Ford recalls almost 500,000 SUVs because of the possible rupture of their rear brake jounce hoses

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – The Ford logo is seen on the grill of a Ford Explorer on display at the Pittsburgh International Auto Show in Pittsburgh, on Feb. 15, 2024. Two fatal crashes involving Ford’s Blue Cruise partially automated driving system have drawn the attention of U.S. auto safety regulators. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Dearborn, MI) Ford recently recalled 499,129 2016 to 2018 Lincoln MKX and 2018 Edge SUVs because the rupture of the rear brake hoses of these vehicles may happen. The rear brake jounce hoses of those vehicles, which are rubber hoses that are both high-pressure and flexible in the rear of those vehicles that connect that lines of the brakes to the calipers, may leak fluid and break. According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, the lack of sufficient brake fluid may cause the SUV to need more space to stop, increasing the risk of a crash. Ford owners will get two alerts for this recall because Ford has yet to develop a fix for these faulty SUVs, the first being on September 8th with more information about the recall and while once a fix is available, a second will be sent. The National Highwasy Traffic and Safety Administration confirms that April of 2026 is when the second letter is expected to be sent. For more information about this recall, you can contact the phone number of 866-436-7332. The internal recall number is 25S87 for Ford in regards to this recall.

Hoax call of armed shooter with an AR-style rifle occurs at the University of Pittsburgh campus and is deemed not credible

(File Photo of the University of Pittsburgh Seal)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) A call that was a hoax drew a response for a large amount of police to show up to the University of Pittsburgh campus in Pittsburgh yesterdayThe Barco Law Library building at the University of Pittsburgh is where police responded to yesterday for a report of a possible armed personAccording to sources, the caller claimed they were hiding in a closet and said someone had an AR-style rifle and even reported hearing gunfire. Police made a determination that the call had no credibility and that there was no shooter within about twenty minutes. 

Shooting in Rankin of Allegheny County kills a man

(File Photo of Police Siren Lights)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Allegheny County, PA) An unidentified man died after a shooting that occurred in Rankin of Allegheny County yesterday. According to Allegheny County police, dispatchers were notified of a shooting at the intersection of Oak Way and Duquesne Street around 3:10 p.m. yesterday. Police confirm that first responders found a manwith a gunshot wound who then got taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead yesterday. Police also note that this man that died from the Rankin shooting yesterday was in his late teens or early twenties. Homicide unit detectives from the Allegheny County police are investigating this incident and are working to identify the late man, and if you have any information on this incident, call 1-833-ALL-TIPS.

Single-lane restrictions on Washington Pike (Route 50) in Collier Township of Allegheny County will continue, weather permitting

(File Photo: Caption for Photo: PennDOT, PSP, PTC, Construction Industry Highlight National Work Zone Awareness Week)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Allegheny County, PA) PennDOT District 11 announced that on Tuesday, September 2nd, weather permitting, single-lane restrictions on Washington Pike (Route 50) in Collier Township of Allegheny County will continue. From 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. on weekdays, as needed through late September, single-lane restrictions will continue in both directions of Route 50 between the I-79 interchange and Mayer Street. These restrictions will let side road adjustment work, signage installation work and utility relocation work be conducted by crews.

A nightly restriction on westbound I-376 (Parkway East) in the City of Pittsburgh will occur, weather permitting

(File Photo: Caption for Photo: PennDOT, PSP, PTC, Construction Industry Highlight National Work Zone Awareness Week)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) PennDOT District 11 announced that on Tuesday, September 2nd through Thursday, September 4th, weather permittinga nightly restriction on westbound I-376 (Parkway East) in the City of Pittsburgh will occur. From 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on each night of Tuesday through Thursday, a single lane restriction will occur on westbound I-376 near the Stanwix (Exit 70D) exit to let beam repair work be conducted by crews from the JET Excavating Company. 

Families of Bryan Kohberger’s murder victims ask an Idaho judge to block graphic crime scene photos

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – The family of Ethan Chapin, including mother Stacy Chapin, right, and father Jim Chapin, walk to the Ada County Courthouse for Bryan Kohberger’s plea deal hearing, on July 2, 2025, in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Relatives of two of the four University of Idaho students murdered in 2022 have asked a judge to prevent the release of graphic crime scene photos and videos, saying that the images are traumatizing and making them public would violate their privacy.

Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to life without parole last month for the stabbing murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at their off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho.

Even if crime scene images are somehow redacted, it’s still traumatizing for the families, Ethan’s mother, Stacy Chapin, wrote in a court document.

“They are heartbreaking and continue to reopen a wound that has yet to heal,” she wrote.

The criminal case drew worldwide attention, and the Moscow Police Department received hundreds of requests to release investigatory records. Idaho law generally allows for the sealing of investigation records to be lifted once a criminal investigation is complete.

After Kohberger’s sentencing, the city of Moscow responded to one such request for public records by releasing photos and videos taken by law enforcement at the crime scene, blurring out the bodies of the slain students as well as the faces of other victims and witnesses who talked to police outside the home.

The images still showed blood on the floors and walls of the home, however, and the videos included the sounds of sobbing friends and roommates.

Leander James, an attorney representing family members of Mogen and Chapin, told 2nd District Judge Megan Marshall that the blurring was ineffective, that the blood should also have been hidden from public view, and that the sounds of distress should have been muted.

“Blurring is not redacting,” James said during a Thursday morning hearing. He asked the judge to carefully consider Stacy Chapin’s statement, describing “how incredibly harmful and emotionally damaging it is for her to see images of her son and the other victims. They’re in there, they’re just blurred — they’re harder to see.”

The commodification of the killings by a whole industry of people obsessed with crimes makes it even more important to consider how the families have been victimized again by the release of such gory images, James told the judge.

“Images like this are disseminated within an instant, worldwide,” James said, criticizing “this ‘true crime’ sort of industry that uses this stuff for economic gain, and misuses it.”

Andrew Pluskal, an attorney representing the city of Moscow, said the city is required by law to release the images under the Idaho Public Records Act, and carefully weighed what to redact using the “balancing test” spelled out in the law, weighing the victims’ right to privacy against the public’s right to know.

“If there were options allowed in statute that allowed these records to be fired into the sun,” the city would do it, Pluskal told the judge. He called the images “harrowing.”

But he said the city could have been sued if it refused their release, and redacting or blurring the images was its best attempt to follow the law.

“The city is in the middle here — the city is going to get it from either side,” Pluskal told the judge.

Marshall said she would consider both sides and issue a ruling at a later date.

Police say Minneapolis church shooter was filled with hatred and admired mass killers

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Kristen Neville, left, and Michael Burt cry and embrace each other at the doors of the Annunciation Catholic Church after Wednesday’s school shooting, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The shooter who killed two Catholic school students and wounded more than a dozen youngsters sitting in the pews of a Minneapolis church once attended the same school and was “obsessed” with the idea of killing children, authorities said Thursday.

The shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, fired 116 rifle rounds through stained-glass windows while the children celebrated Mass during the first week of classes at the Annunciation Catholic School, said Minneapolis police Chief Brian O’Hara.

“It is very clear that this shooter had the intention to terrorize those innocent children,” O’Hara said.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said videos and writings the shooter left behind show that the shooter “expressed hate towards almost every group imaginable.”

The only group Westman did not hate was “mass murderers,” Thompson said. “In short, the shooter appeared to hate all of us.”

Investigators recovered hundreds of pieces of evidence from the church and three residences, the police chief said. They found more writings from the suspect, but no additional firearms or a clear motive for the attack on the church the shooter once attended. Westman had a “deranged fascination” with mass killings, O’Hara said.

“No evidence will ever be able to make sense of such an unthinkable tragedy,” he said.

Surveillance video captured the attack and showed the shooter never entered the church and could not see the children while firing through windows lined up with the pews, the police chief said.

Grieving families speak of painful loss

Family members described one of the victims, 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel, as a boy who loved his family, fishing, cooking, and any sport he was allowed to play.

“We will never be allowed to hold him, talk to him, play with him and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming,” his father, Jesse, said while tearfully reading a statement outside the church on Thursday.

