August 11, 2019 7:44 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) – Hundreds of people gathered to remember a western Pennsylvania graduate student killed in a mass shooting in an Ohio nightclub district last weekend. Mourners from all stages of the life of 25-year-old Nicholas Cumer filled every seat in Saturday’s service and lined the hallways of a Washington, Pennsylvania funeral home. Pastor Brian Greenleaf said Cumer “had a heart bigger than his chest.” He was among nine people killed early last Sunday by a gunman who was then killed by police shortly after he opened fire at a bar in Dayton, Ohio. Cumer was a graduate student in the master of cancer care program at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania. He was in Dayton as part of his internship with the Maple Tree Cancer Alliance.
August 11, 2019 7:42 am
WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) – A closing West Virginia hospital owes the city of Wheeling more than $415,000. According to The Intelligencer , Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron says Ohio Valley Medical Center owes almost $47,900 for fire service and $368,000 in parking fees to subsidize use of a city garage. Herron said city officials thought they had negotiated a payment plan. Then the hospital announced it will close within three months. The hospital’s CEO didn’t respond to the newspaper’s request for comment. Gov. Jim Justice says he’s asked his administration to see what it can do to prevent the closure. The East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry, Ohio is planned for closure in the same timeframe. The hospitals say they’ve lost $37 million in the last two years, citing declining volume and reimbursements.
August 10, 2019 10:52 am
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. (AP) – President Donald Trump says North Korea’s Kim Jong Un wants to meet once again to “start negotiations” after joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises end.
He says he’s looking “forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future!” Trump is tweeting more details from the “beautiful” three-page letter he told reporters Friday he’d received.
Trump said Saturday from his New Jersey golf club that Kim spent much of his letter complaining about “the ridiculous and expensive exercises.” He says that Kim offered him “a small apology” for the flurry of recent short-range missile tests that have rattled U.S. allies in the region and that Kim assured him they would stop when exercises end. The two leaders have met three times: in Singapore, Hanoi and at the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
August 10, 2019 10:24 am
NEW YORK (AP) – A former law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that Jeffrey Epstein has died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in New York.
The medical examiner’s office in Manhattan confirmed the financier’s death. The former law enforcement official said Epstein was found dead Saturday morning at the Manhattan Correctional Center. The official had been briefed on the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss it publicly. Epstein’s arrest last month launched separate investigations into how authorities handled his case initially when similar charges were first brought against him in Florida more than a decade ago. U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned last month after coming under fire for overseeing that deal when he was U.S. attorney in Miami.
August 10, 2019 9:23 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea has reportedly fired two more projectiles into the sea. It is likely another protest at the United States and South Korea continuing joint military exercises that the North says are aimed at a northward invasion.South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Saturday that Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectiles were launched from an area near the North’s east coast.It didn’t immediately Identify the projectiles or how far they flew.
August 10, 2019 9:21 am
BEIJING (AP) – China has dismissed Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters as clowns and criminals while bemoaning growing violence surrounding the monthslong demonstrations.
That’s partly out of concern that protesters’ demands for expanded democracy could inspire like-minded officials and intellectuals on the mainland. Still, experts say, China shows no signs of preparing for a major crackdown, content to ignore the protests in the hopes that violence will turn Hong Kong’s silent majority against the movement.The protests also come at a sensitive time for President Xi Jinping, who after removing term limits last year effectively made himself leader for life. That has intensified criticism over his concentration of power even as his propaganda machine relentlessly promotes his achievements ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on Oct. 1.
August 10, 2019 9:18 am
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa (AP) – New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is calling on Democrats to take on President Donald Trump with “faith in our ideals” and to “overcome his darkness with our light.”
Speaking at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding fundraiser, Booker is reminding the crowd that “we have overcome worse times and darker times.” Booker, with his voice fading after a week of outspoken advocacy for gun control on the campaign trail, is comparing the current political era to major moments in civil rights history. He argues that “this is a referendum on us, and who we are going to be to each other.” The sermon-like speech drew huge applause from the crowd.
August 10, 2019 9:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has become a high-profile object of partisan scorn as he positions himself as President Donald Trump’s wingman. Both are running for reelection in 2020, and McConnell tells voters he and Trump “are making America great again!” McConnell has proven a loyal implementer of the president’s initiatives, and Trump has stopped assailing the senator on Twitter. But McConnell is drawing hecklers and protesters in his home state, Kentucky.
August 10, 2019 4:21 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – More than 550 residency slots at a Philadelphia teaching hospital have fetched a $55 million winning bid at a bankruptcy auction ahead of the facility’s impending closure.
The residency slots at Hahnemann University Hospital were won by a team of six local health systems at Thursday’s auction, topping bids by Tower Health and a California company that wants to reopen the hospital. Christiana Care Health System, Cooper University Health Care, and Main Line Health joined Einstein Healthcare Network, Jefferson Health and Temple University Health System in the winning bid. The salaries and benefits of those residencies are paid by Medicare, which has objected to the sale in bankruptcy court. Hahnemann is still in the process of closing, but the 496-bed hospital has no patients. It’s closing due to unsustainable financial losses. A bankruptcy hearing on the hospital’s sale has been rescheduled for Aug. 19.
August 10, 2019 4:15 am
MONACA, Pa. (AP) – President Donald Trump is coming to western Pennsylvania next week to visit a multibillion-dollar ethane cracker plant under construction.
A White House official said Thursday the visit to the 386-acre site in Monaca that had been planned for this week before two mass shootings occurred will take place on Tuesday.
The massive Shell Pennsylvania Chemicals plant will convert natural gas liquids into plastic pellets to be used in manufacturing. There are currently about 5,000 construction workers on the site. Shell has said it expects to have about 600 permanent workers at the Ohio River facility, once it’s fully built and up and running sometime in the early 2020s. The plant will be operated by Shell Polymers.
