Essential Quality won the 153rd running of the Belmont Stakes, the third and final leg of the Triple Crown for thoroughbred racing.
Brad Cox’s gray colt remained a 2-1 favorite leading into the race with Kentucky Derby third-place finisher Hot Rod Charlie being the second choice in the wagering at 7-2 over an hour before the race began.
This Triple Crown season has been dramatic and tumultuous thanks to another Bob Baffert drug scandal. His horse, Medina Spirit, won the Kentucky Derby, but then tested positive for the steroid betamethasone afterward, throwing the world of horse racing into turmoil. In a statement released by Baffert, he alleged that Medina Spirit’s positive drug test could be explained by an ointment used to treat dermatitis on the racehorse.
“Under no level of heightened scrutiny can the law survive,” U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez said before issuing a permanent injunction that takes effect in 30 days. Benitez argued the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles bans firearms allowed in other states, depriving California gun owners of their rights. He compared the AR-15 rifle to a Swiss Army knife, saying it’s “a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle.”
PITTSBURGH — A South Side club was shut down after a raid by the Pennsylvania State Police on Saturday.
According to police, after numerous complaints about the illegal sale of alcohol at the Boom Boom Room, located in the 1700 block of East Carson Street, police conducted undercover visits and witnessed alleged illegal liquor sales.
The club was raided on Saturday shortly after 2 a.m., and troopers seized approximately 5.16 gallons of malt or brewed beverages and approximately 22.35 liters of liquor.
The intense political backlash over the academic approach of examining U.S. institutions through the lens of race is shaping up to be a major cultural battle ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Last month, Republican lawmakers decried critical race theory, an academic approach that examines how race and racism function in American institutions.
“Folks, we’re in a cultural warfare today,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said at a news conference alongside six other members of the all-Republican House Freedom Caucus. “Critical race theory asserts that people with white skin are inherently racist, not because of their actions, words or what they actually believe in their heart — but by virtue of the color of their skin.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., added: “Democrats want to teach our children to hate each other.”
Republicans, who are fighting the teaching of critical race theory in schools, contend it divides Americans. Democrats and their allies maintain that progress is unlikely without examining the root causes of disparity in the country. The issue is shaping up to be a major cultural battle ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Academics, particularly legal scholars, have studied critical race theory for decades. But its main entry into the partisan fray came in 2020, when former President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning federal contractors from conducting certain racial sensitivity trainings. It was challenged in court, and President Biden rescinded the order the day he took office.
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police received multiple complaints about 200-300 motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes riding in large groups around the city on Memorial Day.
Many of them were not supposed to be on the roads in the first place.
Several vehicles were driving dangerously on the streets, running traffic lights and stop signs.
Dozens of riders left the area around Fifth Avenue and Frankstown when officers started a traffic stop for an illegal ATV at around 4 p.m.
A Pennsylvania county will investigate after machines from Dominion failed to display ballots for Republican voters during a recent primary.
Election integrity is again the topic of conversation in a Pennsylvania county that has seen its share of irregularities since the Nov. 3 election.
A May 18 primary election in Luzerne County stunned voters when machines from Dominion Voting Systems failed to display ballots for Republican voters, instead displaying a header that said “Official Democratic Ballot.” Earlier this past week, the Luzerne County’s Council voted unanimously to ask the district attorney’s office to launch an investigation into those “errors.”
One council member was not present for the vote to look into the Dominion machines used.
CNN)The Biden administration on Saturday granted humanitarian protection for Haitians in the United States, allowing an estimated 100,000 people to apply to remain lawfully in the US, according to the Department of Homeland Security and an administration official.
The decision will allow Haitians in the US the opportunity to apply for Temporary Protected Status — a form of humanitarian relief that can be granted when it is deemed unsafe to return to one’s home country.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced a new 18-month designation for the humanitarian program. Eligible Haitian nationals currently residing in the US as of May 21 will be able to apply for the protections.
“Haiti is currently experiencing serious security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty, and lack of basic resources, which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mayorkas said in a statement.
