July 8, 2021 2:54 pm
TOKYO (AP) – Fans will be banned from the Tokyo area’s stadiums and arenas when the Olympic Games begin in two weeks. The decision by the city’s governor, in agreement with Olympics officials, came after the prime minister put the capital under a COVID-19 state of emergency because of rising new infections and the highly contagious delta variant. That means the Olympics will be a largely TV-only event. It was a serious blow for Japanese taxpayers and local organizers of the games, which already had been postponed from 2020 by the coronavirus. Hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket revenue will be lost, and that must be made up by the government. (Photo: CNN)
July 8, 2021 4:30 am
NEW YORK (AP) – A New York judge has sentenced the combative California lawyer Michael Avenatti to 2 1/2 years in prison for trying to extort up to $25 million from Nike. U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe announced the sentence Thursday in Manhattan, where a jury in early 2020 convicted Avenatti of charges including attempted extortion and fraud. Avenatti gained fame representing porn star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against then-President Donald Trump. The sentence marked another chapter in the fall of a man who was popular enough on social media and cable news programs three years ago that he considered running for president.
July 8, 2021 4:24 am
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) – A weakened but resilient Tropical Storm Elsa has left at least one person dead in Florida and injured several at a campground at a Navy base in Georgia. The storm was churning through southeast Georgia on Wednesday night, hours after making landfall in Florida. One person was killed in Jacksonville, Florida, when a tree fell onto a car. And a spokesman for Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia says a possible tornado struck a park for recreational vehicles on the base, hospitalizing about 10 people. The coasts of Georgia and South Carolina were under a tropical storm warning Wednesday evening. A tropical storm watch extended up the East Coast to Massachusetts.
July 8, 2021 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Rudy Giuliani, attorney for former President Donald Trump during his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, cannot practice law in Washington, D.C., until the suspension against him in New York is resolved. That ruling came Wednesday from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. In a two-page order, the court cites Giuliani’s suspension in New York last month as the reason for its action. A New York appeals court suspended the law license of the former U.S. attorney and mayor of New York City for making false statements while trying to get courts to overturn Trump’s loss in the presidential race.
July 8, 2021 4:22 am
AREQUIPA, Peru (AP) – COVID-19 has spread misery and despair and exposed stark global inequities on its way to 4 million dead worldwide, the milestone reached Wednesday. In Peru, 43-year-old Javier Vilca jumped to his death from a hospital overcrowded and overwhelmed by the crisis. A single doctor and three nurses were frantically rushing to treat 80 patients while Vilca gasped for breath because of an acute shortage of bottled oxygen. The global death toll, as recorded by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Los Angeles or the nation of Georgia. It is three times the number of victims killed in traffic accidents around the world per year.
July 8, 2021 4:21 am
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – An already struggling Haiti is stumbling into an uncertain future, reeling from the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse followed by a reported gunbattle in which authorities say police killed four suspects in the murder, detained two others and freed three officers being held hostage. Officials are pledging to find all those responsible for the pre-dawn raid that shot the president to death and critically wounded his wife. Heading into Thursday, authorities have not provided any details on the suspects, including their ages, names or nationalities, nor have they said anything about a motive or what led police to the suspects. The prime minister has assumed leadership and decreed a two-week state of siege in a beset with poverty, violence and political instability.
July 8, 2021 4:20 am
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) – Rescue workers now focused on finding remains instead of survivors in the rubble of a Florida condominium collapse have no plans to pull back during the recovery effort. Miami Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said crews paused briefly atop the pile Thursday to mark the two-week anniversary of the disaster but were otherwise moving ahead at the same pace and with the same resources. The death toll rose to 64, with another 76 people unaccounted for. The painstaking search for survivors shifted to a recovery effort at midnight Wednesday after authorities said they had come to the agonizing conclusion that there was “no chance of life” in the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside
July 8, 2021 4:14 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – The Pennsylvania State Police is asking for the community’s help in finding a Washington County man who went missing in Pittsburgh on July 4. Alex Zintchenko, 31, of Washington, was last seen at the Three Rivers Casino, 777 Casino Drive, walking toward Heinz Field just before 7 p.m. July 4. He is described as a 5 feet 9 inches tall white man, 170 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, lime green shorts, black shoes and a black Nike hat.
Zintchenko has tattoos covering both arms and a wolf head tattoo on the front of his neck area, police said. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Pennsylvania State Police Washington barracks at 724-223-5200.
July 8, 2021 4:10 am
NEW EAGLE, Pa. — (WPXI) – It is believed that an electric shock caused a man to drown Sunday in Washington County near where boaters were gathered to celebrate the Fourth of July. James DeAngelo, 23, of Venetia, was swimming in the Monongahela River near a boat docked at the Beach Club Marina in New Eagle when he was found unresponsive Sunday evening. He was pulled from the water around 7:30 p.m. and taken to Monongahela Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:18 p.m. Investigators are still working to determine the cause of the drowning, but say that a possible electrical shock could be the culprit. Officials said DeAngelo went under the water and didn’t surface. A friend then put on a life jacket, and jumped in to search for him. That young man, also 23 years old was transported to the hospital where he told officers he felt like he had been horribly shocked. DeAngelo graduated from Peters Township in 2016 and attended Cal U last year, played hockey and, according to his family, was hoping to soon marry his longtime girlfriend.
July 8, 2021 3:20 am
Washington City Councilman Matt Staniszewski was back in court on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing on multiple charges in Bedford County. Staniszewski attorney, Sean Logue, says Staniszewski waived his case to court on a drunk driving charge, along with summary level offenses that include careless driving and reckless driving. Logue says he’ll be meeting with the Bedford County District Attorney for a pre-trial conference to talk about a potential plea. The current charges stem from an incident earlier this year when he was arrested by state police on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Troopers said he hit a concrete median barrier while traveling east on the turnpike near Bedford and his disabled SUV was partially blocking the highway’s left lane. Police say his blood-alcohol level registered .267% – more than three times the legal limit to operate a motor vehicle in Pennsylvania. At the time of his arrest, Staniszewski was just eight days away from complete a sentence of six months probation from a previous drunk driving conviction in Washington in 2019. Following his probation violation, Staniszewski was in the Washington County Jail for nearly two months before being released to into a thirty-day inpatient treatment program.
