July 31, 2019 12:42 pm
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A western Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to 21 to 42 years in the death of his 4-month-old daughter. Thirty-one-year-old Joseph Gazzam of Mount Lebanon was convicted of third-degree murder in a degree-of-guilt hearing that followed his guilty plea to a general count of homicide. Allegheny County Judge Randal Todd sentenced him Wednesday to 20 to 40 years in on the murder count and a consecutive one to two years on a child endangerment count. Prosecutors said his daughter, Victoria, was repeatedly struck in November 2017. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that during the degree-of-guilt hearing the judge said the defendant knew his daughter was born premature and was fragile, so his actions were more than mere negligence, but there was little evidence that his actions were premeditated or malicious.
July 31, 2019 10:21 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The annual wages and benefits for U.S. workers rose in the second quarter at a slightly slower pace than the first, suggesting that the lowest unemployment levels in a half century have not triggering rapid gains in worker compensation. The Labor Department said Wednesday that pay and benefits for all U.S. workers increased 2.7% in the April-June quarter from a year earlier, down from a 2.8% rise in the first quarter compared to a year ago. The 12-month peak so far in this expansion for wages and salaries was a 2.9% gain for the period ending in December of last year. The unemployment rate fell to a half century low of 3.6% in April and May and ticked up slightly to a still historically low 3.7% in June.
July 31, 2019 9:59 am
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. – (WPXI) – A woman has turned herself in after a bizarre incident at the Walmart in West Mifflin, police said. The woman is accused of urinating on potatoes at Walmart. Surveillance pictures of the woman were released by police. Police identified her as 20-year-old Grace Brown. She’s facing multiple charges including open lewdness, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. However, she will not be held in jail and will instead receive a summons in the mail. Police did not say if they know why Brown allegedly relieved herself on the produce. A Walmart representative said a store employee saw what the woman was doing. “My first reaction is one, kind of horrified. I realize that some people have issues that might lead them to do things that might be considered unusual,” said Beth Elliot, who shops at the store. Walmart issued the following statement: “This type of obscene conduct is outrageous and we immediately disposed of the affected products and sanitized the area to ensure its cleanliness and safety for our customers. We’re working with the West Mifflin Police Department to find the responsible party and have them prosecuted.”
July 31, 2019 9:52 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration says it will set up a system allowing Americans to legally access lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar made the announcement Wednesday morning. Azar, a former drug industry executive, says U.S. patients will be able to import medications safely and effectively, with oversight from the Food and Drug Administration. States, drug wholesalers and pharmacists would act as intermediaries for consumers. The administration’s move comes as the industry is facing a litany of consumer complaints over drug prices, as well as legislation from both parties in Congress to rein in costs. President Donald Trump is supporting a Senate bill to cap medication costs for Medicare recipients.
July 31, 2019 8:48 am
DETROIT (AP) – Democratic presidential candidates are closing out the latest debate in Detroit. Marianne Williamson, who won over the crowd with her comments on Flint, Michigan’s water crisis, is calling for “some radical truth telling.” Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, who clashed with two of the leading progressives on stage, says Democrats must offer “real solutions, not impossible promises” to defeat President Donald Trump. But Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren says Democrats should be the “big party of structural change.” And Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he is running to “transform this country and to stand with the working class of America,” which he says has been decimated for decades.
July 31, 2019 8:44 am
EAGLEVILLE, Pa. (AP) – Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has been released from jail after serving less than a year for a grand jury secrecy violation. The 53-year-old left the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in the Philadelphia suburbs about 8:20 a.m. Wednesday. Kane is a Scranton native who was the first Democrat and first woman elected to be the state’s top prosecutor. She resigned after being convicted in 2016 of perjury, obstruction and other counts for leaking grand jury material and lying about it. She began serving a 10- to 23-month term in late November, and had a couple months shaved off for good behavior. Her lawyer says Kane couldn’t wait to get home to see her two sons.
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.
