August 8, 2019 3:53 pm
(AP) – Luxury gym Equinox and indoor cycling studio Soul Cycle are facing a backlash from some members and celebrities over a fundraiser being held for President Donald Trump by a company executive. Stephen Ross, chairman and founder of real estate development company The Related Cos., which owns Equinox and SoulCycle, is throwing the fundraiser on Friday at his house in the Hamptons. Ross also owns the Miami Dolphins football team. Trump critics took to Twitter to say they would boycott the fitness companies, calling the president a racist and unfriendly to the gay and lesbian community, and asserting that they didn’t want their money supporting his 2020 presidential campaign. Equinox and SoulCycle tried to separate themselves from Ross and his fundraiser.
August 8, 2019 3:49 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Jerry Sandusky will be taken from prison to a central Pennsylvania courtroom next month for resentencing on his 45-count child sexual abuse conviction, six months after a state appeals court ruled mandatory minimums had been improperly applied. Judge John Foradora filed an order Wednesday scheduling the proceeding for Sept. 23 in the Centre County Courthouse. Foradora also directed the county sheriff to arrange for the 75-year-old former Penn State assistant football coach to be transported to the hearing from his cell in the State Correctional Institution at Laurel Highlands. Sandusky had been sentenced to 30 to 60 years for child molestation. The state Supreme Court last month declined to grant him a chance to argue he deserves a new trial. Sandusky was convicted of the sexual abuse of 10 boys.
August 8, 2019 3:46 pm
WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) – Heavy financial losses are forcing the closure of two rural hospitals, one in West Virginia and one in Ohio. The Intelligencer reports the hospitals’ President and CEO Daniel C. Dunmyer said in a statement on Wednesday that Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling, West Virginia and East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry, Ohio have lost $37 million in the last two years. Dunmyer says both hospitals will close within two to three months. He blamed declining volume and reimbursements, and added that they haven’t been able to compete with Wheeling Hospital. He pointed to a federal lawsuit that accuses Wheeling Hospital of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid. Wheeling Hospital CEO Douglass Harrison issued a statement saying the closures are disheartening but didn’t address the lawsuit.
August 8, 2019 3:44 pm
HAMBURG, Pa. (AP) – Investigators in Pennsylvania have exhumed the body of an unidentified man who was found frozen in a cave along the Appalachian Trail about four decades ago. Officials in Berks County say the man’s dental records recently were matched to missing men from Florida and Illinois. Berks County Coroner Dennis Hess tells WFMZ-TV the only way to conclusively identify the man is to exhume his remains and test his DNA. The test results could take about three weeks. The man’s body was found in January 1977 by two hikers in a cave near an area called The Pinnacle, not far from Hamburg. Authorities at the time said there was no sign of foul play and the man was buried in a potter’s field in Berks County.
August 8, 2019 3:39 pm
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – An attorney says a Montana man charged with assaulting a 13-year-old boy who refused to remove his hat during the national anthem believed he was doing what President Donald Trump wanted him to do. Attorney Lance Jasper tells the Missoulian he will seek a mental health evaluation for Curt Brockway, a U.S. Army veteran who suffered a traumatic brain injury and was convinced he was following his commander in chief’s orders. Jasper’s comments Wednesday came as prosecutors formally charged Brockway with assault on a minor.
Prosecutors say Brockway asked the boy to remove his hat during the anthem ahead of a rodeo. They say the boy cursed at Brockway, and the man grabbed him by the throat, “lifted him into the air and slammed the boy into the ground.”
August 8, 2019 3:37 pm
GENEVA (AP) – A manager in the U.N. Climate Change secretariat who helped write a new report on the subject, said the grueling work by the volunteer authors was “like a dentist’s appointment for six days” and left her with both concerns and hopes that people will unite and respond to the threats of climate change. Koko Warner, who contributed to a chapter on risk management and decision-making, told the AP that: “I’ve lost a lot of sleep about what the science is saying. As a person, it’s pretty scary. We need to act urgently.” Speaking Thursday after the report was presented at the World Meteorological Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, she added: “But all of us as volunteers are united in this cause of making sure that policymakers understand the risk to humans, to ecosystems, and to make sure those policymakers as well as citizens, my kids, people on the street, that they have options.”
August 8, 2019 12:50 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Government meteorologists say this year’s hurricane season may be busier than initially expected now that summer’s weak El Nino has faded away. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center said Thursday the Atlantic season looks more active than normal as peak hurricane season begins. Forecasters now expect 10 to 17 named storms, with five to nine hurricanes and two to four major ones. In May, they forecast a normal season, one or two fewer named storms and hurricanes. Forecaster Gerry Bell says the end of El Nino means more hospitable hurricane conditions. El Nino is the periodic warming of parts of the Pacific that affects weather worldwide and dampens storm activity. Hurricane season is June through November. So far, there have been two named storms, with one hurricane.
August 8, 2019 12:37 pm
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Police say a man fatally stabbed a woman who was talking to an officer at a downtown Pittsburgh bus stop and slashed another woman before he was taken into custody. Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert says the officer was checking on the woman’s health just after 11:30 a.m. Thursday when a man came up from behind him and stabbed her. The suspect then stabbed the other woman. Schubert says the officer immediately put the man in custody and applied first aid to the victim. The sidewalks were crowded with office workers and others heading out to lunch. Cmdr. Victor Joseph says the first woman died at a hospital. The second victim had minor injuries. A motive isn’t yet known, but he says it seems like a random act of violence. (Photo: WPXI)
August 8, 2019 12:28 pm
CAPITAN, N.M. (AP) – Smokey Bear, the icon of the longest-running public service campaign in the U.S., is set to turn 75. Birthday parties are scheduled to take place this week in honor of the bear that promotes forest fire prevention. The decision to use the Smokey Bear character happened on Aug. 9, 1944, when the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council agreed a fictional bear would be the fire prevention campaign symbol. A badly burned cub found after a 1950 fire in New Mexico’s Capitan Mountains was named Smokey Bear and was used in promotional campaigns. The Gila National Forest in Silver, New Mexico, and Wingfield Park in the town of Ruidoso will hold birthday parties for the bear. Parties also are scheduled in Reading, Pennsylvania, and Entiat, Washington.
August 8, 2019 9:32 am
POCAHONTAS COUNTY, W.Va. (AP) – Authorities say a West Virginia state trooper is in stable condition after being shot in a gunfight where he killed a suspect. The West Virginia State Police on Wednesday released details on Trooper First Class J.M. Tallman’s condition. The department has also identified the suspect as 43-year-old William Biggs. Officials say Biggs first fired a rifle at a Pocahontas County sheriff after a car crash on Monday. Biggs then shot Tallman in the abdomen as officers searched the woods. Tallman returned fire, killing Biggs. Tallman was airlifted to a hospital after the shooting.
