December 11, 2019 7:43 am
DALLAS (AP) – Philip McKeon, who as a child actor was featured as the son of Linda Lavin’s Alice Hyatt in the 1980s CBS situation comedy “Alice,” has died in Texas at age 55, a family spokesman said. Spokesman Jeff Ballard said McKeon died Tuesday after a long illness. He said further details on where and how McKeon died were being withheld at his family’s request. McKeon acted in the role of Tommy Hyatt in “Alice” from 1976 to 1985. His most recent acting role was in the video “Ghoulies IV,” which was released in 1994. Ballard says McKeon had worked for 10 years in the news department of a Los Angeles radio station before moving to Texas about five years ago to be better able to care for his family. He settled in the Central Texas Hill Country town of Wimberley, about 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) southwest of Austin, where he hosted a local radio show. Survivors include his mother and Nancy McKeon, his sister best known for playing Jo Polniaczek in the 1980s NBC situation comedy “The Facts of Life.”
December 11, 2019 4:17 am
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) – Fears that a deadly shooting at a Jewish market in Jersey City, New Jersey, was an anti-Semitic attack are mounting, with authorities recounting how a man and woman deliberately pulled up to the place in a rental van with at least one rifle and got out firing. Six people in all were killed on Tuesday – the attackers, a police officer and three people who were in the store. State and federal law enforcement officials warn they have not established the motive. But a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity tells The Associated Press that investigators are looking into possible connections between the attackers and the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, some of whose members have railed against whites and Jews.
December 11, 2019 4:16 am
WHAKATANE, New Zealand (AP) – The death toll from the eruption of a New Zealand island volcano is now believed to be 16 after authorities announced two people who had been hospitalized died. Thursday’s announcement of the new deaths came as the volcano vented more steam and mud. That prompted authorities to delay plans to recover bodies still on the volcanic White Island. The deaths of the two came after authorities said they had confirmed that six people died and and that the bodies of eight other people are believed on the ash covered island. Many of those who survived the initial blast Monday suffered horrific burns.
December 11, 2019 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – House leaders are racing the clock on an emerging government-wide spending bill that’s likely to largely maintain President Donald Trump’s tactical ability to fund his much-sought border wall. Progress has slowed, though a top-level meeting between House Speaker NancyáPelosi, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the frustrated chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees generated pledges to redouble their efforts. A stopgap spending bill expires at the end of next week, and another temporary funding bill could be needed to avert a repeat of last year’s 35-day partial federal shutdown.
December 11, 2019 4:14 am
HARRISBURG (AP) – Faculty at Pennsylvania state universities will go without a pay raise this year but see their pay climb at least 12% over the next three years. The four-year contract approved Wednesday covers about 5,000 professors and instructors at 14 schools. Spokesman David Pidgeon of the state System of Higher Education says the raises are expected to cost about $22 million. A similar deal has been reached with about 700 other employees who work in student services. The agreement comes three years after prolonged contract talks between the educators’ association and the state led to a three-day faculty strike.
December 11, 2019 4:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf’sáadministration is warning that hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians stand to lose food stamps or see reduced benefits under changes being advanced by the Trump administration. Wolf’s Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller said 90,000 Pennsylvanians could lose eligibility in April when a new rule limits states from exempting work-eligible adults from having to maintain steady employment. Miller said a rule proposed in October to set a national standard utility allowance could reduce benefits for 775,000 households. Miller also said another rule proposed in July to stop allowing states to exceed federal income eligibility thresholds could strip another 200,000 people of eligibility. Roughly 1.7 million Pennsylvanians receive food stamps.
December 11, 2019 4:09 am
HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) – President Donald Trump is mocking Democrats for their efforts to impeach him as he rallies supporters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania. Trump’s visit to Pennsylvania on Tuesday followed a momentous day at the U.S. Capitol, where Democrats unveiled articles of impeachment and shortly thereafter signaled their support for the president’s long-sought United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Trump says Democrats tried to downplay the impeachment inquiry because they’re “embarrassed” by it. But he says the “silver lining of impeachment” is that the USMCA is going to get passed.
December 11, 2019 4:08 am
SCOTTDALE, Pa.(WPXI)- Crews battled a fire Tuesday night at the Scottdale Manor senior apartment building on Pearl Street. The call came in around 7:50 p.m. after a mattress caught fire on the second floor of the five-story building. The fire was contained in one apartment, but smoke had to be ventilated from the building. Some residents were evacuated from their apartments. One resident was taken to a hospital and at least five were displaced, according to Scottdale Fire Department assistant fire chief Ben Savanick. Residents will be allowed back into the top three stories of the building. The Red Cross confirmed they are assisting people who have been affected by the fire.
December 11, 2019 3:48 am
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia University’s president has announced he’ll be undergoing hip surgery this week. Dr. E. Gordon Gee will have the hip replacement surgery on Thursday, the university said in a statement. Doctors diagnosed the 75-year-old with a deteriorating hip joint following years of pain in his back. Gee said he hopes to be back soon “better than new,” but the university didn’t provide a timeline for when he may return. He did say that he will be missing the school’s winter commencement ceremony on Dec. 21 for the first time in 40 years
December 10, 2019 4:24 pm
Shares of exercise bike company Peloton are under pressure from a scathing research report. The selling comes on the heels of blowback from the company’s widely mocked ad. Andrew Left of Citron Research is well known on Wall Street for targeting companies he thinks have flawed business models. He places bets that their stocks will fall. And he’s now taking aim at Peloton Interactive Inc. The stock took a hit last week after Peloton aired an ad in which a husband gifts one of its stationary bikes to his wife for the holidays. Critics called the ad sexist and tone deaf.
