August 20, 2019 4:38 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says his administration is a looking at tax cut proposals but not as a response to a potential recession. He says, “I’m looking at that all the time anyway.” Trump talked about the economy and trade with China during a meeting Tuesday in the Oval Office with the president of Romania. Trump says his administration is looking at a cut in the capital gains tax when investors sell assets. It is also exploring lower payroll taxes. But mostly, Trump is pressuring the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. He says, “They have to do a rate cut.” Trump says the word recession is “inappropriate” and if the Fed would do its job, “you would see a burst of growth like you’ve never seen before.” (Photo: CNN)
August 20, 2019 3:09 pm
(AP) – Federal agents say a truck driver warned that he would commit a mass shooting at a church in Memphis, Tennessee, on Thursday. Court records filed Monday say Thomas Matthew McVicker was apprehended in Indianapolis before the plan could be carried out. An FBI special agent says in an affidavit that McVicker made “credible threats to conduct a mass shooting and suicide.” McVicker’s friend in southern Alabama this month told a Florida FBI agent that McVicker was considering “shooting a church up” or killing people on the street. The affidavit doesn’t specify a motive, nor does it identify a specific Memphis church. Court records list McVicker’s address as Punta Gorda, Florida. The records don’t list a lawyer who could be reached for comment on McVicker’s behalf.
August 20, 2019 10:58 am
BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) – A 15-year-old girl and her father have sued Appalachian Regional Healthcare, saying that the girl and at least 20 others were sexually harassed by a physician in West Virginia. The Register-Herald reports the lawsuit was filed Monday against Dr. Zouhair Kabarra and the Kentucky-based network that owns Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital, where the father and teen volunteered. The lawsuit says Kabarra sexually harassed the teen several times and at one point pressed his genitalia against her buttocks. The lawsuit says when the father and daughter alerted officials, they were barred from the volunteer program. The lawsuit says the hospital knew about multiple harassment allegations but did nothing about it. ARH spokeswoman Melissa Cornett says Kabarra no longer is an ARH employee. The company declined to comment further on the lawsuit.
August 20, 2019 9:34 am
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Rio de Janeiro’s state governor says an armed man who took dozens of hostages on a bus has died after being shot by police following a four-hour long standoff. Gov. Wilson Witzel said the hostages were freed after Tuesday’s incident. The man armed with a gun and a knife took 37 people hostage around 5:30 a.m. on a busy bridge linking the suburb of Sao Goncalo to downtown Rio de Janeiro. Police say hostages told them the man had spilled gasoline in the bus and was threatened to set it on fire. Hans Moreno, one of the hostages onboard, said on TV Globo the man was not behaving in an aggressive way and was “very calm.” Sao Goncalo is a violent, impoverished suburb separated from Rio by Guanabara Bay. Many use the bridge to go to and from work.
August 20, 2019 4:22 am
NEW YORK (AP) – New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says the police commissioner’s firing of the officer whose chokehold contributed to the death of an unarmed black man means that “justice was served.” De Blasio said Monday he hopes Commissioner James O’Neill’s decision to fire Officer Daniel Pantaleo “brings some small measure of closure” to the family of Eric Garner. Garner’s death in 2014 after Pantaleo tried to arrest him was captured on a cellphone video that caused widespread outrage. But the head of Pantaleo’s union criticized the officer’s firing and said the decision would change the way officers did their jobs and make them less safe. De Blasio, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, was grilled about Garner’s death at the last Democratic debate and was heckled by protesters shouting “Fire Pantaleo.”
August 20, 2019 4:21 am
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is calling on other members of Congress to visit Israel while she and Rep. Rashida Tlaib cannot. Israel last week blocked the two Democratic House members from a planned trip to that country over their support for a Palestinian-led boycott movement. At a news conference in Minnesota, Omar says she and Tlaib are being prevented from carrying out their duties as members of Congress. She is calling on her colleagues to “meet with the people we were going to meet with, see the things we were going to see, hear the stories we were going to hear.” Omar says President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot succeed “in hiding the cruel reality of the occupation from us.”
August 20, 2019 4:18 am
NEW YORK (AP) – New court records show Jeffrey Epstein signed a will just two days before he killed himself in the Manhattan federal jail. A law firm representing Epstein’s estate confirmed Monday that the papers were filed last week in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The records put the estate at more than $577 million but list no details of any beneficiaries. A copy of the will was first published by the New York Post. Epstein killed himself this month while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors dismissed those charges Monday but are considering charging others in the case. Several of Epstein’s alleged victims have said they will go after his assets for damages. Attorney William Blum said in a statement that any claims against the estate will be “fairly administered.”
August 20, 2019 4:16 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A federal judge in Philadelphia is weighing whether to approve the nation’s first supervised drug injection center. U.S. Attorney WIlliam McSwain opposes the plan. The appointee of President Donald Trump says it violates federal drug laws. Safehouse supporters include three prominent Democrats in Philadelphia: Mayor Jim Kenney, District Attorney Larry Krasner and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. They believe they can reduce overdose deaths by having people use drugs under medical supervision. Philadelphia had 1,100 overdose deaths last year, more than three times the number of homicides. U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh Jr. must decide whether to let the site open. He did not indicate when he might rule.
August 20, 2019 4:15 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf is urging the passage of a law in Pennsylvania requiring gun owners to report stolen or lost firearms, suggesting it could have prevented last week’s wounding of six Philadelphia police officers during a long standoff. Wolf made the comments Tuesday during his regular appearance on KDKA-AM radio in Pittsburgh. He says Pennsylvania needs a stolen or lost guns reporting requirement so that people like the accused shooter in Philadelphia can’t illegally get a hold of a long gun. Maurice Hill is charged with attempted murder, assault and other counts. He’s accused of shooting at officers who were serving a drug warrant Wednesday and then keeping police at bay while he fired from inside a house. The six officers were released after being treated at hospitals.
August 20, 2019 4:13 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Authorities say a boy playing with matches in a laundry room caused a fire over the weekend that injured two firefighters and displaced dozens of people. Police said Monday the 6-year-old admitted he started the fire in an apartment building in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. The boy wasn’t identified and isn’t expected to face any criminal charges. The Red Cross is helping some of the roughly 70 people who weren’t able to return to their homes after the Saturday afternoon blaze. One firefighter suffered smoke inhalation, while the other firefighter’s injury wasn’t specified.
