February 6, 2020 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The chairman of the Democratic National Committee is calling for a “recanvass”of the results of Monday’s Iowa caucus. Technical problems and delays have marred the first contest on the 2020 election calendar. The current results show Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders nearly tied with almost all the votes counted. But the race remained too early to call early Thursday, with 97% of precincts reporting. Party officials are scrambling to verify the remaining results three days after Iowans gathered at caucus sites across the state to begin choosing which Democrat will take on President Donald Trump in November.
February 6, 2020 4:10 am
BEIJING (AP) – Japanese health officials say 10 more people have been sickened with a new virus aboard one of two quarantined cruise ships with some 5,400 passengers and crew aboard. China has reported 73 more deaths and announced that the first group of patients were expected to start taking a new antiviral drug on Thursday. The ships in Japan and Hong Kong are caught up in a global health emergency that seems to worsen by the day. The 10 who were infected on top of 10 others on Wednesday were dropped off in Yokohama where the ship docked and transferred to nearby hospitals for further test and treatment. In the epicenter of Wuhan, in central China, a second 1,500-bed hospital is set to open Thursday.
February 6, 2020 4:09 am
BEIJING (AP) – China has cut tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. imports including soybeans, pork and auto parts in a trade truce with Washington as Beijing struggles with a costly virus outbreak. The cuts follow last month’s signing of a “Phase 1” agreement toward ending a long-running tariff war over Beijing’s technology ambitions and trade surplus. Both sides have made conciliatory gestures but the lingering dispute threatens to chill global economic growth. There was no indication Beijing altered its own reductions in response to the impact of measures imposed to contain a virus outbreak that have closed factories, restaurants and shops.
February 6, 2020 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – At a prayer breakfast in Washington, President Donald Trump has unleashed his fury against those who tried to remove him from office. His comments came as he relished his impeachment acquittal by the Senate a day earlier. Trump followed a prayer breakfast speaker who spoke of loving one’s enemies, but he would have none of it. He declared that he, his family and the country had been “put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,.” Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast, where he was joined onstage by congressional leaders, including Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led the impeachment charge against him. (Photo: CNN)
February 6, 2020 4:05 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A new state law is increasing the penalties for certain human trafficking offenses and directing some of the criminal fines to help sexually exploited children. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday signed the legislation, which takes effect in two months. It also defines “child” in the anti-trafficking statute as anyone under age 18, up from age 16. Legislative records indicate fewer than a dozen people were convicted of human trafficking or sexual servitude offenses in 2018. The bill was part of a wider package of legislation designed to combat human trafficking.
February 6, 2020 4:04 am
CAMP HILL, Pa. (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence made a swing through Pennsylvania into a post-acquittal victory lap. He roused a crowd of hundreds on Wednesday barely an hour after the Senate rejected articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Pence, appearing in a suburban Harrisburg hotel ballroom, delivered a standard campaign speech, but injected it with notes of victory and finality. He says Democrats tried to impeach Trump because they know they can’t defeat him in November’s election. Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate since 1988 to win Pennsylvania, and the state is expected to be a premier battleground in this year’s election.
February 5, 2020 4:39 pm
PALM CITY, Fla. (AP) – A Florida Highway Patrol trooper is dead after a shooting at a highway rest stop. The agency says Trooper Joseph Bullock died in the shooting Wednesday near Palm City. That’s about about a 45-minute drive north of West Palm Beach. No further details were released, including whether a suspect has been arrested. The shooting closed Interstate 95 in both directions in the area. Officials say it will remain closed until at least late Wednesday afternoon.
February 5, 2020 5:55 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. – (WPXI) – Five men pleaded guilty in severely beating a former member of the Pagan motorcycle gang in a bar last April. The trial for another two men, Matthew Vazquez and Joseph Olinsky III, started Tuesday. Video from inside the Charleroi Slovak Club showed seven Pagan motorcycle club members enter in a single file line and go straight for the victim, who was drinking a beer at the bar. Prosecutors said the men took turns punching and stomping the man as he was knocked to the ground. In opening statements, prosecutors told the jury the motorcycle club are outlaws who use outlaw justice. They were angry at the former member for joining another club. An emergency room surgeon who treated the victim the night of the attack said the man suffered permanent brain damage and had a face full of broken bones. Vazquez’s defense attorney argued his client could be seen in the bar video throwing just one punch. The attorney said the Pagan gang reputation should not sway jurors. He described Vazquez as a hardworking single father who joined the club for brotherhood, friendships and charitable rides. Olinsky’s attorney said the video showed her client was the first to leave and that he did not conspire against, hit or kick the victim.
February 5, 2020 4:14 am
BEIJING (AP) – Deaths from a new virus rose to 490 in mainland China while new cases on a Japanese cruise ship, in Hong Kong and elsewhere showed the increasing spread of the outbreak and renewed attention toward containing it. Ten people from the cruise ship tested positive and were taken to hospitals, while all 3,700 crew and passengers on the ship will be quarantined on board for up to 14 days. In Hong Kong, hospitals workers are striking to demand the border with mainland China be shut completely to ward off the virus, but four new cases without known travel to the mainland indicate the illness is spreading locally in the territory.
February 5, 2020 4:13 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Macy’s says it is closing 125 of its least productive stores and cutting 2,000 corporate jobs as the struggling department store tries to reinvent itself in the age of online shopping. The store closures represent about one fifth of Macy’s current total. It didn’t specify how many jobs would be lost at the shuttered stores. The corporate jobs will be shed as Macy’s closes its offices in Cincinnati and San Francisco, leaving New York as its sole corporate headquarters. The moves announced Tuesday come ahead of Macy’s annual investor meeting where CEO Jeff Gennette is expected to unveil a three-year reinvention plan.
