October 20, 2019 8:04 am
CANONSBURG — The Canon-McMillan School District and the North Strabane Police Department have investigated videos of alleged high school students using racial slurs. North Strabane Police say they were made aware of the two videos Friday. One shows a boy using a racial slur, the other a girl using the same slur. A police investigation found one of the videos could have been recorded at Canon-McMillan High School. No charges will be filed, but the school district continues its investigation, according to a tweet from the district’s account Saturday morning. North Strabane Police say they have finished their investigation unless more videos surface. They say it will be up to parents and the school to implement any discipline.
October 19, 2019 11:27 am
LONDON (AP) – The British government looks set to try again next week to get Parliament to back its divorce deal with the European Union, after lawmakers voted to delay the decision.
Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg says the government will seek a debate Monday on its Brexit-implementing legislation that would effectively be a vote to approve the deal.
It’s unclear whether that would be allowed under House of Commons rules against holding repeated votes on the same question. House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said he would make a ruling Monday. Lawmakers voted Saturday to withhold their approval for the Brexit deal until all legislation to implement it has been passed. In the meantime, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is required to ask the EU to delay Britain’s departure, currently scheduled for Oct. 31. Johnson is still aiming to get the deal approved by Oct. 31 so no delay is necessary.
October 19, 2019 9:19 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Bernie Sanders isn’t going anywhere. Less than three weeks after suffering a heart attack, the Democratic presidential contender is beginning what he’s calling a “vigorous” return to the campaign trail with a rally expected to draw thousands of supporters in New York City on Saturday afternoon. One of them will be New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders’ latest high-profile endorsement. She’ll share the stage with Sanders and give his stagnant White House bid an instant dose of energy. The event marks a coming-out party of sorts for the 78-year-old Vermont senator, who left the campaign trail earlier this month after he underwent emergency heart surgery. He insists that he’s more committed than ever to his 2020 White House bid.
Saturday’s rally will take place in Queens.
October 19, 2019 9:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The State Department has completed its internal investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s use of private email and found violations by 38 people, some of whom may face disciplinary action. The department determined that those 38 people were “culpable” in 91 cases of sending classified information in messages that ended up in Clinton’s personal email. The 38 are current and former State Department officials but were not identified in the report that was sent to Congress this week. The investigation covered 33,000 emails that Clinton turned over for review after her use of the private email account became public. The department said it found a total of 588 violations involving information then or now deemed to be classified, but could not assign fault in 497 cases.
October 19, 2019 9:14 am
LONDON (AP) – Tens of thousands of anti-Brexit protesters are marching through London as lawmakers debate Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new European Union divorce deal. Protesters, many wearing blue berets emblazoned with yellow stars symbolizing the EU flag, poured out of subway trains and buses for the march to Parliament Square on Saturday. In one side street, a group of demonstrators with bells strapped to their legs and wielding sticks performed a traditional English morris dance and chanted: “Morris, not Boris!” to cheers from onlookers. One of the dancers, Kate Fisher, says “demos that are fun and joyful are more effective.” Elsewhere, the mood was less cheerful. Sarah Spoor, who cares for her two children with disabilities, choked back tears as she said she is “distraught” at the prospect of Britain leaving the EU.
October 19, 2019 4:14 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Leaders of a Pittsburgh synagogue where 11 worshippers were fatally shot last year say they want to renovate the building into what they hope will be a “center for Jewish life in the United States” and a symbol against hatred. Plans unveiled Friday for the Tree of Life synagogue include places for worship; memorial, education and social events; classrooms and exhibitions. Tree of Life’s Executive Director Barb Feige says returning to the building will honor those killed on Oct. 27, 2018. Federal prosecutors have charged 47-year-old Robert Bowers in the massacre. They are seeking the death penalty. His lawyers say the case would be over by now if prosecutors had accepted his guilty plea in return for a life term without parole.
October 19, 2019 4:09 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A federal appeals court is upholding a Pittsburgh ordinance that creates a 15-foot buffer zone against protests outside abortion clinics and is also allowing “sidewalk counseling” within that zone. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday said the city can restrict congregating, picketing, patrolling and demonstrating in the immediate vicinity of clinics, but the zone restrictions don’t apply to “calm and peaceful” one-on-one conversations. The buffer zone law concerns any hospital or health care facility, but the case arose over demarcated areas outside two Pittsburgh abortion clinics. The plaintiffs argued the buffer zone makes it difficult to communicate their message and to distinguish passers-by from the clinic patients they want to reach. City lawyers had argued “sidewalk counseling” is a form of demonstrating.
October 19, 2019 4:05 am
A Washington man was sentenced by Judge Valerie Costanzo on four separate cases dating back to 2016. Shaquore Yarbrough was sentenced Wednesday to 6 ½ to 13 years in a state correctional facility after pleading guilty to a variety of charges including strangulation, simple assault, intimidation of witness, possession of firearms prohibited and two counts of possession with intent to deliver controlled substances. On September 2, 2016, Yarbrough was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by police and he was found to have 45 stamp bags of heroin. He was taken into custody on an active warrant. On July 18, 2017 Yarbrough admitted to strangling and assaulting his then girlfriend causing injuries to her arms, leg, torso and face. On June 4, 2018 police raided Yarbrough’s residence and found two bundles of heroin and $1,227. Yarbrough fled and during pursuit dropped a Glock 27 with an obliterated serial number. While incarcerated pending trial in these cases, Yarbrough used another inmate’s account to contact the victim from the 2016 incident to attempt to convince her not to testify. All of these cases were investigated by the District Attorney’s Drug Task Force, Washington City Police Department, Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the Pennsylvania State Police.
October 18, 2019 4:51 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Jane Fonda is picking up where she left off in civil disobedience nearly a half-century ago. But there’s one thing that’s changed: That step up into the police wagon is tougher at age 81. U.S. Capitol Police arrested Fonda and fellow actor Sam Waterston on Friday in a second week of climate change protests. Fonda says she’s holding the events to draw more people into climate activism. Fonda tells The Associated Press she was last arrested for protesting in the 1970s. She says watching the climate activism of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg helped inspire her to get back in. For a second Friday, Fonda stepped into the patrol wagon with hands bound. But this time, Fonda had managed to get her hands cuffed in front of her, for balance.
October 18, 2019 4:11 pm
(AP) – Drugmaker Sanofi is recalling its over-the-counter heartburn drug Zantac in the U.S. and Canada because of possible contamination. The French company Friday joined other drugmakers that have recently recalled their versions of the popular heartburn and ulcer drug. In September, the Food and Drug Administration said a potentially cancer-causing chemical had been detected at low levels in prescription and over-the-counter versions of Zantac. The federal agency said consumers could consider taking another heartburn medicine or contact their doctor. Several drugstore chains have already removed Zantac and generic versions from store shelves.
