November 13, 2019 4:03 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The FBI is investigating how Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration came to issue permits for construction on a multibillion-dollar pipeline to carry natural gas liquids across Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned. FBI agents have interviewed current or former state employees in recent weeks about the Mariner East pipelines, according to three people who have direct knowledge of the agents’ questions. All three spoke on condition of anonymity. When permits were approved in 2017, environmental advocacy groups accused Wolf’s administration of pushing through incomplete permits that violated the law. Wolf’s administration is declining comment. It has said in the past that the permits contained strong environmental protections and it denied forcing the Department of Environmental Protection to issue them. The chief federal prosecutor in Harrisburg, U.S. Attorney David Freed, declined comment.
November 12, 2019 3:36 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Robert De Niro will receive the Screen Actors Guild’s life achievement award. The guild announced that De Niro will be the 56th recipient of its highest honor at its SAG Awards on Jan. 19, 2020. SAG cited De Niro’s extraordinary accomplishments in film and television, including two Academy Awards, a Presidential Medal of Freedom and numerous other honors. It also noted his co-founding and championing of New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival. De Niro’s latest film is “The Irishman,” which is playing in theaters in limited release before arriving on Netflix at the end of the month. The actor says in a statement that he’s honored to receive the award from a union that he’s been a part of for more than 50 years.
November 12, 2019 3:33 pm
DEMOPOLIS, Ala. (AP) – Police searching for a 5-year-old Florida girl who’s been missing since last week say they’ve found human remains in rural Alabama. A statement issued Tuesday by police in Demopolis, Alabama, says the team looking for Taylor Rose Williams found a body. Police say the remains were located in a wooded area between two towns in Marengo County, located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Montgomery. The statement says authorities are working to confirm the victim’s identification. The child was reported missing from her Jacksonville, Florida, home last Wednesday. Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams sheriff says Taylor’s mother, Brianna Williams, hasn’t spoken with investigators since that day. The police statement says authorities from Alabama and Florida assisted in the search.
November 12, 2019 3:24 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The FBI is investigating how Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration came to issue permits for construction on a multibillion-dollar pipeline to carry natural gas liquids across Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned. FBI agents have interviewed current or former state employees in recent weeks about the Mariner East pipelines, according to three people who have direct knowledge of the agents’ questions. All three spoke on condition of anonymity. When permits were approved in 2017, environmental advocacy groups accused Wolf’s administration of pushing through incomplete permits that violated the law. Wolf’s administration is declining comment. It has said in the past that the permits contained strong environmental protections and it denied forcing the Department of Environmental Protection to issue them. The chief federal prosecutor in Harrisburg, U.S. Attorney David Freed, declined comment.
November 12, 2019 10:25 am
ATLANTA (AP) – Jimmy Carter’s spokeswoman says the former president is recovering at Emory University Hospital following surgery to relieve pressure from bleeding on his brain. Deanna Congileo says there were no complications from the surgery. She says Carter will remain in the hospital for observation, and she doesn’t anticipate making more announcements until he’s released. Her Tuesday statement also says the Carters thank everyone for the many well-wishes they have received.
November 12, 2019 10:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court is letting a lawsuit proceed against the maker of the rifle used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The justices rejected an appeal Tuesday from Remington Arms that argued a 2005 federal law shields firearms manufacturers from most lawsuits when their products are used in crimes. The court’s order allows a survivor and relatives of nine victims who died at the Newtown, Connecticut, school in 2012 to pursue their claims. The lawsuit says the Madison, North Carolina-based company should never have sold a weapon as dangerous as the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle that gunman Adam Lanza used to kill 20 first graders and six educators. It also alleges Remington targeted younger, at-risk males in marketing and product placement in violent video games. The National Rifle Association was among those urging the court to jump into the case and end the lawsuit against Remington.
November 12, 2019 7:46 am
INDIANA, Pa. – (WPXI) – A woman and her two children who police believed might have been in danger have been located. Police were searching for Alicia Brumbaugh, 31; Maverick Brumbaugh, 1; and Aleah Brumbaugh, 2, who were last seen about 4 a.m. Monday in Imler, authorities said. Investigators believed they were with Alicia Brumbaugh’s father-in-law, 56-year-old Edgar Decker Jr., who has an active felony warrant and was recently released from rehab. Alicia Brumbaugh made a frantic phone call just before 11:30 p.m. Monday from near the parking lot of a Walmart in Indiana, but the call ended before police got any information, authorities said.
November 12, 2019 7:42 am
Another member of the Pagans Motorcycle club has been sentenced in connection with a brutal beating at the Charleroi Slovak club earlier this year. 57 year old Brian Keruskin pleaded no contest to a charge of conspiracy to engage in aggravated assault. According to reports, Keruskin was sentenced to two-and-a-half to eight years in state prison. Prosecutors maintain that he encouraged an officer at the club to erase surveillance video that showed him allow several Pagan members into the club to assault 53 year old Troy Harris in April. A dozen people were charged in connection with the assault.
November 12, 2019 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Impeachment hearings for President Donald Trump come at the very time that Capitol Hill usually tends to its mound of unfinished business. The hearings and the possibility of impeachment and a trial create yet another layer of complications for senior lawmakers pressing for an agreement on $1.4 trillion worth of federal agency budgets or finalizing a rewrite of the North American trade rules. Yet the new few weeks could still be the last, best opportunity for lawmakers to wrap up their work. In the near term, the sole piece of must-do business is to pass a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown. Avoiding a shutdown shouldn’t be a problem, at least for now, with passage of a temporary, governmentwide spending bill to perhaps Dec. 20 virtually assured.
November 12, 2019 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Protections for 660,000 immigrants are on the line at the Supreme Court. The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday on the Trump administration’s bid to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shields immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and allows them to work in the United States legally. The program was begun under President Barack Obama. The Trump administration announced in September 2017 that it would end DACA protections, but lower federal courts have stepped in to keep the program alive.
Now it’s up to the Supreme Court to say whether the way the administration has gone about trying to wind down DACA complies with federal law. A decision is expected by June 2020, amid the presidential election campaign.
