PITTSBURGH — Pennsylvania State Police Liquor Control Enforcement agents raided a Strip District restaurant on Friday, saying the location was illegally selling alcohol without a liquor license.
The search warrant was executed on Savoy Sports Bar, on Penn Avenue in the Strip District after numerous complaints that the location was operating without a valid liquor license.
Undercover agents confirmed those illegal liquor sales, police said, and approximately 12.2 gallons of malt or brewed beverages and about 277 liters of liquor were seized. A state trooper and a liquor enforcement officer entered the club undercover and were told by a bartender that their $20 cover charge covered their drinks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House briefing room on Monday might have been a fire marshal’s nightmare.
For the first time in 449 days, reporters could cram into every seat for the daily briefing. Coronavirus restrictions had kept one of the most recognized rooms in the U.S. government almost empty. But mass vaccinations allowed reporters to first doff their masks on May 13 and then nearly a month later to gather in a pack of raised hands, shouting, hard-eyed stares and the occasional grimace.
“Hope everyone’s cozy,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at she stepped to the lectern.
Forty-nine journalists sat elbow-to-elbow in blue seats, while others stood on the edges. The loudspeaker before the briefing told reporters not to block the aisle, but no one budged.
The briefing marked something of a surreal return to business as usual for Joe Biden’s presidency. The president had vowed to overcome the pandemic, and one of the consequences of any success on that front inevitably was going be more questions from more reporters. Monday was proof of that as the hourlong briefing ran to roughly 58 sets of questions.
Washington (CNN)US investigators have recovered millions in cryptocurrency they say was paid in ransom to hackers whose attack prompted the shutdown of the key East Coast pipeline last month, the Justice Department announced Monday.
The announcement confirms CNN’s earlier reporting about the FBI-led operation, which was carried out with cooperation from Colonial Pipeline, the company that fell victim to the ransomware attack in question.
Specifically, the Justice Department said it seized approximately $2.3 million in Bitcoins paid to individuals in a criminal hacking group known as DarkSide. The FBI said it has been investigating DarkSide, which is said to share its malware tools with other criminal hackers, for over a year.
The ransom recovery, which is the first seizure undertaken by the recently created DOJ digital extortion taskforce, is a rare outcome for a company that has fallen victim to a debilitating cyberattack in the booming criminal business of ransomware.
Colonial Pipeline Co. CEO Joseph Blount told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published last month that the company complied with the $4.4 million ransom demand because officials didn’t know the extent of the intrusion by hackers and how long it would take to restore operations.
A total of 84 fish products are part of a voluntary recall issued by their manufacturer, Banner Smoked Fish, Inc. of Brooklyn, NY, including smoked fish, pickled fish, fish in cream sauce, and fish salads. The items were sold online and in retailers located in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Nebraska, Arizona, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Nevada, Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
A home in Albanyexploded Friday night and killed two occupants, while the cause remains unknown, authorities say.
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple confirmed on Twitter Saturday that a home in Berne had exploded around 8:30 p.m. Friday. Some reports claimed that the explosion was felt miles away.
Firefighters arrived to find the home in flames. Rescue efforts lasted for hours as multiple departments worked to extinguish the fire.
One of the occupants, later identified as Victor Porlier, 83, was found dead some distance from the home, authorities said. First responders believed the explosion ejected Porlier.
The Department of Justice said it will not seek information identifying the readers of a USA TODAY story from earlier this year, according to a Friday court filing, but only after the FBI captured the alleged criminal it was seeking through other means.
Gannett, which publishes USA TODAY, filed a motion to quash the subpoena, initially issued in April, last week. It was resisting an effort by the FBI to obtain the IP addresses of people who read a story about a shooting of two FBI agents on Feb. 2. The subpoena sought only information on who read the story during a 30-minute time period later that night.
“A government demand for records that would identify specific individuals who read specific expressive materials … invades the First Amendment rights of both publisher and reader, and must be quashed accordingly,” Gannett’s lawyers wrote in a May 28 filing.
USA TODAY Publisher Maribel Perez Wadsworth also slammed the FBI for the effort.
STEUBENVILLE, OH—-One person flown to the hospital after a shooting in the 2600 block of Sunset Boulevard around 10 o’clock Saturday morning.
Steubenville Police say what led up the shooting is under investigation. They are unsure if the victim was shot by someone or if they accidentally shot themselves.
Police are receiving conflicting statements about what happened.
Hundreds of firefighters are working to make sure a massive fire doesn’t spread to more businesses near downtown Phoenix.
PHOENIX – Phoenix fire officials say a sixth alarm fire at a recycling yard near 35th Avenue and Buckeye prompted the largest response in the department’s history on June 5.
“I can’t remember the last time we had a sixth alarm,” said Phoenix Fire Captain Todd Keller. “We’ve had a couple two, three alarms in the last couple of months, but this is a big one.”
The fire was originally a first alarm early Saturday afternoon, but it quickly escalated. According to Phoenix Fire officials, the fire started at around 12:30 p.m.
By the time firefighters arrived, Officials say they found multiple pallets of cardboard and paper on fire.
