DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — People who gathered at the scene of the Dayton mass shooting observed a moment of silence Sunday in tribute to the victims.

Nine people were killed in the Aug. 4 attack that injured more than 30 people in the city’s historic Oregon District. Investigators say Connor Betts, 24, opened fire with an AR-15 style gun outside the district’s businesses. He was killed by police within less than 30 minutes.

The moment of silence in tribute to the victims was observed at 1:05 a.m. Sunday at Ned Peppers Bar in the popular entertainment district, the Dayton Daily News reported . The song “We Are Family” then played over loudspeakers.

Many people from out of town visited the district over the weekend, with testaments to the tragedy visible throughout the area, the newspaper reported. Women on the sidewalk were dispensing free hugs, and signs calling for solidarity and strength could be seen on nearly every business.

One sign read: “We don’t heal in isolation, but in community.” The phrase was accompanied by the date of the shooting.

Ty Sullivan came from Columbus with her family. She said she “felt a need to be in this area.”

Jamie Rippey said she was with friends in the Oregon District a couple hours before the shooting, and came out this weekend “because I was so afraid after this happened.”

“When that happened I thought, ‘Oh my God, will I be able to come back down here?’ I just didn’t want to be so afraid of doing something I’ve always done, just to live,” she said.

The police presence was noticeably heavier than usual. Dayton police Maj. Wendy Stiver had said the department was expecting larger crowds, and police would be there to “make them safe.”

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio-based energy company says it’s closing its last coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania nearly two years earlier than expected.

FirstEnergy Solutions said Friday that its plant in Shippingport will be idled Nov. 7. The company had previously said the Bruce Mansfield plant would be shut down in June 2021.

FirstEnergy, which is going through bankruptcy reorganization, blamed “a lack of economic viability in current market conditions.”

The company has said it can’t compete in regional wholesale markets as coal and nuclear lose out to cheaper energy sources such as natural gas and renewables. FirstEnergy announced last year that it would shut down the Pennsylvania plant and its last three coal-fired plants in Ohio.

President Donald Trump has vowed to take steps to prevent struggling coal-fired and nuclear power plants from closing.

The Ellwood City Area School Board rejected a funding request for the district’s boys and girls soccer club last week in a divided 4-4 vote Thursday. The request made is to provide a total of no more than $4,300 to the soccer club to help cover transportation and referee costs.

Danielle Woodhead, who heads the Athletics, Facilities and Community Committee, said the club signed an agreement on how it would be funded when it formed and any changes have to be approved by district Athletic Director Curt Agostinelli.

Board member Barb Wilson responded that she has been trying to get the issue settled for six months, but it kept getting delayed. She said the club starts playing games this week.

With Thursday’s motion not passing, a special meeting is being scheduled with Agostinelli to determine what funding he believes should be released to the club, and then the matter can return to the board, possibly next month.

NEW YORK (AP) — France’s government wants prosecutors to open an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s links to France following his death in a Manhattan jail cell. The secretaries of state for women’s rights and protecting children said in a statement Monday that it is “fundamental” to launch an investigation in France so that his death “doesn’t deprive the victims of the justice they deserve” and to protect other girls from “this kind of predator.”

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Fire officials say the five victims who died in a day care center blaze in Erie, Pennsylvania, ranged in ages 8 months to 7 years. And at least four of the children were staying overnight at the residential house that had been turned into the day care center. Erie fire officials tell the Erie Times-News that flames were shooting out of every first-floor window when firefighters arrived early Sunday. One woman at the scene told the paper she was the grandmother of four of the victims.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man charged with killing 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue last year has a court hearing Monday. Authorities say Robert Bowers opened fire with an AR-15 rifle and other weapons during worship services inside Tree of Life synagogue, killing 8 men and 3 women before police shot and wounded him. Federal prosecutors and the defense will be in court to review the progress of the case. Prosecutors have not made a final decision on whether to seek the death penalty.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Darryl Drake, the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers coach who spent more than 30 years molding players at the position at the college and professional level, has died. He was 62.

The team said Drake, who joined the coaching staff in 2018, died early Sunday morning.

“Darryl had such an impact on the players he coached and everyone he worked with throughout his entire career,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said. “He was a passionate coach and had a tremendous spirit toward life, his family, his faith and the game of football.”

