October 19, 2019 9:14 am
LONDON (AP) – Tens of thousands of anti-Brexit protesters are marching through London as lawmakers debate Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new European Union divorce deal. Protesters, many wearing blue berets emblazoned with yellow stars symbolizing the EU flag, poured out of subway trains and buses for the march to Parliament Square on Saturday. In one side street, a group of demonstrators with bells strapped to their legs and wielding sticks performed a traditional English morris dance and chanted: “Morris, not Boris!” to cheers from onlookers. One of the dancers, Kate Fisher, says “demos that are fun and joyful are more effective.” Elsewhere, the mood was less cheerful. Sarah Spoor, who cares for her two children with disabilities, choked back tears as she said she is “distraught” at the prospect of Britain leaving the EU.
October 19, 2019 4:14 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Leaders of a Pittsburgh synagogue where 11 worshippers were fatally shot last year say they want to renovate the building into what they hope will be a “center for Jewish life in the United States” and a symbol against hatred. Plans unveiled Friday for the Tree of Life synagogue include places for worship; memorial, education and social events; classrooms and exhibitions. Tree of Life’s Executive Director Barb Feige says returning to the building will honor those killed on Oct. 27, 2018. Federal prosecutors have charged 47-year-old Robert Bowers in the massacre. They are seeking the death penalty. His lawyers say the case would be over by now if prosecutors had accepted his guilty plea in return for a life term without parole.
October 19, 2019 4:09 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A federal appeals court is upholding a Pittsburgh ordinance that creates a 15-foot buffer zone against protests outside abortion clinics and is also allowing “sidewalk counseling” within that zone. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday said the city can restrict congregating, picketing, patrolling and demonstrating in the immediate vicinity of clinics, but the zone restrictions don’t apply to “calm and peaceful” one-on-one conversations. The buffer zone law concerns any hospital or health care facility, but the case arose over demarcated areas outside two Pittsburgh abortion clinics. The plaintiffs argued the buffer zone makes it difficult to communicate their message and to distinguish passers-by from the clinic patients they want to reach. City lawyers had argued “sidewalk counseling” is a form of demonstrating.
October 19, 2019 4:05 am
A Washington man was sentenced by Judge Valerie Costanzo on four separate cases dating back to 2016. Shaquore Yarbrough was sentenced Wednesday to 6 ½ to 13 years in a state correctional facility after pleading guilty to a variety of charges including strangulation, simple assault, intimidation of witness, possession of firearms prohibited and two counts of possession with intent to deliver controlled substances. On September 2, 2016, Yarbrough was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by police and he was found to have 45 stamp bags of heroin. He was taken into custody on an active warrant. On July 18, 2017 Yarbrough admitted to strangling and assaulting his then girlfriend causing injuries to her arms, leg, torso and face. On June 4, 2018 police raided Yarbrough’s residence and found two bundles of heroin and $1,227. Yarbrough fled and during pursuit dropped a Glock 27 with an obliterated serial number. While incarcerated pending trial in these cases, Yarbrough used another inmate’s account to contact the victim from the 2016 incident to attempt to convince her not to testify. All of these cases were investigated by the District Attorney’s Drug Task Force, Washington City Police Department, Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the Pennsylvania State Police.
October 18, 2019 4:51 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Jane Fonda is picking up where she left off in civil disobedience nearly a half-century ago. But there’s one thing that’s changed: That step up into the police wagon is tougher at age 81. U.S. Capitol Police arrested Fonda and fellow actor Sam Waterston on Friday in a second week of climate change protests. Fonda says she’s holding the events to draw more people into climate activism. Fonda tells The Associated Press she was last arrested for protesting in the 1970s. She says watching the climate activism of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg helped inspire her to get back in. For a second Friday, Fonda stepped into the patrol wagon with hands bound. But this time, Fonda had managed to get her hands cuffed in front of her, for balance.
October 18, 2019 4:11 pm
(AP) – Drugmaker Sanofi is recalling its over-the-counter heartburn drug Zantac in the U.S. and Canada because of possible contamination. The French company Friday joined other drugmakers that have recently recalled their versions of the popular heartburn and ulcer drug. In September, the Food and Drug Administration said a potentially cancer-causing chemical had been detected at low levels in prescription and over-the-counter versions of Zantac. The federal agency said consumers could consider taking another heartburn medicine or contact their doctor. Several drugstore chains have already removed Zantac and generic versions from store shelves.
October 18, 2019 12:42 pm
A bond revocation hearing that was scheduled for Thursday for a South Strabane Township man charged with child luring has been continued until next week. Sixty-six-year-old Jan Ondra is charged with attempting to lure a ten-year-old girl into his van in Clarksville in June. He was released on twenty-five-thousand-dollars bond. The Washington County District Attorney’s Office has asked the court to revoke his bond after three children who were leaving a dance class at North Strabane Town Center in late September, told authorities that Ondra offered them candy. Judge Gary Gilman agreed to reschedule Ondra’s hearing to next Friday at two-thirty, after his attorney said he has learned of surveillance video at a business in that area that may contradict the children’s claims.
October 18, 2019 6:49 am
On November 5, 2009, a gunman opened fired at Fort Hood, Texas killing 13 people including a Washington County woman. Ten years later, November 2, 2019 has been proclaimed ‘Lt. Col. Juanita Warman day’ in Washington County. County Commissioners on Thursday issued the proclamation with members of Warman’s family present. An official ceremony is planned for November 2 to officially name a portion of Route 50 in Avella in her honor. Warman attended school in Avella and was a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. She was a psychiatric nurse practitioner who specialized in the care of those recovering from post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury. She was stationed at Fort Hood awaiting deployment to Iraq. Officials say she died shielding another soldier who was sitting nearby when the shooting broke out. Her daughter, Melissa Papst tells WJPA news the proclamation “means a lot” and that “she loves that people are remembering her and how she lived and the sacrifices she made.” The ceremony next month will be held at the Avella Volunteer Fire Department.
October 18, 2019 4:25 am
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – The world’s first female spacewalking team is making history high above Earth. NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir exited the International Space Station on Friday, the first time in a half-century of spacewalking that a woman floated out without a male crewmate. Their job is to fix a broken part of the station’s solar power network. America’s first female spacewalker from 35 years ago, Kathy Sullivan, is delighted. She says it’s good to finally have enough women in the astronaut corps and trained for spacewalking for this to happen. NASA originally wanted to conduct an all-female spacewalk last spring, but did not have enough medium-size suits ready to go.
October 18, 2019 4:22 am
UNDATED (AP) – Johnson & Johnson is recalling a single lot of its baby powder as a precaution after government testing found trace amounts of asbestos in one bottle bought online. The recall comes as J&J fights thousands of lawsuits in which plaintiffs claim its iconic baby powder was contaminated with asbestos and that it caused ovarian cancer or another rare cancer. At multiple trials, J&J experts have testified asbestos hasn’t been detected in the talc in its baby powder in many tests over 40 years. On Friday, J&J said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found minuscule amounts of asbestos in one bottle. The company is investigating whether the bottle is counterfeit and how the contamination occurred. The recalled lot contained 33,000 bottles. J&J shares dropped 4% to $130.86.
