September 16, 2019 4:20 am
DETROIT (AP) – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is supporting autoworkers who are striking against General Motors. The Democrat on Monday visited United Auto Workers members picketing outside the Lansing Grand River plant, blocks from the state Capitol building. Photos her office posted to social media showed her shaking hands and delivering doughnuts. Spokeswoman Tiffany Brown says Whitmer is closely monitoring the strike and supports working peoples’ rights to negotiate together for better wages, benefits, working conditions and more time to spend with their families. More than 49,000 unionized GM workers walked off their jobs just after midnight Monday. Whitmer says she is hopeful that the UAW and GM can negotiate and ratify a new contract quickly, because getting autoworkers back on the job as quickly as possible is important to Michigan’s economy.
September 16, 2019 4:18 am
EDGEWOOD, Pa. (AP) – Authorities have recovered the body of a man who they believe triggered an explosion in his western Pennsylvania home on his daughter’s wedding day. Officials have not released the man’s name and they’re awaiting autopsy results to determine how he died. Police say neighbors reported the homeowner was in the front yard shortly before the fire and explosion Saturday afternoon in Edgewood. Emergency officials say his house collapsed and one next door was damaged. Police said relatives of the owner were attending a family wedding. Authorities say the house had a history of police being called to it, but they did not explain the nature of the calls. The house next door had recently been sold, and officials say a family had been planning to move in soon. (Photo: WPXI)
September 16, 2019 4:16 am
YORK, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say a Ferris wheel at a Pennsylvania fair will remain closed following an accident that injured two people, one of whom fell from it. York Fair chief executive officer Bryan Blair says one person fell from a car on the Giant Wheel on the midway at about 8 p.m. Friday. He says the other person didn’t fall but couldn’t confirm Saturday whether the person was on the ride or on the ground. He says both were taken to York Hospital, which has released no information about their condition. Blair says state inspectors have looked at the ride and talked to operators and witnesses. He says the fair and Deggeller Attractions are cooperating with the probe. Deggeller is based in Stuart, Florida.
September 16, 2019 4:15 am
SLICKSVILLE, Pa. (AP) – Authorities are investigating the death of a horse that collapsed, killing the rider, at a western Pennsylvania stable. The Tribune-Review reports that the Slicksville Volunteer Fire Department in Westmoreland County responded to Stonehouse Stables shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday. Fire chief Bobby Rosatti said arriving emergency personnel found both horse and rider dead. The rider, a woman who was not immediately identified, was pinned beneath the fallen animal. Stable owner Jene Chelens told authorities he had been watching the woman ride the horse, Reuben, in an outdoor riding ring but turned his back for a few minutes and returned to find rider and horse on the ground. A veterinarian was evaluating the animal to determine the cause of death.
September 16, 2019 4:14 am
MCKEESPORT, Pa. (AP) – Authorities have taken into custody three men they say were found with the car of a woman whose body was found in a western Pennsylvania park. Allegheny County police say two men were arrested on charges of receiving stolen property and a third man was taken into custody on a parole violation. The county medical examiner’s office says the body of 43-year-old Tameka Dallas was found Thursday in a wooded area of Renziehausen Park. Inspector Andrew Schurman said she appeared to have been strangled. Police believe she may have died elsewhere and her body was left at the park. An official cause of death hasn’t been released. South Strabane Township police spotted the car in a Walmart parking lot later in the day and arrested two of the men.
September 15, 2019 10:25 am
YORK, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say a Ferris wheel at a Pennsylvania fair will remain closed following an accident that injured two people, one of whom fell from it. York Fair chief executive officer Bryan Blair says one person fell from a car on the Giant Wheel on the midway at about 8 p.m. Friday. He says the other person didn’t fall but couldn’t confirm Saturday whether the person was on the ride or on the ground. He says both were taken to York Hospital, which has released no information about their condition. Blair says state inspectors have looked at the ride and talked to operators and witnesses. He says the fair and Deggeller Attractions are cooperating with the probe. Deggeller is based in Stuart, Florida.
September 15, 2019 10:24 am
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) – A jury trial is set to begin for a Connecticut rabbi accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a teenage boy who attended a school the rabbi founded. State prosecutors are scheduled to begin presenting their case against Daniel Greer on Monday in New Haven Superior Court. The 79-year-old rabbi from New Haven has pleaded not guilty to several counts of second-degree sexual assault and other charges that were filed in 2017. A New Jersey man, now 31, alleges Greer sexually assaulted him multiple times when he attended the Yeshiva of New Haven school from 2001 to 2005. The man was awarded $15 million in a civil lawsuit on those allegations – a verdict Greer is appealing. The lawsuit alleged Greer sexually assaulted him at several locations in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
September 15, 2019 10:23 am
WAYNESBURG, Pa. (AP) – A small century-old bridge in Pennsylvania is up for sale as long as the buyer agrees to relocate and preserve the steel structure. According to the (Washington) Observer-Reporter, a legal advertisement says the Federal Highway Administration and other agencies have announced the availability of the span along a remote road near Waynesburg in southwestern Pennsylvania’s Greene County. The 40-foot-long span is a Parker pony truss, a design distinguished by not being held together by cross beams. Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokeswoman Valerie Peterson calls it “just one of their ways to preserve bridges.” The county-owned bridge built in 1903 by Penn Bridge Co. of Beaver Falls features stone approaches and decorative lattice railings and is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
September 15, 2019 10:17 am
MIAMI (AP) – Gusty winds from Tropical Storm Humberto are still affecting portions of the northwestern Bahamas, which is struggling to recover from Hurricane Dorian. The U.S. National Hurricane Center expects Humberto to strengthen into a hurricane later Sunday or Sunday night, moving “well offshore of the east coast of Florida during the next day or so” before moving away from the U.S. With winds of 60 mph (97 kph), Humberto is around 135 miles (217 kilometers) north-northwest of Great Abaco island in the Bahamas and around 175 miles (282 kilometers) east of Cape Canaveral, Florida. It’s moving toward the north-northwest at a speed near 7 mph (11 kph). There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect, although forecasters say Humberto could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions from east-central Florida to North Carolina.
September 15, 2019 10:15 am
DETROIT (AP) – The four-year contract between General Motors and the United Auto Workers expired Saturday, but workers were told to report to jobs as negotiations continued and the prospect of a national strike loomed. The union let the contract lapse, raising the possibility of a strike as early as Sunday night. There was a wrinkle. About 850 UAW-represented janitors with Aramark, a separate company, went on strike Sunday after working under an extended contract since March 2018. The strike covered eight GM facilities in Ohio and Michigan. It appeared that GM workers were crossing picket lines Sunday set up by their own union. The Detroit Free Press reported that GM workers at a Flint, Michigan, truck plant reluctantly passed picketers. GM said it has contingency plans for the Aramark strike.
