Lawyers for Robert Bowers, the accused synagogue shooter said Thursday they are seeking a plea deal that will spare their client the death penalty.

At a routine conference, one of the lawyers, Judy Clarke, told U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose that the defense team is seeking a plea.

The move is not unexpected.

According to prosecutors the Justice Department is still reviewing the case for death penalty approval.

Mr. Bowers, who did not appear at the meeting, is accused of shooting 11 parishioners at Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill on Oct. 27. He is being charged with 63 total federal crimes – about a third of which carry the death penalty.

Another conference has been set by the judge for Aug. 5.

It’s “1-4-3 Day” today according to a declaration by PA Governor Tom Wolf.

As a code used by Mister Rogers, the numbers 1-4-3 stand for “I love you.”

Fred Rogers hosted the popular Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood from 1968 through 2001 and regularly used the code in his life and on his show. The Pennsylvania native died in Pittsburgh in 2003.

He often talked about kindness. In honor of his life, May 23 has been declared “1-4-3 Day.” It’s the 143rd day of the year.

Gov. Wolf said in a press release: “We know Pennsylvanians are grateful for and do good deeds for their neighbors every day. It’s one aspect that makes our commonwealth such a great place to live, work and to visit. 1-4-3 Day is a recognition and celebration of those collective efforts, and we hope it inspires even more acts of kindness.”

Thursday, May 23, marks the very first “1-4-3 Day” in Pennsylvania.

People are urged to use the hashtag, #143DayInPA, on social media.

CBS News announced that the 48 Hours episode titled: “Who Killed Rachael?” was the No. 1 prime-time broadcast program on Saturday, according to Nielsen ratings. The episode, about the murder or Aliquippa resident Rachael DelTondo, was watched by 3.09 million people.

DelTondo, 33, a former teacher at the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School in Midland, was shot and killed outside her parents’ home on May 13, 2018. The unsolved murder has captured national and international attention. The Beaver County District Attorney’s office has led a multiagency investigation but has yielded no suspects or arrests.

The Aliquippa Police Department did not comment for the episode which was the season finale of 48 Hours.

Butler, Pa

Story and photographs by Mark Peterson

CCBC held held a press conference yesterday to announce the fact that CCBC and Butler County Community College have now formed a partnership together with High Flight Academy, a private flight school based out of Butler. The Aviation Academy at both community colleges will allow the opportunity for students to take classes at the Butler County campus and airport as well as the Beaver County campus and airport…

Dr. Nicolas Neupauer, President of Butler County Community College and Dr. Roger Davis from Community College Of Beaver County were both present for the occasion…

Dr. Davis offered a comment on the new partnership:

Bob Feree, owner of High Flight Academy, accepted the officiated Federal Aviation Administration certification as part of 141 flight school from Wendy Grimm, a flight service representative from the FAA who was also one of the speakers…

Ike Kelly, manager of the Pittsburgh Butler Regional Airport and Alex Ola, a Mars area high school Junior currently enrolled in CCBC’s High School Aviation Academy, also spoke at the event held in hangar C-8 on this beautiful Wednesday Morning in Butler County.  Ola will now be able to take some of his classes at the Butler Airport and at Butler County Community College through High Flight Academy, now that the partnership with CCBC is in place. He previously had to drive to Beaver County for his classes and flight training work…

Kim Geyer, Butler County Commissioner, was on hand and offered her remarks…

Joyce Cirelli, Dean of High School Academies and Dual Enrollment at the Community College Of Beaver County, served as the master of ceremonies for Wednesday’s press conference…

Fabio Roberto, a director and teacher at High Flight Academy, talked about the types of programs that will now be offered…

Roberto also explained a little bit more about the differences between the high school aviation and college age student aviation academies, and how they will both be served at both campuses and at both airports;

A large crowd of media types, local officials, college educators and airport personnel attended the event, and all were given aviator style sun glasses and then posed for a picture to commemorate the occasion…

The press conference was held at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport .

