August 29, 2019 10:55 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department’s inspector general says former FBI Director James Comey violated FBI policies in his handling of memos documenting private conversations with President Donald Trump. The watchdog office says Comey broke FBI rules by giving a memo containing unclassified information to a friend with instructions to share the contents with a reporter. Comey wrote a series of memos about conversations with Trump he says unnerved him.
August 29, 2019 8:57 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. economy slowed in the spring, and many economists think the slowdown will continue through the second half of the year, a possible headwind for President Donald Trump’s hopes that a surging economy will provide the backdrop for his 2020 re-election campaign. The Commerce Department reports that the gross domestic product, the country’s broadest measure of economic health, advanced at a moderate 2% annual rate in the April-June quarter, down from a 3.1% gain in the first quarter. The new estimate was lower than the government’s initial estimate a month ago of 2.1% annual growth. Trump has pledged to boost GDP growth to annual rates of 3% or better, but many economists see GDP slowing sharply after hitting 2.9% last year.
August 29, 2019 7:48 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to revoke many of its regulations covering oil-industry leaks of methane, a potent climate-changing gas. EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler says in a statement Thursday that the agency is following President Donald Trump’s directive to remove regulatory burdens on the oil and gas industries. The government’s plan would rescind many of the requirements on oil and gas sites to monitor for methane leaks and plug them. Methane is one of the most potent climate-changing gases. Environmental advocates say the measure signals the Trump administration waiving its legal authority to regulate methane as a way to fight climate change. The oil and gas industry says the Obama-era regulations on methane were unlawful and unnecessary.
August 29, 2019 4:19 am
LONDON (AP) – Ireland’s foreign minister says it’s too late to renegotiate Britain’s departure deal from the European Union. Foreign Minister Simon Coveney on Wednesday reiterated Ireland’s opposition to the EU renegotiating the Brexit agreement approved by former U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May. Coveney said there wouldn’t be enough time before Britain’s Oct. 31 departure deadline “even if we wanted to” reopen the negotiations. He estimated working out a new deal and getting it approved by EU leaders and British lawmakers “would need six or eight weeks.”
However, Coveney says Ireland is ready to study alternatives to a post-Brexit “backstop” aimed at avoiding a new border between the EU’s Ireland and U.K.’s Northern Ireland.
He noted the importance of keeping the peace on an “island that has a tragic and violent history.” The U.K.’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, opposes the backstop provisions in his predecessor’s deal, which failed to gain parliamentary approval. Coveney said any alternative Irish border arrangements “have got to do the same job as the backstop.”
August 29, 2019 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand is dropping out of the presidential race. The 52-year-old New York senator announced her decision Wednesday on Twitter as her campaign, which once looked to ride strong #MeToo credentials, was plagued by low polling and fundraising struggles. She had failed to meet thresholds for required numbers of donors and polling to qualify for the September debate in Houston. Gillibrand was appointed to the Senate in 2009 to fill the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton. She was vocal on curbing sexual harassment and promoting equal pay for women and family leave, making those and defending abortion rights the core of her presidential bid. But Gillibrand also was the first Senate Democrat to call for Minnesota Sen. Al Franken’s resignation and says that alienated donors and some voters.
August 29, 2019 4:13 am
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Hurricane Dorian is moving over open waters after doing limited damage in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, though forecasters warn it is gaining strength and probably will grow into a dangerous storm while heading toward Florida’s east coast. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said late Wednesday Dorian is expected to strengthen into a dangerous Category 3 hurricane as it stays well to the east of the southeastern and central Bahamas over the next two days. The forecast calls for the storm to pass near or over the northern Bahamas on Saturday and close in on Florida by Sunday afternoon. The storm was a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday when it swirled through the islands of the northeastern Caribbean, causing power outages and flooding in places no major damage.
August 29, 2019 4:09 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania prison officials are planning to close another prison, as the inmate population continues to decline and prison costs rise. A state lawmaker, Sen. John Yudichak, told The Associated press on Wednesday that prison officials had just briefed him and Retreat state prison staff in northeastern Pennsylvania about its plans to close it. Gov. Tom Wolf’s office isn’t commenting. Retreat has about 400 employees and is at full capacity with almost 1,100 inmates. Pennsylvania’s state prison population is about 48,000, after reaching nearly 52,000 in 2012. Retreat is about 10 miles west of Wilkes-Barre. Wolf’s administration closed a state prison in Pittsburgh in 2017. Retreat’s original buildings date back to the 19th century and it has the fewest beds of any of Pennsylvania’s 25 state prisons.
August 29, 2019 4:08 am
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) – Four men have filed suit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton and its current and former bishop over claims a priest sexually abused them when they were children. The plaintiffs are believed to be the first to take advantage of a recent Pennsylvania appeals court ruling that could make it easier for some victims of abuse to pursue civil claims.
The men, who range in age from 45 to 57, allege they were sexually abused by the Rev. Michael Pulicare as children. Pulicare died in 1999. In a statement, the diocese says it never received any allegations against him while he was alive. The diocese also says the suits rely on a “novel legal theory” to try to get around Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations.
August 29, 2019 3:50 am
A Monessen man who is accused of supplying the heroin and fentanyl that killed three people, including one person in Charleroi this summer, has been held for trial. According to a report in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 30-year-old Delmar Pritchett was arrested last week in connection with the overdose death of Tamara Hill in Monessen on June 15th. Authorities believe Pritchett sold her the fentanyl that killed her. DEA agents say they also suspect that Pritchett’s heroin and fentanyl were responsible for two other fatal overdoses in August in Charleroi and Apollo and two non-fatal overdoses in Monessen and Fayette County.
August 29, 2019 3:47 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A judge has dismissed most of the latest appeal arguments by a former University of Pittsburgh medical researcher in what prosecutors said was the cyanide poisoning death of his wife in 2013. But Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Manning said 69-year-old Robert Ferrante is due a hearing on whether his previous attorneys erred in withdrawing a request to have his case heard by a jury chosen from outside Allegheny County. He also on Tuesday sought expanded arguments on other issues. The defense has been seeking a new trial for Ferrante, who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole in the April 2013 death of 41-year-old Dr. Autumn Klein. Prosecutors say he put cyanide in her energy drink, which text messages show he urged her to drink. (Photo: WPXI)
