August 17, 2020 4:16 am
CHEAT LAKE, W.Va. (AP) – A West Virginia official says seven people were injured in a boat explosion. Lawrence Messina of the state Division of Natural Resources says the Crownline watercraft had just refueled at Edgewater Marina on Cheat Lake Sunday evening when the operator tried to start the engine and the explosion occurred. Those injured suffered burns. Messina told WDTV that eight people were on the boat. The agency is investigating.
August 17, 2020 4:15 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The mayor of Pittsburgh is strongly condemning tactics used in the arrest of a protester during a march over the weekend that drew condemnation from the American Civil Liberties Union and others. Mayor Bill Peduto said he was “livid” after seeing images of the arrest and “will never tolerate these tactics being used at peaceful protests again.” On Sunday, Peduto said he had “serious concerns” after plainclothes officers arrested a protester at about 5 p.m. Saturday in Oakland and placed him in an unmarked, white van. After Peduto’s remarks Sunday, about 150 protesters marched to his house and demonstrated there. (Photo: WPXI)
August 17, 2020 2:31 am
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (WPXI) — The Pa. Department of Health removed five states from its COVID-19 travel advisory list on Friday. If you have traveled, or plan to travel, to an area where there are high amounts of coronavirus cases, it is recommended that you stay at home for 14 days upon return to Pennsylvania. The states that were removed are Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin. Since those states are no longer considered to be “hot spots,” the state health department said quarantining is not necessary after returning to Pennsylvania.
August 16, 2020 7:41 am
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Telephone service between the United Arab Emirates and Israel has begun as the two countries opened diplomatic ties. Associated Press journalists in Jerusalem and Dubai were able to call each other from both landline and cellular phones on Sunday. Officials in Israel and the UAE did not immediately acknowledge the lines had begun working. Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced Thursday they are establishing full diplomatic relations in a U.S.-brokered deal that required Israel to halt its contentious plan to annex occupied West Bank land sought by the Palestinians.
August 16, 2020 7:40 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – The United States and South Korea will begin their annual joint military exercises this week. But a spreading coronavirus outbreak has apparently forced the allies to scale back an already low-key training program mainly involving computer-simulated war scenarios. The drills could still irk North Korea, which portrays the allies’ combined training as invasion rehearsals and has threatened to abandon stalled nuclear talks. The exercises also come at a delicate time after President Donald Trump openly complained about the costs of maintaining 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to protect against North Korean threats. The allies have so far failed to sign a new cost-sharing agreement after the last one expired at the end of 2019.
August 16, 2020 7:39 am
JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel has closed the Gaza Strip’s offshore fishing zone following a night of cross-border fighting with Palestinian militants, the most intense escalation of hostilities in recent months. Sunday’s move comes after Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two rockets into southern Israel following Israeli airstrikes that targeted sites belonging to the territory’s militant Hamas rulers. The military said the Iron Dome aerial defense system intercepted the two rockets that militants in Gaza launched at southern Israel. But police said rocket fallout caused damage to a house in the town of Sderot, and paramedics treated a 58-year-old man for minor wounds from exploding glass.
August 16, 2020 7:38 am
SEATTLE (AP) – A senior administration official says President Donald Trump intends to withdraw the nomination of William Perry Pendley to head the Bureau of Land Management. The news was cheered by conservationists who insisted the longtime advocate of selling federal lands should not be overseeing them. Pendley is a former oil industry and property rights attorney from Wyoming who has been leading the Bureau of Land Management for more than a year under a series of temporary orders from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Democrats alleged the temporary orders were an attempt to skirt the nomination process, and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and conservation groups have filed lawsuits to have him removed from office.
August 16, 2020 7:37 am
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Police in Portland, Oregon, declared a riot as protesters demonstrated outside a law enforcement building early Sunday, continuing a nightly ritual in the city. News outlets report officers used crowd control munitions to disperse the gathering outside the Penumbra Kelly building. Police say protesters had thrown “softball size” rocks, glass bottles and other objects at officers. Police also reported vandalism at the building. The actions came after what started as a peaceful protest late Saturday. Violence had erupted earlier Saturday afternoon when a small group of alt-right demonstrators traded paint balls and pepper spray with counter-protesters.
August 16, 2020 7:36 am
NEW YORK (AP) – President Donald Trump’s younger brother, Robert Trump, has died after being hospitalized in New York. He was 71. In a statement Saturday night, the president said his brother was his “best friend.” Donald Trump visited his brother at a New York City hospital Friday after White House officials said he had become seriously ill. The youngest of Trump’s siblings had remained close to the president. As recently as June, Robert Trump filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Trump family that unsuccessfully sought to stop publication of a tell-all book by the president’s niece. Officials did not immediately release a cause of death.
August 16, 2020 7:33 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses have been hit with about 150 lawsuits from people who say they were sexually abused as children by priests and hope a state court decision last year has shown a way around time limits for legal claims. That number may be end up dozens higher as lawyers are filing ahead of the two-year anniversary Friday of the Pennsylvania attorney general’s landmark grand jury report on priest molestation. The bulk of the new cases were filed against the Pittsburgh, Allentown, Scranton and Philadelphia dioceses. The state’s dioceses have already paid out millions to victims of priest molestation.
