Just in time for Christmas, Adams county SPCA adopts out 598 animals and reunites 125 with their owners
An animal shelter in Pennsylvania reached a milestone this Christmas season, celebrating one of the rare moments where less is more.
The Adams county SPCA, which houses dogs, cats and other homeless, abandoned or lost animals, was empty for the first time in 47 years, according to a Facebook post from the shelter, reported by CNN.
Continue reading...Noel Montalvo was in Pennsylvania prison for 20 years for murders that he blamed on his brother who died in prison
A man formerly on death row has been released from prison following dismissal of murder charges in a double slaying a quarter-century ago that he blamed on his brother, who died in prison while appealing his own death sentence in the case.
Noel Montalvo, who turned 59 on Tuesday, was freed on Monday night after York county, Pennsylvania, prosecutors dismissed charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and burglary shortly before a retrial was to begin. He pleaded guilty to an evidence tampering charge for which the judge sentenced him to a year of probation.
Continue reading...Deadly winter storm leaves hundreds of thousands without power and deposits flooding and freezing temperatures in its wake
At least six people were killed and hundreds of thousands were left without power as a deadly winter storm swept across the north-eastern US on Monday, depositing flooding and freezing temperatures in its wake.
Two of the deaths were in Maine in separate cases involving fallen trees, authorities said. Other deaths were reported in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and New York.
Associated Press contributed reporting
Continue reading...Former mayor of Pennsylvania town of Braddock has long advocated for rights of US steel workers
The US senator John Fetterman has vowed to block the multibillion-dollar sale of US Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel, calling the potential deal “outrageous”.
The former mayor of the south-west Pennsylvania town of Braddock, which is home to a major US Steel plant, Fetterman has long advocated for the rights of American steel workers and positioned himself as a pro-union Democrat.
Continue reading...All-cash deal will see company keep name and headquarters in Pittsburgh, where it was founded in 1901
US Steel, the Pittsburgh steel producer that was once the world’s largest company and played a key role in the nation’s industrialization, is being acquired by Nippon Steel in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $14.1bn.
The price tag for US Steel is nearly double what was offered just four months ago by rival Cleveland Cliffs. US Steel, which rejected that offer, confirmed the offering price from Nippon early on Monday.
Continue reading...Ida Reams served as mayor of Osceola Mills from 2013 to 2021 and was intoxicated when she confronted the two men
The former two-term mayor of a Pennsylvania town has been ordered to serve up to a year in jail for shooting a gun at – and threatening to kill – two players of the popular mobile game Pokémon Go.
Ida Reams, who served as mayor of Osceola Mills from 2013 to 2021, was intoxicated when she confronted the two male players of the augmented reality game in the parking lot of a food bank in the town in March last year.
Continue reading...Agricultural department says multiple states will be affected, forcing a brainstorm of backup plans
The tiny, half-pint cartons of milk served with millions of school lunches nationwide may soon be scarce in some cafeterias, with districts across the country scrambling to find alternatives.
The problem is not a shortage of milk itself, but the cardboard cartons used to package and serve it, according to dairy industry suppliers and state officials.
Continue reading...Several of the city’s governmental, environmental and cultural institutions share lobbyists with fossil fuel companies
Dozens of governmental, educational, cultural and environmental organizations across the city of Pittsburgh have hired lobbying firms who work with planet-heating fossil fuel companies, new research shows.
The Pennsylvania city has almost entirely divested its pension funds from fossil fuels and plans to dramatically cut its planet-heating pollution. Yet in 2023, it employed lobbyists who also worked for ExxonMobil and seven other fossil fuel companies.
Continue reading...Defendants allegedly left coins scattered across parking lot after breaking into truck and taking 10-cent pieces worth $234,500
Robberies in the US are a dime a dozen, but one in particular had investigators perplexed. Now, more details about a scandal involving the theft of dimes by the million, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, have been released by federal authorities.
A newly unsealed indictment charges that on the evening of 13 April, four Philadelphia men made off with $234,500 – made up of more than 2m dimes – after breaking into a tractor-trailer carrying the coins. The truck driver, who had pulled into a parking lot to sleep at the time of the heist, had picked up the dimes from the US Mint and was headed to Miami. There was $750,000 worth of dimes in the truck before the robbery – a shipment that weighed about six tons and cost a pretty penny.
Continue reading...James Murphy, nicknamed ‘Stoneman Willie’ because of hard skin from experimental embalming, has been ‘gawked at long enough’
The mummified remains of a petty thief nicknamed Stoneman Willie have been laid to rest in Pennsylvania, concluding a fascinating and somewhat macabre episode stretching back 128 years.
