That’s according to a financial disclosure form he filed Wednesday that’s required of all Senate candidates. Oz is a celebrity heart surgeon and former host of “The Dr. Oz Show.” The Republican’s assets include homes in Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, plus equities, a cattle farm and non-public stock in his in-laws’ tree-trimming empire. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oz valued his assets at between $104 million and $422 million. If elected, he would be one of the wealthiest members of the Senate – and possibly the wealthiest.
April 9, 2022 1:47 am
A Waynesburg couple accused of aggravated assault and false imprisonment in one case and criminal homicide in a second will face trial. Cortland Rogers, 28 and Shawna Smith, 23 had multiple charges held for court after nearly 6 hours of testimony surrounding two separate cases. In the first case both were charged with aggravated assault for the beating of Jacqueline Rutan in the early hours of February 14. Victim’s testimony stated that she was called to a house where Rogers and Smith resided to prove her innocence regarding an incident from many years ago. Rutan admitted that the crowd of her, her fiancé, Rogers and Smith were doing crystal meth. An argument ensued that prompted Roger to order Smith into kicking and beating Rutan while Rogers held her at gunpoint. Police had both Rogers and Smith in custody over the assault when the report of the bodies of Kevin Williford and Judith Hunter being found was received by police. Testimony by Rutan indicated that Rogers and Smith were responsible for the shooting of Williford and Hunter. Police interviews played in court showed Rogers and Smith blaming each other for the killing of Williford and Hunter. Rogers and Smith are being held without bond in the Greene County Jail. They are scheduled for arraignment on May 23.
