Banks was convicted of killing 13 people, including his own children, in 1982 shooting in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
George Banks, one of the most notorious mass murderers in the US, has died.
Banks, 83, died on Sunday afternoon at Phoenix state prison in Pennsylvania, the state department of corrections said. Banks died of complications from renal neoplasm, or kidney cancer, said Montgomery county coroner Dr Janine Darby.
Continue reading...Police say Ki-Shawn Crumity, 26, met girl through Snapchat, and charged him with human trafficking and sexual assault
A 13-year-old Louisiana girl who went missing after meeting a man online was found alive in a box at his home several states away in Pennsylvania – along with evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, according to authorities.
Ki-Shawn Crumity, 26, faces charges of human trafficking, sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor and corruption of a child after police in Pittsburgh said they arrested him on Thursday. He is one of at least three men who had been arrested as of Saturday amid an investigation involving law enforcement agencies in multiple states.
Continue reading...One armed person detained as historically Black school shooting comes amid rising violence at homecoming events
At least one person was killed and six others wounded in a shooting at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania late on Saturday, as students and alumni celebrated homecoming at outdoor festivities at the historically Black university, authorities said.
A person who had a firearm was detained, and officials are investigating the possibility that there was more than one shooter but don’t believe there is any active threat to the campus, Chester county’s district attorney, Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe, said during a brief news conference early on Sunday.
Continue reading...Kada Scott was missing for two weeks before anonymous tip led police to wooded area with remains in shallow grave
Remains found buried in a wooded area behind an abandoned school are those of Kada Scott, a 23-year-old woman who had been missing for about two weeks, prosecutors in Philadelphia said on Monday.
Authorities said an anonymous tip led police back to the area they previously searched and they found the remains in a shallow grave. DNA tests confirmed her identity.
Continue reading...Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro says US stands at ‘inflection point’ after Charlie Kirk killing and urges unity over division
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro has said Americans must “universally condemn political violence, no matter where it is” after the killing of rightwing youth organizer Charlie Kirk as well as a deadly shootout in Shapiro’s state that left three police officers dead and two others injured.
Hours before Kirk’s funeral, Shapiro said that the nation stands at an “inflection point” and urged Americans to choose shared values over division, pointing to the solidarity shown by Pennsylvanians in the aftermath of the officers’ killings in York county last week.
Continue reading...Malcolm Kenyatta is on a 105-mile march to highlight drastic cuts to the stat’s regional public transport services
“The best part of this is I get to eat as many carbs as possible,” jokes Malcolm Kenyatta, who has lost 100lbs over the past two years. “I had a bagel already, I’m eating snacks, I’m having a good time.”
The Democratic state representative was speaking by phone from Broomall, Pennsylvania, on Friday, around 12 miles into a one-man, 105-mile march from Philadelphia to Harrisburg in protest to drastic cuts to regional public transport services.
Continue reading...Bus overturned about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh while carrying players from Aliquippa junior high school
A bus carrying a junior high football team to a game crashed on Saturday north of Pittsburgh, sending 21 of the 28 people onboard to the hospital, officials said.
Twenty-five Aliquippa junior high students and three adults were headed to a game in nearby Gibsonia. The crash occurred in Economy Borough, about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh.
Continue reading...Baltimore saw up to 4in of rain and the New York transportation system was flooded on Thursday; more rain is possible, weather service warns
A 13-year-old boy has died after he was trapped in a storm drain in Maryland during heavy rainfall and flooding on the east coast, officials said.
Kids were playing in the rain on Thursday in a common area between apartment buildings in Mount Airy, a town of about 10,000 people about 30 miles (48km) west of Baltimore, but flood waters rushed in and the boy was swept into the pipe, according to Mount Airy volunteer fire company spokesperson Doug Alexander.
Continue reading...Remains of Timothy Garlington shipped from Georgia funeral home to another in Pennsylvania
Two funeral homes allegedly gave grieving parents their deceased son’s brain in a box, which began to smell, leaked into their car and got on the father’s hands when he moved it, according to an updated lawsuit filed this week.
The father, Lawrence Butler, said the discovery was overwhelming at a news conference on Thursday, leaving a horrific memory that mars the other memories of a “good young man”, their son, Timothy Garlington.
Continue reading...The department said in a statement that Ice never arrested or deported Luis Leon to Guatemala, and that the reports were a ‘hoax’
Confusion swirled around the fate of a Chilean resident of the US after the Department of Homeland Security called reports of his deportation to Guatemala a “hoax”.
