January 11, 2020 4:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House is considering dramatically expanding its much-litigated travel ban to additional countries amid a renewed election-year focus by President Donald Trump on immigration issues. That’s according to a half-dozen people familiar with the deliberations. Two of the people said a document circulating in the White House outlines the plans, but the countries that would be affected were blacked out. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the measure has yet to be finalized. The expanded ban could include several countries that were initially included in the ban but later removed from the list.
January 11, 2020 4:18 am
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran says its forces accidentally shot down the Ukrainian jetliner that crashed earlier this week, killing all 176 aboard. The government had repeatedly denied Western accusations that it was responsible for the crash. The plane was hit hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of its top general. A military statement says the plane was mistaken for a “hostile target” after it turned toward a “sensitive military center” of the Revolutionary Guard. The acknowledgement is an embarrassment for the armed forces and was likely to anger the Iranian public.
January 11, 2020 4:14 am
FAYETTE CO., Pa.(WPXI) — A Fayette County man is facing several charges after state police say he had four people fire shots into a home while the victims were sleeping. According to a criminal complaint, Colby Umbel solicited the help of four others to shoot the home on Iris Street in Connellsville Township around 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 29.Investigators said there were four people inside the home sleeping when the shots were fired: two men (ages 23 and 50), a 47-year-old woman and a 1-year-old girl. None of them were injured in the shooting, but two bullets came within feet of hitting them. Troopers said Umbel, 23, is an acquaintance of the 1-year-old girl’s mother. The girl’s father was inside the home during the incident. Six shots were fired into the home, and investigators said more charges could be forthcoming. The four people who helped Umbel were not identified. Umbel is being charged with Solicitation – Criminal Homicide, Attempt – Criminal Homicide, Discharge of a Firearm into an Occupied Structure, Recklessly Endangering Another Person, Aggravated Assault, Terroristic Threats and Criminal Mischief
January 11, 2020 4:09 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — Someone looking out of the 48th floor of the U.S. Steel Tower called authorities after they said they saw an oily sheen on the Allegheny River. Police said the call came in just before 1 p.m. Friday and River Rescue personnel were dispatched to investigate. Officers said the sheen was detected on the left bank of the Allegheny River and was heading downstream. The sheen was described as splotchy, rather than a constant click and it was spotted from around the Sixth Street Bridge up to about a quarter-mile past the 62nd Street Bridge where it began to dissipate. The River Rescue boat turned back around at the 62nd Street Bridge as the water became too shallow to continue the search for a source. Police said they will report their findings to the U.S. Coast Guard and EPA.
January 10, 2020 12:47 pm
When the trial for former Washington County Clerk of Courts Frank Scandale gets underway, it will not be a Washington County judge who hears the case. According to officials, once the paperwork is completed, it will trigger a “full-bench recusal,” which means his case will not be heard by any of the current judges on the bench in Washington County in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. The 52-year-old from Canonsburg waived his preliminary hearing on Wednesday and he is expected to face formal arraignment on the charges sometime in February. Scandale, who made an unsuccessful bid in November for a second term, is facing multiple charges related to some ninety-six-thousand-dollars that was discovered missing from his office during an audit. Scandale remains free on one-hundred-thousand-dollars bond.
January 10, 2020 12:30 pm
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico authorities say at least two people have been killed at an elementary school in northern Mexico. Gov. Miguel Angel Riquelme says an 11-year-old sixth-grade student arrived at the Colegio Cervantes in Torreon, Coahuila on Friday morning. The student asked his teacher to use the bathroom and later emerged shooting with two guns. Riquelme says the student killed his teacher and himself and wounded six others at the private school. The governor says the student had not displayed behavioral problems before, but investigators were looking at a particular video game that he played.
January 10, 2020 12:24 pm
(WPXI) – Hundreds of first responders joined family and friends Friday for the funeral and procession for the Rostraver Township paramedic who was hit and killed Sunday while responding to a crash on Interstate 70. Forty-three-year-old Matthew Smelser, of Carroll Township, was killed about 5:30 a.m. Sunday when he got out of an ambulance on I-70 to help a crash victim. He was hit by a passing truck. Smelser, a father of two young children, worked at the Rostraver Ambulance Service for 24 years and was a supervisor for 20 years. Pennsylvania State Police said icy roads might have been a factor in the deadly accident. Gov. Tom Wolf ordered commonwealth flags to be flown at half-staff in Smelser’s memory, saying his death is a tragic reminder of the risks taken by emergency personnel each day.
January 10, 2020 8:51 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers downshifted their hiring in December, adding 145,000 jobs as consumer spending appeared to aid gains in the retail and hospitality sectors. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate held at 3.5% for the second straight month, prolonging a half-century low. Hiring slipped after robust gains of 256,000 in November caused in part by the end of a strike at General Motors. Still, the job growth has failed so far to put upward pressure on hourly pay. The pace of annual average wage growth slowed in December to 2.9% from 3.1% in the prior month, a possible sign that there is still room for additional job gains despite the decade-plus expansion. The U.S. economy added 2.1 million jobs last year, down from gains of nearly 2.7 million in 2018.
January 10, 2020 8:17 am
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, was briefly put on lockdown after a report of an armed suspect outside the base. Base spokesman Lt. Brandon Hanner says officials Friday morning are assisting local law enforcement in searching for the suspect. All MacDill gates to the base have been reopened except for the one closest to the location where the suspect was seen. News outlets report traffic was at a standstill on numerous roads around the base, which is near downtown Tampa. MacDill is the headquarters for U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command.
January 10, 2020 4:24 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Edd Byrnes, who played Kookie on the hit TV show “77 Sunset Strip,” scored a gold record with a song about his character’s hair-combing obsession and appeared in the 1978 movie “Grease,” has died at 87. His son, Logan Byrnes, says Byrnes died Wednesday in Santa Monica, California. Born to a poor New York City family, Byrnes came to Los Angeles in 1955 and a few years later hit fame as Kookie, a hip parking attendant who helped LA private detectives solve cases. His teen idol fame also led to a hit record called “Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb).
