August 15, 2019 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is suggesting that trade talks with China can wait until tensions in Hong Kong have eased. He tweeted: “Of course China wants to make a deal. Let them work humanely with Hong Kong first!” Trump also praised Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him a “great leader” and saying he could quickly resolve the situation on Hong Kong if he wanted to. Trump has previously said little about the protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese city, except to make it clear he believes that Hong Kong and China need to “deal with that themselves.” He has urged the two sides to exercise caution. His more extensive comments Wednesday came as U.S. stock markets tumbled, in part because of uncertainty over Trump’s trade standoff with Beijing.
August 15, 2019 4:13 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Police and the FBI are investigating after a man in a wheelchair attempted to rob a bank in Pittsburgh. Police say a man described to be in his 60s entered the First National Bank in a wheelchair on Tuesday afternoon and handed a note demanding cash to a teller. However, the man had second thoughts and left the bank. The investigation is ongoing.
August 15, 2019 4:10 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania officials have announced plans to close two centers for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities over the next three years. The Department of Human Services said Tuesday that public meetings will be held next month to gather comment on the plans to close the Polk State Center in Venango County in western Pennsylvania and the White Haven State Center in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County. The Polk center currently serves 194 residents and the White Haven center serves 112 people. Officials say the commonwealth has steadily closed most state centers since the 1960s “when best practices turned toward community-based settings and away from institutions.” Fifty years ago, the department served more than 13,000 people with intellectual disabilities in state-operated facilities, but today fewer than 720 receive care in such facilities.
August 15, 2019 4:09 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Authorities say a gunman who barricaded himself for hours inside a Philadelphia home, shooting at and wounding six officers, is in police custody. Philadelphia police Sgt. Eric Gripp said early Thursday morning that the man was taken in custody after an hourslong standoff with police. The shooting started around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Officers were serving a narcotics warrant at a home and had already entered when gunfire erupted. The gunman and police exchanged gunfire for hours. Six officers were shot, but have been released from hospitals. Two officers had been trapped in the house during the standoff but were safely evacuated. A heavy police presence was in the neighborhood for hours with businesses, including day care centers, on lockdown and roads closed.
August 15, 2019 3:53 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A judge has upheld an arbitration ruling that a Pittsburgh police officer fired after an alleged road rage incident two years ago should be reinstated to the force. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Donald Walko Jr. rejected the city’s appeal of the March arbitration ruling in the case of Officer Robert Kramer, who was fired following allegations that he pointed a gun at a man during a May 2017 confrontation. Kramer was acquitted of simple assault in September. He filed a federal lawsuit in May alleging malicious prosecution, fabrication of evidence and racial discrimination. Pittsburgh officials declined comment, saying attorneys are reviewing the decision. Robert Swartzwelder, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Fort Pitt Lodge 1, said the union was “very pleased.” (Image: WPXI-TV)
August 15, 2019 3:23 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) – The Kraft Heinz Co. said Tuesday that it’s cutting 400 jobs, including 100 that it’s cut already. In a Tuesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Kraft Heinz said the job cuts will result in $27 million in expenses in the first quarter, including $1 million in employee severance and employee benefit costs, $9 million in non-cash and asset-related costs, $15 million in other implementation costs and $2 million in other exit costs.
August 14, 2019 5:38 pm
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A Philadelphia Police sergeant says six police officers have been shot in what’s still an active shooting situation in the city. Sgt. Eric Gripp tweeted Wednesday shortly before 6 p.m. that all of the injuries are considered non-life threatening. He also said that the suspect is still firing and warned people to stay out of the Nicetown neighborhood. The officers have been taken to area hospitals. Temple University Hospital referred questions on the conditions of police officers to police. A massive police presence remains with dozens of police cars and officers, many of them with their guns drawn. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says numerous agents are responding to the scene to assist Philadelphia police. (Photo: NBC)
August 14, 2019 3:56 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services says the inscription on the Statue of Liberty welcoming immigrants into the country is about “people coming from Europe.” Ken Cuccinelli said Tuesday on CNN that the poem referred to Europeans coming from “class-based societies where people were considered wretched if they weren’t in the right class.” His comment came a day after the Trump administration announced it would seek to deny green cards to migrants who use public assistance. Cuccinelli was asked earlier Tuesday on NPR whether the words “give me your tired, your poor” were part of the American ethos. Cuccinelli responded: “They certainly are. Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.”
August 14, 2019 12:50 pm
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Police and the FBI are investigating after a man in a wheelchair attempted to rob a bank in Pittsburgh’s South Side. Police say a man described to be in his 60s entered the First National Bank in a wheelchair on Tuesday afternoon and handed a note demanding cash to a teller. However, the man had second thoughts and left the bank. The investigation is ongoing.
August 14, 2019 12:47 pm
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) – A man has been charged with breaking into a Planned Parenthood office in Pennsylvania, smashing glass doors and painting graffiti on the walls. Thirty-nine-year-old Iain Carberry is charged in Luzerne County with burglary, criminal trespass, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct in the early morning break-in Monday at the Wilkes-Barre office. Melissa Reed is president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Keystone. She says surveillance images show a man throwing a brick through a window and then coming back an hour later with another brick and smashing other windows and painting graffiti, including a Bible verse in red. Planned Parenthood Keystone says in a statement that the act was “aimed to intimidate, threaten and instill fear.” Court documents don’t list a defense attorney who could speak for Carberry, and a working phone number for him couldn’t be found.
