The Ambridge Police Department reports it has turned over evidence related to the weekend officer-shooting of a dog. The animal was found Friday and police had begun trying to locate its owner only to have it reported later that one of their officers had shot the animal in the department parking lot. Police say the animal had become aggressive and bit an officer. The police department says they have provided evidence materials to the district attorney’s office and will say no more publicly during the D.A.’s investigation.
State election officials say voter turnout for Tuesday’s primary was the lowest it’s been in years. But they add that the numbers are significantly higher than they had been before Pennsylvania allowed mail-in ballots. Unofficial numbers for Tuesday’s voting show about a five-percent decline from a 30-percent turnout in previous years.
The pool of prospective jurors who will listen to testimony in the trial of Robert Bowers has been set. Bowers is accused of killing eleven people in an attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in October of 2018. After a period that lasted more than three weeks, the court narrowed the group of people considered to serve on the jury down to 69. Twelve jurors and six alternates will be selected from that group.
A Beaver Falls man was found guilty last Friday of raping two children. The Ellwood City Ledger reports 37 year old Eduardo Aviles was found guilty of over two dozen counts of molesting and raping two minors from Beaver and Lawrence counties. Aviles was arrested in November after he was charged with 45 counts of rape, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse with a child less than 13 years old and unlawful contact with a minor. Sentencing will take place at a later date.
A downtown Butler business is open again after a fire forced a brief evacuation yesterday afternoon. Firefighters responded to a report of smoke pouring out from the second and third floors of an apartment building next door to Natili North. Investigators determined the smoke was coming from the basement of Natili. Both buildings were evacuated while crews put out a small fire located between the two structures. Nobody was hurt.
Authorities in Beaver County say a boxcar filled with garbage caught fire on a Norfolk Southern train yesterday afternoon. The train stopped between Midland and East End while firefighters put out the blaze. A spokesperson for Norfolk Southern says the fire was contained to the single car. The train has since left the area.
A Butler woman was taken to the hospital following a one vehicle accident in Oakland Township. State Police report 33 year old Lacy Fosnaught lost control of her vehicle on Chicora Road and struck a fence and a utility pole. Fosnaught was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital for treatment.
AAA projects 42.3 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this Memorial Day weekend*, a 7% increase from 2022. This year, 2.7 million more people will travel for the unofficial start of summer compared to last year. This is expected to be the third-busiest Memorial Day weekend since 2000, when AAA started tracking holiday travel. Nearly 3.4 million travelers are expected to fly to their destinations this Memorial Day, an increase of 11% from last year.
The PIAA has approved girls wrestling as an official high school sport in Pennsylvania. The vote was unanimous. 100 schools sponsored girls wrestling teams, the minimum requirement for the sport to be sanctioned. Competition will begin in the fall. The PIAA will add girls wrestling championships to the state wrestling tournament next year.
It’s going to cost more to fish in Pennsylvania next year. State Fish and Boat Commission Executive Director Tim Schaeffer says the fee hikes are needed because his agency doesn’t get any money from the state’s general revenue fund. The price for a resident’s annual license will increase 2 dollars to 50 cents to 26-dollars, while the fee for out-of-state fishers will go up by four dollars to 59-dollars. The fee for a lifetime senior’s license will jump by ten dollars to 85-dollars. Fishing license fees were last raised at the start of the current season.