Pennsylvania
Casey urges patience in vote-counting for Pa. U.S. Senate race as McCormick returns to Connecticut • Pennsylvania Capital-Star
After the Associated Press called the race in his favor, GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick gave a victory speech in Pittsburgh on Friday, thanking incumbent Sen. Bob Casey for his service to Pennsylvania and urging him to concede.
“I also recognize what it’s like to lose a close election,” McCormick said Friday, pointing to Pennsylvania’s 2022 GOP U.S. Senate primary, where he lost to Mehmet Oz by less than 1,000 votes. “We knew on election night we had won, because the math was clear and there’s no way for Senator Casey to win, and the AP certainly recognized that yesterday by calling the race.”
But on Saturday morning, as ballots continued to be counted that could determine whether he would be Pennsylvania’s next U.S. Senator, McCormick flew to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Casey hammered McCormick for his Connecticut connection throughout the campaign, repeatedly pointing to an August 2023 AP article which maintained that the former hedge fund CEO continued to live in Connecticut even as he sought to represent the people of Pennsylvania.
Flight records show a private plane previously connected to McCormick left Pittsburgh the morning of Nov. 9 bound for Bridgeport. As Vanity Fair reported last year, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records show McCormick is part owner of four Platius PC-12 planes as part of PlaneSense’s PC-12 fractional ownership program. PlaneSense provides people who purchase one of its planes access to a fleet of private planes.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in March that after launching a statewide bus tour of Pennsylvania, where he said he would “live on the bus” McCormick flew back to Connecticut that same day. McCormick has said that the reason he travels to Connecticut is because his youngest daughter from a previous marriage lives there, and he visits frequently.
Elizabeth Gregory, communications director for the McCormick campaign said in a social media post Sunday that McCormick “went to his daughter’s soccer game — the first he was able to make it to this season. Like her dad, she won! Dave was back in PA that night. Please stop with this unseemly desperation.”
The Associated Press, which calculates election outcomes based on a number of factors, including votes remaining, called the race for McCormick on Thursday. But the Pennsylvania Secretary of State noted not long afterward that there were “at least 100,000 ballots remaining to be adjudicated, including provisional, military, overseas, and Election Day votes.” And Casey has not conceded.
“I have dedicated my life to making sure Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard, whether on the floor of the Senate or in a free and fair election,” Casey said in a statement Thursday evening. “It has been made clear there are more than 100,000 votes still to be counted. Pennsylvania is where our democratic process was born. We must allow that process to play out and ensure that every vote that is eligible to be counted will be counted. That is what Pennsylvania deserves.”
PBS NewsHour correspondent Lisa Desjardins reported Friday that the AP told her it had “estimated 109,000 ballots were still outstanding. Up from 91,000 the day before. That is – they stress and I stress – an estimate. And they adjust it as they get more information.”
In a post from its “decision team” on Friday, the AP said “McCormick’s lead grew on Friday as more Election Day votes were added to the count in Republican-leaning Cambria County and some smaller counties completed the process of assessing and adding provisional ballots to the count. That lead may shrink over the coming days, however, as provisional ballots from more Democratic-leaning areas are reviewed by election officials.”
Other news outlets, including DecisionDesk HQ and NBC News, have not yet called the race as of Sunday morning.
And, when the tally is calculated, if the margin of votes is 0.5% or lower, it would trigger a recount under Pennsylvania law.
On Friday in Philadelphia, the same day McCormick held his victory rally in Pittsburgh, a Common Pleas Court judge rejected McCormick’s request to increase the number of GOP observers in the counting of provisional ballots. McCormick withdrew a second lawsuit seeking a “global challenge” to provisional ballots.
“Each day, counties across the Commonwealth are confirming there are more ballots that need to be counted,” Casey campaign spokesperson Maddy McDaniel said in a statement. “We know there are more than 100,000 ballots left to be counted including tens of thousands of provisional ballots in counties favorable to Senator Casey, and the McCormick campaign has acknowledged these provisional ballots could impact the outcome of the election while pursuing unsuccessful lawsuits to get them thrown out. Pennsylvanians deserve to have their voices heard, and as state officials have made clear, counties across Pennsylvania need more time to tabulate remaining votes.”
As of Sunday, unofficial results showed Casey with 3,330,514 votes, or 48.43%, to McCormick’s 3,370,659 or 49.01%.
This article was updated Nov. 10, 2024 at 12:18 p.m. with a comment from the McCormick campaign
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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania man arrested for allegedly feeding pet parakeet marijuana and beer
A Pennsylvania man was arrested on animal cruelty charges for allegedly feeding marijuana and beer to his pet parakeet after bringing the injured feathered friend to a bar, according to reports.
Timothy Grace, 40, was busted on Feb. 21 after carrying his wounded pet budgie named “Blue Skies” in his pocket to Callaghan’s Bar in Greensburg, according to CBS Pittsburgh.
“The caller’s a bartender. She says there is a white male at the bar with a parakeet,” a dispatcher reported on the police radio transmissions obtained by the outlet.
“The patron was bragging to other people that were inside the bar that he feeds the parakeet marijuana and has it drink beer on a daily basis,” Detective Sergeant Justin Scalzo told the outlet.
Grace “appeared extremely intoxicated” when police showed up to the bar and found the pet bird in distress, according to court documents obtained by the outlet.
“Its leg appeared to be broken,” Scalzo said, according to WTAE. “Its foot was actually facing the wrong direction.”
Grave was initially arrested for public intoxication and now faces charges including aggravated cruelty to animals and transporting animals in a cruel manner, the outlet said.
The pet bird was brought to PEARL Parrot Rescue in the Pittsburgh area, which rushed him to an emergency care facility.
