July 11, 2019 4:18 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The former Palm Beach County state attorney is disputing Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s account of why he signed off on a secret sex trafficking plea deal involving now-jailed financier Jeffrey Epstein. Acosta insisted Wednesday that the deal in which Epstein pleaded guilty to lesser state charges was the toughest he could have gotten at the time. And he said prosecutors were working to avoid a more lenient arrangement that would have allowed Epstein to “walk free.” But Barry Krischer, who was in office at the time, says Acosta’s recollection “is completely wrong.” Krischer, a Democrat, said that the U.S. attorney’s office’s always had the ability to file its own federal charges and that a lengthy indictment was prepared but “abandoned after secret negotiations between Mr. Epstein’s lawyers and Mr. Acosta.”
July 11, 2019 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – To prepare for next week’s high-stakes hearing with Robert Mueller, some Democrats are watching old video of his testimony on other matters. Others are closely re-reading the former special counsel’s 448-page report of Russia’s election meddling and the Trump campaign. And almost all are worrying about how they’ll make the most of the limited time for questioning. Mueller has said he won’t answer questions beyond what is in his report when he comes to Congress on July 17. He is expected to testify before the House’s judiciary and intelligence committees for two hours each. Democrats will be trying to spotlight what they say are the report’s most damaging findings about President Donald Trump. A Rhode Island congressman, David Cicilline, says Democrats have to be “very strategic about the questions.”
July 11, 2019 4:14 am
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has denied British allegations of a confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz, saying if it had received orders to seize any ships it would have executed them immediately. The semi-official Fars news agency carried a statement from the Guard’s navy early Thursday saying “there were no clashes with alien boats, especially English boats.” Britain says three Iranian vessels unsuccessfully tried to impede the passage of a British commercial vessel through the Strait of Hormuz and only turned away after receiving “verbal warnings” from a UK navy vessel. Last week, authorities in Gibraltar intercepted an Iranian supertanker that was believed to be breaching European Union sanctions by carrying a shipment of Tehran’s crude oil to Syria. Tehran had warned of repercussions. The tanker’s detention comes at a particularly sensitive time as tensions between the U.S. and Iran grow over the unraveling of a 2015 nuclear deal, which President Trump withdrew from last year.
July 11, 2019 4:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania will try again to award licenses for five more mini-casinos, part of an aggressive gambling expansion authorized in 2017 by a cash-hungry state government.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Wednesday approved a motion to restart auctions Sept. 4, under orders by a provision slipped into a budget-related bill signed by Gov. Tom Wolf. The gaming board stopped the auctions last year after it received no bids for a sixth license. The first five auctions raised $127 million, and the first mini-casino is expected to open next year. The auctions are limited to owners of Pennsylvania’s 12 operating casinos and a 13th that’s under construction in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania is the nation’s No. 2 state for commercial casino revenue, behind Nevada, and No. 1 in tax revenue from casino gambling.
July 11, 2019 4:10 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania students who attend one of the 14 state-owned universities won’t see higher tuition next year, the first such freeze in more than 20 years. The State System of Higher Education’s board on Wednesday voted for to keep in-state tuition flat at about $7,700. Most of the system’s students are from Pennsylvania. The system’s last tuition freeze was for the 1998-99 school year, when the cost for in-state students was less than half what it is today. The universities have seen total enrollment fall over the past eight years from about 112,000 to just over 90,000. The state government’s support for the system is rising by about 2 percent this year, to $477 million.
July 11, 2019 4:08 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s elected fiscal watchdog is urging state officials to end the Keystone Exams, saying they’re not federally required and it’s costing taxpayers nearly $100 million between 2015 and 2021. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said Wednesday that Pennsylvania should instead consider using a nationally recognized standardized high school test. DePasquale says many states use the SAT or ACT to meet the federal requirement for a secondary-level standardized test. DePasquale says at least 12 other states have phased out the state-specific tests while Pennsylvania keeps paying millions of dollars to Minnesota-based Data Recognition Corp. each year to administer and score the Keystone Exams. The Department of Education says it’s willing to consider a high school exam other than the Keystones, but says notes any change in the assessment requires federal approval.
July 11, 2019 4:04 am
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. – (WPXI) – A normal trip to Walmart took an unexpected turn for one woman after she discovered something other than cards inside the UNO game that she bought . The woman says inside the box, she discovered prescription fentanyl. The woman who found the drugs did not want to go on camera but said she bought the game at the Walmart in West Mifflin. A police report was filed in Clairton, where police said they plan to destroy the packet of fentanyl. Walmart sent our news partners at Channel 11 the following statement . “The safety of our customers is a top priority and we take this seriously. We’re looking into this and will work with the supplier as well as the Clairton Police Department to find out what happened.” (Photo: WPXI)
July 10, 2019 5:14 pm
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Mississippi Gulf Coast residents are preparing for heavy rain as a tropical storm system causes flooding in New Orleans and other parts of south Louisiana. Coastal Mississippi is under a flood watch until Thursday night. Harrison County Emergency Management Director Rupert Lacy said Wednesday that free sandbags are available in several places. He said residents can pick them up to protect their property. Lacy said that such preparations are normal during hurricane season. He says, “when you live in paradise, you have to expect some days like this.” Harrison County is the largest of Mississippi’s three coastal counties. It includes Biloxi and Gulfport. (Photo: CNN)
July 10, 2019 12:28 pm
LIGONIER, Pa. (WPXI) – A woman was killed Wednesday morning after she became pinned beneath a FedEx truck in Ligonier. The crash happened on North Market and East Church streets just after 9 a.m. Drivers and public works employees reportedly tried to help Pamela Barkley, 54, of New Florence, but couldn’t free her. She died at the scene. Police at this point in time are calling the incident an “unfortunate accident.”
July 10, 2019 10:35 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says “many” Fed officials believe a weakening global economy and rising trade tensions have bolstered the case for looser interest-rate policies. Delivering the Fed’s semi-annual monetary report to Congress, Powell sends the strongest signal yet that the central bank is ready to cut interest rates for the first time in a decade, possibly as soon as the July meeting. Powell says that since Fed officials met last month, “uncertainties around trade tensions and concerns about the strength of the global economy continue to weigh on the U.S. economic outlook.” Meanwhile, inflation has fallen further below the Fed’s annual target of 2%. Many investors have put the odds of a rate cut this month at 100%. Powell, who has been under increasing attack by President Donald Trump, makes no mention of the president’s criticism in his prepared testimony but does thank Congress for the “independence” it has given the central bank to operate.
