August 1, 2019 4:47 pm
(AP) – Lowe’s Co. is laying off thousands of employees at its U.S. stores as it outsources some of their duties to outside companies. The home-improvement chain, based in Mooresville, North Carolina, declined to say exactly how many employees were affected. But The Wall Street Journal reported that thousands of employees were told this week that their jobs were eliminated, which the company confirmed. Lowe’s spokeswoman Jackie Pardini Hartzell said Thursday that the cuts are coming as the company moves to a third-party assemblers and facility services to allow store associates to spend more time on the sales floor serving customers. Lowe’s, under its relatively new CEO Marvin Ellison, is trying to return its focus to its home improvement chain and streamline its business.
August 1, 2019 4:29 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says the U.S. will apply a new tariff of 10% on about $300 billion worth of products from China on Sept. 1. Trump tweeted Thursday amid slow-moving talks with China that negotiations will continue. But he blamed China for not following through on stopping the sale of fentanyl to the United States or purchasing farm goods in large quantities. The U.S. has already applied tariffs of 25% on $250 billion worth of goods from China. China retaliated with tariffs on $110 billion in American goods, including agricultural products, in a direct shot at Trump supporters in the U.S. farm belt.
August 1, 2019 4:28 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – A bipartisan budget and debt deal has passed the Senate and is heading to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature. Thursday’s vote addresses a worrisome set of Washington deadlines as Trump’s allies and adversaries set aside ideology in exchange for relative fiscal peace and stability. The measure would permit the government to resume borrowing to pay all its bills and would set an overall $1.37 trillion limit on agency budgets approved by Congress annually. It also would remove the prospect of a government shutdown in October and automatic spending cuts. But a tea party senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, says the legislation really is a spectacular failure because it will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the country’s spiraling debt.
August 1, 2019 2:25 pm
GERMAN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WPXI) – Charges have been filed against the driver of a dump truck that collided head-on with a pickup truck, killing a man, woman and boy in Fayette County in June. Pennsylvania State Police in Uniontown on Thursday announced the charges against Wilbert Burnsworth, who has been arrested. Investigators said Burnsworth was high on cocaine and fentanyl at the time of the June 18 crash on McClellandtown Road in German Township. The truck, which was filled with coal, crossed the centerline, police said. Ronald Burwell, 53; Kayla Burwell, 20; and Hunter Braddee, 4, died in the crash. Ronald Burwell was Kayla Burwell’s father and step-grandfather to Braddee. Burnsworth is charged with third-degree murder, driving under the influence and vehicular homicide.
August 1, 2019 9:59 am
JUNCTION CITY, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky State Police say they’ve accounted for everyone missing after a massive gas explosion that killed one and injured five others. Trooper Robert Purdy said officials have heard from everyone who was missing after the early morning explosion and fire that destroyed at least five homes and damaged others. The woman who died was taken to the medical examiner’s office in Frankfort to determine her cause of death. Purdy said it appears she may have left her home due to the fire and was overtaken by the heat. He said the heat from the blaze left the landscape barren. Trees and grass were burnt, leaving only red dirt, gravel and rocks. He says several agencies are investigating to determine what caused the explosion.
August 1, 2019 4:11 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Harold Prince, a Broadway director and producer who pushed the boundaries of musical theater with such groundbreaking shows as “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Cabaret,” “Company” and “Sweeney Todd” and won a staggering 21 Tony Awards, has died. Prince was 91. Prince’s publicist Rick Miramontez says Prince died Wednesday after a brief illness in Reykjavik, Iceland. Prince was known for his fluid, cinematic director’s touch and was unpredictable and uncompromising in his choice of stage material. He often picked challenging, offbeat subjects to musicalize, such as a murderous, knifing-wielding barber who baked his victims in pies or the 19th-century opening of Japan to the West.
August 1, 2019 4:10 am
CHINA LAKE, Calif. (AP) – Authorities say seven people on the ground have been injured in the crash of a Navy jet in California’s Mojave Desert. Death Valley National Park spokesman Patrick Taylor say the seven were park visitors and have only minor injuries. There’s no word yet on what happened to the pilot of the F/A-18 Super Hornet, which went down during a training mission Wednesday morning. The crash occurred near a park area nicknamed Star Wars Canyon where fighter jets practice low-flying maneuvers and tourists often gather to watch. The crash area is about 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) north of the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake. The aircraft was from strike fighter squadron VFA-151 stationed at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California’s Central Valley.
August 1, 2019 4:10 am
CINCINNATI (AP) – President Donald Trump’s latest rally will be a test for both candidate and crowd. The Cincinnati gathering Thursday night will be Trump’s first since his audience chanted “Send her back!” about a Somali-born congresswoman during a July rally in North Carolina, raising the prospect of a 2020 presidential campaign increasingly fought along racial lines. The chant about Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota by a roaring Greenville crowd rattled Republicans. Trump let the chant roll at the rally. Since then, he has issued incendiary tweets and a series of attacks on a veteran African-American congressman and his predominantly black district in Baltimore. Heightening the drama, Trump’s rally will come on the heels of two Democratic debates and will take place against a backdrop of simmering racial tension in Cincinnati.
August 1, 2019 4:09 am
DETROIT (AP) – Democratic presidential candidates are closing their second primary debate by focusing on President Donald Trump. After taking on each other for more than two hours, all 10 candidates have mentioned the Republican president as the real opponent. Former Vice President Joe Biden says the 2020 election is “a battle for the soul of America.” Sen. Kamala Harris calls the president a “predator” and a “coward” and says she’s the ideal nominee to debate him next fall. Sen. Cory Booker says the nation’s “crisis is Donald Trump, but not only Donald Trump.” Booker says beating Trump “is the floor, not the ceiling.”
August 1, 2019 4:06 am
TRAFFORD, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say a man died after a tree at least 75 feet tall fell onto his western Pennsylvania home, trapping him in his bed. Emergency responders in Westmoreland County managed to free the victim from the Trafford home more than an hour after the tree struck shortly after 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. The Allegheny County medical examiner’s office said 71-year-old Jay Zelezniak died shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday at Forbes Hospital. An autopsy concluded that he died of blunt force trauma of the pelvis and lower extremities. The death was ruled accidental.
Penn Township deputy emergency director Jeremy Dixon said the tree smashed into the roof above the second-floor bedroom and that floor crashed down into the first floor. A woman was able to get out of the home unaided.