On 18 July, the Morning Call newspaper of Allentown, Pennsylvania, reported that the family of the man, Luis Leon, said he was handcuffed after showing up at to immigration office on 20 June to report a lost green card. They said he was first sent to a detention facility in Minnesota, then to Guatemala, where they said a Chilean relative informed them he was in a hospital.
Continue reading...Flash flood warnings were issued for parts of New York and Pennsylvania and an emergency was declared in New Jersey
At least two people were killed Monday evening in New Jersey amid heavy rain and flooding in that state and New York, according to authorities.
The pair died in the city of Plainfield when the car they were in was swept into Cedar Brook during flash flooding, local officials announced on Facebook.
Continue reading...Cause unknown after several homes faced extensive fallout, including collapses, firefighters say
One person died and two others were injured after an explosion damaged several homes on Philadelphia’s north side early on Sunday, according to authorities.
Firefighters responded to a report of an explosion just before 5am, according to the Philadelphia fire department.
Continue reading...Temperatures at or above 100F expected as extreme hot air and humidity are trapped in atmosphere
Scores of millions of people across the central and eastern US will swelter under the summer’s first “heat dome” beginning this weekend and extending through the end of next week as extreme hot air and humidity get trapped in the atmosphere.
The arrival of the heatwave coincides with Friday’s first day of summer and will bring temperatures at or above 100F (37.7C) to numerous cities as it moves to the east of the US in the coming days, forecasters say.
Continue reading...Some students were also temporarily suspended as other colleges respond with disciplinary action to protests
On the morning of 3 May, the Swarthmore borough police department disbanded a four-day pro-Palestinian encampment on Swarthmore College’s campus and arrested nine activists.
The demonstration calling on the college to divest from the tech company Cisco due to its ties to the Israeli government was a rare uprising in an academic year where higher-education institutions have been quick to quash them. One current and one former Swarthmore College student were among those arrested, while the rest were from outside the college community, the college’s president, Valerie Smith, said in a statement.
Continue reading...Authorities say suspect told them he would have beaten Josh Shapiro with sledgehammer if he had found him
A man who authorities said scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion – where he set a fire – had planned to beat the governor, Josh Shapiro, with a hammer if he found him because he hates the politician, according to court documents released on Monday.
The fire left significant damage and forced Shapiro, his family and guests to evacuate the building early on Sunday. The man, arrested later in the day, faces charges including attempted homicide, terrorism, aggravated arson and aggravated assault, authorities said.
Continue reading...No reported injuries after fire left ‘significant damage’ to portion of residence while Josh Shapiro and his family slept
Police say a person is in custody after a suspected arson fire at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansionwhere Josh Shapiro and his family were evacuated after someone set fire to the building.
No one was injured in the blaze and the fire was extinguished, authorities said.
Continue reading...Ohio, Maryland and Alabama among states to report new cases, with 378 confirmed in first few months of 2025
More US states are reporting measles cases as the Texas outbreak expands, surpassing last year’s total, amid vaccine misinformation and hesitancy.
The Texas outbreak could take a year to get under control, one health official said – during which time it may spread to more states. Yet the parents of the six-year-old girl who died of measles in Texas have spoken against measles vaccination as misinformation continues to proliferate, including from figures such as the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Continue reading...Five people onboard survived small plane crash near Lancaster but officials say no details of their condition
A small airplane with five people onboard crashed in a parking lot near Lancaster airport in Manheim Township, Pennsylvania, on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the single-engine plane was a Beechcraft Bonanza, and the incident happened around 3pm in Lancaster county.
Continue reading...A doctor, a nurse and a custodian at UPMC Memorial, and two other officers were shot and wounded in attack
A man armed with a pistol and carrying zip ties entered a Pennsylvania hospital’s intensive care unit Saturday and took staff members hostage before he was killed by police in a shootout that also left an officer dead, authorities said.
Three workers at UPMC Memorial hospital, including a doctor, a nurse and a custodian, and two other officers were shot and wounded in the attack, the York county district attorney Tim Barker said. A fourth staffer was injured in a fall.
Guardian staff contributed reporting
Continue reading...Police search for culprit in Antrim township heist as US egg prices continue to rise amid bird flu outbreak
Police in Pennsylvania are hunting for thieves who stole 100,000 eggs from the back of a trailer, amid a US-wide spike in the price of eggs that has triggered panic-buying in some shops.
The eggs were lifted from the back of Pete & Gerry’s Organics’ distribution trailer on Saturday at about 8.40pm in Antrim township, according to police. There have been no arrests yet.
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