Willie, whose real name was revealed to be James Murphy at his burial in Reading, 60 miles north-west of Philadelphia, on Saturday. He was embalmed shortly after his death in 1895 by a mortician experimenting with new preservation techniques.
Continue reading...Suspect, arrested in Peru, allegedly threatened schools after failing to ‘sextort’ nude photos from schoolchildren
A Peruvian man was arrested in Peru for sending more than 150 fake bomb threats to US schools, airports and a synagogue.
Eddie Manuel Núñez Santos, 33, was arrested by Peruvian officials on Tuesday in Lima, according to a press release from the justice department.
Continue reading...Epps, who died suddenly Tuesday, previously was the law school dean and provost
JoAnne A Epps, the acting president of Temple University, died Tuesday shortly after becoming ill on stage during a memorial service, officials said, describing her loss as a gut punch and struggling through emotion as they recalled her nearly four decades of service.
Epps was attending a memorial service at the university for Charles L Blockson, a curator of a collection of African American artifacts, when she suffered what a doctor speaking at a news conference described as a “sudden episode”.
Continue reading...Danelo Cavalcante who escaped prison over a week ago has slipped out of the search area and changed his appearance, police say
Authorities say an escaped murderer who has eluded capture since breaking out of a south-eastern Pennsylvania prison a week and a half ago has apparently slipped out of the search area, changed his appearance and is now being sought in a stolen vehicle.
Pennsylvania state police said in a statement on Sunday that Danelo Souza Cavalcante was seen overnight near Phoenixville in northern Chester county, more than 20 miles (32km) north-east of the area that until now has been the focus of the search.
Continue reading...Sightings of birds, which appear to have come from Yucatán in Mexico, reported in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and the Carolinas
Flamingos have been spotted as far north in the US as Ohio and Pennsylvania in recent days, after they were blown off course by the powerful Hurricane Idalia that hit Florida late last month, experts say.
The distinctive birds have been reported in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, also in Texas and further north from their typical habitats, in Kentucky and even Ohio, Jerry Lorenz, the state director of Audubon Florida, told CNN. They were also seen in Franklin county in southern Pennsylvania on Thursday, NPR reported.
Continue reading...Three people taken to hospital – one in critical condition – as authorities investigate cause of explosion in community of Plum
Five people were found dead after a house explosion in western Pennsylvania destroyed three structures and damaged at least a dozen others, authorities said on Sunday.
The police chief of the community of Plum, Lanny Conley, said the bodies of four adults and one adolescent were recovered after the blast shortly before 10.30am on Saturday.
Continue reading...Body found near where two-year-old Matilda Sheils was carried away as search continues for her nine-month-old brother, Conrad
The body of a young girl was recovered Friday in the Delaware River and was believed to be a two-year-old who was one of two children swept away from their family’s vehicle by a flash flood last weekend, authorities said.
The body was found in the early evening near a Philadelphia wastewater treatment plant about 30 miles (50km) from where Matilda Sheils was carried away, authorities said in a nighttime news conference.
Continue reading...Torrential rainstorm swept through township in south-eastern Pennsylvania, killing several and leaving behind a slew of damage
At least three people have been killed by a sudden flash flood in Pennsylvania while four others remain missing.
On Saturday evening, flash floods as a result of a torrential rainstorm swept through Upper Makefield township in south-eastern Pennsylvania, killing several and leaving behind a slew of damage including submerged buildings.
Continue reading...Over a third of Americans under extreme heat warnings as Vermont, still recovering from historic flooding, prepares for more storms
The US is bracing for more extreme weather from coast to coast, with a heatwave hitting California, tornados in the midwest and the east expecting more rain as it continues to reel from historic flooding.
Residents of Vermont, still suffering from an onslaught of dangerous weather in recent days, are preparing for another round of severe storms in the area beginning as early as Thursday night.
Continue reading...Michael Burham broke out of jail where he was being held on arson and burglary charges and was suspect in murder investigation
Authorities were searching on Saturday for an inmate described by police as “very dangerous” who escaped from a jail in north-western Pennsylvania using bed sheets, officials said.
Michael Burham was last seen wearing a blue denim coat from the jail, white and orange pants, and orange shoes, Warren police said late on Friday.
Continue reading...At least 15 people shot dead across the country in mass shootings so far on the holiday weekend celebrating the US’s independence
A long holiday weekend of bloodshed has intensified after a heavily armed gunman in a bulletproof vest opened fire on the streets of Philadelphia on the eve of Fourth of July celebrations, in yet another mass shooting in the US, killing five people and wounding two boys before surrendering to the police.
Across the country, Texas was entering the holiday to news that another shooting had killed three people, in Fort Worth, occurring just before midnight amid a gathering in a parking lot that also wounded eight.
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