May 27, 2021 4:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans say they want congressional bargainers to reach a bipartisan deal on revamping policing procedures by summer or abandon the effort. The comments by the two lead GOP bargainers on the issue came a day after George Floyd’s family used visits to the White House and the Capitol to prod lawmakers to act. Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham are both South Carolina Republicans. Scott tells reporters, “I think it’s June or bust.” And Graham says a deal will emerge before Congress takes a July recess “if it’s going to happen.” The Senate is about to start a recess and the full House is already gone.
May 27, 2021 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is asking U.S. intelligence agencies to “redouble” their efforts to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. After months of minimizing the possibility that the coronavirus emerged from a lab accident, the administration is responding to both U.S. and world pressure for China to be more open about the outbreak. Biden said Wednesday there is insufficient evidence to conclude “whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident.” Biden directed U.S. national laboratories to assist with the investigation and called on China to cooperate. He held out the possibility that a firm conclusion may never be known.
May 27, 2021 4:22 am
FLOWER MOUND, Texas (AP) – Police in a Dallas suburb say three officers have been shot and wounded while answering a report of a suicidal person. Police in Flower Mound, Texas, say the three officers responded to the 7 p.m. Wednesday report and were trying to contact the man, who was alone in the house, when gunfire erupted. The officers returned fire but have had no contact with the man since and a standoff has ensued. Two officers were taken to hospitals in stable condition, while the third was treated at the shooting scene and cleared.
May 27, 2021 4:21 am
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – An employee who gunned down eight people at a California rail yard and then killed himself as law enforcement rushed in had talked about killing people at work. The ex-wife of Samuel Cassidy says even more than a decade ago, he was often resentful of his work. Authorities say Cassidy opened fire Wednesday at a light rail facility in San Jose. He then shot himself. One wounded man is in critical condition. It’s the 15th mass killing in the U.S. this year. All have been shootings. Eighty-six people have died.
May 27, 2021 4:16 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Pennsylvania Department of Health has dropped its legal action against more than 40 restaurants accused of defying state orders to close indoor dining and maintain social-distancing protocols. The Health Department had filed two separate complaints alleging that restaurants were violating Gov. Tom Wolf’s pandemic restrictions. Wolf had imposed the indoor dining ban in December in response to a winter surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Health Department officials say the pandemic has since eased, with nearly all restrictions to be lifted on Memorial Day.
May 27, 2021 4:14 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – A Pittsburgh woman is free on non-monetary bond after she was arraigned on charges of vehicular homicide, DUI, reckless driving and speeding charges earlier today. Allison Matthew is charged in connection with the deadly crash on Feb. 6 on Route 51. The crash claimed the life of her 26-year-old cousin, Katherine Barvilchak, who police say was a passenger in Matthew’s car. According to the criminal complaint, Matthew was driving 101.9 miles per hour when she failed to negotiate a left-hand curve, lost control of the car, hit some landscape rocks, went airborne, took out a utility pole and flipped over. She and her cousin were both thrown from the vehicle. Barvilchak was pronounced dead at the scene. Matthew was taken to the hospital in critical condition. She survived the crash. Police say Matthew’s blood-alcohol level was also more than two times the legal limit, listed in the court papers at 0.184%. On the night of Feb. 6, after playing beer pong with friends in Brentwood, Barvilchak got into a car with her cousin.
May 27, 2021 4:10 am
LEECHBURG, Pa. — (WPXI) – The body of a man missing from a campground near Leechburg has been found in the Allegheny River. According to our partners at Channel 11, the Armstrong County Coroner confirmed the body of Nathan Lauer was found near the area where he was reported missing. Lauer, 38, of Punxsutawney was last seen about 7:30 a.m. at a campsite along Johnetta Road. That witness told investigators that he, Lauer and others were drinking through the night. Lauer decided to go into the water the next morning. Several agencies searched nearby parts of the river in over the last week. An autopsy will be conducted. The incident is still under investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police, Kittanning and the Armstrong Co. Coroner’s Office.
May 26, 2021 12:46 pm
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) – Former Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia has died. He was a former Navy secretary who was married to movie star Elizabeth Taylor when he first ran for the Senate in 1978, and held onto the seat for 30 years. His longtime chief of staff said he died Tuesday of heart failure at home in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife and daughter at his side. Warner was a centrist Republican and powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who supported the war in Iraq. He also had an independent streak and drew support from moderates on both sides of America’s political divide. He was 94.
May 26, 2021 12:43 pm
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – An employee opened fire at a California rail yard serving Silicon Valley, killing eight people before ending his own life. Authorities say the shooting took place Wednesday in San Jose at a transit control center that stores trains and has a maintenance yard. Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Russell Davis said the suspect was an employee of the Valley Transportation Authority, which provides bus, light rail and other transit services throughout Santa Clara County, the largest county in the Bay Area. He said the attack also resulted in “multiple major injuries.” The attacker was identified as 57-year-old Sam Cassidy, according to two law enforcement officials.
May 26, 2021 12:39 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A judge has upheld the jail sentence of the former Penn State president who was forced out as the school’s top administrator after Jerry Sandusky was arrested nearly a decade ago. The judge says Graham Spanier must report to jail on July 9 to begin serving at least two months for endangering the welfare of children, followed by two months of house arrest. Spanier had stayed out of jail during appeals. A Penn State spokesperson says Spanier remains a tenured faculty member on administrative leave who is not teaching classes.
