September 10, 2019 1:51 pm
Teachers and administrators in the Washington School District have reached agreement on a new five-year contract. Teachers ratified the agreement Monday and then later the same day at their meeting, school board members unanimously voted to approve the contract. Details of the new contract were not released but officials say health care costs for the teachers remained steady and raises were incremental.
September 10, 2019 12:35 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Iran is claiming credit for President Donald Trump’s dismissal of his hawkish national security adviser John Bolton. An adviser to President Hassan Rouhani said Bolton’s departure was the result of Iran’s resistance to Trump’s maximum pressure campaign. The adviser (Hesameddin Ashena) said in a tweet that the move is a sign of the pressure campaign’s failure and proof that Iran is able to “manage” U.S. policies on Iran. Trump and Bolton disagreed on numerous issues, including over the president’s willingness to consider meeting with Rouhani.
September 10, 2019 7:38 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in Philadelphia over whether the chief lawyer for Penn State when the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke should face public censure. The state’s lawyer disciplinary board recommended that punishment in March for Baldwin. The board has leveled several claims against Baldwin regarding her conduct as investigators ramped up their probe of Sandusky. Sandusky, Penn State’s former defensive football coach, is serving a state prison sentence on a 45-count child sexual abuse conviction in 2012. Lawyers for Cynthia Baldwin and the Office of Disciplinary Counsel will debate the matter Tuesday. Baldwin’s lawyer says the justices should conclude she did not violate the rules of professional conduct for lawyers.
September 10, 2019 4:25 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea says it’s willing to resume nuclear diplomacy with the United States in late September. But First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said Monday that the United States must come to the negotiating table with proposals that satisfy North Korea, or dealings between the two countries will come to an end. Talks between the countries on North Korean nuclear disarmament fell apart in February when President Donald Trump rejected North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s demand for sweeping sanctions relief in return for partial disarmament at their second summit in Vietnam. The two leaders met again at the Korean border in late June and agreed to restart diplomacy. Choe says North Korea has given the U.S. enough time to map out new proposals to salvage the nuclear negotiations.
September 10, 2019 4:23 am
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – A large explosion has been heard in Afghanistan’s capital near the U.S. Embassy shortly after midnight on the anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the United States. A plume of smoke rose early Wednesday over Kabul. An embassy employee reached by phone confirmed the blast but had no details. It would be the first major attack in the Afghan capital since President Donald Trump abruptly called off U.S.-Taliban talks on the brink of an apparent deal to end America’s longest war. Two Taliban car bombs shook Kabul last week, killing several civilians and two members of the NATO mission. Trump has cited the death of a U.S. service member in one of those blasts as the reason why he now calls the U.S.-Taliban talks “dead.”
September 10, 2019 4:21 am
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) – The government in the Bahamas says the death toll from Hurricane Dorian has risen to at least 50. Health Minister Duane Sands on Tuesday confirmed the increase in the death toll in a message to The Associated Press. Authorities say they expect to find more bodies as they search through debris in devastated areas of the northern Bahamas. Members of the Gainesville, Florida, fire department found five bodies Monday in the destroyed neighborhood known as The Mudd, the Bahamas’ largest Haitian immigrant community. Dorian is blamed for at least seven other deaths in the Southeast U.S. and Puerto Rico.
September 10, 2019 4:20 am
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) – Republicans are hoping an eleventh-hour pep talk from President Donald Trump will help them win Tuesday’s special congressional election in North Carolina. The race could shed light on Republicans’ chances of retaking the U.S. House and Trump’s reelection prospects in 2020. At a rally in Fayetteville on Monday night, Trump campaigned for conservative state Sen. Dan Bishop. Opposing Bishop is moderate Democrat Dan McCready, a former Marine who narrowly trailed in an election for the seat last year that was invalidated after evidence of election fraud surfaced. Trump carried the district by 11 points in 2016. Both sides see the race as too close to call. More than half the district’s votes likely will come from Charlotte’s suburbs. When Democrats retook the House in 2018, many of their pickups were in suburbs.
September 10, 2019 4:18 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A teenager has died after he was shot apparently by accident inside a home in Pittsburgh. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Officer says 16-year-old Alexander Alman died Monday at a hospital. Family members tell WPXI-TV Alman and another boy were playing with a gun when he was shot in the face on Sunday afternoon. Police are questioning the other teen.
September 10, 2019 4:17 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvanians who won’t be able to vote in person this fall will be able to apply online for absentee ballots for the first time. The Wolf administration said Monday voters can use the new site next week, for absentee ballots in the Nov. 5 election. Applicants will need a PennDOT driver license or ID number, although that is expected to change next year. It will also be expanded in 2020 to military and oversees voters. The online option will add convenience to an existing system that requires applicants to fill out paper forms and deliver them by hand or mail to county elections offices. Critics have argued changes to Pennsylvania’s comparatively strict absentee voting rules would make voting easier and more widespread. Applications will be accepted starting Monday, Sept. 16.
September 10, 2019 4:15 am
PITTSBURGH – (WPXI) – EQT Corp. is readying plans to lay off around 200 employees in a move that could happen sometime this week. Multiple sources told the Business Times about the plans for the layoffs, which would be a significant portion of the 800 or so employees that are working at the downtown Pittsburgh-based natural gas driller. It would be the second round of layoffs at EQT (NYSE: EQT) since January, when about 100 employees were laid off by the previous management team. EQT declined comment.
