October 8, 2019 4:20 am
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – The solar system has a new winner in the moon department. Twenty new moons have been found around Saturn, giving the ringed planet a total of 82. That beats Jupiter and its 79 moons. The announcement came Monday. If it’s any consolation to the Jupiter crowd, our solar system’s biggest planet – Jupiter – still has the biggest moon. Jupiter’s Ganymede is almost half the size of Earth. By contrast, Saturn’s 20 new moons are minuscule, each barely 3 miles (5 kilometers) in diameter. The Carnegie Institution for Science’s Scott Sheppard, who led the discovery team, says 100 even tinier moons may be orbiting Saturn, still waiting to be found. Sheppard and his team used a telescope in Hawaii to spot Saturn’s 20 new moons over the summer.
October 8, 2019 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A seemingly divided Supreme Court is considering whether federal civil rights law protects LGBT people from job discrimination. Justice Neil Gorsuch said in arguments Wednesday that the case seems close, but he wonders whether the justices should consider “the massive social upheaval” that might follow a ruling in favor of LGBT employees. The court’s four liberal justices appeared likely to vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sex should encompass both sexual orientation and transgender status. Lawyers for the plaintiffs would need one additional vote to prevail. Gorsuch is one possibility. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not squarely indicate their views.
October 8, 2019 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff says the failure of a State Department official to show up at a deposition Tuesday as part of House Democrats’ impeachment investigation is “yet additional strong evidence” of obstruction of Congress. The Trump administration barred Gordon Sondland, the U.S. European Union ambassador, from closed-door testimony as several committees are investigating President Donald Trump’s dealings with the president of Ukraine. Text messages released last week revealed conversations between Sondland and other U.S. diplomats who were intermediaries as Trump urged Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden’s family and the 2016 election. Schiff and other Democrats have said that they will consider such obstruction if they draft articles of impeachment against the president.
October 8, 2019 4:16 am
BEIRUT (AP) – Turkey is continuing to reinforce its border with Syria as it prepares to launch a military incursion against Kurdish fighters who had been U.S. allies against Islamic State group militants. Associated Press journalists on Tuesday witnessed three convoys made up of dozens of military vehicles – including trucks carrying armored personnel carriers and tanks – driving toward the border town of Akcakale. Residents cheered and applauded as one of the convoys passed by. Earlier, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that at least two convoys of buses carrying Turkish commandos headed toward the border Tuesday.
October 8, 2019 4:13 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Prosecutors say a former university professor in Philadelphia spent federal grant money on strip clubs and other personal expenses. The U.S. attorney’s office says Chika Nwankpa misappropriated grant money from the Navy, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation over a period of 10 years. Drexel University says it discovered the alleged fraud in 2017 during an internal audit and alerted the government. Nwankpa headed Drexel’s electrical and computer engineering department. Authorities say Nwankpa repaid more than $53,000, resigned from Drexel and was barred from federal contracting for six months. He has not been charged with a crime. Prosecutors announced Monday that Drexel has agreed to pay $189,000 to resolve its potential civil liability in the case.
October 8, 2019 4:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A new judge is in place to handle the child sexual abuse resentencing hearing for former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday issued an order appointing Judge Maureen Skerda to take over the case. The previous jurist, Judge John Foradora of Jefferson County, recused himself last month. A prosecutor and Sandusky’s defense lawyer agreed in a court document that Foradora needed to step aside because of what they called an action in August by the attorney general’s office that was “separate, distinct and wholly unrelated” to the Sandusky case. The 75-year-old Sandusky’s serving a 45-count conviction, but an appeals court ruled in February that mandatory minimums had been improperly applied. Skerda is a judge in Warren and Forest counties.
October 8, 2019 4:09 am
The Pennsylvania Department of Health held a public meeting at Canon McMillan High School to address their findings on what seem to be elevated levels of childhood cancers in the area. Approximately 200 residents came to the auditorium to find out just what several departments had to say about a study done in the spring of 2019. Wendy Aldinger, Manager of the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry led off by describing the data collected by her department and how long it takes to have that data collected. Residents were not pleased that research data compiled seemed to be very bare bones, not taking into account environmental surroundings, lifestyle choices or even physical attributes. Dr. Sharon Watkins, Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology was not received well either. Watkins gave a detailed analysis of the data compiled from 1985 until 2016, but audience members were audibly upset because the data used came from the PA Cancer Registry and was very limited in detail. The only panel member to be warmly accepted was Dr. Kelly Bailey of UPMC Children’s Hospital. She was able to give insight into how research has changed over the years looking into all types of cancer. She described her research and clinical practices and added insight as to why it is not easy to make connections to cancer causes by just connecting dots. Audience members were quite upset when the meeting was abruptly halted at 7:30 and panel members left the room using the rear exit.
October 7, 2019 5:18 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Two major retailers say they will no longer sell e-cigarettes in the U.S. amid mounting health questions surrounding vaping. Supermarket chain Kroger and drugstore chain Walgreen announced Monday they would discontinue sales of e-cigarettes at their stores nationwide, citing an uncertain regulatory environment. The vaping industry has come under scrutiny after hundreds of people have fallen ill and at least eight have died after using vaping devices. Walmart announced last month that it would stop selling e-cigarettes at its stores nationwide. Kroger said it would stop selling e-cigarettes as soon at its current inventory runs out at its more than 2,700 stores and 1,500 fuel centers. The Cincinnati-based company operates the Ralphs, Harris Teeter and other stores. Walgreens, based in Deerfield, Illinois, operates more than 9,500 stores in the U.S.
October 7, 2019 4:24 pm
FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) – The student body president of a West Virginia university has been charged with felony strangulation. News outlets report 21-year-old Tyler Keller was arrested by Fairmont police on Friday. Keller is the president of the Student Government Association at Fairmont State University. The Times West Virginian reports a complaint states Keller choked a man with both hands and then the man struck Keller in the head with a glass wine bottle to get free. The complaint also states Keller struck the man in the left ear so hard the victim sustained hearing loss. Court papers say Keller had accused the man of taking his cell phone. Jail records show Keller is out on bond. It’s unclear whether he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
October 7, 2019 1:19 pm
ABINGTON, Mass. (AP) – Authorities say two adults and three children have been found dead in a Massachusetts home. Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz says the bodies were found in the Abington condo on Monday morning. Cruz says it appears they died of gunshot wounds. Police say there is no threat to the public. Abington, a town of about 16,000 people, is about 20 miles south of Boston.
