News Of Western Pennsylvania And The World
The hit 90s sitcom “Frasier” is set to return to screens, with Kelsey Grammer reprising his role as radio psychiatrist Frasier Crane in the reboot, ViacomCBS confirmed Wednesday.
Source: ‘Frasier’ reboot: Kelsey Grammer reprising role 17 years after show ended – CNN
Republican Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida has claimed that Democrats planned to elect President Joe Biden into the White House because he is “too frail” to stand in the way of their progressive agenda.
In a recent letter, led by Representative Jimmy Panetta of California, more than two dozen House Democrats urged Biden to waive his sole authority to release nuclear weapons.
“‘Sleepy Joe’ wasn’t just a political nickname, it appears to be a government strategy for the Biden Administration,” said the Florida congressman.
Source: Matt Gaetz Claims Democrats Elected Joe Biden Because He’s ‘Too Frail’ to Make Decisions
President Joe Biden on Wednesday revoked a Trump-era ban on legal immigration for family members of U.S. citizens and residents, as well as diversity visa lottery recipients.
In a statement, Biden said former President Donald Trump’s order blocking green card applicants and temporary foreign workers “does not advance the interests of the United States.”
“To the contrary, it harms the United States, including by preventing certain family members of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents from joining their families here,” Biden’s statement said. “It also harms industries in the United States that utilize talent from around the world. And it harms individuals who were selected to receive the opportunity to apply for, and those who have likewise received, immigrant visas through the Fiscal Year 2020 Diversity Visa Lottery.”
Source: Biden reverses Trump visa ban on legal immigration – POLITICO
When troopers responded, officials said they were greeted at the door by 44-year-old James Vickers.
Court documents said troopers spotted a knife on Vickers and detained him after a brief struggle. Inside, police said, a woman was found to have multiple injuries to her face and she accused Vickers of trying to strangle her.
According to the criminal complaint, the woman told police she feared for her life.
State police said the suspect had broken the woman’s phone
Source: Local woman posts ‘Call 911’ sign to get help
WENDEL, Pa. (KDKA) — People in a Westmoreland County community are unhappy with the Postal Service after their Post Office was closed.
When Nicholas White pulled up to the Wendel Post Office, he was met with an empty building. The building closed on Feb. 13.
The Post Office did not have a delivery service, so people would have to come to the building to get their mail. Wendel’s residents have been told by the Postal Service to now pick up their mail at the Manor Post Office, which is about a 10-minute drive.
So why did the U.S. Postal Service shut down this small Post Office in an area that relies on it? According to the Post Office, it had to do with the rent.
Source: Wendel Post Office Closes, Leaving Residents With Questions And Concerns – CBS Pittsburgh
About three dozen House Democrats have signed a letter asking President Biden to renounce his sole authority to launch nuclear weapons, according to reports.
Democrats previously expressed concern with former President Trump having access to such power. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in January, for example, said she spoke with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley about protecting nuclear codes from an “unhinged president.”
About three dozen House Democrats have signed a letter asking President Biden to renounce his sole authority to launch nuclear weapons, according to reports.
Source: Dozens of House Democrats want Biden to give up sole authority to launch nuclear weapons | Fox News
Jeff Federoff had just been laid off from his job at Levin Furniture & Mattress. The new ownership had gone bankrupt — and then the pandemic hit.
“I open my mail and there is a letter and a check from Robert Levin,” said Federoff, a 20-year employee from Canonsburg, as he stood inside the reopened Levin store on Wednesday in McMurray. “Robert is the best boss you could ever work for. He is so gracious and employees are blessed to work for him.”
Source: Levin Furniture reopens stores in McMurray, Robinson; soon Mt. Pleasant | TribLIVE.com
The 2020 and 2021 Ford F-150 and Super Duty trucks have recalls for structural issues. See if your Ford F Series truck needs to be repaired.
Source: Recall Alert: The 2021 Ford F-150 Has Structural Issues
AMBRIDGE, Pa. — A woman has been charged with shooting her two children to death inside an Ambridge home on Monday.
Ambridge police said the incident occurred in the 900 block of Maplewood Avenue around 1:30 p.m.
Inside the home, police found the children dead. They were identified as 16-year-old Jeffrey Bright and 22-year-old Jasmine Cannady.
The mother, 48-year-old Krisinda Bright, was arrested for the shooting, according to Interim Chief John Deluca. She was the one who actually called 911.
