May 16, 2023 4:15 am
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A northern Virginia man has been arraigned on charges involving baseball bat attacks on three women, including two staffers for Rep. Gerry Connolly. Forty-nine-year-old Xuan-Kha Tran Pham learned his charges by video hookup from the Fairfax County jail, where he was ordered held pending a hearing in July. Pham’s father told The Washington Post that his son was diagnosed with schizophrenia but can’t obtain treatment. Pham is accused of damaging the windshield of a woman in Fairfax after asking if she was white. Police say he showed up at Connolly’s district office shortly thereafter and hit two women with the bat.
May 16, 2023 4:13 am
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A fire ripped through a hostel in New Zealand’s capital overnight, killing at least six people and forcing others to flee in their pajamas in what a fire chief called his “worst nightmare.” Six bodies have been found so far but not all areas of the building had been searched yet. The incident controller for Fire and Emergency New Zealand said the roof collapsed, bringing debris down on the top floor and making the area unsafe. One resident said smoke was pouring under his door on the top floor of the four-story building. He jumped out a window, landing on a roof two floors below. The Loafers Lodge offered affordable rooms for short or long stays to people of a wide range of ages. Some were vulnerable people placed there by government agencies.
May 16, 2023 4:12 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian air defenses have thwarted an intense Russian air attack on Kyiv, shooting down all 18 missiles aimed the capital. Loud explosions boomed over Kyiv as the attack early Tuesday combined Russian missiles launched from the air, sea and land in an apparent attempt to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses. No casualties were reported. It is the eighth time this month that Russian air raids have targeted the capital, a clear escalation after weeks of lull and ahead of a much-anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive. It also came as President Volodymyr Zelenksyy concluded a whirlwind European tour to greet Ukraine’s key wartime allies, which spurred an additional tranche of pledged military aid.
May 16, 2023 4:10 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Party nominees for four open seats on Pennsylvania’s statewide appellate courts will be settled in the primary election. Tuesday’s top-of-the-ticket race is for a state Supreme Court seat. On the Democratic ticket are Dan McCaffery of Philadelphia and Deborah Kunselman of Beaver County. Both of them currently sit on the statewide Superior Court, which handles appeals from county courts in criminal and civil cases. On the Republican ticket are Carolyn Carluccio, a Montgomery County judge; and Patricia McCullough, a judge on the statewide Commonwealth Court, which handles cases involving government agencies or state laws. Two seats are open on the Superior Court, and one is open on the Commonwealth Court.
May 16, 2023 4:06 am
The Peters Township School Board met Monday evening and adopted their preliminary general budget for the 2023-2024 school year. The budget announced is for $80,252,395. That is an increase of $3,457,989 over last year. Brad Rau, Business Manager for the school district says that there will be a .3 mill or 2% tax increase this year. What that means in numbers is that Peters Township Residents will be paying $30 more per year for each $100,000 of assessed value. Rau stated that the increase in the budget is due to mandated expenditures such as salaries and benefits. He also pointed to inflationary issues as a cause for the budget increase. Inflated costs for fuel, supplies, and utilities were also built into this year’s spending plan. No change in the budget numbers is expected. The budget will be adopted at the June meeting.
May 16, 2023 4:05 am
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) held a public meeting Monday to inform county residents on the updates made to the “SmartMoves For A Changing Region” Long Term Plan for infrastructure and what projects are occurring through 2026. Domenic D’Andrea is the Transportation Planning Director and he states that $660 million worth of projects have been identified to be improved through 2050 with another $1.3 billion worth of projects identified as line items that will allow quick action if necessary. Angela Saunders, Transportation Planning Manager for PennDot described two projects that are in early engineering development. The first is an adaptive signaling project that will learn traffic patterns and coordinate stop lights on Route 19. The project will run 11.6 miles from the diverging diamond interchange in South Strabane Township, through North Strabane and Peters Townships to the Allegheny County line. The second project under development is the area of Interstate 70 near Claysville that has seen several rollover crashes from tractor trailers. Plans call for the elimination of a curve and the straightening of I-70 and the replacement of two sister bridges in the vicinity. According to D’Andrea, these projects are on the short term plan that runs through 2026. The long term plan runs through 2050. Plans for traffic, transportation, economic development and broadband expansion are included in the plan. To view the plan in its entirety and make comment visit the website at www.spcregion.org
May 16, 2023 2:53 am
The Trial of a Washington man charged in connection with a drive by shooting at East Wylie and Allison Avenues in the City of Washington in July of 2022 is underway. Russell Porter, 27 is being tried on two counts each of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. Most of the witness testimony was dedicated to establishing relationships that Porter had with Katie Deems who he had been visiting just before the incident occurred and was identified as the owner of the car that contained Porter during the shooting. His relationship with Nasstylejah “Styles” Wilkerson who is claimed to have had an agitated interaction with Porter before the shooting in front of Deems’ house, and Bailey Batch, the driver of the car that Porter allegedly shot at that contained Wilkerson. Batch testified that Porter and Wilkerson did not like each other. She also testified that she saw Wilkerson lean out the window of a white SUV and fire into her car. Testimony was sketchy as to which window Batch saw Porter fire from. She was also asked why she did not mention Wilkerson during the first interview with police. The jury will be back at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday to continue hearing police testimony about their investigation.
May 16, 2023 2:40 am
CONSOL Energy has issued a statement regarding an accident early Tuesday morning at their Enlow Fork Mine in Morris Township in Washington County. In an email, CONSOL says there was an underground accident involving supply cars and a mantrip carrier. They say no individuals, at any time, were trapped underground. Officials say three individuals received immediate assistance by CONSOL’s safety personnel and were quickly brought out of the mine for further treatment and evaluation. Two of the individuals received further evaluation for minor injuries at a nearby hospital and were subsequently released. The third individual was flown by medical helicopter to another local hospital to be treated and evaluated for non-life-threatening injuries. CONSOL says it is conducting a full-scale internal review of the event and is working with all appropriate agencies in order to determine the exact cause of the accident. (Photo: WPXI)
May 15, 2023 4:37 pm
FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — Police say at least three people are dead and multiple others wounded after a shooting in Farmington, New Mexico where schools were put on lockdown. Farmington police say in an online statement that one suspect “was confronted and killed on scene” Monday. It says two officers were shot, including one with the city police and one New Mexico State Police officer. Both were reported to be in stable condition at San Juan Regional Medical Center. Police say “the suspect’s identity is unknown and there are no other known threats at this time.”
May 15, 2023 4:27 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — A special prosecutor has ended his four-year investigation into possible FBI misconduct in its probe of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The report Monday from special counsel John Durham offers withering criticism of the bureau but a meager court record that fell far short of the former president’s prediction he would uncover the “crime of the century.” It represents the long-awaited culmination of an investigation that Trump and allies had claimed would expose massive wrongdoing by law enforcement and intelligence officials. Instead, Durham’s investigation delivered underwhelming results, with prosecutors securing a guilty plea from a little-known FBI employee but losing the only two criminal cases they took to trial.
