January 31, 2023 4:03 am
ROSS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – A driver is facing charges after police said she hit and killed a woman on Babcock Boulevard before speeding off on Jan. 13. Erin Petroski, 39, is charged with homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, accidents involving death/personal injury, involuntary manslaughter, two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol or controlled substance, careless driving and driving vehicle at safe speed. Officials said Petroski turned herself in to police. 31-year-old Elizabeth Griser was pronounced dead at a hospital. According to the criminal complaint, traffic cameras showed a car with front passenger side damage and a passenger side headlight missing an estimated .19 miles south from where Griser was found. The car was tracked to a house on Thompson Run Road. When detectives arrived at the home, they found the car in the driveway. Police spoke with Petroski on the front porch of the house. When detectives asked Petroski what happened, she said “I don’t know.” The officers then asked if Petroski knew she was in an accident, she said yes. They asked if she thought to stop to which Petroski said “I did stop. I’m not going to say much more. I understand why you’re here.”
January 31, 2023 3:59 am
Washington City Council held their agenda meeting on Monday and the action items list was rather light. Department reports added information to council on recent developments in the city. Fire Chief Chris Richer made it clear that his department was very appreciative of the radio upgrades approved and implemented last summer. Richer described how a recent structure fire was very complicated and the new radios were a significant tool in making sure that all occupants of the multi-unit commercial/residential structure got out safely and aiding in putting out the fire quickly. Mayor Scott Putnam pointed out the recent recommendations of the county LSA board for nearly $900,000 in grants that will benefit the city. The Downtown Rising Revitalization Project will receive $700,000, the Facade Grant for the Washington Business District will receive $125,000 and the 7Th ward park will get $50,000. Putnam also nominated the Dreamers Corporation to be the first recipient of the renewed Pride of Washington Award. Council will hold its voting meeting on Thursday February 2.
January 30, 2023 3:55 pm
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Public schools in West Virginia may soon be required to display the phrase “In God We Trust” in every building if a bill passed by the state Senate on Monday becomes law. Bill sponsor Republican Sen. Mike Azinger says he wants to give kids in schools something to look up to. The bill requires that the motto be placed in a “conspicuous place” in each school building. It can be displayed on a poster or in a frame, which must be purchased by donation and contain images of the national and state flags. The display can’t depict any other words, images or information. The bill now heads to the House.
January 30, 2023 8:59 am
A fire broke out at a UMPC hospital room late Sunday night after a patient may have attempted to light a cigarette while on oxygen, a hospital representative told our news partners at Channel 11. Crews responded to UPMC East at 2775 Mosside Blvd. in Monroeville around 11 p.m. for reports of a fire. Nearby patients were immediately relocated to other units, according to the UPMC representative, and four employees were evaluated and treated. The event remains under investigation. An official said the fire was minor. It was extinguished by midnight.
January 30, 2023 6:43 am
Actor Annie Wersching, best known for playing FBI agent Renee Walker in the series “24” and providing the voice for Tess in the video game “The Last of Us,” has died. She was 45. She passed away Sunday morning in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer, her publicist told The Associated Press. The type of cancer was not specified. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Wersching appeared on dozens of television shows over the course of her two-decade career. She had recurring roles on “Bosch,” “The Vampire Diaries,” Marvel’s “Runaways,” “The Rookie” and, most recently, the second season of “Star Trek: Picard.”
January 30, 2023 6:41 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Barrett Strong, one of Motown’s founding artists and most gifted songwriters who sang lead on the company’s breakthrough single “Money (That’s What I Want)” and later collaborated on such classics as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “War,” has died. He was 81. Strong’s death was announced Sunday on social media by the Motown Museum, which did not immediately provide further details. “Money,” a million-seller released in 1960, was Motown’s first major hit. Strong and Norman Whitfield became one of Motown’s most productive and eclectic songwriting combinations, writing several hits for the Temptations.
January 30, 2023 4:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is heading to Baltimore to visit an aging rail tunnel that’s slated to be replaced with help from bipartisan infrastructure legislation that he signed in 2021. The Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel project is estimated to cost $4 billion and take a decade to finish. It would eliminate a troublesome bottleneck that delays commuters and travelers up and down the East Coast. It’s the first of two rail-related stops this week for Biden, who was a regular Amtrak commuter during his years in the Senate. He’s visiting New York on Tuesday as another new tunnel is planned, this one under the Hudson River.
January 30, 2023 4:18 am
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – Increasingly it feels like America is at war with itself. From a triple homicide in New Orleans just days into the new year to the shooting of a Virginia teacher by a 6-year-old to a series of mass shootings in California. Simply keeping track of the shootings has become difficult, with locations and details and explanations running together into a blur of bloodshed and heartbreak. But if it might make you think America has gone numb to gun violence, Zeneta Everhart would like a word. Everhart’s then-19-year-old son survived after being shot in the neck in May when a gunman stormed into into a Buffalo supermarket. á”I don’t think that the country is becoming numb to it, but I think that the country is frustrated,” she said. “I think that people are tired.”
January 30, 2023 4:17 am
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – A sixth Memphis Police Department officer has been disciplined for his involvement in the brutal beating and arrest of Tyre Nichols. Officer Preston Hemphill was relieved of duty shortly after the Jan. 7 arrest of Nichols, who died three days later at a hospital, Memphis police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph said. She did not disclose Hemphill’s role in the arrest. Hemphill’s lawyer, Lee Gerald, said in a statement that Hemphill was the third officer at a traffic stop that preceded the violent arrest and that he activated his body camera. But Hemphill was not at the scene where Nichols was beaten, Gerald said.
January 30, 2023 4:12 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – Over two dozen demonstrators gathered in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood in response to the death of Tyre Nichols. The protest comes after Memphis police released Tyre Nichols’ arrest video. Local leaders have weighed in on the act of violence. Senator John Fetterman spoke out on social media Friday night and both Pittsburgh mayor Ed Gainey and Senator Bob Casey released statements Saturday morning. The sidewalks off of N. Highland Avenue were lined with sign tables and protesters demanding justice. “In some cases, the police officer who commits these killings is just dismissed from the force and faces no further repercussions and we need to show that this will and has to go to a conviction because we won’t let this be swept under the rug,” said an event organizer who carried signs that said, “stop the war on Black America” and “jail killer cops.”
