August 2, 2019 3:57 pm
A May security breach to City of Washington computers has caused Council to outsource that security to Pittsburgh firms. Council authorized several 5 year contracts to keep city computers secure. Sylint Group will receive $40,000 for the repair of city computers. Blue Bastion and Ideal Integrations received monthly contracts for 5 years to monitor and maintain city computers. Those charges will be $8400 per month. Some of the repair costs were covered by insurance and Mayor Scott Putnam says that no tax increase will be necessary to cover the $100,000 charge necessary for computer security. He indicates that the city is moving money around and looking for cost savings going forward so as not to raise taxes. Council is also looking for grants to try an offset costs. Councilman Joe Manning looks at it as a cost of doing business but it probably is something the city should have been doing before.
August 2, 2019 3:54 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is tweeting about a reported burglary at the Baltimore home of Rep. Elijah Cummings. Trump has denigrated Cummings this week, calling his majority-black district a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” On Friday, Trump tweeted, “Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!” Police said they received a report of a burglary at 3:40 a.m. Saturday at a West Baltimore home, but it was unknown whether property was taken. The Baltimore Sun, citing state property records, reported the break-in happened at Cummings’ home. Cummings’ House Oversight and Reform Committee has been investigating Trump family members serving in the White House. The break-in came hours before Trump launched a Twitter tirade against Cummings. Andy Eichar, Cummings’ press secretary, said Thursday Cummings was unavailable for comment. (Photo: CNN)
August 2, 2019 3:51 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – A lawyer for the officer accused of using a chokehold in the death of Eric Garner says his client is disappointed an administrative judge recommended his firing. But the lawyer says he remains “cautiously optimistic” the officer ultimately won’t be dismissed. Attorney Stuart London said Friday that Officer Daniel Pantaleo did nothing wrong and plans to keep fighting for his job. Pantaleo was suspended Friday pending a final decision by Police Commissioner James O’Neill. London and police union leader Patrick Lynch urged O’Neill to stand up for Pantaleo, saying officers otherwise won’t feel they can do their jobs without losing them. London says he’ll appeal to a court if Pantaleo is fired. Garner’s dying pleas of “I can’t breathe” in 2014 became a rallying cry against police brutality.
August 2, 2019 3:49 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says his pick for national intelligence director has decided to withdraw from the running, citing unfair media coverage. In a tweet Friday, Trump said Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas had decided to stay in Congress. Questions about Ratcliffe’s experience have dogged him since Trump announced his candidacy five days ago. Trump didn’t cite any specific media reports, but tweeted that “rather than going through months of slander and libel,” he would be returning to Capitol Hill. Trump accepted the resignation of former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats last week. Ratcliffe is a frequent Trump defender who fiercely questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller during a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week. Intelligence experts had criticized his lack of experience in the field of intelligence.
August 2, 2019 12:46 pm
(WPXI) – Some Entenmann’s Little Bites Soft Baked Cookies are being recalled because of the potential presence of plastic pieces. Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc. issued a voluntary recall of the five-pack Mini Chocolate Chip variety of the cookies, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Visible, blue plastic pieces could be in the individual packaging pouches, the FDA said. The plastic is not baked into the cookies. The recalled products have “best by” dates of Aug. 31, 2019 and Sept. 7, 2019. The UPC code is 7203002378, and the lot code is 1350. No Little Bites Muffins or other Entenmann’s brand products are affected by the recall.
August 2, 2019 8:58 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers slowed their hiring in July, adding a still-healthy 164,000 jobs to an economy that appears poised to extend its decade-plus expansion. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate stayed at 3.7% for a second straight month. Average hourly earnings increased 3.2% from a year ago, up from annual gains of 3% in June. The pace of hiring has slowed this year as a growing share of Americans already have jobs. The three-month average for job gains was 140,000, down from 237,000 a year ago. The U.S. economy has faced some tumult as President Donald Trump has escalated his trade conflict with China, yet the Federal Reserve voted Wednesday to cut a short-term interest rate to sustain the longest period of growth in U.S. history.
August 2, 2019 4:10 am
HYANNIS PORT, Mass. (AP) – Robert F. Kennedy’s granddaughter, Saoirse Kennedy Hill, has died at 22. The Kennedy family released a statement on Thursday night, following reports of a death at the family’s compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. The statement was issued by Brian Wright O’Connor, a spokesman for former congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II. Hill was the daughter of Robert and Ethel Kennedy’s fifth child, Courtney, and Paul Michael Hill, who was one of four falsely convicted in the 1974 Irish Republican Army bombings of two pubs. The statement says Saoirse Hill was passionate about human rights and women’s empowerment and that she worked with indigenous communities to build schools in Mexico. The statement quoted her 91-year-old grandmother, Ethel Kennedy, as saying “the world is a little less beautiful today.” Further details weren’t released.
August 2, 2019 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A landmark arms control treaty that President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed three decades ago is dead. The United States and Russia both walked away from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty on Friday. And if they choose not to extend or replace the larger New START treaty when it expires in early 2021, there will be no legally binding limits on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals for the first time in nearly a half-century. The U.S. says Russia has been violating the treaty for years by developing and fielding weapons that threaten the U.S. and its allies, particularly in Europe. President Donald Trump says he wants a new arms control treaty signed by China as well as the U.S. and Russia.
August 2, 2019 4:07 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea’s military says North Korea fired unidentified projectiles twice into the Sea of Japan in its third weapons tests in just over a week. The Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday said the launches were conducted from an eastern coastal area but did not immediately confirm how many projectiles were fired or how far they flew. The North also conducted fired short-range ballistic missiles last Thursday and conducted what it described as a test firing of a new multiple rocket launcher system on Wednesday. Experts say the North is demonstrating its frustration over planned U.S.-South Korea military exercises and stalled nuclear negotiations with the United States and that its weapons tests could intensify if negotiations do not proceed rapidly over the next few months.
August 2, 2019 4:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says he’s worried about tensions between the world’s two largest global economies – the United States and China. The U.N. chief told reporters Thursday: “We need to learn the lessons of the Cold War and avoid a new one.” “Looking into the not so distant future,” Guterres said, “I see the possibility of the emergence of two competing blocs — each with their own dominant currency, trade and financial rules, their own internet and artificial intelligence strategy, and their own contradictory geopolitical and military views.” The secretary-general said there is still time to avoid this scenario, reiterating that “with leadership committed to strategic cooperation and to managing competing interests, we can steer the world onto a safer path.” Guterres spoke shortly before Trump’s tweet on tariffs against China.
