July 13, 2019 3:42 am
(WPXI) – The wait is almost over! Kennywood’s newest roller coaster, “The Steel Curtain,” opens to thrill-seekers this weekend! The record-setting coaster opens to the public Saturday At 220 feet, the coaster is now Pennsylvania’s tallest, according to Kennywood. It also includes the world’s tallest inversion, at 197 feet high. Part of a collaboration with the Pittsburgh Steelers, The Steel Curtain is the flagship attraction of a themed section of Kennywood that’s being called “Steelers Country.”
July 12, 2019 9:57 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta is stepping down following criticism of his handling of a plea deal with a wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. Trump announced the news with Acosta by his side at the White House as Trump left on a trip to the Midwest. Acosta says stepping aside was the right decision. He was the U.S. attorney in Miami when he oversaw a 2008 nonprosecution agreement with Epstein. Epstein avoided federal charges and served 13 months in jail. Similar charges recently filed against Epstein by federal prosecutors in New York had put Acosta’s role in the 2008 deal under renewed scrutiny.
July 12, 2019 9:34 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump unloaded via Twitter on former GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan, calling Ryan a “lame duck failure.” Ryan is very critical of Trump in the book “American Carnage” by Tim Alberta of Politico, in excerpts running in various publications. Alberta wrote the former speaker could not stand the idea of another two years with the president and saw retirement as the “escape hatch,” according to The Washington Post. Ryan is quoted saying: “I’m telling you, he didn’t know anything about government . I wanted to scold him all the time.”
Trump tweeted late Thursday: “He had the Majority & blew it away with his poor leadership and bad timing. Never knew how to go after the Dems like they go after us. Couldn’t get him out of Congress fast enough!”
July 12, 2019 4:30 am
HONOLULU (AP) – Dozens of people were violently slammed off the ceiling of a jetliner that encountered unexpected and intense turbulence over the Pacific Ocean Thursday. An Air Canada flight to Australia made an emergency landing in Honolulu after 37 people were injured, nine seriously, during the sudden loss of altitude that sent people flying into luggage compartments and aisles of the airplane. Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah said in a statement that the flight from Vancouver to Sydney encountered “un-forecasted and sudden turbulence” about two hours past Hawaii. Passenger Stephanie Beam says the plane “just dropped” and bodies were hurled upward. She says a woman behind her hit the ceiling so hard that she broke the casing of an oxygen mask.
July 12, 2019 4:29 am
The fight against blight continues in the City of Washington. City Council approved 6 properties in a public hearing to be demolished by the Washington County Redevelopment Authority. Following that meeting, council sent 8 properties to their Solicitor to perform title searches so that those houses may be demolished as well. Mayor Scott Putnam is quite proud of council’s accomplishments since he took office. Putnam states that there were 38 properties that needed to be torn down when he was sworn in. With council’s action on Thursday, that number has been taken down below 10. Funds for demolition come from Community Block Grants and LSA funds awarded to the city from the Local Share Accounts generated from proceeds of casino gambling.
July 12, 2019 4:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office says it wants to improve the management and use of firearms-sales databases so that law enforcement can better clamp down on gun violence. Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Thursday that he wants police departments to enter serial numbers from every crime gun into a law-enforcement database so that its original seller can be identified. His office says most crime guns aren’t being entered, as the law requires. Shapiro also says his office wants retailers to submit gun-sale records electronically to get rid of a police backlog of paper records that are waiting to be entered into a database. Shapiro’s office says that’ll allow law enforcement to more quickly trace guns used in crimes.
The effort comes amid a surge in gun violence in Philadelphia.
July 12, 2019 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump will visit Wisconsin on Friday, one of two Midwest stops as he warms up his re-election engine. Wisconsin has emerged as a vital testing ground for the president’s hopes to take credit for the strong economy and push for his trade policy. In 2016, Trump became the first Republican to win the state since Ronald Reagan in 1984, defeating Hillary Clinton by a slim margin. The state remains starkly divided over the president and appears a toss-up again in 2020 In a troubling sign for Trump’s chances in the state, Democrats swept every statewide office in the 2018 fall elections. Trump will make two stops in Milwaukee, one a fundraiser, and the other a visit to Derco Aerospace Inc., a subsidiary of aviation giant Lockheed Martin.
July 12, 2019 4:07 am
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The city closest to where Tropical Storm Barry is predicted to make landfall is already seeing power outages. Some Louisiana parishes around Morgan City were reporting more than half their customers without electricity around daybreak Saturday. A long day in Morgan City started with on and off rain. People were using cellphones to see in the dark and opening doors and windows to let the warm, sticky tropical air circulate. Barry’s center is expected to slowly move onshore near Morgan City later Saturday. East of Morgan City in New Orleans, only scattered showers and a light breeze stirred up the famous French Quarter. But forecasters warned that heavy rains and possible flooding were coming within hours. In the New Orleans suburbs, the storm’s approach filled Lake Pontchartrain 3 feet (1 meter) above typical levels. Winds pushed water onto streets on the north side of the lake near Mandeville.
July 12, 2019 4:03 am
CHICAGO (AP) – Singer R. Kelly was arrested in Chicago Thursday after he was indicted on 13 federal counts including sex crimes, a U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman said. Joseph Fitzpatrick said the R&B singer was taken into custody about 7 p.m. local time and was being held by federal authorities. He was arrested after a 13-count federal indictment was handed down earlier Thursday in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois. “The counts include child porn, enticement of a minor and obstruction of justice,” Fitzpatrick said, adding that further details would be released Friday. The R&B singer already faces separate state sex-related charges in Illinois involving four women, three of whom were minors when the alleged abuse occurred. He pleaded not guilty to those charges and was released on bail.
July 12, 2019 4:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Just a week after insisting that he was “absolutely moving forward,” President Donald Trump has abandoned his effort to insert a citizenship question into next year’s census.
Instead, he directed federal agencies to try to compile the information using existing databases. The president said it is essential to have a clear breakdown of the number of citizens and non-citizens that make up the U.S. population. The decision was clearly a reversal, after the Supreme Court blocked his effort by disputing his administration’s rationale for demanding that census respondents declare whether or not they were citizens. Trump wanted to pursue that effort, but the administration said that census deadlines made it impossible.
