March 10, 2023 2:55 am
Police continue to investigate a bomb threat at the Belle Vernon Walmart at 100 Sara Way Thursday afternoon, but their initial findings revealed that the person who reported the bomb threat was apparently a rogue ex-employee of the store who still had a portable radio in their possession. Police say Walmart employees heard a male voice give the proper code for a bomb threat over their internal radio communications twice in a very short period of time and they believed it was a credible threat. The threat was made just after two o’clock and forced the evacuation of those inside the store. The building was searched with K-9 officers and no explosive devices were found.
March 10, 2023 2:40 am
A small crowd turned out at for a special Beth Center School Board meeting on Tuesday to discuss the possible closure of the district’s middle school. WJPA News spoke with District Superintendent Donald MacFann, who told us that the district is looking at closing the middle school because of a dwindling number of students within the district. MacFann says there are currently a little over a thousand students, a number that does not justify having three separate buildings. MacFann says their proposal, which he says has been met with positive response from parents, would move the sixth graders into the elementary school and the seventh and eighth graders into the high school, creating a new, junior/senior high school. MacFann says the move would save the district some 475-thousand-dollars a year. He says more meetings and votes will be held before official action is taken, but he’s hopeful that final action would be taken before the end of this fiscal year. (Photo: WPXI)
March 10, 2023 2:31 am
The Charleroi Area Middle School was put on lock-down Thursday morning after a student reported to officials that during homeroom, he overhead a conversation that a female student had a gun in her backpack. District officials, in a letter to parents and guardians, stressed that at no time did the student actually see another student with a weapon on campus. Officials say they immediately called in the Charleroi Regional Police and following an extensive search and investigation, deemed the threat unfounded and students were allowed to return to their regularly scheduled classes.
March 10, 2023 2:21 am
Washington County 911 dispatchers tell WJPA that a fire broke out at a home on Lower Crowe Street in Long Branch Borough around three o’clock Thursday afternoon. Details were unavailable but dispatchers say there were no reported injuries, although firefighters remained on the scene for a couple of hours.
March 10, 2023 2:17 am
South Central Elementary School in Canonsburg was briefly locked-down Thursday afternoon after a woman was seen brandishing a shotgun in the area of the school. Canonsburg Mayor Dave Rhome tells WJPA News that she was detained by police and will likely be hospitalized. No motive was given for her actions. Rhome says the incident occurred around three-fifteen, as students were preparing to be dismissed. He says the students were held back for a brief period and then sent home. Rhome says there were no injuries.
March 9, 2023 5:39 pm
Shots were fired inside a church in the northern German city of Hamburg on Thursday night, and an unspecified number of people were killed or wounded, police said. Police said on Twitter that the shooting took place in the Gross Borstel district, a few kilometers (miles) north of the downtown area of Germany’s second-biggest city. The German news agency DPA reported seeing rescue services taking people out of a building used by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Unconfirmed reports say at least six people have been killed.
March 9, 2023 10:51 am
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is offering buyouts to most of its U.S. salaried workforce and some global executives in an effort to trim costs as it makes the transition to electric vehicles. The Detroit automaker wouldn’t say how many workers it is targeting, but confirmed that the move is aimed at accelerating attrition to meet a previously announced goal of $2 billion in cost cuts by the end of next year. GM has about 58,000 salaried workers in the U.S. The company says the offers also are designed to avoid any possible firings at a later date. Offers will go to white-collar workers with at least five years of service, and global executives with who have been with the company at least two years.
March 9, 2023 9:20 am
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week jumped by the most in five months, but layoffs remain historically low as the labor market continues to be largely unaffected by the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for jobless claims in the U.S. for the week ending March 4 rose by 21,000 to 211,000 from 190,000 the previous week. It’s the first time in eight weeks that claims came in above 200,000. The four-week moving average of claims rose by 4,000 to 197,000, Applications for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs.
March 9, 2023 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A spokesman for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says the senator has been hospitalized after tripping and falling Wednesday at a hotel. Spokesman Doug Andres says the 81-year-old Kentucky Republican was attending a private dinner at a Washington hotel when he tripped. Andres says McConnell was admitted for treatment. In 2019, the GOP leader tripped and fell at his home in Kentucky, suffering a shoulder fracture. The Senate, where the average age is 65, has been without several members recently due to illness.
March 9, 2023 4:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s new budget proposal aims to increase taxes on the wealthy and steer more money to popular programs such as Medicare. Overall, the spending blueprint released Thursday anticipates an additional $5.5 trillion in revenue over the next 10 years, plus $2.6 trillion in new spending. So that means an estimated $2.9 trillion reduction in the deficit. The proposal has no chance of becoming law now that Republicans are in charge of the House. But the budget plan will serve as a political talking point for a president preparing to run for reelection and trying to draw contrasts with the opposition party. Biden says the GOP should now come out with its alternative so the two sides can talk.