“Went out to get the mail and we just pretty much saw, like, a cloud of smoke,” said Cindy Ramirez.
“I could see it from miles away out my window, and I’m like ‘I better go check that out,’” said Jason Feder.
Residents say that the smoke can be seen from as far as Mesa and Ahwatukee. Meanwhile, fire officials say 150 residential and commercial customers were without power for about 10 hours. The smoke plume from the fire was so large, it even showed up on National Weather Service radar.
At one point, fire officials say the fire jumped 35th Avenue, causing multiple cars at a small junk yard to catch fire.
Phoenix Fire officials say 35th Avenue will be closed until further notice from Buckeye to Van Buren. Officials also say over 200 firefighters and 10 different agencies were involved in firefighting efforts. One of the firefighters suffered a leg injury, and is now in the hospital in stable condition.
Besides the massive blaze, firefighters also had to deal with 108°F temperatures.
“We have to layer our resources. we keep upgrading assignments so we can recycle our crews. Our firefighters train for situations like this. This is not their first time in the summer,” said Cpt. Keller.
Fire officials say multiple businesses adjacent to the recycling yard were lost, including a recycling center, a lumbar company, and a tire shop.
By 7:12 p.m. on Saturday, Phoenix Fire officials say crews will remain on scene throughout the night to extinguish remaining hotspots.
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.
A rainbow-colored sea of humanity flooded parts of Downtown Pittsburgh as hundreds upon hundreds of people from nearby states joined in the Pittsburgh Pride Revolution March on Saturday afternoon.
Participants made their way from the City-County Building along Grant Street, down Sixth and Seventh avenues and across the Andy Warhol Bridge to East Commons and Allegheny Center with intermittent chants of “Gay Pride” and “Taste the Rainbow.”
A sinking cargo ship off the coast of Sri Lanka is causing an environmental disaster for the country that looks set to have long-term effects.
The X-Press Pearl caught fire on May 20 and burned for two weeks, but the fire appears to have mostly burned out. The crew was evacuated. The ship is now partially sitting on the seabed with its front settling down slowly.
Its cargo is the concern: The ship was carrying dangerous chemicals, including 25 tons of nitric acid and 350 tons of fuel oil. The ship’s operator says oil has not spilled so far. But what’s already having an impact on beaches nearby are the 78 metric tons of plastic called nurdles — the raw material used to make most types of plastic products.
Wave after wave of plastic pellets are washing ashore. The ship is about 5 miles from the nearest beach.
(CNN)A Florida man faces aggravated child abuse and other charges after hurling his infant at a deputy near the end of a high-speed chase, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said.
The 32-year-old suspect is seen being tackled by law enforcement as a deputy cradles a baby in a sky-blue outfit, according to video released this week by the sheriff’s office.
Deputy Jacob Curby told CNN affiliate WPEC the suspect — who law enforcement identified as John Henry James III — left his car carrying his baby after the pursuit the evening of May 26 and “just turned around, no regard, not a little toss” and “overhand threw this two-month-old at me from about six feet away.”
Curby caught thebaby, who was unhurt, the station reported. The sheriff’s office said deputies were “able to relocate the baby to safety.”
Security analysts from the University of Minnesota warned the U.S. Agriculture Department in late May about a growing danger — a cyber crime known as ransomware that could wreak more havoc on Americans’ food sources than Covid-19 did.
A week and a half later, the prediction became reality as a ransomware attack forced the shutdown of meat plants that process more than a fifth of the nation’s beef supply in the latest demonstration of hackers’ ability to interrupt a critical piece of the U.S. economy.
The hack of the global meatpacking giant JBS last weekend is also the starkest example yet of the food system’s vulnerability to digital threats, especially as internet technology and automation gain an increasing role across farmlands and slaughterhouses. But federal oversight of the industry’s cybersecurity practices remains light, despite years of warnings that an attack could bring consequences ranging from higher grocery prices to contaminated food.
LONDON (AP) — The Group of Seven wealthy democracies agreed Saturday to support a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15% in order to deter multinational companies from avoiding taxes by stashing profits in low-rate countries.
G-7 finance ministers meeting in London also endorsed proposals to make the world’s biggest companies — including U.S. based tech giants — pay tax in countries where they have lots of sales but no physical headquarters.
Britain’s Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, the meeting’s host, said the deal would “reform the global tax system to make it fit for the global digital age and crucially to make sure that it’s fair, so that the right companies pay the right tax in the right places.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who attended the London meetings, said the agreement “provides tremendous momentum” towards reaching a global deal that “would end the race-to-the-bottom in corporate taxation, and ensure fairness for the middle class and working people in the U.S. and around the world.”
The meeting of finance ministers came ahead of an annual summit of G-7 leaders scheduled for June 11-13 in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. The U.K. is hosting both sets of meetings because it holds the group’s rotating presidency.
A Delta Airlines flight to Tennessee was forced to land in New Mexico on Friday after an unhinged passenger reportedly tried to break into the cockpit.
The plane from Los Angeles was diverted to Albuquerque, where it landed at around 2:20 p.m., according to local station KOAT-TV.
The suspect was taken in to custody and the aircraft then continued on to Nashville, according to the report. No one was injured.
