October 7, 2019 5:18 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Two major retailers say they will no longer sell e-cigarettes in the U.S. amid mounting health questions surrounding vaping. Supermarket chain Kroger and drugstore chain Walgreen announced Monday they would discontinue sales of e-cigarettes at their stores nationwide, citing an uncertain regulatory environment. The vaping industry has come under scrutiny after hundreds of people have fallen ill and at least eight have died after using vaping devices. Walmart announced last month that it would stop selling e-cigarettes at its stores nationwide. Kroger said it would stop selling e-cigarettes as soon at its current inventory runs out at its more than 2,700 stores and 1,500 fuel centers. The Cincinnati-based company operates the Ralphs, Harris Teeter and other stores. Walgreens, based in Deerfield, Illinois, operates more than 9,500 stores in the U.S.
October 7, 2019 4:24 pm
FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) – The student body president of a West Virginia university has been charged with felony strangulation. News outlets report 21-year-old Tyler Keller was arrested by Fairmont police on Friday. Keller is the president of the Student Government Association at Fairmont State University. The Times West Virginian reports a complaint states Keller choked a man with both hands and then the man struck Keller in the head with a glass wine bottle to get free. The complaint also states Keller struck the man in the left ear so hard the victim sustained hearing loss. Court papers say Keller had accused the man of taking his cell phone. Jail records show Keller is out on bond. It’s unclear whether he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
October 7, 2019 1:19 pm
ABINGTON, Mass. (AP) – Authorities say two adults and three children have been found dead in a Massachusetts home. Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz says the bodies were found in the Abington condo on Monday morning. Cruz says it appears they died of gunshot wounds. Police say there is no threat to the public. Abington, a town of about 16,000 people, is about 20 miles south of Boston.
October 7, 2019 11:56 am
(WPXI) – Concerns over cases of a rare cancer in the Canon-McMillan School District will be discussed Monday night during a public hearing. A Pennsylvania Department of Health report released in April found no evidence of a cluster of Ewings Sarcoma, even though there had been six reported cases in the past ten years, but it had to be verified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before a public meeting could be held to discuss the findings. Monday night, concerned families will have a chance to address their concerns. Affected parents and concerned groups will hold a news conference ahead of the Department of Health’s community meeting to discuss childhood cancers in southwestern Pennsylvania. During the news conference, which is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Canon-McMillan High School, the parents and concerned groups will call on Gov. Tom Wolf and the DOH to take “immediate action to investigate childhood cancers in the region and take steps to protect residents from health impacts that may be associated with local industrial activities.”
October 7, 2019 9:19 am
NEW YORK (AP) – An appeals court has temporarily blocked the release of President Donald Trump’s tax returns to New York state investigators. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan Monday granted the delay requested by Trump’s lawyers until the appeals court could consider the issue expeditiously. It came as Trump tweeted that “Radical Left Democrats” were pushing local and state “Democrat prosecutors to go get President Trump.” The action froze the effect of a ruling by Judge Victor Marrero that concluded Trump could not stop his accounting firm from complying with a subpoena seeking his tax returns. The returns were sought in a criminal probe of the Trump Organization’s involvement in buying the silence of two women who claimed to have had affairs with the president.
October 7, 2019 5:29 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Rip Taylor, the mustached comedian with a fondness for confetti-throwing who became a television game show mainstay in the 1970s, has died. He was 84. Publicist Harlan Boll said Taylor died Sunday in Beverly Hills. An army veteran who served in the Korean War, Taylor’s showbiz ascent started with spots on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” where he was known as the “crying comedian.” He’d go on to make over 2,000 guest appearances on shows like “Hollywood Squares” and “The Gong Show” and host the beauty pageant spoof “The $1.98 Beauty Show.” He also played himself in “Wayne’s World 2” and the “Jackass” movies, appeared on stage in “Sugar Babies” and “Oliver!” and performed an autobiographical one-man play “It Ain’t All Confetti.” Taylor is survived by his longtime partner Robert Fortney
October 7, 2019 4:20 am
DETROIT (AP) – The top negotiator in contract talks between General Motors and the United Auto Workers says bargaining has hit a big snag. In an email to union members, UAW Vice President Terry Dittes (DIT-ez) casts doubt on whether there will be a settlement soon in a dispute that’s led to a 21-day strike by 49,000 union members. Dittes’ letter says the union presented a proposal to the company Saturday. He says GM responded Sunday by reverting back to an offer that had been rejected and made few changes. He says the company isn’t willing to fairly compensate workers. GM says it continues to negotiate in good faith “with very good proposals.” The strike has shut down GM’s U.S. production since Sept. 16 and hampered manufacturing in Mexico and Canada.
October 7, 2019 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is opposing President Donald Trump’s plan to pull U.S. troops from northern Syria. It’s a rare policy split between the Senate’s top Republican and Trump. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is also against Trump’s decision. But the California Democrat is using far stronger language than McConnell. McConnell says an early U.S. withdrawal “would only benefit Russia, Iran” and Syrian President Bashar Assad, who’s waged an eight-year civil war against Syrian opposition forces. The Kentucky Republican says it would make it easier for ISIS to rebuild. McConnell says U.S. interests are not well served by “retreat or withdrawal.” Pelosi says a withdrawal is “reckless” and would “betray” Kurds who have helped fight ISIS. She calls it “a foolish attempt to appease an authoritarian strongman” – a seeming reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Photo: CNN)
October 7, 2019 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The disclosure of a second whistleblower threatens to undermine arguments made by President Donald Trump and his allies that a whistleblower complaint was improperly filed because it was largely based on secondhand information. Attorney Mark Zaid told The Associated Press in a text message Sunday that the second whistleblower, who also works in intelligence, has spoken to the intelligence community’s internal watchdog. This person hasn’t filed a complaint but does have “firsthand knowledge that supported” the original whistleblower.
Trump has rejected the accusations he did anything improper. The original whistleblower, a CIA officer, filed a formal complaint with the inspector general on Aug. 12 that triggered the impeachment inquiry being led by House Democrats. The complaint alleged Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country” in the 2020 election.
October 7, 2019 4:15 am
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) – A new court filing has revealed the federal government began a fraud investigation into coal company Blackjewel LLC prior to the company’s sale last week of two Wyoming coal mines. The Casper Star-Tribune reports the document filed Saturday indicates the investigation also preceded Blackjewel’s July bankruptcy filing. Court documents say Blackjewel owes the federal government about $50 million. The court filing says the government has been investigating Blackjewel’s potential violations of the False Claims Act, which holds corporations liable for defrauding the government. The government has asked a West Virginia federal bankruptcy court to delay discharging Blackjewel of its debts, which would allow the investigation to continue. A federal judge approved the sale of the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines to Eagle Specialty Materials without Blackjewel’s debt obligations.
