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.
June 8, 2020 4:06 am
Authorities say a man drove a car at George Floyd protesters in Seattle on Sunday night, hit a barricade then exited the vehicle brandishing a pistol. At least one person was injured. The Seattle Fire Department said the victim was a 27-year-old male who was shot and taken to a hospital in stable condition. Video taken by a reporter for The Seattle Times showed part of the scene in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, where demonstrators have gathered for days near a police precinct.
June 8, 2020 4:04 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Health officials say a dozen new coronavirus cases in the Philadelphia area have been traced to someone who attended gatherings at beach houses at the Jersey Shore. Bucks County officials say 11 cases reported Saturday were linked to a New Jersey resident at gatherings in the past two weeks. One case reported Friday also was traced to the person. The county health director says it’s an important reminder not to let one’s guard down at the beach. He did not disclose exactly where the gatherings took place. Also, the region’s mass transit system has reinstated a requirement that passengers wear masks.
June 8, 2020 4:03 am
ERIE, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say an employee at a northwestern Pennsylvania zoo was bitten on the arm by an orangutan over the weekend. Erie County emergency dispatchers said the 29-year-old zookeeper sustained puncture and bite wounds to his forearm during Saturday afternoon’s attack at the Erie Zoo. Dispatchers said he was taken to Saint Vincent Hospital for treatment of injuries described as moderate and non-life-threatening. No further information was immediately available.
