July 31, 2019 7:27 am
HARRISON CITY, Pa. (AP) – Rescuers have freed a man who was trapped after a tree fell on his home in Westmoreland County. The tree hit the home on Deer Run Road in Penn Township around 2:45 a.m. Wednesday and the man was removed around 4:10 a.m. He was taken to a hospital. There is no word on his condition. A woman inside the home was able to get outside without assistance.
July 31, 2019 4:25 am
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – The body of notorious 1930s gangster John Dillinger is set to be exhumed from an Indianapolis cemetery more than 85 years after he was killed by FBI agents. The Indiana State Department of Health approved a permit July 3 for Dillinger’s nephew, Michael C. Thompson, to have the body exhumed from Crown Hill Cemetery and reinterred there. The permit doesn’t indicate the reason for that request. Health department spokeswoman Jeni O’Malley says the agency expects Dillinger’s body will be exhumed and reinterred Sept. 16, based on the permit.
Crown Hill Cemetery spokeswoman Crystal King says the cemetery has no information about those plans. The FBI says Dillinger’s gang killed 10 people during bank robberies and other crimes in the 1930s. FBI agents fatally shot Dillinger in Chicago in July 1934.
July 31, 2019 4:23 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea says North Korea has fired several unidentified projectiles off its east coast. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the launches were done Wednesday from the North’s northeastern area. It wasn’t immediately known exactly what North Korea fired. The launches came after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea last Thursday in an apparent effort to ramp up pressure on the United States ahead of a possible resumption of nuclear diplomacy between North Korea and the U.S.
July 31, 2019 4:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A hard-won, warts-and-all budget pact between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Donald Trump is facing a key vote in the GOP-held Senate. Many conservatives are torn between supporting the president and risking their political brand with an unpopular vote to add $2 trillion or more to the government’s credit card. The Trump-supported legislation backed by the Democratic speaker would also stave off a government shutdown and protect budget gains for both the Pentagon and popular domestic programs. It’s attached to a must-do measure to lift the so-called debt limit. For many Republicans it’s a tough vote, scheduled Wednesday afternoon. The tea party-driven House GOP conference broke against it by a 2-1 margin, but pragmatists prefer the measure to a fall landscape of high-wire deadlines and potential chaos.
July 31, 2019 4:18 am
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) – Authorities say a Pennsylvania father died while rescuing his son who was struggling in rip currents while swimming in the ocean off Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Emergency responders went to the beach around 9:30 a.m. Monday on a report of a child drowning. Before they arrived, 58-year-old Thanh Bui, of Reading, had entered the water to help his 11-year-old son, who eventually made it to shore. But Bui began struggling, and a former police officer who happened to be at the beach entered the water and tried to pull him in using a boogie board. Emergency responders soon brought the two men ashore, but Bui was unresponsive and was soon pronounced dead at a hospital. The former police officer wasn’t injured.
The child was treated at the hospital for undisclosed injuries.
July 31, 2019 4:16 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence is making his second visit in two months to the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania to urge Congress to pass President Donald Trump’s rewrite of a trade pact with Canada and Mexico. Pence’s planned Thursday visit is to a crane manufacturing facility in southern Pennsylvania, a few miles from the Maryland border.
The visit comes as House Democrats and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer report progress toward a deal that would clear the way for Congress to approve Trump’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Pence visited a York-based robotics maker in June and predicted the trade pact would boost America’s manufacturing sector. Trump’s campaign is ramping up its re-election effort in a state where he scored a surprise 2016 win and delivered a crushing loss to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
July 31, 2019 4:14 am
FINDLAY TOWNSHIP, Pa. – (WPXI) – Amazon will expand its presence in Pennsylvania, opening a non-sortable fulfillment center in Findlay Township that will create hundreds of full-time jobs, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday. A new 1,000,000-square-foot distribution facility will be built for Amazon, which has committed to investing more than $30 million into the project, a news release said. The project is expected to create 800 full-time jobs offering a starting wage of $15 per hour. “It’s a great win any time a business comes in and pledges to create 800 new jobs,” Wolf said. “This is a significant investment for Pennsylvania and I applaud Amazon for selecting our commonwealth as the location for this facility.” Amazon currently has about 10,000 full-time employees across the state. “Pennsylvania is a great state for business and Amazon is excited to continue its growth and investment with our newest fulfillment center in Allegheny County,” Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon’s vice president of global customer fulfillment, said in a statement. Amazon received a funding proposal from the Department of Community and Economic Development for $1.6 million in Job Creation Tax Credits that will be distributed after the creation of new jobs, the release said.
July 31, 2019 3:59 am
A shipping mistake has landed a Canonsburg man in jail and may have prevented a tragedy. Canonsburg Detective, Sergeant Charles Tenny tells WJPA News that Harry Wesler was arrested earlier this month after a shipping mistake sent a box of one-thousand rounds of pistol ammunition to the wrong address. Tenny says the homeowner who received the package, which was from a Virginia company, contacted police and an investigation began. Tenny says Wesler is known to police, having been the subject of at least fourteen mental health checks at his home over the past year. Tenny says Wesler had also been convicted in 2013 in Washington County, of driving under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance. Tenny says that crime carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and qualifies as a federal felony for the purposes of disqualifying someone from owning guns or ammunition under federal law. A preliminary hearing for Wesler was scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed.
July 31, 2019 3:50 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A regatta that has been a tradition in the city of Pittsburgh for more than four decades has been canceled days before its scheduled opening. Attorney Charles Scholz told reporters Tuesday that The EQT Three Rivers Regatta promoter LionHeart Event Group hadn’t secured proper permits or paid vendors, including the state for use of Point State Park and police. Scholz said the regatta board had no choice but to withdrew its permit application. Officials said investigations had begun and legal remedies would be pursued with an eye to bringing the regatta back next year. The regatta, a summer tradition since 1978, features powerboat races, an “Anything that Floats” race, and various water stunts and concerts. LionHeart president Derek Weber didn’t immediately return a call and email seeking comment.
July 30, 2019 5:52 pm
LONDON (AP) – Prince Harry says he and his wife Meghan will have no more than two children because of concerns for the environment. In an interview with primatologist Jane Goodall for British Vogue, Harry said becoming a father in May had changed his perspective. He said “I view it differently now, without question. But I’ve always wanted to try and ensure that, even before having a child and hoping to have children.” When Goodall added “Not too many,” Harry said: “two, maximum.” Harry interviewed Goodall for the September issue of British Vogue, which was guest-edited by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. He said destruction of the environment was “terrifying,” adding: “We are already living in it. We are the frog in the water and it’s already been brought to the boil.”
