February 6, 2020 4:09 am
BEIJING (AP) – China has cut tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. imports including soybeans, pork and auto parts in a trade truce with Washington as Beijing struggles with a costly virus outbreak. The cuts follow last month’s signing of a “Phase 1” agreement toward ending a long-running tariff war over Beijing’s technology ambitions and trade surplus. Both sides have made conciliatory gestures but the lingering dispute threatens to chill global economic growth. There was no indication Beijing altered its own reductions in response to the impact of measures imposed to contain a virus outbreak that have closed factories, restaurants and shops.
February 6, 2020 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – At a prayer breakfast in Washington, President Donald Trump has unleashed his fury against those who tried to remove him from office. His comments came as he relished his impeachment acquittal by the Senate a day earlier. Trump followed a prayer breakfast speaker who spoke of loving one’s enemies, but he would have none of it. He declared that he, his family and the country had been “put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,.” Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast, where he was joined onstage by congressional leaders, including Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led the impeachment charge against him. (Photo: CNN)
February 6, 2020 4:05 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A new state law is increasing the penalties for certain human trafficking offenses and directing some of the criminal fines to help sexually exploited children. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday signed the legislation, which takes effect in two months. It also defines “child” in the anti-trafficking statute as anyone under age 18, up from age 16. Legislative records indicate fewer than a dozen people were convicted of human trafficking or sexual servitude offenses in 2018. The bill was part of a wider package of legislation designed to combat human trafficking.
February 6, 2020 4:04 am
CAMP HILL, Pa. (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence made a swing through Pennsylvania into a post-acquittal victory lap. He roused a crowd of hundreds on Wednesday barely an hour after the Senate rejected articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Pence, appearing in a suburban Harrisburg hotel ballroom, delivered a standard campaign speech, but injected it with notes of victory and finality. He says Democrats tried to impeach Trump because they know they can’t defeat him in November’s election. Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate since 1988 to win Pennsylvania, and the state is expected to be a premier battleground in this year’s election.
February 5, 2020 4:39 pm
PALM CITY, Fla. (AP) – A Florida Highway Patrol trooper is dead after a shooting at a highway rest stop. The agency says Trooper Joseph Bullock died in the shooting Wednesday near Palm City. That’s about about a 45-minute drive north of West Palm Beach. No further details were released, including whether a suspect has been arrested. The shooting closed Interstate 95 in both directions in the area. Officials say it will remain closed until at least late Wednesday afternoon.
February 5, 2020 5:55 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. – (WPXI) – Five men pleaded guilty in severely beating a former member of the Pagan motorcycle gang in a bar last April. The trial for another two men, Matthew Vazquez and Joseph Olinsky III, started Tuesday. Video from inside the Charleroi Slovak Club showed seven Pagan motorcycle club members enter in a single file line and go straight for the victim, who was drinking a beer at the bar. Prosecutors said the men took turns punching and stomping the man as he was knocked to the ground. In opening statements, prosecutors told the jury the motorcycle club are outlaws who use outlaw justice. They were angry at the former member for joining another club. An emergency room surgeon who treated the victim the night of the attack said the man suffered permanent brain damage and had a face full of broken bones. Vazquez’s defense attorney argued his client could be seen in the bar video throwing just one punch. The attorney said the Pagan gang reputation should not sway jurors. He described Vazquez as a hardworking single father who joined the club for brotherhood, friendships and charitable rides. Olinsky’s attorney said the video showed her client was the first to leave and that he did not conspire against, hit or kick the victim.
February 5, 2020 4:14 am
BEIJING (AP) – Deaths from a new virus rose to 490 in mainland China while new cases on a Japanese cruise ship, in Hong Kong and elsewhere showed the increasing spread of the outbreak and renewed attention toward containing it. Ten people from the cruise ship tested positive and were taken to hospitals, while all 3,700 crew and passengers on the ship will be quarantined on board for up to 14 days. In Hong Kong, hospitals workers are striking to demand the border with mainland China be shut completely to ward off the virus, but four new cases without known travel to the mainland indicate the illness is spreading locally in the territory.
February 5, 2020 4:13 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Macy’s says it is closing 125 of its least productive stores and cutting 2,000 corporate jobs as the struggling department store tries to reinvent itself in the age of online shopping. The store closures represent about one fifth of Macy’s current total. It didn’t specify how many jobs would be lost at the shuttered stores. The corporate jobs will be shed as Macy’s closes its offices in Cincinnati and San Francisco, leaving New York as its sole corporate headquarters. The moves announced Tuesday come ahead of Macy’s annual investor meeting where CEO Jeff Gennette is expected to unveil a three-year reinvention plan.
February 5, 2020 4:12 am
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Democratic Party has released additional results of its kickoff presidential caucus after a long day of delay. The early results show former Midwestern Mayor Pete Buttigieg with a slight lead over progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the opening contest in the party’s 2020 primary season. The results late Tuesday followed 24 hours of chaos as technical issues marred the contest, forcing state officials to apologize and raising questions about Iowa’s traditional place atop the presidential primary calendar. It’s still too early to call a winner, but the results so far are not good news for former Vice President Joe Biden, who’s shown in fourth place behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
February 5, 2020 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Senate has acquitted President Donald Trump of impeachment, ending only the third presidential trial in American history with votes that split the country and tested civic norms. The proceedings also are feeding the tumultuous 2020 run for the White House. A majority of senators expressed unease with Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine that resulted in the two articles of impeachment. But there was nowhere near the two-thirds vote necessary in the Republican-held Senate to remove the president from office. He was found not guilty of both articles of impeachment. Trump is eager to use the tally as vindication, a political anthem in his reelection bid.
