October 3, 2019 4:19 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – The outbreak of U.S. vaping-related illnesses has surpassed 1,000 cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that 1,080 confirmed and probable cases have been reported in 48 states and one U.S. territory. The count includes 18 deaths in 15 states. The first illnesses occurred in late March. Recently, 200 or more cases have been reported each week. Only Alaska and New Hampshire have yet to report cases. Doctors say the illnesses resemble an inhalation injury. Symptoms include severe shortness of breath, fatigue and chest pain. So far, officials have not identified a particular electronic cigarette, vaping device, liquid or ingredient behind the outbreak. But most who got sick said they vaped products containing THC, the ingredient that gives marijuana its high.
October 3, 2019 12:39 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The government’s consumer watchdog agency is ordering Juul and five other vaping companies to hand over information about how they market e-cigarettes. The move from the Federal Trade Commission comes amid a nationwide crackdown on e-cigarettes as lawmakers and health authorities try to reverse an explosion of underage vaping. The agency said Thursday it is scrutinizing vaping sales and promotion, including the use of online influencers. The government order was also sent to R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company, Fontem US, Logic Technology Development, Nu Mark and NJOY. More than 1 in 4 high school students reported vaping in the past month, according to the latest government survey data. Juul already faces multiple investigations by Congress, the Food and Drug Administration and several states attorneys general.
October 3, 2019 7:13 am
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) – At least 22 soldiers training at a Mississippi military base have been injured during a night parachuting exercise. U.S. Army spokesman John Pennell tells WDAM-TV that at least 15 people hurt at Camp Shelby were treated by medics and another seven were hospitalized. Staff Sgt. John Healy says none of the injuries are considered to be life-threatening. Camp Shelby Cmdr. Col. Bobby Ginn says the troopers belong to the 4th Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division stationed at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. Pennell says about 89 paratroopers were on the plane for the Wednesday night exercise. Healy says about 650 soldiers were involved in the exercise. About 3,000 troops from the Alaska base are at monthlong training at Camp Shelby called “Operation Arctic Anvil.”
October 3, 2019 4:17 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea says its test-firing of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile in the waters off its east coast was successful. The test-firing Wednesday was North Korea’s first of a submarine-launched missile in three years, which occurred ahead of a restart of nuclear negotiations between North Korea and the United States this weekend. The report didn’t elaborate on whether the missile was fired from a submarine, a barge or other underwater launch platform. The Korean Central News Agency says the test of the Pukguksong-3 missile “ushered in a new phase in containing the outside forces’ threat to” North Korea. KCNA said Thursday the missile was launched in a vertical mode and that its test had no adverse impact on the security of neighboring countries.
October 3, 2019 4:15 am
WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (AP) – A Connecticut state official says seven people died in the crash of a World War-II airplane during an aborted takeoff from Hartford’s airport. Public safety Commissioner James Rovella says the six others who were on the airplane suffered injuries ranging from minor to critical. He says there were no children on the plane. The names of the victims have not been released. Rovella said heroic actions of people on the plane and involved in the rescue helped to prevent a higher death toll. The B-17 airplane crashed and burned Wednesday morning while attempting to land back at Bradley International Airport.
October 3, 2019 4:14 am
DALLAS (AP) – The 10-year prison sentence given to a white Dallas police officer who shot and killed her black neighbor after saying she mistook his apartment for hers sparked anger but also moments of forgiveness. The dead man’s brother and the black judge hugged the sobbing officer in a stunning courtroom scene Wednesday. The brother, 18-year-old Brandt Jean, told officer Amber Guyger that he loved her as a person and didn’t wish anything bad on her. People outside the courtroom reacted angrily to Guyger’s sentence, believing she should’ve received more time for shooting the unarmed Botham Jean in his own living room. Dozens of demonstrators later marched through parts of downtown Dallas to protest the sentence. Guyger, who was fired after the September 2018 shooting, was convicted of murder Tuesday.
October 3, 2019 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence is defending President Donald Trump’s call that foreign governments investigate one of Trump’s leading Democratic rivals. And Pence is echoing Trump’s private and public urging of Ukraine’s president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and Biden’s family. Earlier Thursday, Trump said China should investigate Biden. There’s been no evidence of wrongdoing by either Biden. Pence tells reporters at an event in Arizona that he thinks “the American people have a right to know if the vice president of the United States or his family profited from his position as vice president during the last administration.” Trump’s actions have ensnared the White House in an impeachment investigation by the Democratic controlled House. Trump has sought, without evidence, to implicate Biden and his son Hunter in the kind of corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Kyiv.
October 3, 2019 4:10 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration says it’ll start working to bring Pennsylvania into a regional consortium that sets a price and caps on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Administration officials said Wolf will make the formal announcement Thursday that he’s ordering a start to the process of joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a consortium of northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. Wolf’s aides have approached top lawmakers in recent months about passing legislation to authorize the move, without success. However, Wolf’s administration also has maintained that it can write regulations for the cap-and-trade program under its existing authority to regulate air pollution. The Democrat’s move is part of his effort to fight climate change in the nation’s No. 3 electric power state and could mean the worst-polluting power plants must pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the state annually.
October 3, 2019 4:06 am
ATHENS, Ohio (AP) – Ohio University has suspended all its fraternities following allegations of widespread hazing. The university said Thursday that the suspension of the 15 fraternities was immediate and indefinite. It followed allegations within the past week of hazing at seven of the fraternities. Jenny Hall-Jones, the university’s dean of students, says it’s troubling that seven fraternities have been or will be under investigation, and the university will not risk student health and safety. In May, the university expelled a fraternity for hazing, alcohol and drug use, and other student conduct code violations after the alleged hazing of an 18-year-old freshman who died in November. At Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, a hazing allegation has led to misdemeanor charges of hazing and assault against more than a dozen fraternity members.
October 3, 2019 4:02 am
PITTSBURGH – (WPXI) – The grandparents of the newborn found yesterday with his parents in Tennessee are now trying get custody of the baby and his half-brother. West Mifflin police told Channel 11 that 8-week-old Ambrose Klingensmith was taken by his parents –Jeannette Funnen, 32, and Daemon Klingensmith, 23 – on Sept. 26 after UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh staff raised concerns that he had been abused. But the newborn’s grandparents said the children are in perfect health – and that their parents would never lay a hand on the baby. Doctors determined there were “bruises consistent with finger marks” and that the injuries were “highly concerning with physical abuse.” They requested additional testing to determine how severe the internal injuries were. However, the infant’s parents took off with him from the emergency room before he was examined. “As far as Children’s (Hospital) goes… if they were so concerned about abuse, how was the baby allowed to leave the hospital?” said Kimberly Klingensmith, the newborn’s grandmother. “Why was the baby not separated from the parents and then taken away? That’s what we don’t understand.” The Klingensmiths said their son didn’t even know there was a warrant out for his arrest when he took off with his wife, their infant and Funnen’s 3-year-old son. Both parents are in custody and are in the process of being extradited back to Pennsylvania. They are facing charges of endangering a child and obstruction.
