PA Headlines
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — For a second straight year, the Pennsylvania Senate is advancing legislation to permit Pennsylvania’s municipal police departments to use radar to catch speeders. The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday, 46-3, and heads to the House. A similar bill died in the House last year. Under the bill, trained police officers could use radar or infrared laser light devices to catch speeders.
Currently, only the Pennsylvania State Police are allowed to use such devices in the state. Sen. Randy Vulakovich of Allegheny County says Pennsylvania is the only state that doesn’t permit local police to use the devices. A municipality’s governing body must authorize its police force to use the devices and post warning signs. It bars motorists from being convicted if their recorded speed is less than 10 mph over the speed limit.
WEXFORD, Pa. (AP) — Republican House Speaker Mike Turzai, the Pennsylvania Legislature’s most prominent budget hawk, is running for governor. Turzai told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he’ll seek the Republican nomination in May’s primary election to challenge Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who is seeking a second term. The 58-year-old from suburban Pittsburgh enters what’s now a four-person Republican primary field.
As House majority leader and then speaker, Turzai has helped drive austerity in state budgeting this decade. He’s been a constant adversary of Wolf, particularly in the two drawn-out budget fights since Wolf became governor in 2015. Also running are York County state Sen. Scott Wagner and two first-time candidates from the Pittsburgh area: lawyer Laura Ellsworth and former health care systems consultant Paul Mango.
NEWPORT, Pa. (AP) — A Perry County man is being accused of fatally beating his wife more than 30 years ago, then slashing her wrists to make it appear she killed herself. The state attorney general Tuesday announced a murder charge against 62-year-old Carl Rodgers of Shermans Dale. Rodgers’ attorney says his client will plead not guilty.
The body of 23-year-old Debra Rodgers was found in April 1983 in woods near the couple’s dairy farm in Loysville. A coroner at the time ruled Rodgers’ death a homicide, but no arrest was made. Prosecutors brought the case before a grand jury last year after reviewing cold case homicides with state police. Court documents say Carl Rodgers told police and family members in 1983 his wife was depressed and suicidal.
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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A lawyer for relatives of some Newtown school massacre victims has asked the Connecticut Supreme Court to reinstate a lawsuit against gun maker Remington Arms, saying a rifle made by the company and used in the shooting was too dangerous to sell to the public. The high court heard arguments Tuesday about whether justices should overturn a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit filed by a survivor and relatives of nine people killed in the 2012 mass shooting at an elementary school.
A decision isn’t expected for several months. The case centers on a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle made by North Carolina-based Remington and a 2005 federal law that shields gun makers from liability in most cases. Remington’s lawyer argued the federal law prohibits the lawsuit. Twenty children and six educators were killed in the shooting.
HONOLULU (AP) — Police believe a man acquitted of a 1979 murder by reason of insanity is in Northern California after he escaped from a Hawaii psychiatric hospital, took a taxi to a chartered plane to Maui and then boarded another plane to San Jose. Honolulu police say Randall Saito is dangerous and shouldn’t be approached. It wasn’t immediately known how he was able to charter a plane.
Police wouldn’t provide details about his flight to California. Police say hospital staff reported Saito’s disappearance two hours after he landed in San Jose on Sunday. Hawaii State Hospital Administrator William May said officials are fully cooperating with law enforcement and appropriate steps would be taken if Saito had help from someone inside the facility. Saito was committed to the hospital outside Honolulu in 1981.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The leader of a Minneapolis art museum where a gallows sculpture sparked protests says she is resigning. Walker Art Center executive director Olga Viso said Tuesday she will step down at the end of the year. Viso has led the museum since 2008. She oversaw a $41 million renovation of the Walker campus that included a redesign of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
But the garden’s reopening in June ignited protests by American Indians because of “Scaffold.” Los Angeles artist Sam Durant intended the sculpture as a commentary on capital punishment. The two-story sculpture depicted elements of gallows used in seven U.S. hangings, including the scaffold on which 38 Dakota men were hanged in Mankato in 1862 in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The Walker ordered the sculpture dismantled.
RED BLUFF, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a gunman tried to get into rooms at a California elementary school with the intent of shooting children but that workers initiated a lockdown that saved lives. Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston says school officials heard shots being fired and immediately locked down Rancho Tehama School in a tiny, rural town Tuesday.
He says it was “monumental” that school workers took the action they did and there is no doubt in his mind they saved the lives of countless children. Authorities say the gunman, who hasn’t been identified, killed four people and wounded at least 10 others, including a child after he opened fire at the school.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — If diversity were like football, the latest news would be like hearing a team has gained a couple of yards on a play — but ending up nowhere near a first down. The Directors Guild of America is out with its latest look at diversity in the ranks of those who call the shots on TV shows. It finds that women and minority television directors did make modest gains last season. But the main upshot is that most TV episodes you see are still directed by white men.
NEW YORK (AP) — You know how Blake Shelton does that thing on “The Voice” when he wants a singer to pick him as coach, holding his hand over his head and using his index finger to point down at himself? He can now do that if he wants people to know who the Sexiest Man Alive for this year is. Shelton has received the honor from People magazine. But his boo, Gwen Stefani says Shelton doesn’t like that kind of attention. Even Shelton says Stefani had to talk him into accepting the honor. As he put it: “I’ve been ugly my whole life. If I can be sexy for a year, I’m taking it!'”
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) —A professional group near Atlanta is inviting white people to “Come Meet a Black Person.” That’s the title of a networking event planned for Thursday in suburban Lawrenceville. Cheryle Moses is founder and president of Urban Mediamakers, the consortium for content producers that’s hosting the event. Moses says she didn’t mean for the title of the event to be provocative — but instead she wants to build relationships of trust and understanding. She says people who are angered by the event’s theme don’t understand what she’s trying to do. She says she wants to get people of different races to be friends.
NEW YORK (AP) — Rare artifacts from Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein are going to the auction block in New York City next month. Christie’s auction house says a letter signed “A. Lincoln” discusses the issue of slavery and could sell for up to $700,000 while a wooden mallet bearing the initials “A. L.” and used by Lincoln during his youth in Indiana could go for up to $500,000. Einstein’s telescope has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Tiny homes have been promoted as the solution to all kinds of housing needs, and they’ve inspired at least six national TV shows. But the popularity of the trendy structures often fails to translate into acceptance when developers try to build them next door. Neighbors have organized to stop the projects in at least a dozen cases across the nation. They complain that the developments could hurt property values and clash with existing housing.
UNDATED (AP) —Astronauts on the International Space Station are getting a mouth-watering haul with the latest delivery from Earth – pizza and ice cream. A commercial supply ship arrived there yesterday, two days after launching from Virginia. Besides equipment and experiments, the Orbital ATK capsule holds chocolate and vanilla ice cream for the six station astronauts, as well as make-your-own flatbread pizzas, with ingredients including sauce, cheese, pepperoni, anchovy paste, tomatoes, pesto and olive oil.
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