January 31, 2020 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump appeared headed for all-but-certain impeachment acquittal as senators prepared on Friday to reject efforts to call more witnesses and moved to start bringing a close to only the third impeachment trial in American history. The timing of a final vote on Trump was still uncertain. But the outcome was increasingly clear after a key Republican, Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, announced he didn’t need to see or hear more testimony. He said the Democrats had proved their case, that Trump abused power and obstructed Congress, but he did not think Trump’s actions rose to the impeachable level. Eager for acquittal, the president and his allies in the Republican majority are brushing past new revelations from John Bolton, his former national security adviser, as well as historic norms that could make this the first Senate impeachment trial without witnesses. They resisted any efforts by Democrats to keep the proceedings going for weeks. Voting on the witness question was expected late Friday after hours of debate, with other votes stretching well into the evening. The timing was not set. Democrats warned the outcome won’t mean a true acquittal for Trump but a cover-up.
January 31, 2020 4:11 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A Pennsylvania watchdog agency tasked with monitoring state misconduct and waste has found itself at the center of a nearly $160,000 gaffe. Spotlight PA reports that the state inspector generals office purchased pistols, ammunition, and other related equipment, following a law passed in 2017 that expanded the office’s powers to allow it to issue subpoenas and search warrants. But after the purchase was completed, officials discovered the law didn’t empower investigators to carry a firearm. The items are now being held in a “guarded, secure facility,” and the office is working to “return or repurpose the firearms.”
January 31, 2020 4:10 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Pennsylvania auditor general’s office says a $45 million project to upgrade emergency radio communications system in Pennsylvania is on time and within the budget. But the report issued Thursday also says the purchasing process has encountered some glitches, including errors in the bidding process and inadequate documentation about the qualifications of people involving in awarding the contract. The statewide radio project, known as PA STARNet, began with a $179 million expenditure in 1996 that developed into a massive boondoggle, eventually costing the state more than $850 million. Its poor reception, software problems, short battery life and reliability shortcomings led to the current upgrade project that auditors reviewed.
January 31, 2020 4:09 am
DONORA, Pa. — (WPXI) – One person was killed in a rollover crash in Donora. The single-vehicle accident happened around 8 p.m. Thursday. The coroner’s office identified the victim as 41 year old Derrick Dow of Donora. Police say Dow lost control and struck an embankment and rolled over near the intersection of Route 837 and Donora Road. He was not wearing a seat belt. Donora Police continue to investigate.
January 30, 2020 12:28 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Lawyers for a woman who says President Donald Trump raped her in the 1990s are asking for a sample of his DNA. The attorneys for advice columnist E. Jean Carroll say they want to determine whether Trump’s genetic material is on a dress she says she wore during the encounter. They served a legal notice Thursday to one of Trump’s lawyers demanding the sample. Carroll filed a defamation suit against Trump in November after the president said she was lying about the alleged attack. The Associated Press sent a message to Trump’s attorney seeking comment.
January 30, 2020 12:19 pm
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — The kindergarten teacher who oversaw a science experiment that left a 5-year-old girl with severe burns has resigned. She got the burns at King PreK-8 school on Pittsburgh’s North Side as a result of a science experiment involving boiling water, her family said. Pittsburgh Public Schools conducted an investigation over the past few weeks, and it ended with the teacher’s resignation. That teacher has not been officially identified or charged. Todd Hollis, who is representing the family says the young lady is going through some very obvious signs of trauma, so we’ve assisted in putting her into some therapy. As time goes on, hopefully she’ll be able to get the assistance that she needs. Hollis said the family found out about the child’s burns through a phone call from someone at the school saying the girl had sustained “minor burns” — but they were actually a lot worse.
January 30, 2020 10:22 am
Democrats are anxious about the coming presidential election, and Republicans are more likely to be excited about it. That’s the finding of a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll finds that Republican enthusiasm for the race is up since October, while two-thirds of Democrats report anxiety about it. The poll comes as divided Democrats approach Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses with no clear leader in that pivotal state and fears mounting of a brokered convention. But the poll finds each party is equally motivated to vote in November, making it unclear which emotion will triumph.
January 30, 2020 9:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. economy grew at a moderate 2.1% rate in the final three months of 2019, capping a year when growth slowed significantly due to a weaker global economy and trade war uncertainties. The Commerce Department said the fourth-quarter increase in the gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, matched the 2.1% gain of the third quarter. For the whole year, GDP increased 2.3%, the weakest performance in three years. Economists look for even slower growth in 2020 of around 1.8%. But that could be threatened by various threats from a spreading coronavirus to a flare-up in trade tensions between the United States and China
January 30, 2020 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Just as the outlook for the global economy had been brightening, a new threat has emerged in the form of the viral outbreak in China. That was the cautionary message Chairman Jerome Powell delivered after the Federal Reserve held interest rates low. Powell said the signing of a preliminary U.S.-China trade deal, the resolution of Brexit and low rates in the U.S. and abroad had suggested that the world economy would expand more quickly. That’s now threatened by the virus.
January 30, 2020 4:14 am
NEW YORK (AP) – For the first time in four years, life expectancy in the U.S. has gone up. The increase is small – just a month. But it marks at least a temporary halt to a downward trend. The rise is mostly due to lower death rates for cancer and drug overdoses. The government calculation released Thursday is for 2018. On average, an infant born that year is expected to live about 78 years and 8 months. For decades, U.S. life expectancy was on the upswing, but then for a four-year period it declined or held steady.
