June 9, 2020 3:54 am
HOUSTON (AP) – Hundreds of mourners packed a Houston church Tuesday for the funeral of George Floyd, he black man whose death has inspired a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice. His body will be carried in a horse-drawn carriage and will be laid to rest next to his mother. Floyd was 46 when he was killed May 25 as a white Minneapolis officer pressed a knee on Floyd’s neck as the dying man cried out for his mother. Floyd’s death sparked international protests and drew new attention to police treatment of African Americans in the U.S. Some 6,000 people attended a public memorial service Monday.
June 9, 2020 3:51 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The administration of Gov. Tom Wolf is backing off its demand that nursing homes test all residents and staff for the new coronavirus weekly. It instead ordered them Monday to complete a single baseline test. Last month, Wolf had vowed that weekly testing would start June 1. He said his administration had a plan in place to accomplish it. Health experts were skeptical and cited logistical, operational and financial hurdles. The state health secretary also ordered nursing homes and other facilities that care for older adults to test all residents and staff “at least once” by July 24.
June 8, 2020 5:41 pm
(WPXI) – A church collapsed and sent debris out into the street in Brighton Heights on Monday. Neighbors described that it sounded like an explosion inside the church on McClure Avenue, and there were pieces of the church and shattered glass all over the property. Church member Curtis Ramey was cutting the grass and cleaning up the inside of Christian Fellowship Center Church of God in Christ in preparation for this Sunday’s service. “I decided I was going to leave and go home. I got home and was home for 40 minutes and I got a phone call that the roof caved in,” Ramey said. It would have been the first time the congregation met met since the pandemic started. Pastor Frank Tillman Jr. told Channel 11 they were expecting close to fifty people. The church has been there for over a century. Church officials say insurance will cover some of the damage but not all of it.
June 8, 2020 3:24 pm
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree murder in George Floyd’s death will remain in custody on $1 million bond. Derek Chauvin said almost nothing during an 11-minute hearing Monday in which he appeared on closed-circuit television from the state’s maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights. His attorney, Eric Nelson, did not contest the bail amount. Nelson also didn’t address the substance of the charges. Nelson didn’t speak with reporters afterward. Chauvin’s next appearance is set for June 29.
June 8, 2020 10:21 am
HOUSTON (AP) – Mourners are paying their respects to George Floyd, whose body is on view in an open casket at a church in his hometown of Houston. A six-hour viewing is being held Monday for Floyd, whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked protests around the world. Houston police escorted his body, which arrived in a gold-colored casket at The Fountain of Praise church. Those passing through the church were required to leave 6 feet between others in observe of social distancing guidelines to stop the spread of the coronavirus. (Photo: CNN)
June 8, 2020 10:20 am
LONDON (AP) – Energy company BP says that its global workforce will be trimmed by 10,000 jobs amid the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief Executive Bernard Looney said Monday that the roles will be office-based and come mostly this year. The company’s current global workforce is 70,000. The job cuts come amid a time of tremendous change for BP, which said it wants to eliminate or offset all carbon emissions from its operations and the oil and gas it sells to customers by 2050. The pandemic, meanwhile, has caused huge turmoil for the industry by causing demand for energy to plummet.
June 8, 2020 4:10 am
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) – The FBI and local investigators are trying to determine a possible link between the ambush-style killing of a Northern California sheriff’s deputy Saturday and that of a federal officer who was fatally shot outside the U.S. courthouse in Oakland more than a week ago. áBoth involved shooters in a van. A Santa Cruz Sheriff’s deputy was killed and two other law enforcement officers were wounded Saturday when they were ambushed by a suspect who is a member of the U.S. Air Force. Sheriff Jim Hart said the suspect, Steven Carrillo, was shot during the arrest and is being treated at the hospital.
June 8, 2020 4:09 am
NEW YORK (AP) – New York City gradually began reopening Monday in a turning point in the three-month-long coronavirus crisis and a test of the city’s discipline. Stores previously deemed nonessential were cleared to reopen for delivery and pickup, though customers cannot yet browse inside. Construction, manufacturing and wholesalers also received the go-ahead to resume work. Unrest over racism and police brutality compounded the challenges facing the nation’s biggest city as it tried to move past three bleak months. New York became the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, with more than 21,000 people dying citywide of confirmed or probable COVID-19
June 8, 2020 4:08 am
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Tropical Storm Cristobal has weakened into a depression after inundating coastal Louisiana and ginning up dangerous weather along most of the U.S. Gulf Coast. The storm sent waves crashing over Mississippi beaches, swamping parts of an Alabama island town and spawning a tornado in Florida. In Alabama, the bridge linking the mainland to Dauphin Island was closed to regular traffic. Now the worry is drenching rain in the Mississippi River basin as Cristobal’s remnants move north on a path to Canada. All that water is a new test for the pumping system that struggles to clear the streets of New Orleans.
June 8, 2020 4:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democrats are mounting a new effort to push back against a well-funded Republican campaign that seeks to undermine public confidence in mail-in-voting. An organization called Fair Fight, led by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, has joined forces with Priorities USA, the largest Democratic outside group, and American Bridge, the party’s opposition research clearinghouse, to form a new effort called Voter Suppression Watch. áThe aim is to not only counter Republicans in the courts, but in public relations, too, while playing offense by providing opposition research that often forms the grist of news stories.
