August 12, 2019 4:18 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) – Hundreds of people gathered to remember a western Pennsylvania graduate student killed in a mass shooting in an Ohio nightclub district last weekend. Mourners from all stages of the life of 25-year-old Nicholas Cumer filled every seat in Saturday’s service and lined the hallways of a Washington, Pennsylvania funeral home. Pastor Brian Greenleaf said Cumer “had a heart bigger than his chest.” He was among nine people killed early last Sunday by a gunman who was then killed by police shortly after he opened fire at a bar in Dayton, Ohio. Cumer was a graduate student in the master of cancer care program at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania. He was in Dayton as part of his internship with the Maple Tree Cancer Alliance. He was a 2012 graduate of Washington High School.
August 12, 2019 4:15 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania appeals court questioned why Bill Cosby’s legal team never got a supposed non-prosecution agreement in writing as his latest lawyers fought Monday to have his sexual assault conviction overturned. The 82-year-old actor was not in court Monday as his lawyers attacked the trial judge’s decision to send Cosby to trial and to let five other accusers testify. The three-judge Superior Court panel asked why Cosby’s lawyers never got the supposed agreement in writing or approved by a judge in 2005. He was arrested by another prosecutor a decade later after dozens of other accusers came forward. Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the (hash)MeToo era. He is serving a three-to 10-year prison term. The court typically takes several months to rule.
August 12, 2019 4:13 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Prosecutors and lawyers for the man charged with killing 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue last year have agreed to a 120-day extension in the case. The sides met briefly in federal court in Pittsburgh on Monday to review the status of Robert Bowers’ prosecution. The defendant wasn’t in court. Authorities say Bowers opened fire with an AR-15 rifle and other weapons during worship services inside Tree of Life synagogue. Bowers allegedly expressed hatred of Jews during the Oct. 27 rampage and later told police that “all these Jews need to die.” It was the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. Prosecutors have not made a final decision on whether to seek the death penalty. Bowers has pleaded not guilty to hate crimes and other offenses.
August 12, 2019 4:12 am
ERIE, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say a morning fire in Pennsylvania claimed the lives of five children and sent another person to the hospital. Lt. Szocki of the Erie Police Department said the victims died in a fire in Erie reported at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday. Chief Guy Santone of the Erie Fire Department says the victims ranged in ages from 8 months to 7 years. The Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership lists a daycare at the fire address. Erie Police Chief Dan Spizarny told the Erie Times-News that detectives are working to determine whether any of the victims were staying at the daycare. Chief Fire Inspector John Widomski told The Erie Times-News that a woman who also lives at the residence was flown to UPMC Mercy for treatment. Fire Chief Guy Santone told the paper that a neighbor was also injured.
August 11, 2019 7:58 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un supervised test-firings of an unspecified new weapons system, which extended a streak of weapons demonstrations that are seen an attempt to build leverage ahead of negotiations with the United States. The report by North Korean state media on Sunday came a day after South Korea’s military said it detected the North launching what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea. North Korea’s fifth round of weapons launches on less than three weeks was seen as a protest at the slow pace of nuclear negotiations with the United States and continuance of U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises the North claims are an invasion rehearsal. Experts say the nuclear talks will likely resume after the drills are over later this month.
August 11, 2019 7:57 am
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Three months after announcing his White House bid, Joe Biden remains atop early primary polling. He’s been buoyed by a long history with voters and a belief among many of them that his decades of experience best position him to defeat President Donald Trump. But Biden’s rivals remain confident that his frequent fumbles will eventually catch up to him.
Biden’s standing in the race is the subject of much debate within the Democratic Party. Advisers to other campaigns contend that polling at this stage is often fluid, reflecting little more than name recognition. Biden aides frequently note that Trump led polls throughout the summer of 2015 and never relinquished his lead. What is clear is that some of Biden’s rivals see an imperative to begin taking him on aggressively.
August 11, 2019 7:56 am
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, including a ban on the type of high-capacity ammunition magazines used in some of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings. How long those types of laws will stand is a growing concern among gun control advocates in California and elsewhere. A federal judiciary that is becoming increasingly conservative under President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate has gun control advocates on edge. They worry that federal courts, especially if Trump wins a second term next year and Republicans hold the Senate, will take such an expansive view of Second Amendment rights that they might overturn strict gun control laws enacted in Democratic-leaning states.
August 11, 2019 7:54 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Jeffrey Epstein has died of an apparent suicide in jail, prompting an investigation into his death and assurance from a U.S. official that allegations of sexual abuse and conspiracy will not be cast aside. The Federal Bureau of Prisons says that Epstein, a wealthy financier accused of orchestrating a sex-trafficking ring and sexually abusing dozens of underage girls, was found unresponsive in his cell Saturday morning. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. A person familiar with the matter who wasn’t authorized to discuss it publicly says Epstein had been placed on suicide watch after an incident a little over two weeks ago in which he was found with bruising on his neck. But the person says he was taken off watch at the end of July and wasn’t on it at the time of death.
August 11, 2019 7:51 am
PLUM, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania man whose 3-year-old daughter drowned last week is now facing charges after police say he left his two young children alone in the pool to go inside and make a drink. According to a criminal complaint filed Thursday, 27-year-old Charles Mitchell told officers he returned to the backyard Aug. 1 to find his daughter submerged in the deep end of the pool and pulled her out and started CPR. Mitchell has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and two counts of child endangerment. No attorney is listed in court documents. Police say he told them his 4-year-old son wanted to swim but his daughter didn’t, so he put a life vest on his son and his daughter stayed outside while he left for five minutes to fix a ginger ale mixed with an apple-flavored alcohol. They say he later changed his statement to say it was only ginger ale.
August 11, 2019 7:46 am
MONACA, Pa. (AP) – President Donald Trump is coming to western Pennsylvania next week to visit a multibillion-dollar ethane cracker plant under construction.
A White House official said Thursday the visit to the 386-acre site in Monaca that had been planned for this week before two mass shootings occurred will take place on Tuesday. The massive Shell Pennsylvania Chemicals plant will convert natural gas liquids into plastic pellets to be used in manufacturing. There are currently about 5,000 construction workers on the site. Shell has said it expects to have about 600 permanent workers at the Ohio River facility, once it’s fully built and up and running sometime in the early 2020s. The plant will be operated by Shell Polymers.