The Latest: Pelosi says Trump ‘took a pass’
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Congress and investigations into President Donald Trump (all times local):
12:15 p.m.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump “took a pass” on working together with Democrats to address the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
Pelosi spoke at the Capitol after a brief meeting with Trump at the White House. After the meeting, Trump said he won’t work with Democrats as long as they are moving ahead with investigations of his administration.
Pelosi said congressional Democrats went to the White House “in a spirit of bipartisanship to find common ground” on infrastructure. She told reporters afterward: “For some reason, maybe it was lack of confidence on his part. … he just took a pass.”
She added that “In any event, I pray for the president of the United States.”
Hours earlier, Pelosi had told reporters that Trump is involved in a “cover-up.”
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12:05 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he won’t negotiate policy with congressional Democrats while they continue to investigate him.
In a hastily arranged appearance Wednesday in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said it’s impossible to negotiate on infrastructure or other issues while the inquiries continue.
Trump said, “You can’t do it.”
Trump complained about the investigations after a meeting with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer that was supposed to be about an infrastructure plan.
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11:50 a.m.
President Donald Trump is blasting Democratic leaders after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused him of engaging in a cover-up.
Trump on Wednesday made a surprise appearance in the Rose Garden after cutting short an infrastructure meeting with Democratic leaders.
He appeared behind a sign that listed the cost of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe and Trump’s slogans of “No Collusion” and “No Obstruction.”
Trump said, “I don’t do cover-ups” and declared that Democrats had to choose whether to investigate him or work together on the country’s priorities.
The president has long criticized the Mueller probe and the Democratic investigations.
Democrats are frustrated with the White House’s efforts to block their investigations and stymie their oversight responsibilities.
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10:35 a.m.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meeting with Democrats behind closed doors Wednesday, tamped down the push among some Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
She stressed the need for patience and pointed to legal battles that she said have already found success in forcing Trump to comply with investigations, according to a person familiar with her remarks.
Speaking to reporters later, Pelosi made it clear she’s not letting Trump off the hook. She said Trump is “engaged in a cover up.”
Some Democrats urging impeachment say the move would not necessarily be aimed at removing the president, but instead to bolster their position in court as they conduct their investigation.
Pelosi’s remarks to Democrats were described by a person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to discuss the private meeting.
—Lisa Mascaro
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8:10 a.m.
The chairman of the House intelligence committee has postponed a meeting to enforce a subpoena against the Justice Department after the department agreed to hand over a cache of documents related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
California Rep. Adam Schiff said the department “will begin turning over to the committee twelve categories of counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials as part of an initial rolling production.”
On Tuesday, the department offered to provide documents if the committee agreed not to enforce the subpoena. Schiff had said the panel would take “enforcement action” but had not specified if that would be contempt of Congress or some other sort of action.
The agreement is a rare detente in escalating tensions between Congress and President Donald Trump’s administration over oversight matters.
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12:15 a.m.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is feeling the heat from a small but growing number of House Democrats calling for impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
Trump’s latest defiance of congressional investigation of his administration and his own actions came Tuesday when he ordered his former counsel, Don McGahn, to refuse to appear at a House hearing despite a subpoena.
Pelosi has taken a methodical approach to the idea of impeachment and is calling a meeting on Wednesday to discuss strategy.
Some Democratic leaders are backing Pelosi but signaling that a march to impeachment may at some point become inevitable.
The Democratic majority leader, Maryland’s Steny Hoyer, says lawmakers might be confronting the largest cover-up in American history and that if a House inquiry leads to impeachment, “so be it.”

3 minutes: Trump meeting with Democrats goes bust in a flash
By JONATHAN LEMIRE and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The curtains in the Cabinet Room were drawn. The Democrats were waiting. And President Donald Trump came and went in three minutes, never stopping to sit down or shake hands.
Trump’s angry walkout on Wednesday left behind a shattered bipartisan infrastructure effort and an escalation of tension between the president and the congressional Democrats investigating him. He barked at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for earlier suggesting he was involved in a “cover-up” and headed to the Rose Garden for an impromptu news conference in which he declared that he would not work with Democrats if they continue with their probes.
“I don’t do cover-ups,” Trump said. “You can’t do it under these circumstances. So get these phony investigations over with.”
Trump’s anger had been building well before he stepped into the Cabinet Room for a follow-up meeting with Democrats about an infrastructure deal that both parties already suspected was on life support.
Long upset by the wave of Democratic investigations into his administration, Trump was incensed by reports Tuesday that some of his closest former aides, including ex-communications director Hope Hicks, for whom the president has long had a soft spot, were being subpoenaed to testify, according to three White House officials and Republicans close to the West Wing. The three spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.
The president reached a boiling point just a few hours before the meeting when he saw media coverage of Pelosi’s remark. She told reporters after a private meeting with House Democrats that Trump was “engaged in a cover-up” even as she tried to temper impeachment talk in her own party. Trump told aides that he would refuse to work with Democrats and, over some advisers’ objections, called for the Rose Garden news conference.
After the president left the Cabinet Room, Pelosi looked across the table at Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and others around the room and described how Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt brought people to the White House to solve infrastructure problems, but this president chose to walk out. The speaker added that she was not surprised Trump bailed, according to three people with knowledge of the exchange who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private moment.
Senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway then whirled to Pelosi and asked if she had “a direct response to the president.” Pelosi replied: “I’m responding to the president, not staff.”
Moments later, as the room emptied, Conway, miffed that Pelosi chose not to respond directly to her, turned to the speaker and said: “Really great, that’s really pro-woman of you.”
White House reporters were summoned for an unscheduled news conference in the Rose Garden, photographers jockeying for position in the moments before the president appeared. A printed sign that read “No Collusion” and “No Obstruction” was hastily posted on the president’s lectern. And Trump held up a printed version of an ABC News graphic depicting the cost and breadth of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, but notably did not highlight its second page — the one that listed the number of indictments Mueller produced.
Speaking at the Capitol a short time later, Pelosi again needled the president by invoking how Trump could not measure up to previous presidents.
“He just took a pass,” Pelosi said. “And it just makes me wonder why he did that. In any event, I pray for the president of the United States and I pray for the United States of America.”
Prospects for the meeting’s success were never high: Neither side wanted to unveil its plan to pay for the ambitious program while the term “Infrastructure Week” drew snickers from White House aides and reporters alike who recalled how other efforts at the initiative inevitably were overshadowed by chaos.
That happened again Wednesday, and as Washington reeled from the Rose Garden spectacle, Trump turned to Twitter to make his sarcastic retort: “Nancy, thank you so much for your prayers, I know you truly mean it!”
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
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Lemire reported from New York. Reach Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire and Freking at http://www.twitter.com/APkfreking

WEATHER FORECAST FOR THURSDAY,
MAY 23RD, 2019

TODAY

Scattered strong thunderstorms. Damaging winds and large hail with some storms. High 81F. Chance of rain 60%.

TONIGHT

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 54F.

FRI

Sunshine and some clouds. High 74F.

SAT

Cloudy early. Scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High 84F. Low of 65F.

SUN

Scattered thunderstorms. High 81F. Low 59F.