President Joe Biden tweeted a link to the announcement Saturday, writing, “Today my Administration announced a new 18 month designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti.”
TPS can be granted by the Secretary of Homeland Security in instances in which individuals cannot be safely removed to their home country due to temporary conditions in the country, such as armed conflict, environmental disasters or other extreme circumstances.
DHS officials will soon file a notice in the Federal Register to allow for Haitians in the US currently to obtain the protections.
Federal agents have seized 68 lions, tigers and other big cats from the Oklahoma couple who took over an animal park featured in the Netflix documentary series Tiger King.
The Justice Department said Thursday that a jaguar and lion-tiger hybrids were also among the animals that authorities recovered from the Tiger King Park in Thackerville, Okla., over three days this month.
The park is owned by Jeffrey and Lauren Lowe, who appeared in the popular Tiger King documentary, which starred a big-cat collector and eccentric named Joe Exotic. Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is currently serving a 22-year federal prison sentence after being convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme and of federal wildlife violations.
Ashley Merard sued the franchise owner, Magic Burgers LLC, for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Orlando Sentinel Reported. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Orlando.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, a jury awarded Merard $2 million in punitive damages on May 4. Merard was also awarded $30,000 for emotional pain and mental anguish and $15,519.60 for lost wages.
Jesse Drawas, the attorney for Magic Burgers LLC told Fox News in a statement that the company is “disappointed with the result” and plans to appeal the verdict.
A Youngwood man is behind bars after state police said he led troopers on a 22-mile chase over the weekend that began in Pittsburgh and ended in Hempfield, according to court papers.
Ryan E. McKnight, 36, did not have a valid drivers license, police said.
Seventeen abandoned vehicles were towed from the streets of five Pittsburgh neighborhoods Tuesday in the start of a weekslong effort to clear out such complaints, according to city police public information officer Cara Cruz.
Officers investigated 124 abandoned vehicle complaints in the Allentown, Beltzhoover, Carrick, Arlington Heights and Knoxville neighborhoods. Most of the complaints to the city’s 3-1-1 system were cleared either because the vehicle had since been removed or it was legally registered, Cruz said.
Fresh Acquisitions, the parent company of a restaurant chain that owns several buffet-style concepts, including Old Country Buffet, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
A Monroeville woman is suing a police officer and a Panda Express restaurant, alleging she was arrested for complaining that she got the wrong meal.
According to the lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court, Diana Broadnax, 64, went to the Panda Express on William Penn Highway in Monroeville on May 5, 2019, to place a take-out order.
When she got home, she realized she had gotten the wrong order, the lawsuit said. She immediately went back to the restaurant to exchange it.
According to the complaint, the manager, who is described as a white woman, responded angrily, yelled at Broadnax, who is Black, and threatened to call the police.
The manager did call the Monroeville police, complaining that Broadnax had been disorderly and was drunk.
“Plaintiff was not intoxicated, had not consumed any alcohol, was not disorderly, and since it was Sunday, her only activity before going to the Panda Express, was to attend church services,” the lawsuit said.
It continued that Broadnax had not engaged in any physical or verbal activity that justified the manager’s behavior or her calling the police.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Some renters continue to struggle to make ends meet, but a new statewide program hopes to ease some of that burden.
Renter Lee McCrorie told KDKA that she wishes she could just buy a house.
“I was paying $1,193, plus gas and water and all that and they just upped it to $1,200 a month,” said McCrorie.
She lives in Seven Fields and just learned about the Emergency Renter’s Assistance Program. She hopes it’ll help with her rent and piled up late fees.
“I have a lot of other bills that have been sliding and plus that one month that I was late, my sister paid it for me, so I have to pay her back,” said McCrorie.
The state sounded the alarm Tuesday, saying it doesn’t want renters to miss out on this money because they didn’t know about the program.
“This program is deliberately designed to help people dig out of what may be some very deep holes,” said Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller. “It doesn’t matter if your monthly rent is $500 or $2,500 as long as you meet the eligibility criteria.”
