June 15, 2020 4:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republicans are poised to unveil an ambitious package of policing changes that includes new restrictions on police choke holds and other practices. The bill comes from the sole African American Republican in the Senate, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. Congress is rushing to respond to the mass demonstrations over the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans. The Senate bill is set to roll out Wednesday, and President Donald Trump is signaling his support for many of its provisions. The emerging GOP package shares similar goals with Democratic legislation, showing how quickly police violence and racial prejudice are transforming national party priorities.
June 15, 2020 3:59 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to intervene in his dispute with legislative Republicans who are trying to end pandemic restrictions he imposed in March to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. Republican majorities in the House and Senate, with a few Democrats in support, voted this week to end the state’s emergency disaster declaration that Wolf has used to shut down “non-life-sustaining” businesses. Wolf asked the state’s high court on Friday to uphold the shutdown. The governor also announced he’s loosening restrictions on eight more counties.
June 15, 2020 3:57 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Hundreds of protesters marched in Philadelphia for the second weekend in a row amid nationwide demonstrations demanding deep changes to policing in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Organizers of one march proposed that the police budget be decreased by about 50 percent and more money be provided for services such as libraries, parks and recreation and health and education services. Protesters also gathered earlier in west Philadelphia at the site of the police bombing of the radical group MOVE’s row home headquarters 3 1/2 decades ago that caused an inferno that killed 11 people and destroyed more than 60 homes.
June 15, 2020 3:55 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – A child died after a retaining wall fell on him outside a home in Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood Saturday night. Police said the incident happened around 6:45 p.m. outside the home on Carver Street. When medics arrived at the scene, they found the boy underneath a three-foot cinder block wall on the front porch. According to officials, the boy, Kaimar Buchanan-Fuller, 6, was listed in serious condition before going into “traumatic arrest.” Emergency crews rushed the victim to Children’s Hospital, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving there. Police are investigating what caused the wall to collapse on the boy.
June 14, 2020 8:00 am
WEST POINT. N.Y. (AP) – President Donald Trump has urged West Point’s graduating class to “never forget” the legacy of soldiers before them who fought a bloody war to end slavery. Trump’s appeal to remember history came as his own relationship with the military is under strain over the response to protests after George Floyd’s death by police in Minneapolis. It also came hours after Trump made a rare concession and rescheduled a campaign rally that had been set for Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Friday – the anniversary of the end of slavery. Tulsa also was the scene of a fiery white-on-black attack in 1921.
June 14, 2020 7:57 am
TOKYO (AP) – Holding handmade signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” hundreds of people marched peacefully at a Tokyo park, highlighting the outrage over the death of George Floyd even in a country often perceived as homogeneous and untouched by racial issues. Sunday’s turnout underlined how Japan, historically reticent in dealing with diversity, is trying to understand the Black Lives Matter movement and grapple with its own history of discrimination. Thousands turned up in Black Lives Matter protests in New Zealand, where they said addressing discrimination in their own country was critical.
June 14, 2020 7:56 am
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) – A federal appeals court has cleared the way for a Texas man to be executed next week for the 1998 fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman, though his lawyer says he’ll appeal. Ruben Gutierrez is scheduled to die Tuesday for the killing of Escolastica Harrison at her home in Brownsville, which is in Texas’ southern tip along the border with Mexico. Prosecutors say the killing was part of an attempt to steal more than $600,000 that the woman had hidden in her home. A panel of three judges on the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court on Friday overturned a lower court’s decision to stay the 43-year-old’s execution.
June 14, 2020 7:55 am
MIAMI (AP) – Venezuela is demanding the release of a government-connected businessman who was detained in Cape Verde on U.S. corruption charges. In a statement issued Saturday night, it called his arrest an illegal act of aggression by the Trump administration aimed at piling new hardships on the crisis-wracked oil nation. Alex Saab was arrested Friday in connection to U.S. money laundering charges in Miami. Saab is a Colombian businessman who came onto the radar of U.S. authorities a few years ago after amassing contracts with Maduro’s government. Maduro’s aides say Saab was traveling on a Venezuelan passport on an official mission to secure food and medicine.
June 14, 2020 7:54 am
PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) – Authorities in the Southern California city of Palmdale are investigating the death of a 24-year-old black man found hanging from a tree, which they originally described as an apparent suicide, prompting outrage in the community. More than 100,000 people signed an online petition demanding a full investigation and community members confronted city officials on Friday. Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said a decision on the cause of death is deferred pending an investigation. Fuller’s death has brought to light the death of another black man found hanging from a tree on May 31 in Victorville, a desert city 45 miles east of Palmdale.
June 14, 2020 7:53 am
ATLANTA (AP) – An Atlanta police officer has been fired following the fatal shooting of a black man and a second officer was placed on administrative duty. The move announced by police early Sunday comes on the heels of the resignation of Atlanta’s police chief following the killing of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks. Police identified the fired officer as Garrett Rolfe. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she doesn’t believe the shooting was justified. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation say Brooks resisted arrest after he failed a field sobriety test and a struggle ensued over a Taser. Police say 36 people were arrested at Saturday night protests. Police have released body camera and dash camera footage.
