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.
July 14, 2019 8:14 am
LONDON (AP) – A newspaper in Britain has published more leaked memos from Britain’s ambassador in Washington, despite a police warning that doing so might be a crime. In one cable published by the Mail on Sunday, U.K. ambassador Kim Darroch says President Donald Trump pulled out of a nuclear deal with Iran as an act of “diplomatic vandalism” to spite his predecessor, Barack Obama. Darroch resigned last week after the newspaper published cables in which he’d branded the Trump administration dysfunctional and inept. The White House responded by refusing to deal with him. U.K. police are hunting the culprits behind the leak – and, contentiously, warned journalists that publishing the documents “could also constitute a criminal offence.” Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson, who are competing to become Britain’s next prime minister, both defended the media’s right to publish.
July 14, 2019 8:12 am
EDGEFIELD, S.C. (AP) – About 2,200 inmates are expected to be released from federal prisons across the U.S. next week. It’s part of a sweeping criminal justice overhaul that was signed into law last year. Attorney General William Barr toured a prison in South Carolina this past week, meeting with inmates and staff to learn about re-entry and other prison programs under the First Step Act.
The Justice Department and federal Bureau of Prisons are working to create risk assessment tools that will help to evaluate inmates and ultimately could speed up their release. Barr said both agencies are “all in in terms of making it work.” Some criminal justice advocates say the Trump administration and Congress need to be more fully committed to implementing the law and ensuring there is appropriate oversight.
July 14, 2019 8:10 am
NEW YORK (AP) – New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio left the presidential campaign trail in Iowa amid a massive power outage in Manhattan. Press secretary Freddi Goldstein tweeted just before 10 p.m. Saturday that de Blasio was on his way back to New York City. Con Edison officials say a substation caused the power failure that began at 6:47 p.m. and affected 73,000 customers for more than three hours in midtown Manhattan and the Upper West Side. De Blasio tweeted emergency management updates and lauded New Yorkers for responding to the blackout “with that trademark NYC grit and toughness.” He was in Waterloo, Iowa, at the time of the blackout, appearing alongside other presidential candidates at a “Passport to Victory” fundraiser. He was scheduled to appear at the Progress Iowa Corn Feed on Sunday.
July 14, 2019 8:05 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) – There is a massive police response in a Pittsburgh neighborhood after an off-duty officer was shot multiple times. The shooting happened on Monticello Street in Homewood around 1:30 a.m. A spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police told our news partners at Channel 11 the officer was taken to the hospital in critical condition. “Police secured the crime scene and detained several people who had gathered for a party near the crime scene for questioning and SWAT was called to search a house,” said Chris Togneri, spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. High-ranked officials with the department are at the hospital with the injured officer. The officer’s name has not been released and no one has been arrested. A car was towed from the area around 6:15 a.m. It’s unclear how or if that car is connected to the shooting.
July 14, 2019 7:59 am
BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say a man has surrendered to police after more than 21 hours atop a blast furnace that prompted evacuation of an arts and entertainment venue at the Pennsylvania site. The man climbed up and down a ladder atop the blast furnace at the old Bethlehem Steel Corp. furnace several times Saturday afternoon before committing to come down with police help. An outdoor concert was scheduled at the SteelStacks campus but about 1,500 people were evacuated after the man climbed up shortly before 7 p.m. Friday, balancing precariously on a single steel beam hundreds of feet above the venue. Other events were postponed or canceled. Police released a photo , asking for help in identifying the man. Meanwhile, officers climbed to a platform below and talked to him for hours.
July 14, 2019 7:57 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 14, 2019 7:55 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) – Kennywood’s newest roller coaster, the Steel Curtain, shut down early Saturday due to technical difficulties, according to a post on the park’s Facebook page. The park said crews will be working to have the ride reopened for Sunday morning. In the Facebook post, the park said, “Part of the process with a brand-new, big-time ride!” Saturday was the first day the new roller coaster was open to the public. At 220 feet, the coaster is now Pennsylvania’s tallest, according to Kennywood. It also includes the world’s tallest inversion, at 197 feet high. Part of a collaboration with the Pittsburgh Steelers, The Steel Curtain is the flagship attraction of a themed section of Kennywood that’s being called “Steelers Country.”