Source: Mother called 911 after shooting, killing 2 children inside Ambridge home, police say
NASA has delayed the launch of its first-ever planetary defense mission aimed at deflecting potentially hazardous asteroids from colliding with Earth.
The mission, called Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), will send a spacecraft to test crash into the near-Earth binary asteroid system called Didymos, in 2022. NASA announced Feb. 17 that this year’s primary launch window of July 21 to Aug. 24 is no longer an option. Instead, the space agency is targeting a backup window that opens Nov. 24 and runs to Feb. 15, 2022, according to a statement from NASA.
The decision to postpone the launch was made by NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) senior leadership following a risk assessment of the DART project schedule. Delaying the launch of the mission will not affect the spacecraft’s arrival at its target, which is slated for October 2022, NASA officials said.
Source: NASA delays launch of DART asteroid defense mission | Space
Anthony Mileca was found just before 1 a.m. Wednesday at a gas station in Cumberland, Maryland, Pennsylvania State Police said.
Source: Man found after last being seen in Latrobe
Thieves have been hacking parts off cars to sell for scrap in and around the borough of Seven Springs in Somerset and Fayette counties, according to Tribune-Review news partner WPXI.
State police spokesman Steven Limani told WPXI about 30 catalytic converters have been stolen off of area vehicles in the past few weeks.
Catalytic converters, which are located between the engine and muffler of almost all modern cars, filter harmful emissions that would otherwise pollute the air.
They contain precious metals like palladium, platinum and rhodium — which makes them valuable targets for thieves who sell them for scrap.
Source: Seven Springs seeing surge of catalytic converter thefts | TribLIVE.com
What police believe may have been a prank 911 call on Wednesday shut down Latrobe Elementary School as authorities investigated a reported threat, according to Greater Latrobe district officials.
The situation was cleared just before 2 p.m. and no one was hurt. Anxious parents who gathered outside the police perimeter on Lincoln Avenue were told that dismissal would happen at the normal time.
City and state police were called to the Cedar Street school just before 1 p.m. Officers searched the building after an anonymous phone call was made to Westmoreland 911 reporting a threat. All district buildings were locked down as a result.
“The agencies believe this threat may have been a prank,” district officials said in a Facebook post.
Latrobe police said they were investigating the source of the call that was found to be not credible. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 724-537-5526. Officers from other nearby departments assisted at the scene.
Source: Possible ‘prank’ prompted lockdown at Latrobe Elementary School, officials say | TribLIVE.com
The pilot on flight 2292 radioed around 1:00 p.m. CST and said that the unidentified object was flying right on top of them, according to a transmission recorded by Steve Douglass on his blog, Deep Black Horizon. American Airlines verified to Fox News that the transmission is from flight 2292.
“Do you have any targets up here? We just had something go right over the top of us,” the pilot said in the radio transmission.
“I hate to say this but it looked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing moving really fast. It went right over the top of us.”
‘ODD’ LIGHTS SPOTTED IN NORTH CAROLINA SKY PROMPT SEVERAL THEORIES
American Airlines confirmed that the radio transmission is authentic, but did not give any further comment on the possible alien encounter. “Following a debrief with our Flight Crew and additional information received, we can confirm this radio transmission was from American Airlines Flight 2292 on Feb. 21,” an American Airlines spokesperson told Fox News in a statement. “For any additional questions on this, we encourage you to reach out to the FBI.”
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Flight 2292 was around 37,000 feet at the time of the sighting, and Albuquerque Center did not respond because local air traffic interfered, according to Douglass. The flight went on to land in Phoenix, Arizona.
Source: American Airlines not denying possible UFO spotting, says: ‘Talk to the FBI’ | Fox News
Here’s a link to the flight path of AAL2292: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL2292
Link to audio: https://wetransfer.com/downloads/80939a600fb1c94b28032f656ba293df20210221223956/bc53c0c39e53ecf44d0bba30de96d70f20210221224041/d041eb
Link to entire morning recordings: https://wetransfer.com/downloads/dd1f53a0fdfe024d2a4d8bfb71d8ea6320210221213022/68d2909f048a84fb04fe06dc330f8ec920210221213107/c3f0e2
NEW YORK — A former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the governor kissed her without her consent and asked her to play strip poker, alleging a pattern of sexual harassment she detailed in a new account Wednesday.
Lindsey Boylan, who is running for Manhattan borough president and formerly worked for Cuomo and the state’s economic development agency, wrote in a Medium post that Cuomo kissed her on the lips against her will at his office in Manhattan.
