July 6, 2020 1:16 pm
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Country music firebrand and fiddler Charlie Daniels, who had a hit with “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” has died at age 83. A statement from his publicist said the Country Music Hall of Famer died Monday at a hospital in Hermitage, Tennessee, after doctors said he had a stroke. He had suffered what was described as a mild stroke in January 2010 and had a heart pacemaker implanted in 2013 but continued to perform. Daniels, a singer, guitarist and fiddler, started out as a session musician, even playing on Bob Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline” sessions. Beginning in the early 1970s, his five-piece band toured endlessly, sometimes doing 250 shows a year. “I can ask people where they are from, and if they say ‘Waukegan,’ I can say I’ve played there. If they say ‘Baton Rouge,’ I can say I’ve played there. There’s not a city we haven’t played in,” Daniels said in 1998. Daniels performed at White House, at the Super Bowl, throughout Europe and often for troops in the Middle East. He played himself in the 1980 John Travolta movie “Urban Cowboy” and was closely identified with the rise of country music generated by that film.
“I’ve kept people employed for over 20 years and never missed a payroll,” Daniels said in 1998. That same year, he received the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music. In the 1990s Daniels softened some of his lyrics from his earlier days when he often was embroiled in controversy.
July 6, 2020 3:40 am
MIAMI (AP) – Tropical Storm Edouard has formed over the far North Atlantic, but the storm poses no immediate threat to land. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Edouard has top sustained winds of 40 mph, with higher gusts. It was located late Sunday night about 685 miles south-southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland, Canada. The tropical storm is expected to become a post-tropical storm on Monday. No coastal storm watches or warnings are in effect. A hurricane researcher says Edouard is the earliest fifth named storm on record. Two named storms formed in the Atlantic before the official start of the hurricane season June 1.
July 6, 2020 3:39 am
The number of high school seniors applying for federal college aid plummeted in the first weeks of the pandemic and still remain below last year’s levels. That is according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data. In the four weeks starting March 14, the number of FAFSA completions was down 45% compared to the same period the year before. The decrease was sharpest among students at low-income schools. Schools blame the drop-off on the pandemic, saying many students lost touch with counselors or took jobs to support their families. The decline has stoked fears that thousands of students may be opting to delay or forgo college.
July 6, 2020 3:37 am
MANILA, Philippines (AP) – More than 400 people have been evacuated from a coastal village in the central Philippines after some 250,000 liters (66,000 gallons) of bunker fuel spilled from a power-generating barge into the sea. The spill began Friday when an accidental explosion on the barge blasted a hole in it hull. There were no reported injuries. Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Trenas says the accident has not affected the power supply to the commercial city of about half a million people because it has other power sources. The coast guard is investigating.
July 6, 2020 3:36 am
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) – A statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass has been ripped from its base in Rochester on the anniversary of one of his most famous speeches. Police say the statue of Douglass was taken from Maplewood Park and placed near the Genesee River gorge on Sunday. On July 5, 1852, Douglass gave the speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” in Rochester. There was no indication the vandalism was timed to the anniversary. The park was a site on the Underground Railroad where Douglass and Harriet Tubman helped shuttle slaves to freedom.
July 6, 2020 3:35 am
(AP) – Tributes have come pouring in for Tony Award-nominated stage actor Nick Cordero, who died of severe medical complications after contracting the coronavirus. Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted “What a loss, what a light” and Bernadette Peters was “sending love” to his widow and infant son. Many asked people to wear masks in his honor. Cordero specialized in playing tough guys on Broadway in such shows as “Waitress,” “A Bronx Tale” and “Bullets Over Broadway.” Cordero had a succession of health setbacks, including mini-strokes, blood clots, septic infections, a tracheostomy and a temporary pacemaker implanted. He had been on a ventilator and had his right leg amputated.
July 6, 2020 3:34 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is set to hold an outdoor campaign rally Saturday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The rally at Portsmouth International Airport will come three weeks after an indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That gathering was the president’s first of the COVID-19 era, and it drew a smaller-than-expected crowd amid concerns of rising infections in the region. The president was narrowly defeated in 2016 in New Hampshire by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Before the pandemic, Trump campaign officials had pointed to the state as a place where they saw a chance to expand the electoral map during the president’s reelection effort.
July 6, 2020 3:33 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell has been transferred to New York to face charges she recruited women and girls for him to sexually abuse. The Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Maxwell was transferred Monday and is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Prosecutors have asked a judge to schedule a Friday court appearance in Manhattan federal court for for Maxwell. The 58-year-old was arrested last week at a $1 million estate she had purchased in New Hampshire. Maxwell was the former girlfriend and longtime close associate of Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail last August while he awaited trial on federal sex trafficking charges. She has denied wrongdoing and called claims against her “absolute rubbish.”
July 6, 2020 3:29 am
SOMERSET, Pa. (WPXI) — Six people were taken to a hospital following a multi-vehicle crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Somerset County Sunday evening The crash happened between the Somerset and Bedford exits and involved two vehicles and a tractor-trailer. Five people were flown to the hospital by helicopter and one by ambulance. The extent of their injuries is unknown at this time. The road has since reopened, according to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Traffic was backed up for about 10 miles.
July 6, 2020 3:27 am
Officials at the UPMC Mercy Burn Center in Pittsburgh said Monday that more than twenty people were treated for serious injuries related to fireworks over the fourth of July weekend, including several children. The 2020 total is the highest Independence Day weekend injury count on record at the UPMC Mercy Burn Center, surpassing 2019’s weekend total of six. “Some of the injuries are very serious. Several patients were admitted and will need ongoing care and therapy. We urge people to not engage in personal fireworks use to avoid any of these devastating traumas,” said Jenny Ziembicki, M.D., medical director, UPMC Mercy Burn Center. “It is important to understand that even legal fireworks should only be handled by those properly trained in their use.” The UPMC Mercy emergency department also treated multiple outpatient injuries of varying degrees to the hands, most commonly associated with reloadable mortars and fire pits.