The parents of the other victim, 10-year-old Harper Moyski, said in a statement that she was a bright and joyful child.

“Our hearts are broken not only as parents, but also for Harper’s sister, who adored her big sister and is grieving an unimaginable loss,” said Michael Moyski and Jackie Flavin. “As a family, we are shattered, and words cannot capture the depth of our pain.”

They said they hope her memory helps drive leaders “to take meaningful steps to address gun violence and the mental health crisis in this country.”

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office said they both died of gunshot wounds.

City officials on Thursday increased to 15 the number of injured children, who are ages 6 to 15. Three parishioners in their 80s also were injured. Only one person — a child — was in critical condition.

Westman, whose mother worked for the parish before retiring in 2021, left behind several videos and page upon page of writings describing a litany of grievances. One read: “I know this is wrong, but I can’t seem to stop myself.”

O’Hara said Westman was armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, and died by suicide.

On a YouTube channel, videos that police say may have been posted by the shooter show weapons and ammunition, and list the names of mass shooters. What appears to be a suicide note to family contains a confession of long-held plans to carry out a shooting and talk of being deeply depressed.

Student shielded by a friend who was shot

Rev. Dennis Zehren, who was inside the church with the nearly 200 children, said the responsorial psalm — which spoke of light in the darkness — had almost ended when he heard someone yell, “Down down, everybody down,” and gunshots rang out.

Fifth-grader Weston Halsne said he ducked for the pews, covering his head, shielded by a friend who was on top of him. His friend was hit, he said.

“I was super scared for him, but I think now he’s OK,” the 10-year-old said.

Authorities try to determine a motive

FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the attack was an act of domestic terrorism motivated by hate-filled ideology, citing the shooter’s statements against multiple religions and calls for violence against President Donald Trump.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday sent state law enforcement officers to schools and churches in Minneapolis, saying no child should go to school worried about losing a classmate or gunshots erupting during prayer.

On a YouTube channel titled Robin W, the person filming the video points to two windows in what appears to be a drawing of the church, then stabs it with a long knife.

The now-deleted videos also show weapons and ammunition, scrawled with “kill Donald Trump” and “Where is your God?” along with the names of past mass shooters.

There also were hundreds of pages written in Cyrillic, a centuries-old script still used in Slavic countries. In one, Westman wrote, “When will it end?”

Lily Kletter, who graduated from Annunciation, recalled that Westman joined her class at some point in middle school and once hid in the bathroom to avoid going to Mass.

“I remember they had a crazy distaste for school, especially Annunciation, which I always thought was pretty interesting because their mom was on the parish board,” she said.

Federal officials referred to Westman as transgender, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey decried hatred being directed at “our transgender community.” Westman’s gender identity wasn’t clear. In 2020, a judge approved a petition, signed by Westman’s mother, asking for a name change from Robert to Robin, saying the petitioner “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”

No criminal record

There were no past arrests or anything in the shooter’s background that would have prevented Westman from being able to legally purchase a firearm, investigators said Thursday.

In response to a request for any records of police contact with the shooter in the last decade, the Eagan Police Department sent two documents, both heavily redacted. The first from 2018 is listed as a mental health call and welfare check for a child with parents Mary Grace Westman and James Westman. The case was listed as closed and the narrative was redacted after the officer wrote she responded to the woman’s address.

A second report from 2016 involving a criminal complaint was entirely redacted.

Police chief says officers rescued children who hid

The police chief said the first officer ran into the church four minutes after the initial 911 call and that more officers rendered first aid and rescued some of the children.

Annunciation’s principal Matt DeBoer said teachers and children alike responded heroically.

“Children were ducked down. Adults were protecting children. Older children were protecting younger children,” he said.

Vincent Francoual said his 11-year-old daughter, Chloe, survived by running downstairs and hiding in a room with a table pushed against the door. He said she is struggling to communicate clearly about the traumatizing scene and that she thought she was going to die.

Tess Rada said her 8-year-old daughter also hasn’t said much about the shooting so she too doesn’t know exactly what she saw. Loud noises and sirens have bothered her since the attack, Rada said.

