July 1, 2021 2:45 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Lawyers for Donald Trump’s company pleaded not guilty to tax crime charges Thursday, along with the Trump Organization’s longtime finance chief. It is the first criminal case arising from a two-year investigation into the former president’s company. Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was arraigned a day after a grand jury returned an indictment charging him and Trump’s company with tax crimes. Trump himself was not charged. The case against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization involves fringe benefits given to employees, like the use of apartments, cars and school tuition. Weisselberg’s lawyers say he will fight the charges, and there’s no indication he is willing to cooperate.
July 1, 2021 12:17 pm
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) – President Joe Biden is offering comfort to the grieving and federal support for the efforts to search for the missing and rebuild after last week’s collapse of a high-rise condo building along the Florida coastline. Biden was to survey the devastation Thursday and meet with first responders hunting for survivors among the rubble in Surfside. But underscoring the dangers still present in the search, work was halted before Biden arrived due to concerns about the stability of the section still standing. Biden and his wife Jill arrived in Florida a week after the collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South beachfront condominium killed at least 18 people and left 145 missing.
July 1, 2021 9:44 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid fell again last week to the lowest level since the pandemic struck last year, further evidence that the job market and the broader economy are rebounding rapidly from the coronavirus recession. Jobless claims dropped by 51,000 to 364,000. Applications for unemployment benefits have fallen more or less steadily since the year began. The rollout of vaccines has sharply reduced new COVID-19 cases, giving consumers the confidence to shop, travel, eat out and attend public events as the economy recovers.
July 1, 2021 4:18 am
LONDON (AP) – Princes William and Harry have unveiled a statue of their mother, Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday in a small – and brief – ceremony at London’s Kensington Palace.. Diana’s family joined the two brothers for Thursday’s ceremony at the palace’s Sunken Garden, a place in which the princess once found solace. It was the first time the brothers have appeared in public together since the funeral of their grandfather, Prince Philip. The brothers later issued a joint statement in which they described their mother’s strength and character as “qualities that made her a force for good around the world.”
July 1, 2021 4:14 am
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) – As more human remains emerge from the rubble of the collapsed Florida condo tower, the dead now include the first children. That announcement came Wednesday from the Miami-Dade mayor, who called the loss “too great to bear.” Authorities identified the children as 10-year-old Lucia Guara and 4-year-old Emma Guara. Their parents also perished in the collapse. Searchers found the remains of six people Wednesday, bringing the number of confirmed dead to 18. It was the highest one-day toll since the building fell nearly a week ago. The number of residents unaccounted for stands at 145.
July 1, 2021 4:12 am
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Hundreds of deaths in Canada, Oregon and Washington may have been caused by the historic heat wave that baked the Pacific Northwest and shattered all-time temperature records in usually temperate cities. Oregon health officials said late Wednesday more than 60 deaths have been tied to the heat, with the state’s largest county, Multnomah, blaming the weather for 45 deaths since the heat wave began Friday. British Columbia’s chief coroner said her office received reports of at least 486 “sudden and unexpected deaths” between Friday and 1 p.m. Wednesday. Normally, she said about 165 people would die in the province over a five-day period.
July 1, 2021 4:02 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Medical marijuana patients can continue to get a three month’s supply at a time under revisions to the Pennsylvania program. Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday signed into law a bill that makes it easier for producers to remove contaminants such as yeast and mold from medical marijuana A proposal to allow patients to grow their own marijuana was defeated. Other changes include permanently allowing curbside dispensing. The new law adds to the list of serious medical conditions for which medical marijuana can be dispensed to include cancer remission therapy and neuropathies of the central nervous system.
July 1, 2021 3:54 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor has vetoed a Republican-crafted elections bill that would have mandated voter identification in all elections and made a host of other changes to election law. Gov. Tom Wolf said outside his Capitol offices Wednesday that he considers it a voter suppression measure. Wolf also used his line-item veto authority to eliminate $3.1 million in funding in separate budget legislation after Republican lawmakers claimed that it had been earmarked to create an election-auditing bureau under the independently elected auditor general. Wolf had said there was no such agreement to use the money for an election-auditing bureau.
July 1, 2021 3:46 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Bill Cosby has been freed from prison after Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction. It is a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as “America’s Dad.” The state Supreme Court said Wednesday that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby. The 83-year-old Cosby served nearly three years of a three- to 10-year sentence. Cosby was promptly set free from the state prison in suburban Montgomery County and driven home.
June 30, 2021 3:57 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The family of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he has died. He was 88. Rumsfeld’s family says he died late Tuesday “surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico.” The two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate had a reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern U.S. military, but it was unraveled by the long and costly Iraq war. Regarded by former colleagues as equally smart and combative, patriotic and politically cunning, Rumsfeld had a storied career under four presidents and nearly a quarter century in corporate America. (Photo: CNN)
