December 8, 2019 8:23 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea says it has carried out a “very important test” at its long-range rocket launch site that it reportedly rebuilt after having partially dismantled it when it entered denuclearization talks with the U.S. last year. The North’s Korean Central News Agency says the test was conducted Saturday afternoon. It says the result of the test was reported to the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party. The report didn’t say what the test was about. The U.N. bans North Korea from launching satellites because it’s seen as a test of long-range missile technology. Analyst Kim Dong-yub at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies says North Korea likely tested for the first time a solid-fuel engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile.
December 8, 2019 8:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A Justice Department inspector general report is expected to say that the FBI had a legitimate basis to open its investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. It’s also expected to say that senior law enforcement officials weren’t motivated by partisan bias. But it’s also expected to cite multiple errors during the investigation, including by an FBI lawyer suspected of altering a document related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide. The report is being released Monday. Though highly anticipated, it’s not expected to quell the partisan battles surrounding the Russia investigation.
December 8, 2019 8:20 am
EASTLAKE, Ohio (AP) – Geologists say a small earthquake centered just off the Lake Erie shoreline shook areas east of Cleveland. The 2.6 magnitude quake struck Saturday morning and was felt in several Ohio cities, including downtown Cleveland. There haven’t been any reports of damage. It’s the second 2.6 magnitude quake since mid-October. The latest one was centered about three miles north of the city of Eastlake. Both of those were much lighter than a 4.2 magnitude event that struck Ohio just northeast of Cleveland in Lake Erie in June.
December 8, 2019 8:18 am
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (WPXI) – A popular church building is set to close in Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood. The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh announced Saturday that Prince of Peace parish’s St. Peter church is being closed for worship after a petition was submitted to Bishop David Zubik in October. The decision came after a “growing awareness of the stringent financial limitations facing Prince of Peace Parish, growing debt, and the parish’s ability to adequately provide pastoral and sacramental care,” according to a release. The parish will continue to worship at its other site: St. Adalbert, which is located on 15th Street.
December 8, 2019 4:38 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf is putting the state House of Representatives on a timeline to pass legislation to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage. The Democratic governor’s office said Friday that the Republican-controlled chamber has until the end of the month. Otherwise, Wolf’s office says he’ll let a rule-making board vote on a regulatory measure to extend overtime pay eligibility to tens of thousands of workers. The Republican-controlled Senate last month approved the legislation raising Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $9.50 an hour in 2022. The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry agreed to support a minimum wage increase if Wolf relented on his overtime rule.
December 8, 2019 4:35 am
NORTH FAYETTE, Pa. (WPXI) – Police took a person into custody after there was a car chase along Route 22 in North Fayette. According to the Attorney General’s Office, undercover agents and local police had set Justin Torres up during a child predator investigation. Police said Torres drove to a hotel near Settler’s Ridge with the intent of having sex with an underage boy. Instead of a 14-year-old, undercover agents were waiting. According to a police criminal complaint, Torres sent a message to the undercover agent who was posing as a 14-year-old on a social media platform. Pictures were exchanged and the time and place to meet in the parking lot of the hotel was set. Police said Torres was behind the wheel of his car in the parking lot when officers tried to take him into custody. At that point, police said he put the car in reverse and used the car as a weapon — narrowly missing an officer. That’s when a police officer opened fire into the windshield of Torres’ car. Torres then took off, leading police on a chase on Route 22 that ended near the Hankey Farms Exit, where he was taken into custody. Torres, once in custody, told police he knew the child was 14-years-old and knew that sexual contact with someone that young was illegal. When officers asked why he tried to run them down in his car, Torres allegedly said that he was afraid, panicked and tried to get away. Torres is facing several counts of child sex crimes.
December 7, 2019 4:46 am
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico says it has made the biggest oil discovery in the country since 1987 at the Quesqui field in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco.áThe head of the state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, says the on-shore field has proven, probable and possibleáreserves of 500 million barrels of crude equivalent. Octavio Romero said Friday the first well was drilled at Quesqui in June and is now producing 4,500 barrels per day. The 34 square-kilometer field is planned to have 11 wells and a production of 69,000 barrels per day in 2020 and 110,000 barrels of oil and 410 million cubic feet of natural gas per day in 2021.
December 7, 2019 4:46 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Capitol Hill leaders are nearing agreement in negotiations on an annual defense policy bill that would extend 12 weeks of paid parental leave to federal workers, both military and civilian, in exchange for establishing President Donald Trump’s space force initiative. The agreement would trade a major expansion of benefits to federal workers for a legacy initiative of Trump’s. Federal workers currently can take unpaid leave. Democratic and GOP aides confirmed the developments. The agreement is not finalized and comes after extensive behind-the-scenes battling on the annual defense measure, which has passed Congress every year since the Kennedy administration.
December 7, 2019 4:45 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A senior Trump administration official says the White House will not participate in the House Judiciary Committee’s next impeachment hearing. The decision came Friday in a letter from White House counsel Pat Cipollone. The letter to Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler did not expressly state the White House’s refusal to participate. But a senior administration official says that was the point it was intended to communicate. Nadler says the House is disappointed by Trump’s decision, but it “will not prevent us from carrying out our solemn constitutional duty.”
December 7, 2019 4:43 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he’s holding off on designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. In a tweet Friday, Trump says he was ready to issue a declaration but will delay at the request of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The Mexican president thanked him for the delay. Mexico had said such a step by the U.S. could end up violating its sovereignty. Trump had announced his plans last week in a radio interview. He cited American deaths attributed to drug trafficking and other activity by the cartels.
