July 18, 2019 5:48 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – A U.S. senator and a Florida congresswoman are praising a federal judge’s decision to keep financier Jeffrey Epstein behind bars. Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Oversight Subcommittee, says the judge’s decision Thursday to keep Epstein jailed until trial “wasn’t a close call.” He calls Epstein a “molester” who “stole the innocence of many little girls.” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, says the judge “made the right call.” She says “survivors deserve more answers and true justice” and Epstein “will never spend enough time behind bars.” The 66-year-old Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges on July 6. He has pleaded not guilty. His defense lawyers left Manhattan federal court Thursday without commenting. (Photo: CNN)
July 18, 2019 12:27 pm
MARIANNA, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say an ATV rider was killed when he was thrown off it and struck by another vehicle on a road in Washington County. Marianna police say 21-year-old Tyler Raymond Markoff of Marianna was driving his ATV on Rosewood Avenue when it overturned around 5:15 p.m. Wednesday as he tried to make a right turn. Markoff landed in the opposite lane of traffic and ended up in the path of the other vehicle, which wasn’t able to stop in time. Markoff was taken to a hospital but died there a short time later. No other injuries were reported. Authorities say the accident remains under investigation.
July 18, 2019 5:52 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A Republican senator has blocked a bipartisan bill that would ensure a victims’ compensation fund for the Sept. 11 attacks never runs out of money. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul questions the bill’s 70-year time frame and notes that the federal government already faces a $22 trillion debt. He says any new spending such as the 9/11 bill should be offset by cuts. Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is criticizing Paul for playing what she calls “political games.” The bill has 73 co-sponsors in the Senate and easily passed the House last week. Gillibrand says 9/11 first responders and “the entire nation are watching to see if this body actually cares about the men and women who answered the call of duty” after the 2001 attacks.
July 18, 2019 5:49 am
TOKYO (AP) – A Japanese fire official says the death toll from the Kyoto Animation studio fire is now 33 and nobody else is believed to be still missing. Kyoto fire department official Kazuhiro Hayashi says 36 others have been injured, 10 of them critically. Hayashi says firefighters found the largest number of victims on the top floor of the three-story building, including some who had collapsed on the stairs leading to the roof. Two of the dead were found on the first floor, 11 on the second and 20 on the third floor. Japanese media reports said the suspect may have set the fire at the front door, forcing people to try to find other exits and slowing their escape. The outcome makes the case the deadliest fire since a 2001 fire that killed 44 in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district. The suspect was injured and is in a hospital.
July 18, 2019 4:20 am
DETROIT (AP) – The heat wave that has been roasting much of the U.S. in recent days is just getting warmed up, with temperatures expected to soar to dangerous levels through the weekend. Communities are preparing by offering buildings as cooling centers and asking residents to check in on family members and neighbors. Officials are also concerned about smog, which is exacerbated by the heat and makes it harder for certain people to breathe, including the very young, the elderly and people with asthma or lung diseases. The National Weather Service estimates that more than 100 local heat records will fall on Saturday, though most won’t be daily highs but record-high nightly lows. Greg Carbin, forecast branch chief for the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center, says the heat wave will likely be “short and searing.”
July 18, 2019 4:19 am
NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. overdose deaths finally stopped climbing last year. And they apparently fell a little – the first such decline in nearly three decades. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday posted the preliminary numbers showing nearly 68,000 drug overdose deaths were reported last year. The number may go up as more investigations are completed, but the agency expects the tally will end up below 69,000. Overdose deaths have been climbing each year since 1990, topping 70,000 in 2017. Any leveling off or decline in overdose deaths is good news, but the overdose death rate is still about seven times higher than it was a generation ago. The improvement was driven by a drop in deaths from heroin and prescription painkillers. Overdose deaths often involve more than one drug.
July 18, 2019 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House is slamming the Democrat-controlled House’s vote to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt for failing to comply with subpoenas related to a decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is calling the move “ridiculous and yet another lawless attempt to harass the President and his Administration.” Grisham says the departments of Justice and Commerce have produced more than 31,000 pages of documents on the issue, and that senior officials from both agencies have spoken on record to address the matter. The vote is largely symbolic because the Justice Department is unlikely to prosecute Barr and Ross. Trump last week abandoned his effort to add a citizenship question into the 2020 census after the Supreme Court blocked the move.
July 18, 2019 4:16 am
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) – President Donald Trump is going after four freshman Democratic lawmakers one by one after previously tweeting that they should “go back” to their home countries if they have complaints about the U.S., even though they are all American citizens. At a rally Wednesday night in Greenville, North Carolina, Trump began by verbally attacking Rep. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota as the crowd chanted, “Send her back!” Omar came to the United States as a refugee from war-torn Somalia when she was a child. Trump also mentioned Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. Of Tlaib, he complained that she is “not somebody who loves our country” because she had referred to impeaching him using an expletive. The president’s rhetoric on Wednesday echoed similar language he employed to rile up his base in 2016.
July 18, 2019 4:09 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A nonprofit arts organization is raising the alarm over what the chief executive calls a “declining level of public safety” in an area of downtown Pittsburgh that is being redeveloped. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has focused for decades on the economic and cultural development of a once-seedy 14-square-block section of the city’s downtown area.
But the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that CEO Kevin McMahon says in a letter to Mayor Bill Peduto that “alarming” recent problems – such as a July 4 shooting that wounded two people – threaten “to undo the reputation and the achievements created” over the past 35 years. Peduto, in a statement, said city homicides have been down every year since 2014 and the latest statistics show a 3% drop this year in violent and property crimes.
July 18, 2019 4:07 am
PITTSBURGH – (WPXI) – Off-duty police officer Calvin Hall, who was shot early Sunday morning in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood, has died, officials confirmed Wednesday. Hall, 36, was at a house on Monticello Street visiting friends when he was shot three times in the back, according to investigators. He died Wednesday at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. “We as a Bureau are heartbroken. We are in mourning. We are supporting each other, and we are keeping Officer Hall’s family in our prayers and doing whatever we can to support and lift them in this dark, devastating time,” Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Chief Scott Schubert said in a statement. Hall was stationed in Northview Heights for the last two years. Police said he was assigned there because of his positive attitude and ability to relate to people. Schubert’s statement went on to say: “In his time here he left an indelible mark on his brother and sister officers, as well as the community he served. He was known for his quick smile, ever-optimistic attitude and for his career-long focus on community policing. He was a model officer. He made it a priority to connect with residents, and succeeded in doing so.” “He was only there to help people and save lives. Now he’s gone,” said Brenda Jones, the vice president of the Northview Heights Citizen Council. Jones and the rest of her community are trying to comprehend Hall’s death and realizing that they won’t see him in the neighborhood anymore. “He talked to a lot of kids, and they asked him how to be a police officer, and they said when they grow up, that’s what they want to be,” Jones said. “Anyone in need of help he would be right there to help them, and that’s what I’m going to miss,” Jones said. Officials said Hall previously worked for the Braddock Police Department and had also worked as a police officer for Point Park University.