“The passenger was not successful. The plane landed safely and the passenger was removed by police and the FBI. He is in custody now,” Delta said in a statement to the station.
A woman named Jessica Robertson tweeted more than two minutes worth of footage of the hogtied suspect being restrained at the front of the plane.
The man can be heard crying out “you gotta stop this plane” at least 25 times in a row and with increasing urgency — as three men near the cockpit hold him down on the floor.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology was awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars more in federal grant money than chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci indicated to lawmakers last week, newly released emails show.
The messages, obtained by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, show that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) allocated $826,277 to the lab over a six-year period ending in 2019 via the New York City-based non-profit EcoHealth Alliance.
But Fauci, the longtime NIAID director, told a House Appropriations subcommittee on May 25 that the funding commitment “was about $600,000 over a period of five years, so it was a modest amount.”
US funding of the lab has come under scrutiny amid the ongoing controversy over whether the coronavirus leaked from the research hub into the 11 million-strong city of Wuhan, triggering the worst global pandemic in a century.
Two San Diego police officers were among three people killed Friday after their car was struck by a driver going the wrong way on an interstate highway, authorities said.
The officers were in a blue city-owned Ford Fusion sedan when they were hit by a white Honda Civic going at a high rate of speed in the wrong way down Interstate 5 near the U.S.-Mexico border south of downtown San Diego, California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Bettencourt told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The female driver of the Civic was also killed after her car slammed into the officers’ sedan and burst into flames.
The officers were identified as a married couple, Detective Ryan Park, 32, and his wife, Detective Jamie Huntley-Park, 33.
“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.”
Here’s a look at things that have happened on this date in history.
On this date:
In 1794, Congress passed the Neutrality Act, which prohibited Americans from taking part in any military action against a country that was at peace with the United States.
In 1917, about 10 million American men between the ages of 21 and 31 began registering for the draft in World War I.
In 1933, the United States went off the gold standard.
In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined an aid program for Europe that came to be known as The Marshall Plan.
In 1950, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Henderson v. United States, struck down racially segregated railroad dining cars.
In 1963, Britain’s Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigned after acknowledging an affair with call girl Christine Keeler, who was also involved with a Soviet spy, and lying to Parliament about it.
In 1967, war erupted in the Middle East as Israel, anticipating a possible attack by its Arab neighbors, launched a series of pre-emptive airfield strikes that destroyed nearly the entire Egyptian air force; Syria, Jordan and Iraq immediately entered the conflict.
This year’s models were based on World War II planes, in keeping with the “Tora, Tora, Tora” Pearl Harbor simulation.
Both the club and the supermarket have ground-based displays at the air show. The club showcases a variety of its members’ model aircraft. Shop ‘n Save’s exhibit includes NASCAR race cars, dragsters and a vehicle billed as the world’s largest and fastest grocery cart — with a 360 horsepower motor and a capacity of 160 bags of groceries.
Shop ‘n Save makes a donation to the Feherty’s Troops First Foundation, which helps service members who were wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff at 724-836-6622, jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Jill Biden has become the first sitting first lady in modern US history to reach her 70th birthday.
The Bidens celebrated the event on Thursday by going to their beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware, which they bought in 2017. It’s their first visit to the house since Joe Biden became president.
The first lady was born on 3 June 1951, around eight and a half years after Joe Biden, 78, was born on 20 November 1942. They married in 1977.
How old were other first ladies?
Jill Biden was the oldest first lady to enter the office in January at 69 years old. Bess Truman, Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush were all 67 as their husbands left the office. Anna Harrison, wife of William Henry Harrison, was the second oldest first lady to enter the office at 65, only lasting a month between March and April 1841 before her husband passed away. Mr Harrison became the first president to die in office and remains the most short-lived president, dying on the 32nd day of his tenure.
A suspected psychedelic mushroom grow operation was discovered in a Rostraver home Thursday while police said they were investigating threats made by the property owner, according to court papers.
Authorities arrested Michael Jonathan McClain, 45, who is being held without bond at the Westmoreland County Prison.
A highly anticipated government report sheds little light on the mystery, finding no evidence of extraterrestrial activity but not ruling it out either, according to two U.S. officials.
The report also does not rule out the possibility that the flying objects seen by U.S. military planes are highly advanced aircraft developed by other nations, the officials said. Further deepening the mystery, the report says the objects also do not appear to be evidence of secret U.S. technology but it doesn’t definitively rule that out either.
One of the officials said the report suggests the videos do not appear to show any known U.S. assets.
Online pharmacy and lab Valisure found benzene in 78 of nearly 300 sprays and lotions tested — about 27% — including products sold by Banana Boat and CVS.
Traces of a chemical tied to blood cancers including leukemia have been detected in dozens of popular sunscreens and after-sun products, according to tests conducted by online pharmacy and lab Valisure.
Benzene, a known carcinogen, was found in 78 of nearly 300 sprays and lotions tested — about 27% — including products sold by Banana Boat and CVS, according to Valisure.
In a petition, the company has asked the FDA to recall these contaminated batches. The regulating body is reviewing the claim.
