This photo of bullet-damaged prayer book in the Tree of Life synagogue building in Pittsburgh was entered May 30, 2023, as a court exhibit by prosecutors in the federal trial of Robert Bowers. He faces multiple charges in the killing of 11 worshippers from three congregations and the wounding of seven worshippers and police officers in the building on Oct. 27, 2018. The charges include the obstruction of the free exercise of religion, resulting in death. (U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania via AP)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A jury has resumed deliberating in the trial of a truck driver who shot and killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the nation’s deadliest attack on Jewish people. The defense acknowledges that 50-year-old Robert Bowers was the man who burst into Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle and other guns. Seven people were wounded in the rampage. Jurors got the case Thursday afternoon and spent more than two hours reviewing the mountain of evidence against Bowers before going home. They resumed deliberations Friday morning. Bowers is charged with 63 criminal counts. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

(Ellwood City, PA) A resident of Ellwood City, PA, pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge of attempted production and production of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor.
David Bates, age 63, pleaded guilty to one count before United States District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan on June 12, 2023.
In connection with the guilty plea, the court was advised that in or between July 2020 and October 2020, Bates and another individual attempted to and did use, persuade, induce entice and coerce a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions of the minor engaged in such conduct.
Judge Ranjan scheduled sentencing for October 3, 2023, at 12:00 p.m. The law provides for a total sentence of not less than 15 years and not more than 30 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published June 16, 2023 11:10 A.M.

(Aliquippa, PA) Beaver County 9-1-1 reported that Aliquippa firefighters and police are still on scene after 3 homes were reported to be on fire at 3:27 a.m. Friday morning in West Aliquippa.
322 Beaver Avenue and 511 Allegheny Avenue are single family homes, 217 Main Avenue is a duplex.
This is the third week that firefighters have been called to the scene of fires in that area.
No information is available as to the cause of the fires.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Measures to raise fees on millions of phone bills in Pennsylvania passed the state House of Representatives on Wednesday in a bid to bolster funding for county-run emergency communication centers and the state’s 988 suicide hotline. Both measures, which were backed by every Democrat and a handful of Republicans, would annually adjust the fees with inflation. The legislation now goes on to the Republican-controlled Senate.

Denise Lodge, left, covers her face with a printout of the indictment against her as she walks from the federal courthouse, Wednesday, June 14, 2023, in Concord, N.H., following her arrest on charges related to an alleged scheme to steal and sell donated body parts. (Steven Porter/The Boston Globe via AP)

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A former manager at the Harvard Medical School morgue, his wife and three other people have been indicted in the theft and sale of human body parts. Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced the indictments Wednesday. They say 55-year-old Cedric Lodge stole dissected portions of cadavers that were donated to the Harvard Medical School from 2018 to early 2023. Authorities say the body parts were taken without the school’s knowledge or permission. They say Lodge sometimes took the body parts back to his New Hampshire home and also allowed buyers to visit the morgue to choose the remains they wanted to buy.

FILE – Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin (3) leaves the field after an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper, File)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs, would be placed in nearly every school or sports and recreation venue in Ohio under a proposal that cleared the Republican-dominated Ohio House with overwhelming bipartisan support. The legislation was sparked by the sudden cardiac arrest of Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin in January on the field during a National Football League game in Cincinnati. It would require employees to undergo special training on using AEDs and recognizing the signs of cardiac arrest. Schools and other locations also have to hold informational sessions for students before each athletic season. The proposal that passed the House on Wednesday now heads next to the Senate.

Crews continue to work the scene of a collapsed elevated section of Interstate 95, in Philadelphia, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Pennsylvania’s plan for rebuilding a collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia involves tons of small glass nuggets, each one about an inch wide and light as Styrofoam. Gov. Josh Shapiro won’t say how long it’ll take to get traffic flowing again, but he says union crews will work nonstop until the job is done. The plan is to fill the space where a gasoline truck fire destroyed an overpass with 2,000 tons of recycled glass recovered from landfills. Workers will pave over it to reopen the critical East Coast highway. After that, they’ll build another bridge to reroute traffic so they can remove the fill and reopen the underpass.

FILE – Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the South Carolina Statehouse, Jan. 28, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Moments after Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he hoarded classified documents and then conspired to obstruct an investigation about it, the Republicans in Congress had his back. Trump’s mounting legal jeopardy has quickly become a political rallying cry as they rush to stand by the indicted former president. Many Republicans say they haven’t fully read the 49-page indictment against Trump. But they are adopting his grievances against the federal justice system as their own. It’s an example of how Trump has transformed the Republican Party that was once the party of “law and order,” but is now attacking the very justice system at the foundation of U.S. democracy.

FILE – Bill Cosby arrives for a sentencing hearing following his sexual assault conviction at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown Pa. Nine more women are accusing Cosby of sexual assault in a lawsuit that alleges he used what they call his “enormous power, fame and prestige” to victimize them. A lawsuit filed Wednesday, June 14, 2023, in federal court in Nevada alleges that the women were individually drugged and assaulted between approximately 1979 and 1992 in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe homes, dressing rooms and hotels. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nine more women are accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault in a lawsuit that alleges he used what they call his “enormous power, fame and prestige” to victimize them. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Nevada alleges that the women were individually drugged and assaulted between approximately 1979 and 1992 in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe homes, dressing rooms and hotels. The 85-year-old Cosby has now been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women. He’s denied all allegations. Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era. He spent nearly three years at a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court threw out the conviction and released him in 2021.