August 1, 2019 5:23 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Pennsylvania Lottery is reporting record highs in revenue and profits, after concerns that it was slumping spurred lawmakers to expand its offerings to the internet and bars. The agency said Thursday it recorded $4.5 billion in sales in the 2018-19 fiscal year, an increase of 7%. Profits were $1.14 billion, an increase of 4.5%. It paid out $2.9 billion in prizes. The lottery’s profits go to services for the elderly. Gov. Tom Wolf and lawmakers expanded the lottery’s offerings in late 2017 after year-over-year sales shrank, adding online games and monitor games played in bars. The lottery says iLottery games played on a computer, tablet or mobile device sold $381 million, while 91,000 players created online accounts. Keno and virtual sports games totaled almost $47 million in sales.
August 1, 2019 4:51 pm
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – A ban on electronic cigarettes and vaping products has started at West Virginia University. The WVU Board of Governors in February approved the ban that took effect Thursday. The policy applies to WVU properties in Morgantown, Beckley and Keyser. The only exception will be in designated smoking areas at large athletic events. Students found in violation of the policy are subject to conduct proceedings and sanctions. Faculty and staff members would also face disciplinary actions, while visitors in violation will be asked to leave campus. The university passed a smoking ban earlier this decade.
August 1, 2019 4:47 pm
(AP) – Lowe’s Co. is laying off thousands of employees at its U.S. stores as it outsources some of their duties to outside companies. The home-improvement chain, based in Mooresville, North Carolina, declined to say exactly how many employees were affected. But The Wall Street Journal reported that thousands of employees were told this week that their jobs were eliminated, which the company confirmed. Lowe’s spokeswoman Jackie Pardini Hartzell said Thursday that the cuts are coming as the company moves to a third-party assemblers and facility services to allow store associates to spend more time on the sales floor serving customers. Lowe’s, under its relatively new CEO Marvin Ellison, is trying to return its focus to its home improvement chain and streamline its business.
August 1, 2019 4:29 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says the U.S. will apply a new tariff of 10% on about $300 billion worth of products from China on Sept. 1. Trump tweeted Thursday amid slow-moving talks with China that negotiations will continue. But he blamed China for not following through on stopping the sale of fentanyl to the United States or purchasing farm goods in large quantities. The U.S. has already applied tariffs of 25% on $250 billion worth of goods from China. China retaliated with tariffs on $110 billion in American goods, including agricultural products, in a direct shot at Trump supporters in the U.S. farm belt.
August 1, 2019 4:28 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – A bipartisan budget and debt deal has passed the Senate and is heading to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature. Thursday’s vote addresses a worrisome set of Washington deadlines as Trump’s allies and adversaries set aside ideology in exchange for relative fiscal peace and stability. The measure would permit the government to resume borrowing to pay all its bills and would set an overall $1.37 trillion limit on agency budgets approved by Congress annually. It also would remove the prospect of a government shutdown in October and automatic spending cuts. But a tea party senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, says the legislation really is a spectacular failure because it will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the country’s spiraling debt.
August 1, 2019 2:25 pm
GERMAN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WPXI) – Charges have been filed against the driver of a dump truck that collided head-on with a pickup truck, killing a man, woman and boy in Fayette County in June. Pennsylvania State Police in Uniontown on Thursday announced the charges against Wilbert Burnsworth, who has been arrested. Investigators said Burnsworth was high on cocaine and fentanyl at the time of the June 18 crash on McClellandtown Road in German Township. The truck, which was filled with coal, crossed the centerline, police said. Ronald Burwell, 53; Kayla Burwell, 20; and Hunter Braddee, 4, died in the crash. Ronald Burwell was Kayla Burwell’s father and step-grandfather to Braddee. Burnsworth is charged with third-degree murder, driving under the influence and vehicular homicide.
August 1, 2019 9:59 am
JUNCTION CITY, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky State Police say they’ve accounted for everyone missing after a massive gas explosion that killed one and injured five others. Trooper Robert Purdy said officials have heard from everyone who was missing after the early morning explosion and fire that destroyed at least five homes and damaged others. The woman who died was taken to the medical examiner’s office in Frankfort to determine her cause of death. Purdy said it appears she may have left her home due to the fire and was overtaken by the heat. He said the heat from the blaze left the landscape barren. Trees and grass were burnt, leaving only red dirt, gravel and rocks. He says several agencies are investigating to determine what caused the explosion.
August 1, 2019 4:11 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Harold Prince, a Broadway director and producer who pushed the boundaries of musical theater with such groundbreaking shows as “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Cabaret,” “Company” and “Sweeney Todd” and won a staggering 21 Tony Awards, has died. Prince was 91. Prince’s publicist Rick Miramontez says Prince died Wednesday after a brief illness in Reykjavik, Iceland. Prince was known for his fluid, cinematic director’s touch and was unpredictable and uncompromising in his choice of stage material. He often picked challenging, offbeat subjects to musicalize, such as a murderous, knifing-wielding barber who baked his victims in pies or the 19th-century opening of Japan to the West.
August 1, 2019 4:10 am
CHINA LAKE, Calif. (AP) – Authorities say seven people on the ground have been injured in the crash of a Navy jet in California’s Mojave Desert. Death Valley National Park spokesman Patrick Taylor say the seven were park visitors and have only minor injuries. There’s no word yet on what happened to the pilot of the F/A-18 Super Hornet, which went down during a training mission Wednesday morning. The crash occurred near a park area nicknamed Star Wars Canyon where fighter jets practice low-flying maneuvers and tourists often gather to watch. The crash area is about 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) north of the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake. The aircraft was from strike fighter squadron VFA-151 stationed at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California’s Central Valley.
August 1, 2019 4:10 am
CINCINNATI (AP) – President Donald Trump’s latest rally will be a test for both candidate and crowd. The Cincinnati gathering Thursday night will be Trump’s first since his audience chanted “Send her back!” about a Somali-born congresswoman during a July rally in North Carolina, raising the prospect of a 2020 presidential campaign increasingly fought along racial lines. The chant about Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota by a roaring Greenville crowd rattled Republicans. Trump let the chant roll at the rally. Since then, he has issued incendiary tweets and a series of attacks on a veteran African-American congressman and his predominantly black district in Baltimore. Heightening the drama, Trump’s rally will come on the heels of two Democratic debates and will take place against a backdrop of simmering racial tension in Cincinnati.
