July 13, 2020 4:20 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Actor Kelly Preston has died at age 57. John Travolta, Preston’s husband of 28 years, confirmed late Sunday that his wife had died after a two-year battle with breast cancer. Preston enjoyed a lengthy career in film and television, appearing in “Jerry Maguire,” “Twins” and at times starring with her husband in films like “Battlefield Earth” and “Gotti.” The couple was married in 1991 in Paris after meeting on a film set, and had three children together. They experienced tragedy in 2009 when their son Jett died after a seizure in the Bahamas.
July 13, 2020 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge is demanding more information about President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence of longtime ally Roger Stone. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered that the parties provide her by Tuesday with a copy of the executive order that commuted Stone’s sentence. She also asked for clarity about the scope of the clemency, including whether it covers just his prison sentence or also the two-year period of supervised release that was part of his sentence. Trump commuted Stone’s 40-month prison sentence on Friday evening, just days before he was to report to prison.
July 13, 2020 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is slowly coming to accept that the Republican National Convention won’t be the four-night infomercial for his reelection that he’d anticipated. Already the late August event has moved from North Carolina to Florida, and now coronavirus cases are spiking and there’s an economic recession. Trump aides and allies are increasingly questioning whether the convention will be worth the trouble. Some are advocating that it be scrapped altogether. They reason that conventions are meant to lay out a candidate’s vision for the coming four years, not spark months of intrigue over the health and safety those who attend. Ultimately, the call on whether to move forward will be Trump’s alone.
July 13, 2020 4:13 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania schools are working on how they will safely transport students this fall, but one idea that won’t be part of the plan is to install plastic barriers around school bus drivers. The state Transportation Department rejected that idea recently, saying there wasn’t evidence it’ll make anyone safer. But a bus trade group spokesperson says the idea was to protect drivers, many of whom are older people at risk of serious illness. The challenge of getting students to school without putting them at heightened risk of COVID-19 infection could involve staggered schedules, limited ridership and health checks.
July 13, 2020 4:10 am
MURRYSVILLE, Pa. — (WPXI) – Police investigating a deadly motorcycle crash in Westmoreland County. It happened just after 4 p.m. in the westbound lanes of Route 366 eastbound just past Route 380 Auction in Murrysville. One person has been killed. The name of the person has not yet been released. Westbound lanes between Route 380 and Greensburg are shut down while crews work to clear the crash.
July 13, 2020 4:08 am
SOUTH HILLS, Pa. — (WPXI) – An employee at Blessed Trinity Parish in the South Hills has tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Diocese of Pittsburgh. People in direct exposure to the person who tested positive are being tested and will be self-quarantined. The Allegheny County Health Department has been contacted, and employees at the parish have been informed. As a result, churches and other buildings in the parish will be closed for extra cleaning and sanitizing. The church building involved is St. Albert the Great in Baldwin; however, as a precaution, all parish church buildings, including St. Basil in Carrick, St. Wendelin in Carrick, Holy Angels in Hayes and St. Sylvester in Brentwood will be cleaned and sanitized. Reopening schedules for Blessed Trinity Parish will be forthcoming. None of the churches will be open for daily Masses or will be used this week.
July 13, 2020 2:06 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. – Yet another county restaurant is closed for deep cleaning because of a reported positive COVID-19 case. Hungry Jose’s in downtown Washington said they were informed of a patron who eventually tested positive for the virus. According to a Facebook post, the person was at the bar on Wednesday, July 8th at around 7:00 p.m. The test did not come back positive until Friday. The deep clean of the facility will take place over the weekend, and Jose’s will not be open until the sanitation is complete. According to the online post, the bar will announce a later re-opening date. Additionally, Mad Mex in Canonsburg is closed because an employee tested positive for COVID-19 according to their website. The location just found out about the positive case Saturday and will not open until it is proven safe for all staff and customers.
July 12, 2020 8:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former special counsel Robert Mueller sharply defended his investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, writing in a newspaper opinion piece Saturday that the probe was of “paramount importance” and asserting that a Trump ally, Roger Stone, “remains a convicted felon, and rightly so” despite the president’s decision to commute his prison sentence. The op-ed in The Washington Post marked Mueller’s first public statement on his investigation since his congressional appearance last July. It represented his firmest defense of the two-year probe whose results have come under attack and even been partially undone by the Trump administration, including the president’s extraordinary move Friday evening to grant clemency to Stone just days before he was due to report to prison. Mueller wrote that though he had intended for his team’s work to speak for itself, he felt compelled to “respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office.
July 12, 2020 8:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wore a mask during a visit to a military hospital on Saturday, the first time the president has been seen in public with the type of facial covering recommended by health officials as a precaution against spreading or becoming infected by the novel coronavirus. Trump flew by helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in suburban Washington to meet wounded servicemembers and health care providers caring for COVID-19 patients. As he left the White House, he told reporters: “When you’re in a hospital, especially … I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask.” Trump was wearing a mask in Walter Reed’s hallway as he began his visit. He was not wearing one when he stepped off the helicopter at the facility.
July 12, 2020 8:12 am
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A misaligned missile battery, miscommunication between troops and their commanders and a decision to fire without authorization all led to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner in January, killing all 176 people on board, a new report says. The report released late Saturday by Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization comes months after the Jan. 8 crash near Tehran. Authorities had initially denied responsibility, only changing course days later after Western nations presented extensive evidence that Iran had shot down the plane. The report may signal a new phase in the investigation into the crash, as the aircraft’s black box flight recorder is due to be sent to Paris, where international investigators will finally be able to examine it. The shootdown happened the same night Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting U.S. soldiers in Iraq, its response to the American drone strike that killed Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on Jan. 3.
