July 19, 2019 6:59 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Police say a “person of interest” in the fatal shooting of an off-duty Pittsburgh police officer is in custody. A Public Safety Department spokesman on Thursday night said the person is held on charges unrelated to the death of 36-year-old Officer Calvin Hall. The spokesman did not release the charge or the person’s name and would only say the investigation is ongoing. Hall died Wednesday at a hospital after he was shot three times in the back early Sunday during a street dispute as one or more parties were going on. Officials say there was a “strong possibility” that Hall, although off duty, “was in fact acting under the color of the law when he was fatally shot.” His funeral is scheduled for Tuesday.
July 19, 2019 4:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he will nominate lawyer Eugene Scalia to be his new labor secretary. Scalia is the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He is a partner in the Washington office of the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher law firm. Trump tweets that Scalia “is highly respected not only as a lawyer, but as a lawyer with great experience working with labor and everyone else.” Trump’s previous labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, resigned last week. Acosta has come under renewed criticism for his handling of a 2008 secret plea deal with wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is accused of sexually abusing underage girls.
July 19, 2019 4:20 am
ATLANTA (AP) – Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will get a debate rematch in the second round of Democratic presidential primary debates, while Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will share a stage to argue their progressive visions. CNN randomly assigned 20 candidates to the two stages in a drawing broadcast live Thursday night. The debates are being held over two nights, July 30-31, in Detroit. Sanders and Warren will appear on the first night, along with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Montana Gov. Steve Bullock; Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan; former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; former Maryland Rep. John Delaney; and author Marianne Williamson. Appearing onstage July 31 along with Biden and Harris are New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker; entrepreneur Andrew Yang; former Housing Secretary Julian Castro; New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio; Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet; Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.
July 19, 2019 4:19 am
TOKYO (AP) – A Japanese fire official says the death toll from the Kyoto Animation studio fire is now 33 and nobody else is believed to be still missing. Kyoto fire department official Kazuhiro Hayashi says 36 others have been injured, 10 of them critically. Hayashi says firefighters found the largest number of victims on the top floor of the three-story building, including some who had collapsed on the stairs leading to the roof. Two of the dead were found on the first floor, 11 on the second and 20 on the third floor. Japanese media reports said the suspect may have set the fire at the front door, forcing people to try to find other exits and slowing their escape. The outcome makes the case the deadliest fire since a 2001 fire that killed 44 in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district. The suspect was injured and is in a hospital.
July 19, 2019 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has chided his supporters who chanted “send her back” when he questioned the loyalty of a Somali-born congresswoman, joining widespread criticism of the campaign crowd’s cry after Republicans warned about political blowback from the angry scene. In a week that has been full of hostile exchanges over race and love of country on both sides, Trump also claimed he had tried to stop the chant at a reelection event Wednesday night in North Carolina – though video suggests otherwise. The target- Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota – responded defiantly Thursday. She told reporters at the Capitol the confrontation is a fight over “what this country truly should be.”
July 19, 2019 4:15 am
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – An Iranian news agency is reporting that the country’s armed forces say all Iranian drones in the Persian Gulf returned safely to their bases. The report comes after President Donald Trump on Thursday said an American warship, the USS Boxer, took defensive action after an Iranian drone came within 1,000 yards of the warship and ignored multiple calls to stand down.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted military spokesman Gen. Abolfazl Shekari as saying on Friday that “all Iranian drones that are in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, including the one which the U.S. president mentioned, after carrying out scheduled identification and control missions, have returned to their bases.” Gen. Shekarchi also said there have been no reports of any confrontation between the USS Boxer and an Iranian drone.
July 19, 2019 4:13 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Revenue from regulated gambling in Pennsylvania climbed to a new record high above $3.3 billion in the just-completed fiscal year. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said Thursday that revenue rose by nearly $60 million, or almost 2%, over the 2018 fiscal year. Slot machine play at the state’s 12 casinos grew by $26 million and newly legal sports betting and fantasy sports contests contributed another $43 million. Table games play shrank by $10 million. Online casino gambling is just starting, as Pennsylvania mounts an aggressive gambling expansion to help shore up its treasury. American Gaming Association figures show that revenue at Pennsylvania’s commercial casinos was No. 2 in the nation last year, second to Nevada.
Pennsylvania is No. 1 in tax revenue from casino gambling, netting $1.5 billion last year.
July 19, 2019 4:08 am
The DICK’S Sporting Goods PONY League World Series Thursday revealed details for their 68th annual championship. Five of the ten teams have qualified for the tournament: Washington County, the host, along teams from Mexico, Puerto Rico, defending champion Chinese Taipei and, for the first time ever, London, United Kingdom. The events will begin on the evening of August 8th with the Ansys FanFest at DICK’s Sporting Goods in Washington. The games will begin on Friday August 9th, concluding with the championships on Thursday, August 15th. WJPA-AM 1450 has been the radio home of the PONY League World Series since 1952. Longtime Pirates broadcaster Lanny Frattare and 10-year Voice of the Wild Things Randy Gore will anchor our coverage.
July 19, 2019 4:04 am
MEDIA, Pa. (AP) – Penn State is keeping in-state college tuition flat across the sprawling university system for a second year and for the third time in five years. The school’s board, meeting in the Philadelphia suburb of Media, voted Thursday for a plan that will maintain full-time tuition for lower-division Pennsylvania resident undergraduates at its main campus at about $17,400 annually.
Out-of-state college students at the University Park flagship will have to pay $660 a year in additional tuition. Smaller increases for students who are not Pennsylvania residents will be coming to other Penn State campuses. The move follows recent decisions by Temple University and the 14-school State System of Higher Education to keep tuition at current rates for the coming school year.
July 19, 2019 3:33 am
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (WPXI) – Two brothers, ages 1 and 3, drowned in Fayette County Wednesday evening, police confirmed to Channel 11. Police said it happened in a backyard pool on Whiteman Avenue in Uniontown. According to our partners at TribLive, the two boys were identified as Hayden and Hunter Smith. They were pulled from the family’s pool by their grandfather. The incident is under investigation.