One of the children killed was her daughter’s friend.

“It’s kind of impossible,” Rada said “to wrap your head around how to tell an 8-year-old that her friend has been killed.”

Overnight ramp closures on eastbound inbound I-376 Parkway West in Robinson and Collier Townships in Allegheny County will begin, weather permitting

(File Photo: Caption for Photo: PennDOT, PSP, PTC, Construction Industry Highlight National Work Zone Awareness Week)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) PennDOT District 11 announced that on Tuesday, September 2nd, weather permitting, overnight ramp closures on eastbound (inbound) I-376 (Parkway West) in Robinson and Collier townships in Allegheny County will begin. If weather permits, the ramp that carries eastbound I-376 to northbound I-79 (Exit 64A) will close for milling and resurfacing and pavement marking installation work. Motorists will be driving on roadway surfaces that are milled as a part of this work as the project progresses until paving work occurs. According to a release from PennDOT District 11, here is the schedule and the detour for traffic for this work:

Ramp Closures, September 2nd-7th

·       6 PM to 5 AM Tuesday through Thursday, each night

·       6 PM to 7 AM Friday and Saturday, each night

Ramp Closures, September 8th-14th

·       6 PM to 5 AM Monday through Thursday, each night

·       6 PM to 7 AM Friday and Saturday, each night

Ramp Closures, September 15th-17th

·       6 PM to 5 AM Monday through Wednesday, each night

Traffic will be detoured as work occurs.

Posted Detour

Eastbound I-376 ramp to northbound I-79

·        From eastbound I-376, take the southbound I-79/Washington (Exit 64A) exit

·        Take the Carnegie (Exit 57) exit

·        Turn left onto West Main Street

·        Take the on-ramp to northbound I-79 toward Erie

·        End detour

Shoulder restrictions on various off-ramps along Route 28 in Etna and Sharpsburg Boroughs and O’Hara Township of Allegheny County will continue, weather permitting

(File Photo of Road Work Ahead Sign)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Allegheny County, PA) PennDOT District 11 announced that on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025, weather permitting, shoulder restrictions on various off-ramps along Route 28 in Etna and Sharpsburg Boroughs and O’Hara Township of Allegheny County will continue. According to a release from PennDOT District 11, on each weekday through September 5th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the following ramps will have shoulder restrictions to let conduit and sign installation work be conducted by crews.

  • Northbound Route 28 off-ramp to Etna (Exit 4)
  • Northbound Route 28 off-ramp to Route 8 South towards RD Fleming Bridge/Sharpsburg (Exit 5A)
  • Northbound Route 28 off-ramp to Highland Park Bridge/Aspinwall (Exit 6)
  • Northbound Route 28 off-ramp to Delafield Avenue (Exit 7)

Updates for the schedule of this work will be provided throughout the duration of this project as crews move the locations of work for it.

The Savannah Bananas bring “The Banana Ball World Tour” to PNC Park in Pittsburgh

(Photo Courtesy of the Savannah Bananas)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) The Savannah Bananas, a baseball team from Savannah, Georgia that is known for their wacky and unique style of baseball, are coming to Pittsburgh tomorrow and Saturday as a part of their tour called “The Banana Ball World Tour” at PNC Park. The Savannah Bananas play Banana Ball, which is their style of baseball that has its own points, rules, acts and tricks, which is a comparison to how the Harlem Globetrotters play in their trick-filled games of basketball. Every Banana Ball inning except for the last one is worth one point, and every run counts. A hitter will get ejected from Banana Ball if they bunt and if a fan catches a foul ball from a hitter during Banana Ball, it will be an out instead of a strike. Every Banana Ball game can also not last over two hours. The Savannah Bananas also have over ten million TikTok followers and their team includes Ryan Cox of Aliquippa and Alex Ziegler of Butler. Both shows and the entire lineup for “The Banana Ball World Tour” are already sold out. However, there are links for more information on how to get tickets for the Savannah Bananas in the future, which can be found below: 

Click here for more information about Savannah Bananas Tickets | The Savannah Bananas

Click here for a link to a ticket website. gobananas.fansfirsttickets.com