The former staffer’s charges come as the governor is deluged with accusations that he covered up coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes. The fallout has led to accusations in New York’s political world about Cuomo’s tyrannical behavior — including a recent allegation by Assembly Member Ron Kim who said the governor threatened to “destroy” him over Kim’s criticism of the nursing home debacle.“
Governor Andrew Cuomo has created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned but expected. His inappropriate behavior toward women was an affirmation that he liked you, that you must be doing something right,” Boylan wrote. “He used intimidation to silence his critics. And if you dared to speak up, you would face consequences.”
Boylan said the kiss took place after she gave the governor a one-on-one briefing on state economic and infrastructure projects.
“We were in his New York City office on Third Avenue. As I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips. I was in shock, but I kept walking,” Boylan wrote.
Source: Former aide charges Cuomo kissed, sexually harassed her
PITTSBURGH — Community Bank, retail arm of CB Financial Services Inc., on Tuesday said it plans to consolidate six branches.
Four are located within the 10-county Pittsburgh metro where Community Bank ranks No. 17 by deposit market share. It is targeting June 30 for the closures.
They are:
Monongahela to be consolidated into Rostraver
Perryopolis to be consolidated into Uniontown and Rostraver
Pioneer to be consolidated into Waynesburg
Southpointe to be consolidated into McMurray
Source: Local bank closing six branches, four in the Pittsburgh metro, and here’s where
President Joe Biden will sign an executive order on Wednesday to review the global supply chains used by four key industries in an effort to avoid the shortages in medical equipment, semiconductors and other goods seen as critical during the pandemic.
China reliance targeted: Biden’s order will institute 100-day reviews of the global producers and shippers for: computer chips used in consumer products; large-capacity batteries for electric vehicles; pharmaceuticals and their active ingredients; and critical minerals used in electronics.
The reviews will seek to determine whether U.S. firms in these sectors are relying too much on foreign suppliers, particularly those in China, a senior administration official told reporters. They will also consider other vulnerabilities, like extreme weather and environmental factors.“
Clearly we are looking at the risks posed by dependence on competitor nations, but that is only one of a range of risks we are looking at,” the administration official said.
The order will also direct yearlong reviews for six sectors: defense, public health, information technology, transportation, energy and food production.
Source: Biden orders supply chain review for 4 industries – POLITICO
The analysis found that consumers purchasing power from the deregulated electricity market have paid significantly more than state residents whose sources were traditional electric utilities.
The report comes after widespread power outages in Texas that left millions of residents without power for days amid freezing temperatures. That was followed by many households receiving sky-high electricity bills, with warnings from experts that consumers are likely to be hit with covering the costs for grid upgrades.
The decision to have a deregulated electricity market stems back to 1999 when legislation was first introduced to deregulate the market in Texas. Supporters of the bill said it would create more competition in the sector and lower prices for consumers.
However, households under the deregulated market paid rates 13 percent higher than the nationwide average from 2004 to 2019, according to the Journal. Those who used traditional utilities in Texas paid 8 percent less than the national average during that time frame.
The data used for the analysis came from the federal Energy Information Administration.
Although deregulation in Texas was designed to allow for more competition, mergers in the industry have left Texans with two main retail electricity providers.
Source: Texas’s deregulated electricity market raised consumer costs by $28B: WSJ | TheHill
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Sixty-two inmates have died in riots at prisons in three cities in Ecuador as a result of fights between rival gangs and an escape attempt, authorities said Tuesday.
Prisons Director Edmundo Moncayo said in a news conference that 800 police offices have been helping to regain control of the facilities. Hundreds of officers from tactical units had been deployed since the clashes broke out late Monday.
Moncayo said that two groups were trying to gain “criminal leadership within the detention centers” and that the clashes were precipitated by a search for weapons carried out Monday by police officers.
Source: Authorities: Prison riots in Ecuador leave 62 dead
Justin Trudeau has praised Joe Biden for rejoining the Paris climate accord during their first bilateral meeting, saying: “US leadership has been sorely missed over the past years.”
The Canadian prime minister added: “And I have to say as we were preparing the joint rollout of the communique on this, it’s nice when the Americans are not pulling out all the references to climate change and instead adding them in.”
The meeting – held virtually between the Roosevelt Room at the White House and Trudeau in his Ottawa office because of the pandemic – was Biden’s first with a foreign counterpart since taking office,
Biden returned Trudeau’s compliments, saying: “The United States has no closer friend, no closer friend, than Canada.”
