Port Authority doesn’t want your two cents
Say goodbye to the penny. At least on Port Authority of Allegheny County vehicles. Buses and trains will stop accepting pennies by the end of the month. Port Authority hopes the change will speed up boarding and reduce farebox downtime. Boxes began receiving a software upgrade this week. Spokesman Adam...
Elizabeth Warren says tech giants have ‘too much power,’ need breakup
WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Friday rolled out a proposal to break up the biggest U.S. technology companies, saying they have too much control over the economy and Americans’ lives. In her pitch to rein in the influence of tech giants, the Massachusetts senator envisions legislation targeting...
Leaked text messages reveal Maine mayor’s racist remark
LEWISTON, Maine — Text messages made public by a woman who said she had an affair with a mayoral candidate who was later elected in Maine’s second-largest city reveal a racist remark he sent her while the two were working to undermine a political opponent. Heather Berube Everly has called...
Chelsea Manning sent to jail for refusing to testify in Wikileaks case
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning will be held in jail until she testifies before a grand jury or that grand jury is no longer operating, a federal judge in Alexandria ruled Friday. Most of the hearing at which prosecutors argued for Manning to held in contempt...
Pennsylvania college students beat national average for graduation
Pennsylvania college students are graduating at rates well above the national average, despite a troubling racial gap. Those were among the findings in a new study of six-year graduation rates for students who were college freshmen in 2012. The report, released by the National Student Clearinghouse, found 72.6 percent of...
Police: Puppy stabbed during house break-in
MIDDLETON, N.H. — Police in New Hampshire say a 3-month-old puppy was stabbed during a break-in at a home. WMUR-TV reports police said no one was home during the burglary on Thursday in Middleton. When the residents came home, they found the puppy, named Jax, with stab wounds to his...
Judge OKs wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of aborted embryo
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — An Alabama judge has approved a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a 21-year-old man on behalf of an aborted embryo. Al.com reported Wednesday that Ryan Magers is calling the 6-week-old embryo “Baby Roe” in his suit seeking damages from the Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives. Magers...
Sheriff: Girl buried in backyard had been caged and starved
GUYTON, Ga. — An investigator with the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia says a girl whose body was buried in the backyard had been beaten, bound, starved and shocked with a stun gun. The Savannah Morning News reports Investigator Abby Brown testified Tuesday that 14-year-old Mary Crocker also was...
Bloodied man walks into Pennsylvania hospital, says he killed boyfriend
MANHEIM — Authorities say a man covered in blood walked into a Pennsylvania hospital and told staffers there he had just fatally stabbed his boyfriend. Manheim Township police say 30-year-old Matthew Van Zandt is charged with homicide in the death of 31-year-old Ian Shannon, whose body was found Wednesday in...
Power outage in Venezuela leaves millions in dark
CARACAS, Venezuela — A massive blackout plunged Caracas and much of the nation into chaos Thursday, forcing the rush-hour closure of the capital’s metro and sending tens of thousands of people into the streets in what the authorities alleged was an act of “sabotage.” “This is part of a power...
Pope denounces ‘depraved’ antisemitism and urges dialogue
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis denounced the “depraved hatred” behind a wave of anti-Semitic attacks in parts of the world and said interfaith dialogue can help counter it. Francis met Friday with a delegation of the American Jewish Committee and praised their longstanding good relations. He lamented that their meeting...
Cleveland suburb to pay $1M to estate of man fatally shot by police
CLEVELAND — A city outside Cleveland has agreed to pay $1 million to the estate of an unarmed man fatally shot by a police officer after a vehicle chase in 2017. Cleveland.com reports an attorney for the estate of Roy Evans Jr. confirmed Thursday that Strongsville has agreed to settle...
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson is resigning
WASHINGTON — Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, once seen as a candidate to succeed Jim Mattis as defense secretary, said Friday she is resigning to become president of the University of Texas at El Paso. A former U.S. House Republican member from New Mexico and graduate of the U.S. Air...
Pa. Lottery machines spent most of the day down due to outage
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Lottery officials say many machines around Pennsylvania had been offline for most of the day due to a service outage. Department of Revenue spokesman Jeffrey Johnson said the outage Friday was due to connectivity issues with Verizon’s cellular service at some terminals throughout the state. It only...
Billionaire diamond trader dies during penis enlargement operation
A billionaire diamond trader has died after complications during a medical procedure. The Toronto Sun reports that Israeli-Belgian dual citizen Ehud Arye Laniado, who founded Omega Diamonds, died at an upscale Paris hospital. “Farewell to a visionary businessman. It is with great sadness that we confirm that our founder Ehud...
A black man was picking up trash outside his home. Then police confronted him.
The Boulder, Colo., police department is conducting an internal investigation after video surfaced of an officer questioning a black man who was picking up garbage in front of his residence. The officer has been placed on administrative leave until the investigation is complete. On Friday morning, an officer initially approached...
Holocaust survivor says teens in swastika photo apologized
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — The high school party took an ugly turn. Drink cups were used to form a crude swastika. Nazi salutes flashed. Cameras clicked. What appears to have been a woefully misguided attempt at humor turned into a national embarrassment for the Southern California city of Newport Beach,...
Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort sentenced to 47 months in prison
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced Thursday to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, much less than what was called for under sentencing guidelines. Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he deals with complications...
Sheriff: Hammer used to kill girlfriend, 2 children in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — A woman and two children bludgeoned to death with a hammer in a suburban New Orleans apartment were killed by the woman’s boyfriend, authorities said Thursday. Two other children remain hospitalized as a result of the attack Wednesday morning in Terrytown. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto identified...
Former Mt. Pleasant Sub ’n Pub owner kept upbeat attitude during cancer fight
Mary D. “Lou” Ross of Scottdale beat the odds in her 13-year battle against a rare cancer of the salivary glands, and did it with a smile on her face and positive attitude that spread to other patients undergoing treatment, according to her daughter. “She was called a miracle by...
House broadly condemns hate after anti-Semitism dispute
WASHINGTON — Divided in debate but mostly united in a final vote, the House passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other bigotry Thursday, with Democrats trying to push past a dispute that has overwhelmed their agenda and exposed fault lines that could dog them through elections next year. The one-sided...
IRS millionaire audits decline
Here’s a little good news for millionaires worried about the ramifications of tax time as April 15 draws ever nearer: your chances of being audited have decreased significantly in recent years. Government records show the number of audits of America’s wealthiest taxpayers — those filing returns for $1 million or...
Protests erupt after Catholic school in Kansas declines to enroll a same-sex couple’s child
A Catholic school in Kansas refused to admit a same-sex couple’s kindergarten-aged child. Now, more than 1,000 people are protesting the decision and urging the school to change its mind. In a letter sent to the parents of students at St. Ann Catholic School in Prairie Village, the Rev. Craig...
Pa. man jailed for choking wife now charged with plotting her murder
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania man already serving time for assaulting and choking his wife faces new charges of plotting to kill her from prison. WHP-TV reports Dauphin County officials say Leroy Newton Vencak Jr. has been charged with solicitation to commit murder. A criminal complaint says Vencak solicited another person...
Gov. Wolf orders review of Glen Mills over abuse allegations
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered a review of complaints against the oldest reform school in the country as a result of a newspaper investigation detailed decades of alleged abuse and cover-ups at the campus. Lawmakers and children’s advocates on Wednesday called for the state to launch an...
