October 14, 2019 3:49 pm
MCKEESPORT, Pa. (AP) – More than 16,000 customers in four western Pennsylvania communities are waiting to learn if a boil water advisory has been lifted. The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County told residents in McKeesport, Port Vue, Versailles and White Oak to boil their water after a pump failed on Saturday. The agency says the loss of water pressure could allow disease-causing organisms to enter the water distribution system. The agency says the McKeesport Water Treatment Plant is operating and purging air from its system. Two successful tests are needed before the boil water advisory will be lifted.
October 14, 2019 12:25 pm
An investigation is underway following a fatal, two-vehicle accident in Fayette County. Authorities say the crash occurred Sunday on Route 21. According to a release from Pennsylvania State Police Uniontown, a black Ford F-150 struck a Honda CR-V on the driver’s side, causing the Honda to roll. Police said both people inside the Honda were ejected from the vehicle as it continued to roll over. The passenger in that car died from his injuries. That victim, a 60-year-old man, was not identified pending the notification of his family.
October 14, 2019 10:25 am
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Fort Worth’s interim police chief says he expects a “substantial update” by Tuesday on whether a former police officer will be criminally charged in the shooting death of a black woman inside her home. Interim Chief Ed Kraus said Monday that Officer Aaron Dean would have been fired had he not resigned following Saturday’s shooting death of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson. Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price called for “justice and closure” for Jefferson’s family. Officers had responded to Jefferson’s home on a neighbor’s report of an open door. An attorney for Jefferson’s family says she was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when a shot was fired into her window, killing her. Kraus said Monday that there’s no sign that officers knocked on the front door and that the shot was fired from within the fenced-off backyard.
October 14, 2019 4:28 am
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The coroner’s office in New Orleans has identified one of two workers known to have died when a hotel under construction partially collapsed. He was 49-year-old Anthony Floyd Magrette. His body was removed from the wreckage Sunday and his identity was confirmed by the coroner Monday. New Orleans news outlets report his wife and family had kept a vigil at the site in downtown New Orleans until the body was removed. Efforts to retrieve another body and find the missing worker continued Monday in the dangerously unstable building at the edge of the French Quarter. Experts also are making plans to stabilize and move a huge crane at the site. Fire Chief Tim McConnell says engineers are in the structure to looking for ways to stabilize it. A huge crane at the site also must be stabilized. Two major thoroughfares near the French Quarter and the main business district remain closed. The cause of the collapse is under investigation. Officials said the last inspection of record at the site was Sept. 24th. (Photo: CNN)
October 14, 2019 4:26 am
TOKYO (AP) – Rescue crew are digging through mudslides and searching near flooded rivers for missing people after a typhoon caused serious damage in central and northern Japan, leaving as many as 35 people dead. Typhoon Hagibis, which hit Japan’s main island on Saturday, unleashed torrents of rain and strong winds that left thousands of homes flooded, damaged or without power. Kyodo News service reported Monday the typhoon killed 35 people, and 17 people were missing. Authorities warned of more mudslides with rain forecast for the area. Some muddy waters in streets, fields and residential areas had subsided. But many places remained flooded. People who lined up for morning soup at evacuation shelters expressed worries about the homes they had left behind.
October 14, 2019 4:25 am
BEIRUT (AP) – U.N. officials say the latest fighting in northeast Syria is compounding an already dire humanitarian situation. According to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, at least 160,000 civilians have been displaced since the Turkish offensive began on Oct. 9. That’s mostly from violence around the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain. Dujarric told reporters Monday that the U.N. World Food Program has so far provided immediate food assistance to more than 70,000 people fleeing towns as the fighting continues. He said “most of the displaced are staying with relatives or host communities, but increasing numbers are arriving at collective shelters in the area.” Northeast Syria was already facing a humanitarian crisis before the Turkish offensive, with 1.8 million of the 3 million women, children and men in the region in need of assistance, “including over 910,000 in acute need,” Dujarric said. He said there are also “heightened concerns” for vulnerable people in camps for the displaced, including al-Hol. That camp holds some 68,000 people who fled the last battlefields of the Islamic State group – 94% of them women and children.
October 14, 2019 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham says he’ll meet with President Donald Trump on Monday and plans to discuss sanctions against Turkey over its invasion into Syria. The South Carolina senator last week was critical of Trump’s announcement about removing U.S. troops from Syria. On Monday, Graham blamed Turkey for the turmoil in Syria, saying Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan “made the biggest mistake of his political life” and “brought this on himself.” Graham tells Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” there will be “crippling sanctions” from Congress that will “break” Turkey’s economy and “crush Erdogan until he stops the bloodshed.” Graham says Republicans, Democrats and the Trump administration will hit Erdogan “like a ton of bricks.” Syrian Kurdish forces previously aligned with the U.S. say they’ve reached a deal with Syrian President Bashar Assad to help fend off Turkey’s invasion. Graham says the alliance between the Kurds and Assad is “not good” for the United States. He says “Assad equals Iran” and “The last thing you want to do is to let Iran become more powerful in northeastern Syria.”
October 14, 2019 4:20 am
MACUNGIE, Pa. (AP) – Mack Truck workers are walking picket lines after their union launched a strike at plants in three states. The United Automobile Workers Union Local 677 workers began picketing Sunday morning at the Mack Truck cab and vehicle assembly plant and Lehigh Valley Logistics Center outside Allentown in Macungie, Pennsylvania. The company said the strike involves about 3,500 employees at facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida. The union says many issues are unresolved, including wages, job security and pension and health benefits. Mack Trucks President Martin Weissburg says he’s “surprised and disappointed” that the union decided to walk out “rather than to allow our employees to keep building trucks and engines while the parties continued to negotiate.” The action comes amid a weekslong United Automobile Workers strike at General Motors plants.
October 14, 2019 4:18 am
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania judge has declined to bar consideration of the death penalty in the case of a man charged with having killed a toddler last year. The (Altoona) Mirror reports that the Blair County judge said last week that attorneys for 20-year-old Drue Burd could repeat their objections to capital punishment after prosecutors finish presenting their evidence. Burd is charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, strangulation and related charges in the May 2018 death of 16-month-old Angela Beard. Prosecutors allege that he told investigators he put his hand over the child’s mouth and nose to make her fall asleep. They call the death penalty warranted because of the child’s age and another felony count. Prosecutors also argue that torture was involved, but defense attorneys say there’s no evidence of that.
October 14, 2019 4:17 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – An internal review of Pennsylvania’s parole system spurred by five parolees getting charged in quick succession with homicide is, in theory, acknowledging a long-standing complaint of parole agents. It asks lawmakers to update a 2012 law and add a trigger for an automatic six-month to one-year jail sentence for a parolee who continually ignores parole conditions, such as going to treatment or counseling. The 2012 law already has five such triggers, including threatening behavior or possession of a weapon. Law enforcement groups largely welcomed the acknowledgement from the state Department of Corrections. The county district attorneys association calls it a “significant recognition.” Parole agents, however, were skeptical it’ll change a system that, they say, has stripped them of discretion to pull a potentially dangerous parolee off the street.