Blue Skies spent four days in the hospital and was later taken in to be fostered by Teri Grendzinski, the president of PEARL. The injured parakeet is still breathing hard, remains on antibiotics, and has to wear a splint on his right leg, CBS reported.
“They realized his leg was broken. He also had some respiratory issues going on,” Grendzinski told the outlet. “He was also very, very skinny.”
“The leg was broken badly enough there is a chance they’re going to have to amputate the leg if it doesn’t heal correctly,” she added.
If Blue Skies is eventually put up for adoption, he will require specialized care, the outlet said.
“When we got that call, it was horrifying. Why would you do that to a bird?” Grendzinski said.
Pennsylvania
Pa. man found guilty of raping teen girl who he took to Mexico
A Pennsylvania man was found guilty of repeatedly raping his daughter’s best friend over a three-year span before fleeing with the teen to Mexico.
On Thursday, March 5, 2026, Kevin Esterly, 53, of Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania, was convicted on all counts of rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary sexual intercourse and endangering the welfare of children.
Esterly shook his head as the verdict was read but said nothing in the courtroom.
Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673.
Esterly’s trial began on Tuesday, March 3, after a judge denied his pretrial motion for the charges against him to be dismissed and for the Lehigh County District Attorney to be removed as a prosecutor in the case.
Both Esterly and his victim testified on Wednesday, March 4.
The victim — who is now 24-years-old — told the courtroom that she met Esterly and his family while attending church as a child and became best friends with one of his daughters. Esterly was a youth leader and elder at the church at the time. The victim said Esterly also coached her soccer team.
The victim said she became so close to Esterly’s family that she called his wife “mom” and eventually spent almost every weekend at their home in Lowhill Township, Pennsylvania. She also said she vacationed with them in New York state and Ocean City, Maryland.
The victim said Esterly first sexually assaulted her in August 2015 when she was 13-years-old after he gave her alcohol during a family birthday party.
“I was scared. Frozen in fear,” the woman told the courtroom on Wednesday. “I pretended I was sleeping.”
The woman accused Esterly of sexually assaulting her almost every time she slept over at his home. She told the courtroom she eventually became addicted to alcohol and drugs, which Esterly gave her in exchange for sex. According to the woman, Esterly gave her cocaine and methamphetamine to keep her awake during school because she “would be up with him all night.”
The woman said Esterly continued to sexually assault her until he was confronted by his wife in 2017. Esterly’s wife then threw him out of the house, according to the victim. She said Esterly continued to sexually assault her over the next year.
Esterly was later arrested and then sentenced to prison after federal agents found him with the victim in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, in 2018. She was 16-years-old at the time.
The woman said she moved on and went to college after Esterly’s sentencing though she still struggled with drug addiction. She said she sought counseling in February 2025. She told the courtroom she received a message from Esterly on LinkedIn that same month in which he apologized for “failing you as a person I was supposed to be for you.” At that point Esterly had been released from prison.
The woman said she had not told anyone about her relationship with Esterly up to that point and replied to him, “I live with our secret every day as I promised. I would appreciate an apology.”
The woman told the courtroom that Esterly responded by writing, “I hope one day you can forgive me. Nobody knows I reached out to you. That is the best for both of us.”
On Feb. 21, 2025, Allentown Police received a report of Esterly’s sexual assaults which led to the new charges being filed against him. He was arrested in West Virginia in June 2025 after two police pursuits. He was then extradited to Pennsylvania.
The victim told the courtroom on Wednesday that she kept quiet about Esterly’s abuse for years because she “was afraid to speak,” and felt “dirty and ashamed.”
“I wasn’t ready to tell anyone,” she said. “He was a father figure in my life. I loved him.”
The woman also said she didn’t want to hurt Esterly’s daughter who was her best friend.
When the District Attorney asked her why she was “here today,” she replied by saying, “I want to tell the truth. I want to be set free.”
The woman ended her testimony by saying, “I don’t want to live with this secret anymore.”
After her testimony, Esterly took the stand for 45 minutes, denied all of the accusations against him and accused the woman of lying.
Closing arguments then took place Thursday morning. It then took an hour for the jury of seven women and five men to reach their verdict.
Pennsylvania
3 dead in apparent murder-suicide spanning from Pennsylvania to Illinois, police say
Two women are dead in Pennsylvania and a man is dead in Illinois after an apparent murder-suicide, police said on Wednesday.
According to a report from the Pennsylvania State Police, the investigation began in Hillside, Illinois, when police there were dispatched after a man reported two women dead in Jackson Township, Pennsylvania. Police said that when officers got to Hillside, about 15 miles west of Chicago, they found that the man had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
After identifying him, troopers said Hillside officers contacted police from Jackson Township to request a welfare check at the man’s home on Dior Drive, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.
Police said officers used forced entry to get into the home and found two women dead from apparent gunshot wounds. It’s believed the two women were family members of the man who died by suicide in Illinois, investigators said.
Pennsylvania State Police said they’ve assumed control of the case and are “actively investigating” what happened surrounding the three deaths.
Police didn’t release any names, saying the process of formal identification and notification of next of kin hasn’t been completed. Sources told KDKA that the victims were a husband, wife and their daughter.
“At this time, investigators believe there is no ongoing threat to the public, and law enforcement is not searching for any additional individuals in connection with this incident,” police wrote in the public information release report. “This remains an active and ongoing investigation.”
State police didn’t release any other details on Wednesday but said more information will be made public when it’s available.
“My first reaction was shocked because this is such a close-knit neighborhood, and to think something that horrible could happen here is very tragic because they were such a good family,” neighbor Danielle Sporer said on Wednesday.
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