January 30, 2020 12:28 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Lawyers for a woman who says President Donald Trump raped her in the 1990s are asking for a sample of his DNA. The attorneys for advice columnist E. Jean Carroll say they want to determine whether Trump’s genetic material is on a dress she says she wore during the encounter. They served a legal notice Thursday to one of Trump’s lawyers demanding the sample. Carroll filed a defamation suit against Trump in November after the president said she was lying about the alleged attack. The Associated Press sent a message to Trump’s attorney seeking comment.
January 30, 2020 12:19 pm
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — The kindergarten teacher who oversaw a science experiment that left a 5-year-old girl with severe burns has resigned. She got the burns at King PreK-8 school on Pittsburgh’s North Side as a result of a science experiment involving boiling water, her family said. Pittsburgh Public Schools conducted an investigation over the past few weeks, and it ended with the teacher’s resignation. That teacher has not been officially identified or charged. Todd Hollis, who is representing the family says the young lady is going through some very obvious signs of trauma, so we’ve assisted in putting her into some therapy. As time goes on, hopefully she’ll be able to get the assistance that she needs. Hollis said the family found out about the child’s burns through a phone call from someone at the school saying the girl had sustained “minor burns” — but they were actually a lot worse.
January 30, 2020 10:22 am
Democrats are anxious about the coming presidential election, and Republicans are more likely to be excited about it. That’s the finding of a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll finds that Republican enthusiasm for the race is up since October, while two-thirds of Democrats report anxiety about it. The poll comes as divided Democrats approach Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses with no clear leader in that pivotal state and fears mounting of a brokered convention. But the poll finds each party is equally motivated to vote in November, making it unclear which emotion will triumph.
January 30, 2020 9:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. economy grew at a moderate 2.1% rate in the final three months of 2019, capping a year when growth slowed significantly due to a weaker global economy and trade war uncertainties. The Commerce Department said the fourth-quarter increase in the gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, matched the 2.1% gain of the third quarter. For the whole year, GDP increased 2.3%, the weakest performance in three years. Economists look for even slower growth in 2020 of around 1.8%. But that could be threatened by various threats from a spreading coronavirus to a flare-up in trade tensions between the United States and China
January 30, 2020 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Just as the outlook for the global economy had been brightening, a new threat has emerged in the form of the viral outbreak in China. That was the cautionary message Chairman Jerome Powell delivered after the Federal Reserve held interest rates low. Powell said the signing of a preliminary U.S.-China trade deal, the resolution of Brexit and low rates in the U.S. and abroad had suggested that the world economy would expand more quickly. That’s now threatened by the virus.
January 30, 2020 4:14 am
NEW YORK (AP) – For the first time in four years, life expectancy in the U.S. has gone up. The increase is small – just a month. But it marks at least a temporary halt to a downward trend. The rise is mostly due to lower death rates for cancer and drug overdoses. The government calculation released Thursday is for 2018. On average, an infant born that year is expected to live about 78 years and 8 months. For decades, U.S. life expectancy was on the upswing, but then for a four-year period it declined or held steady.
January 30, 2020 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump adjourned late Wednesday night with Republicans appearing focused on bringing the proceedings to a vote of acquittal, possibly in a matter of days. Revelations from former national security adviser John Bolton were countered by the president’s lawyers, who used Wednesday’s question-and-answer session to insist senators have heard enough. Democrats maintained that Bolton’s account in a forthcoming book could not be ignored and pushed to have him testify to Trump saying he wanted military aid withheld from Ukraine until it agreed to investigate Joe Biden and his son. The vote on calling witnesses is expected by Friday.
January 30, 2020 4:10 am
GENEVA (AP) – The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of new virus from China a global emergency after the number of infected people spiked more than tenfold in a week. The United Nations health agency made the determination on Thursday as more cases of human-to-human transmission were being reported worldwide. To date, China has reported more than 7,800 cases, including 170 deaths. Eighteen other countries have reported cases, as scientists race to understand how exactly the virus is spreading and how severe it is.
January 30, 2020 4:08 am
Vanessa Bryant made her first public comment since the helicopter crash that killed her husband Kobe Bryant, one of their daughters and seven others. She took to Instagram to thank people for the global outpouring of support since the tragedy. Bryant also announced the formation of a fund to help support the other families that were affected by the crash. She said she is “completely devastated” by the loss of her husband and her “loving, thoughtful and wonderful” daughter, Gianna.
January 30, 2020 4:06 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf is unveiling a $1.1 billion package intended to help eliminate lead and asbestos contamination, primarily in Pennsylvania’s schools. The initiatives discussed Wednesday at a news conference in the Capitol includes money in the Democratic governor’s upcoming budget proposal and expanding existing grant programs. Top Republicans took no position on it, saying they’ll discuss it in budget negotiations. The proposal comes as school districts, including Philadelphia and Scranton, are increasingly grappling with environmental hazards, such as lead, mold and asbestos. Wolf has discussed the need in the past, but a sprawling infrastructure plan he floated last year never saw a vote.
