October 13, 2019 7:51 am
GREENSBURG, Pa. (WPXI) – A firefighter was hurt early Saturday while battling a fire that badly damaged the Greensburg Public Works building. Flames broke out just after midnight at the building on South Urania Avenue in Greensburg. The firefighter was taken to the hospital. Their condition has not been released. The fire caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, the fire chief said. The intense heat from the fire twisted the support beams inside the building. Two large dump trucks inside were badly charred. The city’s asphalt paver, snowplow equipment were also damaged by fire. The street sweeper machine may have been the source of the fire, the fire chief said.
October 12, 2019 4:33 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Pacific Gas & Electric says it’s restored power to 97% of the customers it deliberately blacked out because of weather-related fire concerns. PG&E reports Friday night that of the estimated 738,000 homes and businesses it deliberately blacked out Wednesday, only 21,000 are still without electricity. The outage affected portions of 35 counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, wine country, Central Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills. PG&E was concerned that dry, gusty winds would down power lines or throw debris into them, sparking brushfires. PG&E equipment was blamed for a deadly November fire. Winds gusting to 70 mph (112 kph) were reported Wednesday and Thursday. The utility says there were 30 instances of weather-related damage to its system during the shutoff.
October 12, 2019 4:32 am
TOKYO (AP) – Tokyo and surrounding areas are bracing for a powerful typhoon forecast as the worst in six decades with streets and trains stations unusually quiet as rain poured over the city. Store shelves are bare after people stocked up on water and food. Nearby beaches have not a surfer in sight, only towering dashing waves. Typhoon Hagibis is expected to bring up to 80 centimeters (30 inches) of rain in the Tokyo area, including Chiba to the north that suffered power outages and damage from last month’s typhoon. Rugby World Cup matches, concerts and other events are canceled, flights grounded and trains halted. Authorities acted quickly with warnings issued earlier this week, including urging people to stay indoors.
October 12, 2019 4:31 am
BEIJING (AP) – Companies have welcomed a U.S.-Chinese trade truce as a possible step toward breaking a deadlock in a 15-month-old tariff war, while economists caution there was little progress toward settling core disputes including technology that threaten global growth. President Donald Trump says Washington will suspend a tariff hike planned for Tuesday on $250 billion of Chinese goods. In exchange, Trump says China agreed to buy as much as $50 billion of American farm goods. Details of other possible agreements weren’t immediately released. The bruising battle over China’s trade surplus and technology ambitions has disrupted global trade. Economists warn a final settlement might take years to negotiate. Despite that, financial markets rise ahead of each round of talks and fall back when no progress is reported.
October 12, 2019 4:30 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Less than four months until voting begins, a Democratic presidential race that had been largely static through the summer has tumbled into a chaotic fall. Front-runners are facing urgent questions about their ability to take on President Donald Trump. Lower-tier candidates eager to challenge the top-tier trio are struggling to rise above the din in Washington. The uncertainty is heightening anxieties among Democrats desperate to defeat Trump in 2020. Although impeachment could put Trump’s presidency in peril, the process has also highlighted Trump’s skill at discrediting his opponents, sometimes with baseless conspiracy theories. And Democrats appear no closer to sorting out what tactics, what ideology and what person is best-suited to overcome that.
October 12, 2019 4:28 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch has told House impeachment investigators that President Donald Trump himself had pressured the State Department to oust her from her post and get her out of the country. Testifying in defiance of a Trump ban, Yovanovitch told lawmakers investigating Trump’s dealings with Ukraine that there was a “concerted campaign” against her based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.” The diplomat was recalled from Kyiv as Rudy Giuliani – who is Trump’s personal attorney and has no official role in the U.S. government – pressed Ukrainian officials to investigate baseless corruption allegations against Democrat Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was involved with a gas company there.
October 12, 2019 4:26 am
MASONTOWN, Pa. – (WPXI) – A man who killed the ex-boyfriend of a woman he met on a dating app was found not guilty of murder. Christopher Shellhammer testified on Wednesday about the night he went to Kelly French’s Masontown home, the woman he said he met on a dating app. He said it was their fourth date and he was scared of her ex-boyfriend, Michael Hendrich, who punched him in the face the last time he pulled up to her house. Shellhammer was on trial for murdering French’s ex-boyfriend that night. Police said he shot and killed Hendrich inside the home. He told jurors that after he sat down at the dining room table, Hendrich came around the corner, pumped his chest and said, “Now what did you want to do with my old lady?” Shellhammer said that’s when he pulled out his gun and said, “It’s time for me to leave.” Shellhammer testified he made it to the front door, but it was locked and they cornered him and punched him. He said that is when Hendrich told French to grab his gun, so he had to fire. During cross-examination, the prosecutor asked, “You pulled a gun on an unarmed man?” and Shellhammer said, “I pulled a gun on two aggressive people who had me scared.”
October 12, 2019 4:25 am
HOUSTON – A Pittsburgh heart surgeon was one of eight people arrested after a days-long operation to crack down on online sexual predators targeting children. 38 year old Shawn Paul Robinson, a surgeon from Pittsburgh who was on a fellowship at a hospital in Houston – was arrested for online solicitation of a minor following the undercover operation. In the operation, “Back to School III,” undercover officers chatted with the predators using online personas in various social media apps. They were posing as minors. Robinson, along with the seven others arrested, believed they were talking to underage children, investigators said.
October 11, 2019 1:24 pm
(AP) – A judge has said he will halt lawsuits against Purdue Pharma and its owners for six months in hopes of finalizing a settlement over the OxyContin maker’s role in the national opioid crisis. In a hearing Friday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain strongly brushed aside the argument from a group of state attorneys general that lawsuits against members of the wealthy Sackler family would be essential to getting accountability in the case. His decision does not mean that a tentative settlement struck between the company and about half the states would become a final agreement. Drain says he is looking for input from states on the terms of pressing pause on the lawsuits.
October 11, 2019 4:23 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – President Donald Trump lashed out at potential Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Trump said at a rally Thursday in Minneapolis that Biden became Barack Obama’s vice president because he knew how to curry favor with Obama. The Republican president also targeted Hunter Biden, suggesting a T-shirt that says “Where’s Hunter?” Trump has been spreading groundless claims that the Bidens used their family name to get China and Ukraine to pay them millions of dollars. The Democratic-controlled House opened an impeachment inquiry after a whistleblower complained about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine and alleged Trump was abusing his public office for personal political gain. Trump later released a rough transcript of a phone conversation with Ukraine’s president in which he asks for an investigation of Biden.
