July 10, 2019 3:56 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 9, 2019 3:52 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Uber is letting passengers tell their driver in advance that they’d like a little less conversation, and a little more legroom, if they’re willing to pay. The ride-hailing giant launched “comfort” rides today. Riders are guaranteed a minimum amount of legroom in cars less than five years old and can use the app to tell drivers they don’t want to talk. The move could help Uber boost revenue and nudge the money-losing company closer to profitability.
July 9, 2019 3:50 pm
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain is putting Bitcoin ATMs in six shops around the state and one in North Carolina, giving customers the ability to buy and sell the cryptocurrency with U.S. dollars. Sheetz, based in Altoona, Pennsylvania, announced Tuesday it has teamed up with Coinsource to put the ATMs in the five Pennsylvania stores and a shop in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Ryan Sheetz, a vice president at the company, says the chain is always trying to be innovative and give customers what they want. Customers must enroll with Coinsource before they can use the ATMs. Then, they’ll be able to make transactions from $5 to $5,000 per day from the machines. Family-owned Sheetz operates over 585 stores in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and North Carolina. Last month, Arizona-based convenience store Circle K partnered with DigitalMint to install Bitcoin ATMs in 20 shops in Arizona and Nevada.
July 9, 2019 12:51 pm
CLEVELAND (AP) – The Cleveland Clinic says it has delivered the first baby in North America after a womb transplant from a dead donor. Uterine transplants have enabled more than a dozen women to give birth, usually with wombs donated from a living donor such as a friend or relative. In December, doctors in Brazil reported the world’s first birth using a deceased donor’s womb. These transplants were pioneered by a Swedish doctor who did the first successful one five years ago. The Cleveland hospital said Tuesday that the girl was born in June. The clinic has done five uterus transplants so far and three have been successful, with two women waiting to attempt pregnancy with new wombs. In all, the clinic aims to enroll 10 women in its study.
July 9, 2019 10:28 am
DALLAS (AP) – H. Ross Perot, the colorful, self-made Texas billionaire who twice ran for president, has died. Family spokesman James Fuller says Perot died early Tuesday. He was 89. Perot rose from Depression-era poverty to become one of the nation’s richest men as the founder of computer services giant Electronic Data Systems Corp. In 1992, Perot jumped into the presidential campaign as an independent candidate, challenging President George H.W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton. Perot drew nearly 19% of the vote, the biggest percentage for a third-party hopeful in 80 years. Republicans blamed him for Bush’s defeat. He had founded EDS in 1962 and sold control of it to General Motors for $2.5 billion in 1984. He later founded another company, Perot Systems.
July 9, 2019 10:24 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Billionaire activist Tom Steyer is joining the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, reversing course after deciding earlier this year that he would forgo a run.
Steyer made the announcement Tuesday, casting himself as an outsider who will oppose what he calls “the hostile corporate takeover of our democracy.” The 62-year-old from California is one of the most visible and deep-pocketed liberals advocating for President Donald Trump’s impeachment. He surprised many Democrats in January when he declared he would focus entirely on the impeachment effort instead of seeking the White House. Since then, Steyer has said he’s grown frustrated at the pace at which the Democratic-controlled House is approaching Trump.
Despite becoming a national voice on the impeachment issue, Steyer made no mention of it in his campaign announcement.
July 9, 2019 8:44 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A Marine combat aviator who narrowly lost a House race to an incumbent Republican in Kentucky has set her sights on a more formidable target: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Amy McGrath announced Tuesday she will be trying to defeat one of the most entrenched officials in Washington. But McGrath sees McConnell as vulnerable because of his lengthy tenure in Washington, his stance on health care and his allegiance to President Donald Trump. McGrath’s decision to enter the race represents a rare victory for Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has struggled to persuade other top-tier candidates to take on incumbent Republicans with control of the Senate at stake. The contest will test the power of incumbency against a call for generational change along with a measure of whether Trump’s popularity is transferable.
July 9, 2019 7:38 am
HONG KONG (AP) – Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says the effort to amend an extradition bill is dead but it wasn’t clear if the legislation was being withdrawn as protesters have demanded.
Lam noted there were “lingering doubts about the government’s sincerity or worries whether the government will restart the process in the Legislative Council.” But she said at a news conference Tuesday, “I reiterate here, there is no such plan. The bill is dead.” Hundreds of thousands of people have protested in the territory for the past month against the extradition law and have expressed their growing fear that Hong Kong was losing the freedoms guaranteed to it when the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.
July 9, 2019 6:19 am
UNION TOWNSHIP, Pa. – (WPXI) – A man suspected in the stabbing death of his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son late Monday night in Union Township, Lawrence County, has been arrested in Youngstown, Ohio, Pennsylvania State Police announced Tuesday morning. The arrest of 43-year-old Keith Burley comes after New Castle police were called about 10:30 p.m. Monday to a home on High Street in Union Township, where a large police presence remained Tuesday morning. He was taken into custody in Ohio by U.S. Marshals, police said. According to investigators, the dispute involved Burley and his 36-year-old girlfriend, who managed to get out of the car after she was assaulted. Burley then drove away with his girlfriend’s two children to the home, where he fatally stabbed one of them, police said. The other child, who is 7 years old, was not hurt, authorities said. Burley is out of jail on parole for a previous homicide for which he was convicted, police said. He was released in March. Charges are forthcoming in Monday night’s deadly stabbing. Pennsylvania State Police in Lawrence County have taken over the investigation. (Photo: WPXI)
July 9, 2019 4:30 am
MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP, Pa. – (WPXI) – Police said the largest fentanyl bust in Pennsylvania history took place Monday morning along the turnpike in Westmoreland County. Troopers pulled over a car driven by Juan Gomez, of New York, when he failed to move over for a turnpike vehicle with its lights on in Mount Pleasant Township. During a search of the car, police discovered a hidden compartment behind the center console. Inside it, they found 3.5 pounds of fentanyl. “This is what you’d see out of a movie. That package would go to an area where it was cut with different agents, cut over and over again to where that’s over $1 million worth of street value in a 3.5-pound package,” State Trooper Steve Limani said. Police believe the fentanyl was headed to Pittsburgh, where it would be distributed and sold on the streets of western Pennsylvania. Hector Taveras was also in the car. Both men are now in Westmoreland County Jail on $1 million bond.