After talking for about two hours, the two leaders emerged and said they planned to work closely together to beat the Covid-19 pandemic and combat climate change, with a goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said in an interview Tuesday that if former President Trump were to run again in 2024 he would likely win the Republican nomination.
“He has by far the largest voice and a big impact in my party,” Romney told the New York Times’ DealBook. “I don’t know if he’s planning to run in 2024 or not, but if he does, I’m pretty sure he would win the nomination.”
Source: Romney says Trump likely Republican nominee if he runs in 2024 | Fox News
Following weeks of headline-grabbing attention from a social media-fueled stock trading frenzy, GameStop announced Tuesday its Chief Financial Officer Jim Bell will resign from his role effective March 26.
A reason for Bell’s resignation was not immediately clear. In an SEC filing on Tuesday, GameStop said Bell’s resignation was “not because of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices, including accounting principles and practices.”
Source: GameStop CFO resigns following Reddit stock trading mania | Fox Business
NTSB chief Robert Sumwalt says investigators believe it played a role. The mid-air explosion sent debris down onto a Denver suburb.
According to CBS Denver, Sumwalt said the engine made a loud bang and started vibrating about four minutes after takeoff from Denver International Airport. He said the plane was about 12,000 feet above homes at the time.
Sumwalt said two fan blades in the engine broke — one at the base where it meets the hub and the second about mid-way. He said the first blade caused “overload damage” to the second blade.
An 18-wheel truck hit a train carrying chemicals and fuels in Cameron, Texas, early Tuesday, causing a huge explosion and starting a fire that is expected to burn for several days.
The Milam County town of 5,400, about 72 miles northeast of Austin, was rocked by the boom around 6:45 a.m., according to Cameron Sheriff Chris White.
White said the driver of an 18-wheel flatbed truck lost control of his vehicle, was unable to stop, swerved around a parked vehicle and into a rail crossing, where his truck struck a passing BNSF train.
“Nobody was injured or killed,” White said.
Source: Huge explosion erupts after 18-wheeler hits fuel train in Texas
A Westmoreland County Prison inmate is accused by county detectives of swallowing four stamp bags of suspected heroin she had in her cell after being committed there earlier this month, according to court papers.
Elizabeth June Cramer, 35, of Greensburg, is charged with contraband and tampering with evidence.
A fifth stamp bag recovered in Cramer’s cell by corrections officers was marked “Chucky,” which has been linked to drug overdoses and deaths around the region, according to court papers.
Source: Westmoreland jail inmate charged after detectives say she swallowed drugs in cell | TribLIVE.com
A 54-year-old Pittsburgh man has claimed the $2 million prize he won in Maryland during the Jan. 20 Powerball jackpot.
The man, whose name was not released, made the trip Friday to the Maryland Lottery headquarters to claim his prize. He had to postpone the trip twice due to the weather, lottery officials said.
Source: Pittsburgh Man Wins $2 Million Lottery Prize After Buying Ticket In Maryland – CBS Pittsburgh
Tiger Woods was hospitalized and in surgery after a solo-vehicle rollover crash on Tuesday morning, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Woods was the lone occupant in the vehicle
Woods, who was the only person in the Genesis GV80 SUV, was trapped in the wreck, which occurred after he hit a center median in the road, and then careened into brush, hitting a tree at just before 7:12 a.m. PT. A neighbor of the crash scene called 911.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Woods was traveling at a “relatively greater speed than normal.”
Woods was extricated by firefighters from the vehicle and then taken to Harbor UCLA, which is a major trauma center.
Villanueva, speaking at a news conference, said deputies who responded to the scene “did not see any evidence of impairment” with Woods.
Because there was no sign of impairment, Villaneuva said, “There was no effort to draw blood at the hospital.”
Woods was conscious at the scene and able to communicate with deputies.
“I spoke to him. I asked him what his name was. He told me his name was Tiger, and at that moment, I immediately recognized him, said Deputy Carlos Gonzalez told reporters.
“It’s very fortunate that Mr. Woods was able to come out of this alive,” Gonzalez said.
A Ligonier company has spent more than $3 million buying three commercial buildings in downtown Greensburg — including the city’s historic train station, which last changed hands in 2016.
Chelsted Limited Family Partnership bought the train station on Ehalt Street from StoneKim Properties LLC for about $1.1 million, according to information filed with the Westmoreland County Recorder of Deeds.
Source: Greensburg train station sold again, along with 2 other downtown buildings | TribLIVE.com
