May 24, 2023 4:07 am
North Strabane Township Supervisors were greeted with a lengthy agenda Tuesday night and they quickly moved through it. On the agenda was the approval of the 2023 paving program. The contract for $467,705.36 was awarded to A. Liberoni, Inc. The contract had to be rebid because the township received a statewide LSA grant to offset costs for the paving of McDowell Lane and that needed to be removed from the original bid proposal. Supervisors also approved the hiring of three part time police officers and two part time firefighters. Supervisors also scheduled several public hearings. On June 20 a hearing will be held to accept comment about Garden Street being a no left turn street onto Rt. 980. On June 27, Supervisors will take comment on the conditional use application for the Oak Grove Conservation subdivision. Finally, July 18 will have a public hearing on the amendments to the zoning ordinance governing communications facilities. All three meetings will begin at 6:00 PM.
May 24, 2023 2:17 am
Washington County Election officials began counting write-in votes on Tuesday from the May 16th Primary Election, and although all votes are unofficial until certified, the write-in results did not change the outcome of election night results. Democrat JoJo Burgess will be the new Mayor of Washington, ousting incumbent Democratic Mayor, Scott Putnam. Burgess led the ticket on election night, but Putnam had said he waged a write-in campaign on the Republican ticket, so there was still a chance, at that point, that he could see his name on the ballot in November – should he receive one-hundred write-in votes. That didn’t happen. Putnam received eighty write-in votes on the Republican ticket, Jo Jo had just over twenty, and the remainder were various other names. There was no Republican candidate for mayor. WJPA News spoke with Burgess after the write-ins were tallied and he tells us it’s an overwhelming feeling, especially knowing that he will be the city’s first black mayor.
May 24, 2023 2:01 am
The president of Washington & Jefferson College is planning to retire at the end of next year. In an email to alumni and friends of the school, Dr. John Knapp announced that he will be retiring at the end of his contract on June 30, 2024. Knapp, who has been with the college for the past seven years, said he and his wife plan to return to their home in Georgia to devote more time to personal interests and to spend more time with their children and grandchildren. Knapp says a search for a new president will get underway in early fall. (Photo: Courtesy of W&J)
May 23, 2023 12:36 pm
(WPXI) – Larry Scirotto is the city of Pittsburgh’s new police chief. In a unanimous vote, city council approved Mayor Ed Gainey’s nominee Tuesday morning. Scirotto says the bureau’s primary mission now is to get more manpower back in patrol and out on the streets. “We’re working toward preventing the next shooting and being visible, being available, being accessible so we have that community calming effect,” said Scirotto. Scirotto, a Monessen native, is a former assistant chief in the Pittsburgh Police Bureau. He was selected over former Pittsburgh Police Commander Jason Lando, who’s the police chief in Frederick, Maryland, and Ryan Lee, the former chief in Boise, Idaho, who sources said was the mayor’s top choice.
May 23, 2023 8:51 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man police believe intentionally crashed a U-Haul truck into a security barrier at a park across from the White House has been identified as a 19-year-old suburban St. Louis resident. A Secret Service spokesman says the box truck’s driver smashed into the barrier near the north side of Lafayette Square late Monday. No one was injured. Secret Service and Metropolitan Police Department officers searched the truck. Video posted by WUSA-TV shows a police officer picking up and inventorying several pieces of evidence from the truck, including a Nazi flag. The Secret Service says investigators believe the crash may have been intentional. U-Haul is based in Phoenix.
May 23, 2023 4:20 am
NEW YORK (AP) — An advice columnist who won a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation award against former President Donald Trump has filed an amendment to a second lawsuit against him, asking for another $10 million for remarks he made after the verdict. The amended lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court Monday by lawyers for E. Jean Carroll. Carroll defamation claims against Trump have proceeded in two separate lawsuits, one decided in a trial that just concluded, and another that previously dealt only with derogatory remarks that Trump made in 2019 while he was still president. That lawsuit, which has been tied up in still-unresolved legal appeals, is the one to which Carroll has added her new claims.
May 23, 2023 4:19 am
DENVER (AP) — The parents of a 22-year-old Colorado man killed by a sheriff’s deputy while suffering a mental health crisis will get $19 million from state and local agencies and changes to how officers are trained under a settlement. The shooting of Christian Glass after his SUV became stuck in a mountain town last year drew national attention and prompted calls to change how authorities respond to people with mental health problems. Under the deal announced Tuesday, the county where the shooting took place will establish a crisis response team and its sheriff’s office will train all deputies in crisis intervention.
May 23, 2023 4:17 am
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Pope Francis has sent one of his top sex crimes investigators to Bolivia at a time when the Andean nation is being shaken by an escalating pedophilia scandal involving priests. Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, a leading member of the church’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, arrived in Bolivia on the same day as a former Jesuit seminarian also landed in the country vowing to reveal more information about alleged cases of abuse. The Bolivian Episcopal Conference said Bertomeu’s visit is not directly related to the recent sex abuse allegations but had been planned earlier to analyze “the progress made in the field of the culture of prevention” promoted by the Vatican.
May 23, 2023 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy say they and their lead negotiators have had a productive meeting at the White House on the impasse over the government’s debt ceiling. Yet there was no agreement Monday as Washington races to strike a budget compromise and raise the nation’s borrowing limit in time to avert a potentially devastating federal default as soon as next week. Despite the lack of movement toward a possible agreement, both men appeared upbeat as they face a deadline, as soon as June 1, when the government could run out of cash to pay its bills.
May 23, 2023 4:12 am
CALIFORNIA, Pa. — (WPXI) – An historic elementary school in Washington County that was built in the early 1900s was nearly destroyed by flames on Saturday night. Officials say a portion will have to be completely torn down. Investigators believe this could be arson. Eight fire departments worked for several hours to battle the fire before getting the flames out. The historic school was built in 1910, with an addition added in 1916. While it was empty at the time of the fire, it was rich with history and design. We asked the chief will the building be torn down. He said that’s up to the owners. California Borough Police are investigating, and charges may be forthcoming.
