Latest news with #Walsh
CBS News
2 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Washington County coroner alleges DA pressured him to file false death certificate for political gain
The Washington County coroner alleges the county's district attorney pressured him to file a false death certificate in a case for political gain. For the past two years, Jordan Clarke has been in jail awaiting trial in the death of his 2-month-old son Sawyer. But in a special petition to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, an anti-death penalty group in Philadelphia is asking the case be thrown out, saying Clarke is being prosecuted for political reasons, something Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh denies. "This is a liberal Hail Mary and an absolute witch-hunt liberal smear against a Republican in Washington County, that isn't even close to Philadelphia," Walsh said. Three years ago, police found the baby unresponsive at the Clarke's Peters Township home, and the baby was taken to UPMC Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he died. Allegheny County Medical Examiner Karl Williams conducted an autopsy, but ruled that the cause of death could not be determined. The Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, a non-profit organization that offers support for defendants in death penalty cases, in court papers produced an affidavit from Washington County Coroner Tim Warco, who says Walsh — who was up for election — pressured him to file a false death certificate, ruling it a homicide. Last week, the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation filed a petition against Walsh, claiming he's abused his power to seek the death penalty. "He says I need this to be a homicide, I need to win an election and has coroner Warco file a false death certificate listing a different cause and manner of death," Frances Harvey with the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation said. KDKA's Andy Sheehan asked Walsh, "Did you tell coroner Warco I need this to be a homicide, I need it to win an election?" "That's insane," Walsh said. "Coroner Warco's allegations are simply ludicrous." KDKA's Andy Sheehan asked, "Is he lying?" "Yes," Walsh responded. "For him to allege that, I question his mental fitness and his fitness for office." Reached by phone on Tuesday, Warco said the matter is before the court and declined comment. But attorney Bill Difenderfer, who is representing Clarke, says the case should be thrown out. "If true for personal gain in an election is not only prosecutorial misconduct, it's totally outrageous and very troubling," Difenderfer said. "The only political thing happening here is the same group is absolutely politically motivated because they're a liberal anti-death penalty group," Walsh said. "I don't know what other definition of politics you can have." It's not clear when or if the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear this petition, but Difenderfer says he'll be filing his own petition to have charges against Clarke thrown out.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Broadcast was dumbfounded after umpire Brian Walsh had worst missed call of the season
There's no argument that it's generally a difficult job to be an MLB umpire. Pitchers are throwing with more velocity and movement than we've ever seen before, and umpires are still held to an impossibly high standard. But there are some pitches that are so easy to call that there's no excuse. Yet, umpire Brian Walsh managed to miss the easiest call we'll see all season. During the fourth inning of Monday's game between the Orioles and Blue Jays, Orioles pitcher Zach Eflin went middle-middle with a 1-0 sinker. Somehow Walsh stood there without a reaction, calling the pitch a ball. The Orioles broadcast was so shocked that announcers Kevin Brown and Ben McDonald proceeded to roast the umpire. "That's literally right down the middle," Brown said. McDonald added, "I mean, you couldn't set it on a tee in the heart of the plate any better than that. How do you miss that?" With the at-bat flipped in his favor, Ernie Clement would end up hitting a single and scoring later in the inning. And on top of having the worst call of the MLB season, Walsh wasn't great the rest of the way behind the plate. He missed 12 pitches on the night. (Expand tweet to see the strike zone). Could you imagine if the ABS challenge system was in place for that game? It would have been even more embarrassing for Walsh. This article originally appeared on For The Win: Broadcast was dumbfounded after ump Brian Walsh had worst missed call
USA Today
5 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Broadcast was dumbfounded after umpire Brian Walsh had worst missed call of the season
There's no argument that it's generally a difficult job to be an MLB umpire. Pitchers are throwing with more velocity and movement than we've ever seen before, and umpires are still held to an impossibly high standard. But there are some pitches that are so easy to call that there's no excuse. Yet, umpire Brian Walsh managed to miss the easiest call we'll see all season. During the fourth inning of Monday's game between the Orioles and Blue Jays, Orioles pitcher Zach Eflin went middle-middle with a 1-0 sinker. Somehow Walsh stood there without a reaction, calling the pitch a ball. The Orioles broadcast was so shocked that announcers Kevin Brown and Ben McDonald proceeded to roast the umpire. "That's literally right down the middle," Brown said. McDonald added, "I mean, you couldn't set it on a tee in the heart of the plate any better than that. How do you miss that?" With the at-bat flipped in his favor, Ernie Clement would end up hitting a single and scoring later in the inning. And on top of having the worst call of the MLB season, Walsh wasn't great the rest of the way behind the plate. He missed 12 pitches on the night. (Expand tweet to see the strike zone). Could you imagine if the ABS challenge system was in place for that game? It would have been even more embarrassing for Walsh.
