August 11, 2020 4:15 am
(AP) – A senior legal adviser to President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign intentionally misgendered Pennsylvania’s secretary of health in a tweet Monday morning. “This guy is making decisions about your health,” Jenna Ellis, an attorney for Trump 2020, tweeted Monday morning. Ellis shared a May 13 news article about a different incident in which Dr. Rachel Levine was misgendered — when KDKA-AM radio personality Marty Griffin repeatedly called Levine “sir” on a press call. Levine is a transgender woman and one of the few openly transgender public officials in the country. “Dr. Levine is laser-focused on assisting Pennsylvanians in the midst of a national pandemic,” Department of Health Press Secretary Nate Wardle told our partners at channel 11 in response to the latest incident. “She does not have time for this nonsense.” The Human Rights Campaign, a LGBTQ civil rights organization, came to Levine’s defense, releasing a statement that dubbed Ellis a “bigot.” Ellis, the former director of the Dobson Policy Center of the James Dobson Family Institute, joined the Trump campaign in November 2019.
August 11, 2020 2:18 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Bill Cosby’s lawyers are arguing in a new appeals filing that it was “fundamentally unfair” to let prosecutors use Cosby’s damaging deposition from a sex accuser’s lawsuit against him at trial. The filing made Tuesday largely focuses on what Cosby believes was a binding promise from a district attorney that he wouldn’t be charged in the case. A spokeswoman for the Montgomery County district attorney’s office isn’t commenting but says prosecutors will file a response within a month. The 83-year-old Cosby is serving a three- to 10-year prison term for three counts of felony sex assault.
August 10, 2020 4:28 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Antonio Banderas says he’s tested positive for COVID-19 and is celebrating his 60th birthday in quarantine. The Spanish actor announced his positive test on Instagram on Monday. Banderas said he would spend his time in isolation reading, writing and “making plans to begin to give meaning to my 60th year to which I arrive full of enthusiasm.” A spokeperson for Banderas didn’t immediately respond to messages Monday. (Photo: CNN)
August 10, 2020 3:47 pm
(WPXI) – Member schools of the Big Ten Conference have voted to cancel the fall football season due to ongoing concerns with the coronavirus pandemic, according to reports from multiple media outlets. A formal announcement on the decision is expected to be made Tuesday, according to a report from the Detroit Free Press. The presidents of the member schools voted 12-2 Sunday to end the fall sports in the conference with only Nebraska and Iowa voting to play, Dan Patrick said on his radio show Monday. Unnamed sources told The Free Press Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren prefers the conference to play a spring football season, however no final decision has been made. Reports of the vote and meetings Sunday night prompted multiple players from across the “Power 5″ conferences to post messages on their social media platforms urging administrators to continue with fall football plans.
August 10, 2020 3:39 pm
BEAVER FALLS, Pa. (AP) – A shooting in a western Pennsylvania community has left three people critically wounded. Authorities say the shooting in Beaver Falls was reported shortly after 11:30 p.m. Sunday. Responding police officers soon found the three victims, and two of them were flown to a hospital. The other was taken there by ambulance. The names of the victims and details on their injuries were not disclosed. All three remained in critical condition early Monday. A motive for the shooting remains under investigation. Authorities have not said what type of weapon was used or where the shooting occurred. No arrests have been made.
August 10, 2020 2:55 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Authorities say a massive fire engulfed cooking show star Rachael Ray’s New York home. The fire coordinator for Warren County says firefighters responded to Ray’s home in Lake Luzerne, New York around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday and requested aid from other departments to transport water to the property. Photos of the house fire show flames bursting through the roof and long plumes of smoke extending into the sky. Since April, Ray has been filming “(hash)STAYHOME With Rachael” two days a week from the home. A representative says Ray, her husband and dog are safe, but that the extent of damage to the home is not yet clear. (Photo: CNN)
August 10, 2020 9:44 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination will be held at either the White House or the Gettysburg battlefield. In a Monday tweet, Trump says a decision on the location of the Aug. 27 speech will be made soon. Both sites are federal property raising legal and ethical issues for their use in a political event. The Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania could also resurface the president’s defense of monuments to heroes of the Confederacy. Trump’s original plans to address the convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida, were upended by the coronavirus. Now most of the convention will be conducted virtually.
August 10, 2020 4:32 am
DALLAS, Ga. (AP) – A Georgia high school plans to start the week with all classes shifting online after nine students and staff tested positive for the coronavirus as the school year opened with in-person classes last week. News outlets report all students at North Paulding High School west of Atlanta will take online classes Monday and Tuesday. Paulding County Schools Superintendent Brian Ott sent a letter to parents Sunday saying those two days will be used to clean and disinfect the school. The school made headlines last week with photos posted to social media that showed hallways crowded with students who weren’t wearing masks. Ott disclosed Saturday that six students and three staff had tested positive for the virus.
August 10, 2020 4:31 am
ROME (AP) – With confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. reaching 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe. Much of the incredulity stems from the fact that America had the benefit of time, European experience and medical know-how to treat the virus. That is something the old continent didn’t have when the first COVID-19 patients started overwhelming its intensive care units. Yet the U.S. is facing a sustained outbreak, more than four months into the crisis.
August 10, 2020 4:29 am
BALTIMORE (AP) – A natural gas explosion has leveled three row houses in Baltimore, killing a woman and trapping others. Four people have been hospitalized with serious injuries, and rescuers are trying to reach at least one more survivor in the wreckage. A fourth row house was ripped open by the blast, which shattered windows around the neighborhood. The Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. was called in to shut off gas around the immediate vicinity. The cause of the explosion wasn’t immediately clear, but leaky pipes are a growing problem in Baltimore. The utility estimated that replacing aging pipes would cost nearly $1 billion and take two decades.
