July 24, 2019 5:59 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House has passed a bill aimed at combating robocalls, the latest attempt to counter the wave of spam calls as complaints pile up. Federal agencies have also stepped up anti-robocall measures, allowing carriers to block unwanted calls by default and encouraging the wireless industry to roll out technology that guarantees the number showing up on your caller ID isn’t faked to fool you into answering a scammer. The Senate passed a bill similar to the House one, the Traced Act, in May, with near-unanimous support. The House version, the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, goes further in attempting to stop companies from making telemarketing calls. Both bills have support from consumer groups and the telecom industry. The House has passed the robocall bill by a 429-3 vote.
July 24, 2019 5:57 pm
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Federal officials say the helicopter carrying coal billionaire Chris Cline began spinning before it plunged into the ocean near the Bahamas and killed everyone on board. The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday released a preliminary report that details the July 4 accident and its aftermath but doesn’t include a cause. Cline, his daughter Kameron and three of her friends died along with a pilot and copilot in the crash off Cline’s private Big Grand Cay island. The report says a witness saw the helicopter rotate to the left three to four times, followed by a whooshing noises and the sound of an impact. It was found upside-down with several broken pieces. The NTSB says the aircraft was leaving the island to take two passengers to Florida for medical treatment.
July 24, 2019 5:53 pm
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Rapper Meek Mill says he’s “ecstatic that justice prevailed” after a Pennsylvania appeals court overturned his decade-old drug and gun conviction. The entertainer says his legal ordeal has been “mentally and emotionally challenging.” He calls it unfortunate that millions of other people are going through similar ordeals without the support he’s received from his family, legal team and celebrity friends including music mogul Jay-Z and Philadelphia 76ers owner Michael Rubin. The 32-year-old born Robert Rihmeek Williams vows to continue to push for criminal justice reform “to change these outdated laws and fix our broken criminal justice system.” A Pennsylvania appeals court threw out on Wednesday rapper Meek Mill’s decade-old conviction in a drug and gun case. The unanimous three-judge opinion grants the rapper born Robert Williams a new trial because of new evidence of alleged police corruption. The Pennsylvania Superior Court also overturned the trial judge’s parole violation findings that sent the entertainer back to prison in 2017 for five months. “We conclude the after-discovered evidence is of such a strong nature and character that a different verdict will likely result at a retrial,” the opinion said. Prosecutors could choose to drop the case. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office has said it will not call the police officer who was the sole prosecution witness because of new doubts about his credibility.
July 24, 2019 5:50 pm
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Prosecutors say a man has been sentenced to 23 months to 46 months in prison, which amounts to time served, in the death of his infant daughter almost four years ago. The Allegheny County district attorney’s office had sought five to 10 years at Wednesday’s sentencing of 33-year-old Joseph Swidorsky, who pleaded guilty in April to involuntary manslaughter. Swidorsky has been held in the county jail since October 2015 in the death of 5-week-old Braelyn Swidorsky. Police said the Brighton Heights resident was bathing the infant in the bathroom in June 2015 when her mother walked in and found her blue and unresponsive. She died later that night. A medical examiner said the child’s death was due to a skull fracture and brain hemorrhaging.
July 24, 2019 5:49 pm
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A woman has been sentenced to three to six years in the hit-and-run death of a pedestrian in western Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that 30-year-old Melinda Gregor tearfully apologized before an Allegheny County judge imposed the mandatory term Wednesday. She said “I know me saying ‘I’m sorry’ a million times won’t change anything, but I just want to say I’m so sorry to your family.” Defense attorney Phil DiLucente said his hadn’t committed “an intentional act to hurt or kill someone.” Common Pleas Court Judge Beth Lazzara, however, said Gregor knew she had struck something when she hit 50-year-old Michael Menner in December 2017, and jurors who convicted of her of failure to render aid didn’t believe her story that she thought she had struck a deer.
July 24, 2019 5:47 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Jerry Sandusky isn’t getting a fresh chance to argue in state court he should get a new trial, seven years after the former Penn State assistant football coach was convicted of molesting 10 boys. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down the 75-year-old’s request it review a Superior Court decision earlier this year that rejected most of Sandusky’s arguments. His lawyer says he’s very disappointed and Sandusky may seek help from federal courts. Sandusky’s November 2011 arrest led to the firing of his longtime boss, head football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno died in 2012. Superior Court had also ordered Sandusky be resentenced because mandatory minimum guidelines were improperly applied. The re-sentencing has been on hold awaiting the high court decision. Sandusky was sentenced in 2012 to 30 to 60 years.
July 24, 2019 5:27 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – An Associated Press analysis of prescription opioid data shows enough drugs were shipped in 2012 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. to have nearly a 20-day supply even as a national overdose and addiction crisis deepened. The AP crunched federal Drug Enforcement Administration numbers made public this month on the distribution of opioids from 2006 through 2012. The data is at the heart of a series of lawsuits filed by governments trying to hold the drug industry responsible for the opioid crisis. Drugmakers and distributors deny the charges.
By accounting the potency of drugs, the AP found that the total amount of opioids distributed per year over that period increased by 55%.
July 24, 2019 12:51 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Medical device maker Allergan Inc. is recalling a type of breast implant linked to a rare form of cancer. The company Wednesday announced a worldwide recall of implants with a textured surface. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it called for the removal after new information showed Allergan’s Biocell breast implants account for a disproportionate share of rare lymphoma cases. The move follows similar bans by regulators in France, Australia and Canada. The FDA is not recommending women with the implants have them removed if they are not experiencing problems. The recalled implants feature a textured surface designed to prevent slippage and to minimize scar tissue. Such models account for just 5% of the U.S. market. Most U.S. breast implants are smooth.
July 24, 2019 10:40 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal regulators are fining Facebook $5 billion for privacy violations and instituting new oversight and restrictions on its business. But they are only holding CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally responsible in a limited fashion. The fine is the largest the Federal Trade Commission has levied on a tech company, although it won’t much dent a company that had nearly $56 billion in revenue last year. Zuckerberg must personally certify Facebook’s compliance with its privacy programs. The FTC says false certifications could expose him to civil or criminal penalties. Some experts thought the FTC might fine Zuckerberg directly or limit his authority over the company. The commission opened their investigation after revelations that data mining firm Cambridge Analytica had gathered details on as many as 87 million Facebook users without their permission.
July 24, 2019 8:46 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Former special counsel Robert Mueller has finished testifying before Congress. Mueller testified before two committees on Wednesday for more than six hours on his 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mueller said the interference was not a hoax, and it was not an isolated episode. He warned that there should be a more robust effort to guard against future interference. Mueller also dismissed President Donald Trump’s claim of “total exoneration,” saying it’s not what his Russia report said. Mueller told lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee that investigators did not exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice. He made the statement in response to questions from the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat. Mueller’s report said the investigation did not find sufficient evidence to establish charges of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia. But it said investigators did not clear Trump of trying to obstruct the probe. A redacted version of the 448-page report compiled by Mueller’s team was released by the Justice Department in April.
