Doctor charged in 25 deaths sues hospital for defamation
COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio doctor accused of ordering drug overdoses in the deaths of 25 hospital patients has sued his former employer for defamation, saying in a lawsuit that he did nothing wrong and did not deviate from hospital policy on end-of-life care. Dr. William Husel, who is accused...
Navy veteran survived Korean War attack, shared love of sports
Scottdale native Bill Bair frequently carried an attache case in the early 1950s, but the documents he bore weren’t business files. Often they were important military papers entrusted to him as an assistant to Korean War officers. Though he enlisted in the Navy in 1948, Bair usually traveled aboard airplanes...
Plane crash kills 5, including LSU coach’s daughter-in-law
ATLANTA — A small plane en route to a college football playoff game crashed into a post office parking lot in Louisiana shortly after takeoff Saturday, killing five people, including a well-known sports reporter who was the daughter-in-law of one of the team’s coaches. The two-engine Piper Cheyenne crashed in...
US astronaut sets record for longest spaceflight by a woman
A U.S. astronaut set a record Saturday for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, breaking the old mark of 288 days with about two months left in her mission. Christina Koch, a 40-year-old electrical engineer from Livingston, Montana, arrived at the International Space Station on March 14. She broke...
Science teachers, students get Times Square New Year’s stage
NEW YORK — This year’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square will spotlight efforts to combat climate change when high school science teachers and students press the button that begins the famous 60-second ball drop and countdown to next year. “On New Year’s Eve, we look back and reflect...
NYC man, 60, dies after beating in $1 Christmas Eve mugging
NEW YORK (AP) — A 60-year-old man who was kicked and punched while defending his partner during a $1 mugging on Christmas Eve has died. Juan Fresnada died Friday afternoon at the Bronx hospital where he was taken in critical condition after the mugging early Tuesday, the New York Police...
Video: Tractor trailer narrowly misses crushing several first responders at Texas highway pileupVideo
Talk about a near miss. A tractor trailer narrowly missed crushing several first responders at the scene of a major pileup on Highway 84 in Lubbock County, Texas on Friday. Video captured by NBC-affiliate KCBD, which happened to be on the scene, shows crew wearing neon vests scrambling for their...
Texas sheriff: 2 dead, multiple shot in music video ‘ambush’
HOUSTON — Two people were shot and killed and multiple others were wounded when a group filming a music video was “ambushed” near Houston, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. After holding a media briefing in which he said two people were killed and four wounded, Gonzalez in a tweet...
US judge calls for retrial of 1 count in Texas attack
PHOENIX — A U.S. judge refused to toss out the entire case against a Phoenix man convicted of providing guns and training two friends who attacked a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest outside Dallas but said he should be retried on a a single count of transporting weapons across state lines....
Man who made 27,000 crosses for shooting victims is retiring
AURORA, Ill. — An Illinois man who made more than 27,000 crosses to commemorate victims of mass shootings across the country is retiring. Greg Zanis came to realize, after 23 years, his Crosses for Losses ministry was beginning to take a personal and financial toll on him, according to The...
Philly refinery, a big polluter, shut down 6 months ago. So, do we have cleaner air?
PHILADELPHIA — The vast Philadelphia Energy Solutions refining complex was the single largest stationary source of air pollution in the city before it shut down after a catastrophic June 21 fire. So it would be reasonable to assume the city’s air quality has improved in the six months since the...
DJ Don Imus, made and betrayed by his mouth, dead at 79
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Disc jockey Don Imus, whose career was made and then undone by his acid tongue during a decades-long rise to radio stardom and an abrupt public plunge after a nationally broadcast racial slur, has died. He was 79. Imus died Friday morning at Baylor Scott and...
Active Greensburg retiree set pace for her family
Sidonia Peruzzi had an independent spirit and a drive that was seemingly boundless. “She was a very energetic person,” said daughter Victoria Waugaman of Hempfield. “She had more stamina than I do.” In her 80s, Mrs. Peruzzi was no longer able to drive her yellow Volkswagen Beetle, but that didn’t...
Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls increasing for 12th straight year
Motorists using the Pennsylvania Turnpike will pay more in tolls starting Jan. 5, marking the 12th straight year the Turnpike Commission has raised prices to help it cover state-mandated payments to PennDOT. The commission said tolls are going up 6% next year, but they’re actually increasing more because the commission...
Man in ‘I Believe’ hat swipes $250, tip jar on Christmas in Philadelphia
Police in Philadelphia are looking for a thief who sported a hat that said “I Believe” as he swiped a tip jar stuffed with $250 on Christmas Day. Yalli Avitan at first thought an employee had moved the jar to empty it during the Christmas dinner rush at her family’s...
Prosecutors in day spa prostitution sting turn up the heat on Patriots owner Robert Kraft
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida prosecutors just raised the stakes in New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s fight against prostitution charges. It’s been nearly a year since the 78-year-old part-time Palm Beach resident paid for sex acts at a Jupiter massage parlor likened to a brothel. But now lawyers for...
GPS tool to help restore dwindling Pa. ruffed grouse populationVideo
As the population of the state bird collapses, the Pennsylvania Game Commission announced a new GPS tool to identify prospective locations to restore numbers of ruffed grouse. Population decline has been blamed on West Nile virus killing the birds and the scarcity of young forests, according to the Game Commission....
Tina Turner mural defaced at North Carolina record store
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Employees at a record store in North Carolina say a mural of pop star Tina Turner has been defaced with a red swastika. The Citizen Times reported Thursday that the mural is outside Static Age Records in downtown Asheville. Store owner Jesse McSwain said someone unconnected to...
Berks County crash kills 81-year-old man, his adult daughter
A crash on a highway in Berks County killed an 81-year-old man and his adult daughter. The crash on Route 422 in Heidelberg Township occurred around 12:30 p.m. Thursday, when a car driven by Richard Raihl was trying to turn onto Route 422 West. The vehicle and a pickup truck...
About a dozen hurt in blast at Beechcraft plant in Kansas
WICHITA, Kan. — More than a dozen people were injured Friday when a nitrogen line ruptured at the Beechcraft aircraft manufacturing facility in Wichita, Kansas, causing part of the building to collapse, authorities said. Daniel Wegner, deputy fire chief for Sedgwick County, said the explosion happened at around 8 a.m....
‘Tough year’ for measles and other infectious diseases in U.S.
NEW YORK — This year, the germs roared back. Measles tripled. Hepatitis A mushroomed. A rare but deadly mosquito-borne disease increased. And that was just the United States. Globally, there was an explosion of measles in many countries, an unrelenting Ebola outbreak in Africa and a surge in dengue fever...
Man demands money from bank teller — then gives it back, North Carolina cops say
RALEIGH, N.C. — A 66-year-old man who demanded money from a North Carolina bank isn’t being charged with a crime, officials say. The man was at a Wells Fargo in Wilmington on Thursday when he handed a teller a note with his request, according to police spokeswoman Linda Thompson. But...
Wawa facing lawsuits over data breach at all of its storesVideo
PHILADELPHIA — The Wawa convenience store chain is facing a wave of lawsuits over a data breach that affected its 850 locations along the East Coast. Wawa Inc. discovered malware on its payment processing servers this month before stopping the breach Dec. 12, the company has said. Officials with the...
12 killed, dozens hurt after jetliner crashes in Kazakhstan
ALMATY, Kazakhstan — A jetliner with 98 people aboard struggled to get airborne and crashed shortly after takeoff Friday in Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 people, authorities said. The Bek Air jet, identified as a 23-year-old Fokker 100, hit a concrete wall and a two-story building soon after departing from...
Disney characters say tourists inappropriately touched them
ORLANDO, Fla. — Walt Disney World employees who portray Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck each filed police reports this month claiming they were inappropriately touched by tourists. The woman inside the Mickey Mouse costume went to the hospital with neck injuries caused by a grandmother patting the character’s...