There’s $847 million up for grabs across 67 counties. Allegheny County created a website for applications, which can be found here.
If you go to a gun show and buy a firearm from a federally licensed seller, you will have to pass a background check, just as if you went to a bricks-and-mortar gun store. You would only escape a background check at a gun show if you bought from a seller who isn’t federally licensed.
While the data is incomplete, federally licensed sellers have been found to make up a substantial share, and perhaps a majority, of gun show vendors.
In a Rose Garden event, President Joe Biden announced several actions his administration will take to address what he called an “epidemic” of gun violence.
Biden repeated his call for Congress to pass legislation to expand background checks. The House voted largely along party lines to pass a pair of background check bills this year, but they haven’t moved forward in the Senate.
“These bills, one, require background checks for anyone purchasing a gun at a gun show or an online sale,” Biden said at the April 8 event. “Most people don’t know it, you walk into a store and you buy a gun, you have a background check. But you go to a gun show, you can buy whatever you want, and no background check.”
When it comes to background checks for gun purchases, what matters is who sells the guns, not where the guns are sold — and when a federally licensed seller is a vendor at a gun show, they have to run a background check just as they would if they were back at a bricks-and-mortar gun store.
The White House told PolitiFact that Biden wasn’t suggesting that every gun transaction at a gun show would take place without a background check. Instead, he meant that sales without background checks could occur in some cases.
However, that’s not what he said.
What the laws say about sales at gun shows
Advocates for stricter gun control measures often talk about the “gun show loophole,” though some observers say the term is a misnomer. The phrase itself doesn’t explain who is and isn’t required to run background checks at gun shows.
Federal law requires that people in the business of dealing in firearms be licensed by the federal government.
Specifically, the law says that a license is required if “a person who devotes time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms.”
The law specifically rules out a required license if a person “makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.”
This can sometimes be a fuzzy distinction, but it means many sellers of guns do need to have a license.
“Every federally licensed retailer, whether they are selling a gun at a brick and mortar store, a gun show or the sale starts online,” must complete a signed background check form from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and get approval from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check system, said Mark Oliva, a spokesperson for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
New York’s state Senate and Assembly both passed a bill Tuesday to legalize recreational marijuana.
“I look forward to signing this legislation into law,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
If the bill is signed, legalization of the plant would be effective immediately but legal recreational sales would not be expected to begin for one or two years.
Dominion Voting systems, one of the largest election equipment manufacturers in the U.S. and the subject of false conspiracy theories by conservative figures, has sued Fox News for $1.6 billion.
The suit highlights the number of times Fox News segments contained false claims that Dominion equipment was used to rig the 2020 election, that it was tied to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, or that it paid off U.S. government officials.
“Fox took a small flame and turned it into a forest fire,” the 441-page lawsuit reads. “As the dominant media company among those viewers dissatisfied with the election results, Fox gave these fictions a prominence they otherwise would never have achieved. With Fox’s global platform, an audience of hundreds of millions, and the inevitable and extensive republication and dissemination of the falsehoods through social media, these lies deeply damaged Dominion’s once-thriving business.”
A Fox spokesperson said in an email that “FOX News Media is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court.”
The suspect in the Boulder, Colo. grocery store shooting that left 10 people dead made his first appearance in court Thursday, in a brief hearing that called for a mental health assessment. Last night, hundreds of people gathered to mourn the victims and support those affected by the senseless gun violence.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, is facing 10 counts of murder in the first degree and one count of attempted murder over the horrific attack at a King Soopers supermarket. The victims include a police officer who responded to calls for help. The ages of those who died range from 20 to 65.
Alissa appeared in court alongside his attorney, Kathryn Herold of the Colorado Public Defender’s Office. Alissa wore a white face mask and what looked to be a purple hospital gown. Because of an injury to his leg, the suspected gunman was seated in a wheelchair.
“Our position is that we cannot do anything until we are able to fully assess Mr. Alissa’s mental illness,” Herold told the court as she requested a delay. She did not go into detail about what that illness might be.
