November 18, 2019 4:13 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Discussions toward raising Pennsylvania’s minimum wage for the first time since 2009 are heating up, in part to get Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to abandon an effort to extend overtime pay eligibility to thousands of workers. Leaders of the Senate’s Republican majority said Friday that negotiators must compromise for a bill to pass the chamber. Any bill would still have to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Being discussed is an increase from the $7.25 federal minimum to around $9.50 an hour in steps over 18 months or so, more modest than what Wolf proposed in January. Negotiators are up against a Thursday deadline, when a state rule-making board is voting on Wolf’s overtime regulation. The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry is pushing a minimum wage increase in exchange for Wolf dropping the overtime regulation.
November 18, 2019 4:12 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – An American Airlines flight was forced to land at Pittsburgh International Airport due to a mechanical issue. The airline says Flight 2244 had departed about 7:30 a.m. Saturday from Chicago and was bound for Washington with 72 passengers and six crew members aboard. The Boeing 737-800 landed in Pittsburgh at 9:30 a.m. without incident and soon taxied to a gate.
No injuries were reported in the incident, and there was no disruption to air traffic in Pittsburgh. American says all the passengers were rebooked on other flights to Washington. Specific details about the mechanical problem were not disclosed.
November 18, 2019 4:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has suspended 13 employees while authorities investigate an inmate’s death. A Saturday release says 29-year-old Tyrone Briggs died “following an inmate-on-inmate assault” Nov. 11 at the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy. The release says department secretary John Wetzel on Friday suspended the employees without pay during the criminal and administrative investigations. They include medical and security staff, but the department won’t release names. The release quotes Wetzel as saying “this incident should not serve to tarnish the reputation” of the department and its employees. An earlier release says Briggs became unresponsive while waiting to be processed into the restrictive housing unit after the altercation. He had been at the prison since 2011 and was serving a 15-to-30-year sentence for child rape out of Philadelphia County.
November 18, 2019 4:10 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Teachers and coaches in Pennsylvania’s state-owned university system are giving their approval to a new four-year union contract. Faculty at the State System of Higher Education voted overwhelmingly this week to ratify the contract. Details haven’t been made public but will be posted online once ratification is complete. The tally from the balloting now goes to the State System of Higher Education’s Board of Governors for its approval. The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties union represents about 5,500 faculty and coaches at the 14 state system universities.
November 17, 2019 8:26 am
LONDON (AP) – A senior Labour party official says leaks from a report on Russian interference in British politics raises serious questions about the security of next month’s election. The Sunday Times says the report from Parliament’s intelligence committee concludes that Russian interference may have affected Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, though the impact was “unquantifiable.” The Times says the report discusses the impact of articles posted by Russian new sites that were widely disseminated on social media. Emily Thornberry, Labour’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, told the newspaper that Prime Minister Boris Johnson must “clear up the confusion, spin and speculation around this ISC report by publishing it in full at the earliest opportunity.” She says if the Conservative leader does not, “people will rightly continue to ask: what is he trying to hide from the British public and why?”
November 17, 2019 8:24 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Some statisticians and scientists are renewing calls to get rid of a statistical concept that holds huge sway over how scientific results are appraised, which studies get published, and what medicines make it to drugstores. The concept is called statistical significance, and it’s expressed using a number called a p-value. It’s an all-or-nothing thing. Results are either significant, meaning they are reliable, or not significant, indicating an unacceptably high chance that they were just a fluke. The concept has been used for decades, but this year has brought two high-profile calls from critics, including from inside the world of statistics, to get rid of it. One call to abolish the practice published this year in a scientific journal attracted more than 800 co-signers.
November 17, 2019 8:23 am
WAVERLY, Iowa (AP) – Elizabeth Warren pushed back against critics of her newly-released plan to phase in implementation of a single-payer health care system, insisting Saturday that she is “fully committed” to Medicare for All and that she plans to first build on existing health care programs because “people need help right now.” Warren said her commitment to Medicare for All is all the way.” She was responding to critics who’ve questioned the timing behind the release of her implementation plan. Asked after a campaign event in Iowa if her decision to delay passage of a single-payer plan until the third year of her presidency was an acknowledgement of the political challenge she’ll face in enacting such a plan, Warren insisted “I don’t see it that way at all.”
November 17, 2019 8:22 am
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iranian state TV says the country’s supreme leader supports the government’s decision to increase gasoline prices and calls those setting fire to public property “bandits” backed by the enemies of Iran. The comments by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were reported by the state TV on Sunday, a day after protesters angered by Iran raising government-set gasoline prices by 50% had blocked traffic in major cities and occasionally clashed with police. That came after a night of demonstrations punctuated by gunfire, in violence that reportedly killed at least one person.
November 17, 2019 8:21 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Testimony in the House impeachment investigation is tying President Donald Trump more closely to the allegation that he held up military aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigations of his political rivals. A National Security Council aide said that Ambassador Gordon Sondland told a Ukrainian official that the assistance would be delivered once a Ukraine official announced an investigation into the gas company for which Joe Biden’s son worked. Lawmakers released a transcript of Tim Morrison’s testimony on Saturday. Morrison also recounted that Sondland told him he was discussing the Ukraine matters directly with Trump. Both Morrison and Sondland are scheduled to testify publicly next week. Holding up aid to Ukraine for political purposes is the central charge from Democrats investigating impeachment.
November 17, 2019 8:19 am
BETHEL PARK, Pa. – A man is charged in the disappearance of a Bethel Park woman who hasn’t been seen since Sept. 15. The family of Jaime Feden, 33, contacted police Thursday night to report her missing. John Chapman, 39, is in custody and facing several charges, including kidnapping. Chapman’s family told Channel 11 he met Feden at either a high school or college for students with special educational needs and that he often had a lot of close friends. Police said Chapman would often stay at Feden’s Bethel Park townhome. Channel 11 obtained the criminal complaint that said Chapman drove Feden to Las Vegas in late September, telling her they were taking a trip. At some point around September 25, according to court paperwork, Chapman convinced her to drive into the desert for a photo shoot. He allegedly told police he bound Feden’s hands and feet with zip ties and tied her to a signpost. Chapman also allegedly duct taped her mouth and nose, causing her to suffocate and die, according to police. A criminal complaint says Chapman then removed the tape, the zip ties and Feden’s clothing and left her near the signpost in Nevada before driving back to Bethel Park. According to police, while she was missing, the victim’s family said someone reached out to them from her Facebook messenger account pretending to be her. Police said Chapman was on the other end. Chapman’s stepmother told Channel 11 he is married to another woman and has been for about a year. His family thought he was going on a work trip to Las Vegas when the alleged incident happened. Allegheny County detectives have since contacted authorities in Las Vegas, who confirmed they found a woman’s body matching many of Feden’s physical characteristics. Detectives said they will be working with authorities in Nevada to positively identify the woman’s remains. At this point, Chapman has not been charged with homicide. Police said if he is eventually charged, he will likely be extradited to Las Vegas.
