September 15, 2019 10:17 am
MIAMI (AP) – Gusty winds from Tropical Storm Humberto are still affecting portions of the northwestern Bahamas, which is struggling to recover from Hurricane Dorian. The U.S. National Hurricane Center expects Humberto to strengthen into a hurricane later Sunday or Sunday night, moving “well offshore of the east coast of Florida during the next day or so” before moving away from the U.S. With winds of 60 mph (97 kph), Humberto is around 135 miles (217 kilometers) north-northwest of Great Abaco island in the Bahamas and around 175 miles (282 kilometers) east of Cape Canaveral, Florida. It’s moving toward the north-northwest at a speed near 7 mph (11 kph). There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect, although forecasters say Humberto could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions from east-central Florida to North Carolina.
September 15, 2019 10:15 am
DETROIT (AP) – The four-year contract between General Motors and the United Auto Workers expired Saturday, but workers were told to report to jobs as negotiations continued and the prospect of a national strike loomed. The union let the contract lapse, raising the possibility of a strike as early as Sunday night. There was a wrinkle. About 850 UAW-represented janitors with Aramark, a separate company, went on strike Sunday after working under an extended contract since March 2018. The strike covered eight GM facilities in Ohio and Michigan. It appeared that GM workers were crossing picket lines Sunday set up by their own union. The Detroit Free Press reported that GM workers at a Flint, Michigan, truck plant reluctantly passed picketers. GM said it has contingency plans for the Aramark strike.
September 15, 2019 10:12 am
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels says they were able to “exploit vulnerabilities” in Saudi Arabia’s air defense system to stage the attack previous day on the kingdom’s vital oil installations. Muhammad al-Bukhaiti told The Associated Press on Sunday that the U.S. allegations that Iran was behind the attack reflected “political bankruptcy” of the administration in Washington. The drone attack claimed by the Houthis hit the world’s largest oil processing facility and a major oil field on Saturday, sparking huge fires at a vulnerable choke point for global energy supplies. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Iran for the attacks and said that here’s “no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”
Pompeo said on Saturday that “Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.”
September 14, 2019 9:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The chairman of the House intelligence committee has issued a subpoena to the acting Director of National Intelligence, saying the director is withholding a whistleblower complaint from Congress. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said in a statement Friday evening that the committee will require that Joseph Maguire testify Thursday unless he complies with the subpoena. Schiff was mysterious about the subject of the whistleblower complaint, saying the intelligence community’s inspector general had determined it to be credible and a matter of “urgent concern.” Schiff says Maguire is required to share the complaint with Congress but won’t do so. He says he is concerned the administration is withholding the complaint “in order to cover up serious misconduct.” Maguire’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
September 14, 2019 9:17 am
LONDON (AP) – The British prime minister who called the Brexit referendum and then saw the public vote to leave the European Union says he is sorry for the divisions it has caused. David Cameron said in an interview published Saturday that he thinks about the consequences of the Brexit referendum “every single day” and worries “desperately” about what will happen next. He spoke to The Times newspaper to promote his soon-to-be-published memoir. Cameron, who had supported remaining in the EU, resigned the morning after the 2016 referendum. The 52-year-old attacked former allies Boris Johnson – the current prime minister – and Michael Gove, who helped spearhead the “Leave” campaign. Cameron says they “left the truth at home” during the campaign.
September 14, 2019 9:15 am
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A military spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi rebels has claimed a drone attack on two major oil installations in Saudi Arabia. Yahia Sarie made the announcement Saturday in a televised address carried by the Houthi’s Al-Masirah satellite news channel. He said the Houthis sent 10 drones to attack an oil processing facility in Buqyaq and the Khurais oil field.
He warned attacks by the rebels against the kingdom would only get worse if the war in Yemen continues. Sarie said: “The only option for the Saudi government is to stop attacking us.” A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the rebels since March 2015.
September 14, 2019 9:12 am
McKEESPORT, Pa. (WPXI) – Police have found a man who they say ran from the car of a woman whose body was found Thursday morning at a Park in McKeesport. Police are investigating it as a homicide. A man walking his dog found her body shortly before 10 a.m. The woman has been identified as Temeka Dallas, 43, from Monroeville. Dallas was described as wearing a yellow sundress. Her body showed signs of strangulation based on an initial examination, according to police. Police said she might have been dragged about 50 feet into the woods from the parking lot of the dek hockey complex at the park. Dallas might have died elsewhere, and her body then brought to the park in a car, investigators said. Surveillance video showed a silver 2007 Chevrolet Impala with a sunroof and rear spoiler being driven in the park near where her body was found, shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday, police said. That car belonged to the victim. The Impala was found in the parking lot of a Walmart in South Strabane Township, Washington County, on Thursday night. Police have arrested Clyde Cox, 27, and Daron Parks, 26 for being in that car, they are not charged in her death. Late Friday, police identified the other man as Ramonta Yancey, 26. Officers said he has ties to McKeesport and the east end of Pittsburgh, and he turned himself in to police without incident.
September 14, 2019 9:09 am
NORTH HUNTINGDON, Pa. (WPXI) – Multiple fire crews battled a large blaze at a former car dealership. Emergency officials said the fire was along Center Highway at Route 30 in North Huntingdon. The fire was reported shortly after 6:30 p.m. Neighbors told Channel 11 the building was in the process of being remodeled when they heard what sounded like explosions. The roof of the building collapsed from the fire. The Huntingdon Police Department also posted on social media that there are phone issues with the department from the fire. Anyone trying to reach police should instead call 911 for the time being.
September 14, 2019 4:41 am
BOSTON (AP) – “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman says she takes full responsibility for her role in the college admissions scandal and deserves her punishment. A federal judge in Boston sentenced the actress on Friday to 14 days in prison, a $30,000 fine, 250 hours of community service and a year’s probation. Huffman was stoic in court, telling U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani she “betrayed” her daughters and her actor husband, William H. Macy. After her sentencing, she said via email: “I accept the court’s decision today without reservation.”
Huffman’s lawyer, Martin Murphy, argued that her crimes were less serious than those of her co-defendants. Huffman pleaded guilty in May to paying an admissions consultant $15,000 to have a proctor correct her daughter’s SAT exam answers in 2017. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Rosen had pushed hard for a full month’s imprisonment. Rosen says there was “simply no excuse” for Huffman’s actions.
September 14, 2019 4:40 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The opioid crisis has hit virtually every pocket of the U.S., from rural towns in deeply conservative states to big cities in liberal-leaning ones. But a curious divide has opened up. The nation’s Republican state attorneys general have, for the most part, lined up in support of a tentative multibillion-dollar settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, while their Democratic counterparts have mostly come out against it, decrying it as woefully inadequate. Exactly why this is so is unclear, and some of those involved suggested it can’t necessarily be explained by the way the Republicans have long been seen as the business-friendly party and the Democrats are sometimes more hostile to corporate America. Some of the attention has focused on the role played by Luther Strange, a Republican former Alabama attorney general who has been working for members of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma.
