AP PA Headlines 6/7/20
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Thousands of people marched through Philadelphia, demanding justice for George Floyd. Demonstrators gathered Saturday near the Philadelphia Museum of Art and its famous “Rocky” steps before setting off for the City Hall area, with the line of marchers stretching for several city blocks along a tree-lined thoroughfare.
City officials earlier announced street closures, saying much of the city center, from the Delaware River to the Schuylkill River, would be closed to vehicles. A curfew will be in effect again overnight. Floyd, who was black, died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck even after he pleaded for air and stopped moving.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia officer faces aggravated assault charges after video surfaced of him striking a student protester in the head with a metal baton. District Attorney Larry Krasner said Friday that Police Staff Inspector Joseph Bologna also faces charges of reckless endangerment and possession of an instrument of crime.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw says that her agency is reviewing videos that showed police officers in violent confrontations with people during the protests over the death of George Floyd. The video circulating widely on Twitter shows Bologna hitting a 21-year-old college student in the head and neck area with a baton, before the student is knocked to the ground and another officer put his knee on him to keep him down.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia Inquirer says its top editor is resigning after an uproar over a headline lamenting damage to businesses amid turbulent protests denouncing police brutality against people of color. The newspaper said Saturday that Stan Wischnowski is stepping down as senior vice president and executive editor.
The Inquirer had apologized for a “horribly wrong” decision to use the headline, “Buildings Matter, Too,” on a column Tuesday about looting and vandalism on the margins of protests of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis at the hands of a white police officer. The Inquirer later published a letter of apology by senior editors.
ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say an employee at a northwestern Pennsylvania zoo was bitten on the arm by an orangutan over the weekend. Erie County emergency dispatchers said the 29-year-old zookeeper sustained puncture and bit wounds to his forearm during Saturday afternoon’s attack at the Erie Zoo.
Dispatchers said he was taken to Saint Vincent Hospital for treatment of injuries described as moderate and non-life-threatening. No further information was immediately available.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf will allow 12 more counties that are home to 1.3 million people to enter the least-restrictive phase of his pandemic reopening plan. His office said Friday that Adams, Beaver, Carbon, Columbia, Cumberland, Juniata, Mifflin, Northumberland, Union, Wayne, Wyoming and York can join the “green” phase of his stoplight-colored reopening plan in a week. Meanwhile, Wolf said state epidemiologists believe an outbreak is occurring in Erie County.
Nearly 6 million people in Philadelphia and nine other counties in southeastern Pennsylvania became the last in the state Friday to shed Wolf’s tightest restrictions, including a stay-at-home order.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania state senator who lost the support of Democratic officials after he was criticized for his treatment of women in his office and on his campaign has lost his suburban Philadelphia primary contest. The Associated Press projected Saturday that Amanda Cappelletti had prevailed in 17th district in Montgomery County.
Leach, a longtime standard-bearer for liberal causes in the state Legislature, had rebuffed calls from Democrats to resign going back to 2017. Leach denied any predatory actions and said he never deliberately made anyone uncomfortable, though he acknowledged that he has used poor judgment in his choice of humor.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Eugene DePasquale, Pennsylvania’s outgoing state auditor general, has won the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry. That’s as vote-counting Friday in primary contests across Pennsylvania ate up a fourth day. DePasquale will challenge Perry in the Harrisburg-based 10th District, where Democrats believe they can unseat the four-term congressman.
Meanwhile, many primary contests across Pennsylvania remained without a clear victor as counties tabulate an avalanche of mailed ballots. The Associated Press has not yet called a number of races, including the only competitive primary among the statewide races, a six-way Democratic primary contest for auditor general. Voters mailed in about 1.4 million ballots, and turnout hit 24%.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal judge has approved a consent order requiring better access to soap, face masks and cleaning supplies to settle a portion of lawsuit brought against Philadelphia seeking better coronavirus protections and improvements of other conditions for prisoners in the city’s jails. The consent order comes as the city announced it had completed about two weeks of testing all of the more than 3,800 asymptomatic prisoners housed in its jails for coronavirus, and finding 223 positive cases. The city said the jails will move into their own yellow phase in the coming weeks as a result, meaning lockdown conditions will be eased and prisoners will start to be allowed to leave their cells for more activities.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pittsburgh man who authorities say left a backpack full of homemade explosive devices in a bush outside of a complex in the city’s downtown area is now facing several charges. Authorities say 52-year-old Matthew Michanowicz was seen on surveillance video placing the military-style backpack at PNC Plaza on Sunday.
Police were notified about the backpack on Monday and found it contained makeshift explosives. When officers showed Michanowicz photos of him placing the backpack in the bushes, authorities say he confirmed he was the person in the photos but still denied having the backpack. He’s charged with three counts each of arson and possessing weapons of mass destruction.
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