Washington — A coalition of attorneys general from 21 states sued President Biden and members of his administration for rescinding the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, seeking to undo the president’s attempt to effectively nix the 1,200 mile-long pipeline.
Led by the attorneys general of Texas and Montana, the states argued in their complaint that the president exceeded his authority when he issued his executive order January 20 revoking permits for the oil pipeline. The order targeting Keystone was one of several executive actions Mr. Biden has taken since assuming the presidency that focus on the environment and addressing climate change.
“Revocation of the Keystone XL pipeline permit is a regulation of interstate and international commerce, which can only be accomplished as any other statute can: through the process of bicameralism and presentment,” the states argued in their complaint. “The president lacks the power to enact his ‘ambitious plan’ to reshape the economy in defiance of Congress’s unwillingness to do so.”
he murder trial of ex-cop Derek Chauvin in George Floyd’s death hit a new snag Wednesday when a Minneapolis judge was forced to dismiss two jurors who had already been seated in the high-profile case.
Hennepin District Judge Peter Cahill questioned the seven jurors who had been seated before news broke of a $27 million settlement of a civil wrongful death lawsuit filed by Floyd’s family — and determined that two of the panelists could no longer be impartial.
“It will impact it a lot,” one juror, identified as Juror 36, told Cahill on Wednesday morning.
“So, last time I was asked about my strong opinions about Chauvin,” he told the judge. “Clearly, the city of Minneapolis has some strong opinions as well. And this kind of confirms my opinions that I already had.”
The second juror, Juror 20, conceded that the amount of the settlement “shocked me” and “kind of swayed me a little.”
Only two of the seven said they had not heard of the settlement, and three others said they knew of it but it had not changed their opinion of the case.
“A Border Patrol facility is no place for a child,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will help shelter and transfer a record number of child migrants showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Homeland Security secretary said Saturday,
While the administration of President Joe Biden has avoided calling the situation a national emergency as former President Donald Trump declared in 2019 , it acknowledged a rising number of “encounters” at the border since April.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said FEMA would help children found at the border avoid being treated as detainees of Customs and Border Protection and move them more quickly into the care of the Department of Health and Human Services
Twenty Republican state attorneys general signed a letter denouncing the House Democrats’ controversial election reform bill as unconstitutional for a slew of reasons just hours before the measure was expected to be voted on.
The letter — led by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita — tore into H.R. 1, the “For the People Act,” a massive election reform bill and a leading priority for House Democrats this Congress.
“This monstrosity of a bill betrays the Constitution, dangerously federalizes state elections, and undermines the integrity of the ballot box,” Rokita said in a statement to Fox News. “As a former chief election officer, and now an Attorney General, I know this would be a disaster for election integrity and confidence in the processes that have been developed over time to instill confidence in the idea of ‘one person, one vote.’”
The attorneys general said the bill “betrays several Constitutional deficiencies and alarming mandates” that would “federalize” statewide elections across America and that “states have principal —and with presidential elections, exclusive — responsibility to safeguard” how they hold elections under the Constitution.
“The Act would invert that constitutional structure, commandeer state resources, confuse and muddle elections procedures, and erode faith in our elections and systems of governance,” they wrote.
They then warned lawmakers that they “may wish to consider the Act’s constitutional vulnerabilities as well as the policy critiques of state officials.”
HOMESTEAD, Pa. —Some Pittsburgh area residents are getting debit cards they didn’t ask for from banks they don’t belong to.Customers of Chase Bank are being told it could be an identity theft issue.
“The consumer should also fill out the bank’s ID theft form so that the bank removes the account from its records and shares the information with reporting agencies,” Chase Bank told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 in a statement.
Pittsburgh, West Mifflin and Upper St. Clair police have put out notices that they’ve gotten reports of unsolicited debit cards being opened in residents’ names.
Cindy McGovern lives in Clairton. Multiple people in her office also got cards.
“There have been at least 30 people in that bank today, OK? There are people from all, many of the municipalities, many of the Mon Valley people, many of them South Hills people,” McGovern said.
