August 22, 2020 4:15 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — One person has been arrested near Mayor Bill Peduto’s home following a week of protests in his neighborhood. The arrest happened in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood just after 9 p.m. Friday. The neighborhood has been at the center of recent gatherings, focused on the use of force policy within the Pittsburgh Police Department toward protesters. According to police, the man was taken into custody on Edgerton Avenue at Hastings Street after multiple complaints from area residents. The man is facing charges of disorderly conduct and harassment, but investigators said additional charges could follow. Officers also confiscated a megaphone as an “instrument of crime.” On Friday, Peduto announced changes are coming over how police officers respond to protests within the city. There will be a new oversight and command structure for the Police Special Response Teams that are trained in crowd-control measures. However, they will no longer be the primary units to respond to incidents and protests. Arrest tactics similar to what occurred over the weekend, where plainclothes officers emerged from what was called an unmarked vehicle, will no longer be permitted.
August 22, 2020 4:10 am
(WPXI) – More than two dozen people were charged in connection with a fentanyl distribution ring stretching across Pittsburgh’s eastern neighborhoods and into Wilkinsburg, according to FBI and local police officials. Called the “Shot Boyz,” 25 people were charged, according to police. The investigation was a five month wiretap investigation, according to law enforcement. Heroin, crack cocaine, and fentanyl were seized along with guns and money during the operation. FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Mike Christman called the operation a significant, coordinated effort from federal, state and local officials. The operation to bust the ring included the FBI, ATF, Pittsburgh Police, Latrobe Police, Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office, Munhall Police, Wilkinsburg Police, Monroeville Police and Penn Hills Police among other agencies.
August 21, 2020 12:51 pm
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Six West Virginia University students have been identified as part of an investigation into off-campus parties that were held in violation of school health and safety policies during the coronavirus pandemic. The students face discipline hearings before the Office of Student Conduct. The hearings could lead to sanctions that include probation, suspension or expulsion. At least 107 students, faculty and staff at the university have tested positive for the virus among about 19,300 tests given. Students must take the test before starting classes on campus. In-person classes start Aug. 26 for freshmen, graduate and some professional students, while upperclassmen will start classwork online.
August 21, 2020 12:38 pm
BOSTON (AP) – “Full House” star Lori Loughlin will be sentenced to two months in prison after a judge accepted her plea deal with prosecutors for paying $500,000 in bribes to cheat the college admissions process. Her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, was sentenced earlier Friday to five months behind bars for his role in the college admissions bribery scheme. They pleaded guilty in May to paying half a million dollars to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as crew recruits even though neither is a rower. Giannulli told the judge he takes full responsibility for his conduct and regrets the harm it is caused his family.
August 21, 2020 4:18 am
NEW YORK (AP) – President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he ripped off donors trying to fund a southern border wall. The plea happened Thursday, hours after Bannon was pulled from a yacht off the coast of Connecticut and arrested. He becomes the latest in a long list of Trump allies to be charged with a crime. The charges were contained in an indictment in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors say the organizers of the “We Build The Wall” group raised more than $25 million from thousands of donors and pledged that 100% of the money would be used for the project.
August 21, 2020 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sometimes politics gives way to the personal at the White House. It has seen 18 weddings and at least 10 people are known to have died there, including two presidents and three first ladies. It will serve Friday as a place of mourning for President Donald Trump and his family with a private memorial service for the president’s younger brother, Robert, who passed away at 71. The president has described Robert as not just his brother but his “best friend.” Anita McBride, who served in three presidential administrations, including as first lady Laura Bush’s chief of staff, says it is completely within the president’s ability to honor him with a service there and that the White House serves a complex mission as an office, a museum and a home.
August 21, 2020 4:16 am
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) – Wildfires that have claimed at least five lives and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes continue to blaze around California. Three major collections of fires are threatening tens of thousands of homes in the San Francisco Bay Area and central California. More evacuations are expected as hot and gusty weather continues into Friday. State fire officials say at least four civilians have died in the fire areas, possibly including a Pacific Gas & Electric worker. And a helicopter pilot on a water-dropping mission died in a crash Wednesday.
August 21, 2020 4:15 am
OLD FORGE, Pa. (AP) – President Donald Trump has taken the fight for Pennsylvania to Joe Biden’s old backyard, insisting his Democratic rival would be the state’s “worst nightmare” if elected president. In a particularly in-your-face bit of campaign trolling, Trump staged a small rally just outside the former vice president’s birthplace in Scranton mere hours before Biden was to formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination. Trump insists Biden is “no friend of Pennsylvania.”
August 21, 2020 4:14 am
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – Joe Biden has accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, vowing to take on national crises and declaring that “we will overcome this season of darkness.” Biden’s nomination marks the pinnacle – so far -of a political career that has spanned almost a half century. The former vice president, who at 77 years old would be the oldest president ever elected, was saluted by former Democratic foes as he became the party’s official standard bearer for the campaign against President Donald Trump in November. He focused on uniting the deeply divided nation as Americans grapple with a months-long health crisis, related economic devastation and a national awakening on racial justice.
August 21, 2020 4:09 am
WEST HOMESTEAD, Pa (AP) – After five months of being closed due to the coronavirus, the major movie theaters chains in the U.S. are starting to reopen. AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr visited the AMC Waterfront 22 in West Homestead, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh, on its opening day Thursday. It is one of 113 AMC locations to open nationwide, touting retro movies and retro pricing and strict sanitary policies to entice audiences back to theaters. Many were eager to get back to the theaters, although for most the 15 cent tickets were the main draw. After opening day, back catalog films will cost $5 a ticket.
