September 23, 2020 1:35 pm
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – A Kentucky grand jury has brought no charges against Louisville police for the killing of Breonna Taylor during a drug raid gone wrong. Prosecutors said Wednesday that two officers who fired their weapons at the Black woman were justified in using force to protect themselves. Instead, Officer Brett Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing into the apartments of Taylor’s neighbors. Taylor was shot multiple times by officers who burst into her home on March 13 during a narcotics investigation. Protesters began marching in Louisville immediately after the charges were announced. Many people were expressing anger and frustration that the grand jury did not do more.
September 23, 2020 11:49 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The Uncle Ben’s rice brand is changing its name to Ben’s Original. Parent company Mars Inc. is the latest company to drop a logo criticized as a racial stereotype. Mars said the Ben’s Original packaging will hit stores in 2021. Since the 1940s, the rice boxes have featured a white-haired Black man, sometimes with a bowtie. Critics have said the image evoke servitude. Global President for Mars Food Fiona Dawson says the company is still deciding on an image to accompany the new name. Pressure on brands to retire racial imagery have intensified amid the Black Lives Matter protests over police killings of unarmed African Americans. Aunt Jemima and Eskimo Pie are among other brands that are retiring racial logos.
September 23, 2020 11:14 am
(WPXI) – A very popular music venue in Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood is closing its doors for good due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and an uncertain future. The Rex Theater, a premier venue on East Carson Street, has been an area staple since occupying the space of a former vaudeville theater 11 years ago. It hosted local and national bands, primarily in indie, electronic and other genres. Since the shutdowns started in mid-March, The Rex hasn’t been able to host live shows. On Tuesday, officials with the venue posted a lengthy statement on social media explaining their decision to shut down permanently.
September 23, 2020 11:09 am
(WPXI) – Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Department of Health Sec. Dr. Rachel Levine have filed an appeal against a judge’s ruling that some COVID-19 restrictions were unconstitutional. The appeal is also against the judge’s decision on Tuesday to deny a stay. In a Sept. 14 ruling, the judge said the actions of Wolf and Levine were taken with “good intention of addressing a public health emergency,” but they were unconstitutional. That ruling was made on a lawsuit filed by Butler, Fayette, Greene and Washington counties. The lawsuit was directed at the state’s business closure order and the stay-at-home orders issued in March, as well as the indoor and outdoor gathering limitations. Wolf previously said an appeal would be filed, saying the actions he and other state officials took in the early stages of the pandemic were “necessary to keep people safe before we had the resources to reopen safely.”
September 23, 2020 3:07 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A lack of firefighting resources in the hours after it was sparked allowed a fast-moving wildfire to make an unprecedented run through Southern California mountains. The Bobcat Fire eventually found fuel in old-growth trees to become one of Los Angeles County’s largest fires ever. The blaze has burned for more than two weeks and is still threatening more than 1,000 homes after scorching its way through brush and timber down into the Mojave Desert. At least 29 homes have been destroyed. But officials say that number will grow. It’s one of dozens of other major blazes across the West.
September 23, 2020 3:05 am
MIAMI (AP) – An American company has pleaded guilty to federal charges that it paid bribes to officials in Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela to get lucrative contracts, and will pay $16.6 million in fines. The U.S. Department of Justice says Sargeant Marine, Inc., paid the bribes over several years for contracts concerning the buying or selling of asphalt, used in paving roads and other construction. The Justice Department says the company’s actions violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company used false consulting contracts and fake invoices, and also sent money to offshore bank accounts to facilitate the bribes, according to the department.
September 23, 2020 3:03 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republicans are charging ahead with plans to confirm President Donald Trump’s pick to quickly fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court. One possible holdout, GOP Sen. Mitt Romney, said Tuesday he supports holding a vote. Trump is set to announce his nominee Saturday. Appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett is considered the favorite. Conservatives are pushing for action before Election Day, Nov. 3. Democrats say it’s too close to the election and say whoever wins the presidency should pick the court nominee. Confirmation proceedings will touch off a wrenching debate even as early voting for president is underway in several states.
September 23, 2020 3:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House says Vice President Mike Pence’s airplane struck a bird on takeoff in New Hampshire, causing the pilot to return to the airport out of caution. Pence was flying home to Washington from a campaign event Tuesday at an airport hangar in Gilford. When Air Force Two took off from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, it struck a bird. A senior administration official said the vice president and his entourage weren’t in danger. The official wasn’t authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Pence ended up flying home on a cargo aircraft that the Secret Service uses to transport his vehicles during his travel.
September 23, 2020 3:01 am
SEATTLE (AP) – Seattle will reduce the police department’s budget and reallocate some money to community programs after the City Council voted Tuesday evening to override Mayor Jenny Durkan’s veto of adjustments to this year’s budget. The council’s proposals approved last month were supported by demonstrators who have marched in the city for months following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis but strongly opposed by the mayor and former police Chief Carmen Best. Council President M. Lorena González said before the vote that divestment from a broken policing model is not only the right thing to do, it is the needed course of action if they believe that Black lives matter.
September 23, 2020 2:59 am
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) – The U.S. government has executed a former soldier who said an obsession with witchcraft led him to kill a Georgia nurse he believed had put a spell on him. William Emmett LeCroy is the sixth federal inmate put to death this year at the U.S. prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Before that, there had been a 17-year hiatus without any federal executions. Lawyers had asked President Donald Trump in a petition to commute LeCroy’s sentence for killing Joann Lee Tiesler in 2001. They said LeCroy’s brother was killed during a routine traffic stop in 2010 and that another son’s death would devastate the LeCroy family.
