June 1, 2021 2:55 pm
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has confirmed that he is personally liable for $700 million in loans taken by his coal companies. The loans were taken out from a lender in the United Kingdom that went bankrupt in March. Justice blamed the lender, Greensill Capital U.K., at a news conference on Tuesday. The Republican governor’s coal company, Bluestone Resources Inc., sued the lender after it went under over allegations of fraud. Justice says the loans were acquired to rebuild Bluestone after a period of decline. The Roanoke, Virginia-based company is involved in mining metallurgical grade coal used for steel making.
June 1, 2021 4:24 am
An Avella man was killed in a motorcycle crash Monday afternoon. The Washington County Coroner’s office says 43 year old Chester Lesjak was pronounced dead following the crash on Meadowcroft Road. His motorcycle collided with another vehicle. Lesjak was not wearing a helmet. State Police are investigating.
June 1, 2021 4:10 am
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is plunging Florida deeper into the culture wars. With a stroke of his pen on Tuesday, Florida is now the latest state to bar transgender girls and women from playing on public school teams intended for student athletes born as girls. The measure DeSantis signed at a Christian school was approved by the GOP-led Legislature. Starting July 1, a transgender student athlete can’t participate without first showing a birth certificate saying she was a girl when she was born. Critics call the new law hateful and are preparing to challenge it in court.
June 1, 2021 4:09 am
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Tropical Storm Blanca has gained some strength in the eastern Pacific while staying far off Mexico’s southern coast and posing no threat to land. Blanca had winds of about 60 mph (95 kph) late Monday and the U.S. National Hurricane Center says it is expected to reach its peak intensity by Tuesday before beginning to weaken while move farther into the Pacific. Blanca is the second named storm of the eastern Pacific hurricane season. The first named storm in the eastern Pacific, Andres, formed May 9 off the southwestern coast of Mexico, though it quickly dissipated.
June 1, 2021 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden marked the 100th anniversary of a massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that wiped out a thriving Black community. On Tuesday, Biden grieved for the more than 300 Black people killed at the hands of a white mob a century ago. The visit comes amid an ongoing national reckoning on racial justice. Biden was the first president to be part of the remembrances of what happened in what used to be known as “Black Wall Street.” On May 31 and June 1 in 1921, white residents and civil society leaders looted and burned to the ground Tulsa’s Greenwood district. (Photo: CNN)
June 1, 2021 4:06 am
VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis has changed Catholic Church law to explicitly criminalize the sexual abuse of adults by priests who abuse their authority. The revised criminal law section of the Vatican’s Code of Canon Law also says that lay people who hold church office, such as a Catholic school principal, can be sanctioned for sex abuse crimes. The new provisions were released Tuesday after 14 years of study. The most significant changes aim to address major problems and shortcomings in the church’s handling of sexual abuse. The law recognizes that adults, too, can be victimized by priests who abuse their authority, and said that lay people in church offices can be punished for abusing minors as well as adults.
June 1, 2021 4:06 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A dramatic late-night walkout in the Texas Capitol that blocked sweeping new voting restrictions is giving Democrats a boost of morale after months of racking up losses in GOP-controlled statehouses around the country. The Texas Legislature officially adjourned Monday hours after Democrats walked off the floor of the House chamber to deny a vote on a sweeping bill that would shorten polling hours and scale back polling places. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott was expected to sign the bill and says he’ll call a special session to finish the job. The meltdown of the Texas bill was a rare victory for Democrats in a year that has seen more than a dozen states enact new laws tightening voting restrictions.
June 1, 2021 4:02 am
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) – Jury selection is scheduled Tuesday for a trial over the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s federal lawsuit against a Cleveland firm over allegations that an actuarial employee vastly understated the pension liability being assumed by UPMC when it acquired Altoona Hospital in 2013. The (Altoona) Mirror reports that UPMC says in the lawsuit against CBIZ Inc. that it wouldn’t have acquired Altoona Regional Health System in 2013 had it known the hospital’s full liability. Lawyers for CBIZ argues that its financial report was intended for Altoona Regional’s use in preparing financial statements, not for third parties, and in any case the acquisition has been a financial asset.
June 1, 2021 4:00 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A second western Pennsylvania man has pleaded guilty to federal charges in the destruction of a Pittsburgh police car set afire during last year’s protests over the death of George Floyd. Twenty-three-year-old Da’Jon Lengyel of McKees Rocks pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to set fire to property of an organization that receives federal funding” and “unlawful interference with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder.” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that when asked by a federal judge whether he had done what he was accused of, Lengyel said “I did, your honor.” Twenty-six-year-old Christopher West pleaded guilty a week ago to the same charges. (Photo: WPXI)
June 1, 2021 3:58 am
DERRY, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say an all-terrain vehicle overturned onto a western Pennsylvania road over the weekend, killing the rider. The Westmoreland County coroner’s office says the accident happened at about 9:45 a.m. Sunday in Derry Township. Officials said the ATV overturned onto the roadway “for an unknown reason,” throwing the rider, who wasn’t wearing a helmet. The coroner’s office said 25-year-old township resident Joshua Shugars was pronounced dead at the scene. The death was attributed to multiple blunt-force injuries and was ruled accidental.
