July 15, 2019 6:57 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Federal prosecutors say several more women have contacted them since financier Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest to say he abused them when they were underage. They cited the contacts in arguing against bail prior to a hearing Monday. Epstein’s lawyers say he’s no threat to flee and should await trial under house arrest in his $77 million Manhattan mansion. Prosecutors, calling him a flight risk and danger, say evidence against him is growing “stronger by the day.” They say they worry Epstein will try to influence witnesses if he is not incarcerated on charges that he recruited and abused dozens of underage girls in New York and Florida in the early 2000s. Epstein’s lawyers, though, say he’s lived a law-abiding life since pleading guilty to Florida solicitation charges in 2008.
July 15, 2019 4:21 am
CHICAGO (AP) – A dozen churches in the Los Angeles area have declared themselves sanctuaries for migrant families as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is scheduled to begin.
Guillermo Torres, with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, says more churches have become involved than ever before, which he attributes to a growing sense of indignation at the administration’s actions on immigration. President Donald Trump announced plans for sweeps that are expected to begin Sunday and target about 2,000 people with deportation orders in major cities, including Los Angeles. Torres said Sunday that there had been no reports of arrests. Pastor Fred Morris says the mere threat of roundups has already spread widespread fear in the community. He says he counseled his largely Hispanic congregation on what to do if agents arrive: don’t open the door, don’t answer questions. Many houses of worship in other cities and states have also declared themselves immigrant sanctuaries.
July 15, 2019 4:19 am
SRIHARIKOTA, India (AP) – India has called off the launch of a moon mission to explore the lunar south pole. The Chandrayaan-2 mission was aborted less than an hour before takeoff on Monday. Indian Space Research Organization spokesman B.R. Guruprasad says a “technical snag” was observed in the 640-ton launch-vehicle system. The agency says a new launch date would be announced. Chandrayaan, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, is designed for a soft landing on the far side of the moon and to send a rover to explore water deposits confirmed by a previous Indian space mission. India’s nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi is eager to show off the country’s security and technology prowess. If India did manage the soft landing, it would be only the fourth to do so after the U.S., Russia and China.
July 15, 2019 4:18 am
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Even though Tropical Depression Barry did not unleash catastrophic flooding in Louisiana, many across the Gulf Coast were urged to take heed of tornado and flash-flood warnings Monday as the storm moved north. Barry was downgraded from a tropical storm on Sunday afternoon but continued to pose a threat. Much of Louisiana and Mississippi were under flash-flood watches, as were parts of Arkansas, eastern Texas, western Tennessee and southeastern Missouri. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards urged residents to be cautious as they ventured outside after a weekend in which many had sheltered indoors. He says he was “extremely grateful” that the storm had not caused the disastrous floods that had earlier been forecast. According to poweroutage.us, about 60,000 customers in Louisiana and 3,300 customers in Mississippi were without power Sunday night.
July 15, 2019 4:15 am
BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) – A man who authorities say climbed atop the rusting blast furnace at a former eastern Pennsylvania steel mill, prompting evacuation of an arts and entertainment venue now at the site, is now facing a felony charge of risking a catastrophe. Twenty-five-year-old Jonathan David Wallace of Mertztown was also charged Sunday with reckless endangering and defiant trespass following the more-than-21-hour ordeal at the old Bethlehem Steel Corp. site. Events at the SteelStacks campus were postponed or canceled as the man balanced on a beam hundreds of feet above. Officers climbed to a platform below and talked to him for hours before his arrest Saturday afternoon. Court documents don’t list an attorney for Wallace; messages left at numbers listed for him weren’t immediately returned Sunday.
July 15, 2019 4:13 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Republican Party is trying to amicably settle a contested race for chairman between a candidate who had backing from Trump campaign officials, and a rival.
Bernadette Comfort instead will serve as President Donald Trump campaign’s chairwoman in the presidential battleground state ahead of the 2020 election. The state GOP’s former general counsel, Lawrence Tabas, will be the consensus candidate for state party chairman. Both sides said they had enough votes to win. The deal came together Friday. The party meets Saturday. Comfort had backing from Trump campaign officials and some Trump-aligned committee members supported Tabas. But party activists accuse Comfort of knowing about and ignoring complaints of sexual harassment by state party officials, accusations she’s denied.
July 15, 2019 4:12 am
ROCHESTER, Pa. (AP) – Authorities in western Pennsylvania have for the second time lifted a shelter-in-place advisory following a fire and chlorine gas leak at an abandoned industrial site. Emergency responders in Beaver County said the blaze at the old Beaver Alkali Products facility in Rochester was reported at about 9 p.m. Friday. No evacuations were ordered, but residents were asked to stay inside with windows and doors closed. The order was lifted after the blaze was reported under control at about 6 a.m. Saturday, but was reinstated “due to another chemical release.” The advisory was once again lifted Saturday afternoon, with emergency services officials saying “normal activities may be resumed.” The Department of Environmental Protection said the building had been abandoned for about 10 years and an emergency demolition was conducted last week.
July 15, 2019 4:11 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Authorities in western Pennsylvania say an off-duty Pittsburgh police officer was critically wounded in a street shooting. Pittsburgh public safety officials say 36-year-old Officer Calvin Hill was visiting friends when he was hit by gunfire after a street dispute broke out in the Homewood section of the city at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. Police say a party or parties were going on in the area Saturday night into Sunday morning. Police say the former Braddock officer has been on the force for two years and was hand-picked for a post in the Northview Heights public safety center because of “his career-long dedication to community outreach.” Police noted that the overnight hours also saw two other critical shootings, one in Northview Heights and another during a music concert at Nova Place.
July 15, 2019 4:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is not apologizing for his weekend tweets that four congresswomen of color should go back to the “broken and crime infested” countries they came from. Instead, Trump tweeted Monday that they ought to apologize to him for past remarks about Israel and about him. Trump’s new tweets came as the White House tried to defend his weekend remarks, widely condemned by Democrats as racist. Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, said Monday that those tweets were aimed at “very specific” comments made by Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who was born in Somalia, and not as a “universal statement.” He says: “I don’t think that the president’s intent any way is racist.” All four of the congresswomen are U.S. citizens. But even as Short spoke, Trump’s new tweets Monday referenced “congresswomen,” not just Omar. He tweeted “When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said. So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions!” Omar ignited a bipartisan uproar in Washington several months ago when she suggested that members of Congress support Israel for money. Another congresswoman, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, riled up a supportive crowd by calling the president a profanity and predicting that Trump will be removed from office.
July 14, 2019 8:16 am
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) – A friend of the man who authorities say died after throwing explosive devices at an immigration jail in Tacoma says that she thinks he wanted to provoke a fatal conflict, the Seattle Times reports. Deb Bartley, who tells the Times she has been a friend of Willem Van Spronsen’s for about 20 years, described him as an anarchist and anti-fascist, and believes his attack on the detention center intending to provoke a fatal conflict. “He was ready to end it,” Bartley told the Times. “I think this was a suicide. But then he was able to kind of do it in a way that spoke to his political beliefs . I know he went down there knowing he was going to die.” She says that she and other friends of Van Spronsen got letters in the mail “just saying goodbye.” He also wrote what she referred to as a manifesto, which she declined to discuss in detail, the Times reports.
