Haley Alleges Disloyalty Among Some On Trump Team

November 11, 2019 4:21 am

NEW YORK (AP) – President Donald Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley , alleges in her upcoming memoir that two top administration officials tried to enlist her in opposing some of Trump’s policies.  Haley writes that then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and then-White House chief of staff John Kelly were following a “dangerous path.”  In her book, “With All Due Respect,” Haley describes a meeting with Tillerson and Kelly, both of whom had differed with Trump on pulling out of the Paris climate accords and other decisions.  Haley writes that Tillerson and Kelly believed they were trying to “save the country,” but she remembers thinking they were only trying to impose their own beliefs.  “I was shocked,” she writes.  Haley’s book comes out Tuesday. The Associated Press purchased an early copy.

Man Set On Fire During Chaotic Hong Kong Day

November 11, 2019 4:18 am

HONG KONG (AP) – A man has been set on fire following an apparent dispute over national identity in Hong Kong, where police shot a protester on a day of escalating violence.  The man set on fire around midday was in critical condition in a city hospital. Video posted online show him arguing with a group of young people, before someone douses him with a liquid and strikes a lighter.
The police shooting was also captured on video Monday as demonstrators blocked train lines and roads during the morning commute to push their demands for democratic reforms. The Hong Kong hospital authority said the person shot was in critical condition.  The violence is likely to further inflame passions after a student died Friday from injuries suffered in an earlier fall and police arrested six pro-democracy lawmakers over the weekend.

3 Trains Involved In Derailment Near Greensburg

November 11, 2019 4:15 am

HEMPFIELD, Pa. (AP) – Officials say three trains were involved in a derailment in western Pennsylvania, prompting cancellation of rail service between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, but no injuries were reported.  Three Norfolk Southern Corp. trains were involved in the 2:30 p.m. Friday derailment just west of the Georges Station Road bridge in Hempfield, about three miles (five kilometers) east of Greensburg.  Norfolk Southern said one westbound train struck the rear of another, and derailed cars hit part of an eastbound train. A total of 11 rail cars transporting 50 shipping containers derailed, blocking lines that carry both freight and passengers between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  Norfolk Southern said in a statement Saturday that cranes, excavators, loaders and other heavy equipment are being used to clear the tracks.

Allegheny County Controller Expects To Be Cleared

November 11, 2019 4:12 am

PITTSBURGH (AP) – An elected official from Pittsburgh scheduled for trial Tuesday in Michigan says she is confident she will be cleared of wrongdoing in an altercation at a Detroit hotel earlier this year.  Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner, who was overwhelmingly re-elected to a third term last week, faces felony resisting and obstructing police and misdemeanor disorderly conduct counts in Wayne County Court in the March incident.  Prosecutors allege Wagner interfered with Detroit police while they prepared to remove her husband, Khari Mosley, from the Westin Book Cadillac hotel on March 6. They were in Detroit for a concert.  Wagner and Mosley maintain they were the victims of hotel staff and police who acted improperly. Mosley was acquitted in July of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace counts.

Is It Pot Or Not?

November 10, 2019 8:25 am

NEW YORK (AP) – The CBD craze is leaving the war on drugs a bit dazed and confused. The extract that’s been showing up in everything from candy to coffee is legally derived from hemp plants, which look and smell a lot like marijuana. New York City police boasted this week about what seemed like a big bust: more than 100 pounds of plants that officers thought were marijuana. They also arrested the man who came to pick up the plants. The Vermont farm that grew the plants and the Brooklyn CBD shop that ordered them insist they’re legal industrial hemp. The shop owner says if they’re seized for too long, he could go out of business. Since the U.S. government removed industrial hemp last year from the list of illegal drugs, a number of similar cases have cropped up.

President Trump On A Sports Kick As Campaign Continues

November 10, 2019 8:24 am

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is on a sports kick, taking in baseball, a mixed martial arts tournament and college football in recent days. Even his re-election campaign made the most of sporting events by airing a pricey television ad during the World Series. Presidents have long used sporting events to woo support, but it’s also a venue for fans to express their own political leanings. Trump was booed at Game 5 of the World Series but he’s heading to friendlier turf Saturday to watch the two highest-ranked college football teams. Louisiana State University and the University of Alabama face off in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Mormon Families Fleeing Mexican Violence Arrive In Arizona

November 10, 2019 8:21 am

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – A caravan of more than a dozen vehicles holding Mormon families escaping after a violent attack in Mexico has arrived in Arizona. The families crossed the border into the state Saturday afternoon, the Arizona Daily Star reports. They came nearly a week after an attack Monday in which nine women and children were killed by what authorities said were people from drug cartels. The families had lived in two hamlets in Mexico’s Sonora state: La Mora and Colonia LeBaron. The attack occurred as the women traveled with their children to visit relatives. Other residents of the hamlets planned to depart in the coming days. The spread-out community traces its origins to the end of polygamy more than a century ago by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, forcing Mormon families in the U.S. with multiple wives to establish offshoots elsewhere.

Iran Finds New Oil Field

November 10, 2019 8:20 am

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran’s president says a new oil field has been discovered with an estimated 50 billion barrels of crude oil in the country’s south. The announcement by President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday would mean Iran’s proven crude oil reserves would be boosted by a third. Right now, Iran says it has some 150 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves. He said the discovered field was located in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province. Rouhani made the announcement Sunday in a speech in the desert city of Yazd. Iran’s energy industry has been hard-hit by U.S. sanctions over its collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.

Former Nat. Security Advisor John Bolton Releases New Book

November 10, 2019 8:19 am

NEW YORK (AP) – The Associated Press has learned that former national security adviser John Bolton has a book deal. Bolton departed in September because of numerous foreign policy disagreements with President Donald Trump – on Iran, North Korea and more. According to three publishing officials with knowledge of negotiations, he reached a deal over the past few weeks with Simon & Schuster. The officials weren’t authorized to discuss the deal publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Two say the deal is worth about $2 million. Bolton was represented by the Javelin literary agency, whose clients include former FBI Director James Comey and the anonymous Trump administration official whose book, “A Warning,” comes out Nov. 19.

Victim Identified In Deadly Trench Collapse

November 10, 2019 8:16 am

NORTH STRABANE (WPXI) — The victim of a trench collapse in North Strabane Township has been identified. Washington County Coroner Tim Warco has identified Richard St. John, 49 of Bellaire, Ohio as the man who became trapped when a trench that he was digging collapsed. The cause and manner of death are still pending. The incident occurred on Brehm Road in North Strabane Township at 1:10 p.m. on Friday afternoon. St. John was one of several people trying to tie a sewer line into the public system. It is unclear what caused the collapse and the incident is still being investigated by OSHA and the North Strabane Township Police. (Photo WPXI)