Fox News
8 hours ago
- Sport
- Fox News
MLB umpire Brian Walsh under intense scrutiny after missing obvious strike call in Orioles-Blue Jays game
MLB umpires have been scrutinized for years now, especially those behind the plate calling balls and strikes. However, baseball fans were in an uproar after an egregious call on Monday night in the game between the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays. During the AL East matchup, Orioles starter Zach Eflin delivered a pitch that broke left to right and ended up right in the heart of the plate. Blue Jays batter Ernie Clement stepped away from the dish in what appeared to be his acceptance of the first-pitch strike. However, home plate umpire Brian Walsh just stood there, indicating it was a ball in his eyes. Eflin and catcher Adley Rutschman both froze at the same time, staring at Walsh in disbelief that he didn't call the pitch a strike. "Wait a minute," one of the Orioles announcers was heard saying over the broadcast. "My goodness," his partner chimed in. "… You couldn't set it on the tee in the heart of the plate any better. Look at this pitch right here. How do you miss that?" Luckily for the Orioles, the call wasn't a big one in the game, and they ended up crushing the Blue Jays, 11-4, at their home, Camden Yards. Walsh, though, was under fire recently after a strike-three call in the bottom of the ninth to end the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Houston Astros. The D-Backs were down one run to the Astros when All-Star Ketel Marte awaited a 3-2 pitch from Josh Hader with two outs and a runner on first. Hader's backdoor slider was outside the strike zone, but Walsh called it for strike three despite the pitch never being in the zone. While Marte walked away without saying anything to Walsh, the Diamondbacks' broadcast team wasn't happy.
Irish Independent
9 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Ireland must ‘diversify' its tourism market to counter drop in visitor numbers, says tourism chief
Tourism is Ireland's biggest indigenous industry and largest regional employer with 257,900 people working in tourism and hospitality businesses nationwide. Figures released by Fáilte Ireland show an 18pc decline in tourists from all major overseas markets between January and April of this year versus the same period in 2024. Tourism operators have also reported that revenue generated by visitors from Great Britain had dropped 52pc compared to last year, while revenues for French holidaymakers dipped by 55pc and Germany by 53pc. Commenting on the figures, chief executive of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC), Eoghan O'Mara Walsh, said that Ireland must lessen its reliance on the North American tourists due to a series of complex economic factors contributing to their decline. 'The dollar is weakened - I think it's about 15pc in the last three or four months,' he told RTÉ Radio 1. "Obviously all the tariffs, we fear, are going to impact on the US economy and there's kind of lots of macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty out there, which doesn't suit tourism.' However, Mr Walsh says a proactive approach must be taken to stem the dwindling numbers of US tourists to Ireland. "I think we need to defend and deepen the US market because we can't just turn our back on our most valuable market. "But we do need to be more active and penetrate other markets.' Another challenge facing the tourism sector is Ireland's status as the second-most expensive holiday destination in Europe, according to Eurostat. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more "If you think on holiday destinations, we look at what's in our bank account, what's in our wallet. "Unfortunately the German economy, the French economy, the British economy are all struggling. Therefore, discretionary income is tighter, and therefore the second and third holidays are often sacrificed, and Ireland kind of falls into that category.' Key to fulfilling this objective, Mr Walsh says, is raising the current passenger cap at Dublin Airport to above 32 million in order to secure the arrival of more overseas visitors. 'We are an island nation. There's no roads and no bridges, no tunnels off the island. If we want to activate and we want to secure access to our key source markets, we need headroom at Dublin Airport,' he said. "Government have had an awful lot of time to debate it and tease it out and we're still at the same stage as we have been for a long time.' However, he believes more could be done to incorporate regional airports into the pledge to increase the number of inbound flights. "I think Government could be doing more in terms of supporting some of the spend at those airports, allowing those airports to incentivise airlines into those regional parts of the country.'