Upper St. Clair Police says, aside from Chase, they’ve gotten reports that people have received cards from MetaBank and Go2Bank.
Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 heard back from Go2Bank Wednesday evening. They said they send mailers with cards that are clearly labeled as advertisements and have not received direct reports of any issues. The company is investigating if they’ve been impacted.
MetaBank has not yet responded to a request for a statement.
Pittsburgh police says people are encouraged to contact the bank, the three main credit reporting agencies and your local police department.
The emerging drug contains two highly-potent highs, fentanyl and etizolam, and has been linked to a string of drug deaths in Canada.
Fatal overdoses are more likely to occur after using benzo dope because the life-saving opioid overdose reversal drug, naloxone, is not effective against benzos.
Benzo dope, also known as ‘purple heroin’, is most commonly dark purple, blue and orange, but it has been found to be other colours.
Drug forensic experts in British Columbia found that in October last year one in six (16 percent) of fentanyl deals were cut with benzodiazepines – a type of drug not usually found cut into opioids – compared to five per cent last January and zero before 2019.
The most common benzo identified in benzo dope was etizolam, a super potent benzo that is fuelling record drug death rates in Scotland.
Authorities in Canada were first alerted to benzo dope when health workers noticed a cluster of 30 “atypical” overdoses over two weeks in Vancouver in April 2019, where drug users were not responding to naloxone. A warning about the new drug combo was issued by Vancouver Coastal Health.
The combination of benzos and fentanyl causes prolonged loss of consciousness, profound respiratory depression and amnesia. In January, half of the 165 suspected illicit drug toxicity deaths in British Columbia – most of which involved fentanyl – also involved benzos, compared to only 15 percent in July last year. Last year was the deadliest year on record for overdoses in British Columbia, the epicentre of Canada’s drug death crisis.
CONNEAUT LAKE — A federal bankruptcy court judge has approved the sale of a century-old amusement park in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh-based U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Jeffrey Deller on Tuesday morning approved the sale of Conneaut Lake Park to Keldon Holdings LLC for a cash price of $1.2 million.
Texas power providers Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and Entergy Corporation have been hit with a $100 million lawsuit accusing them of gross negligence in the death of a child whose family suspects he suffered hypothermia when they lost electricity and heat in their mobile home during a historic cold snap.
The mother of 11-year-old Cristian Pineda filed the wrongful death lawsuit in Jefferson County District Court, alleging the utility giants “put profits over the welfare of people” by ignoring previous recommendations to winterize its power grid, which sustained an epic failure last week and left more than 4 million customers without heat and electricity as temperatures in some parts of the state plunged to single digits.
What was President Joe Biden doing as a senator that he now wants to keep secret?
Judicial Watch is trying to find that out.
We filed a notice of appeal with the Supreme Court of Delaware, asking for access to records about President Biden’s senatorial papers held by the University of Delaware.
These papers include more than 1,850 boxes of archival records from his senate career.
This appeal seeks a reversal of the opinion of the Superior Court of Delaware, which is blocking a state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
It comes in the lawsuit we filed with the Daily Caller News Foundation after a Delaware Attorney General’s opinion denied access to the records (Daily Caller News Foundation v. University of Delaware (No. N20A-07-001)).
The Delaware FOIA lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware on July 2, 2020.
Warnock worked with a group founded by Stacey Abrams that is now under investigation.
Warnock served as chairman of the board for the New Georgia Project in 2019, which is when election officials claim misconduct took place.
Under Georgia election rules, voting registration organizations like the New Georgia Project have to submit completed voter applications within ten days after they are received from the voter.
But officials allege that during a 2019 registration effort, some 1,268 applications were submitted to the Gwinnett County elections office after the ten-day deadline.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The Allegheny County Health Department ordered the Boston Market in Shadyside to close after it was deemed an imminent health hazard.
An inspector found standing water at the front cook line, employees were walking on cardboard to pass through areas and the restaurant was cited for sanitation and pest issues.