Drake, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, played collegiately at Western Kentucky. He spent one season in the Canadian Football League and participated in a pair of NFL training camps before returning to Western Kentucky to pursue a master’s degree. He went into coaching as a graduate assistant at Western Kentucky in 1983, the beginning of a career that included stops in the college ranks at Georgia, Baylor and Texas.

“He had a tremendous impact on those who he coached and those who were fortunate to call him a teammate,” WKU athletic director Todd Stewart said. “WKU Football was better because of our association with him.

Drake reached the NFL as a receivers coach in 2004 with the Chicago Bears. He moved on to the same position with the Arizona Cardinals in 2013 before joining Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin’s staff in 2018. Drake’s pupils through the years include Cardinals star Larry Fitzgerald, longtime NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall and Antonio Brown, who played for Drake in 2018 before being traded to Oakland last spring.

“I’m heartbroken for anyone who had the privilege to know Darryl,” Fitzgerald tweeted. “As a man, a coach, a husband, and a father, he was as good as they come.”

The Steelers brought in Drake last summer to work with a young receiving corps that included JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Washington.

“Darryl was a close friend and had a tremendous impact on my coaching career,” Tomlin said. “He was an amazing husband, father and grandfather, and it is difficult to put into words the grief our entire team is going through right now. Darryl loved the game of football and every player he ever coached. We will use our faith to guide us and help his family throughout the difficult time.”

Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens, who coached alongside Drake in Arizona, called Drake “a really good coach and an even better friend.”

“The NFL coaching community lost a really good person that always took a great personal interest in the lives of the players he coached and the staff he worked with,” Kitchens added.

Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen, who played under Drake in Chicago, tweeted that Drake “had a huge impact on me as a young player. His players loved him.”

Drake is survived by his wife, Sheila, daughters Shanice, Felisha and Marian as well as two grandchildren.

Pittsburgh cancelled practices at Saint Vincent College on both Sunday and Monday after announcing Drake’s death.

A reminder that beginning tomorrow the Koppel Bridge will close and remain closed for the next 72 days. PennDot announcing that motorists traveling between Koppel and North Sewickley will be required to take a lengthy detour. According to PennDOT the bridge is estimated reopen Oct. 24. The closure will allow crews to connect a roadway to the new bridge and is expected to begin just after midnight on Tuesday.

TODAY: PARTLY CLOUDY – HIGH 86

TONIGHT: SOME SHOWERS LATE – LOW 67

TOMORROW: THUNDERSTORMS – MOSTLY IN THE AFTERNOON – HIGH 78

Epstein suicide sparks fresh round of conspiracy theories
By DAVID KLEPPER and AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press
Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide Saturday morning in a federal jail launched new conspiracy theories online in a saga that has provided fodder for them for years, fueled by Epstein’s ties to princes, politicians and other famous and powerful people.
Online theorists Saturday quickly offered unsubstantiated speculation — including some retweeted by President Donald Trump — that Epstein’s death wasn’t a suicide, or it was faked.
That chatter picked up on the conjecture that resurged after Epstein’s July 6 arrest on allegations that he orchestrated a sex-trafficking ring designed to bring him teenage girls. Some of his accusers have described being sexually abused by the wealthy financier’s friends and acquaintances.
The combination created fertile ground for theories and misinformation to breed on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Epstein, 66, had been denied bail and faced up to 45 years behind bars on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges unsealed last month. He had pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial next year.
His relationships with President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew were at the center of those online rumors and theories, many of which question what politicians knew about Epstein’s alleged sex crimes.
Others theories, however, have been easily debunked.
For example, days after his arrest online memes and Facebook statuses wrongly claimed the Obama administration, in order to protect former President Clinton, forged a once-secret deal in 2008 in Florida that allowed him to plead guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution to avoid more serious charges. The deal was actually executed before President Barack Obama took office , under former President George W. Bush.
Meanwhile, a manipulated photo , shared by thousands on Twitter and Facebook, falsely claimed to show Epstein with Trump and a young Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter.
Both Clinton and Trump have denied being privy to Epstein’s alleged scheme.
Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña said the former president “knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York.” He said that, in 2002 and 2003, Clinton took four trips on Epstein’s plane with multiple stops and that staff and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg.
Trump has acknowledged knowing Epstein but said he “had a falling out with him a long time ago.”
Other Epstein theories floating online have been darker, especially after Epstein was found injured on the floor of his cell last month with bruises on his neck. Some online commentators described it as a “murder attempt.”
“Men in high places want Epstein dead,” one Twitter use wrote.
Hours after Epstein’s death Saturday, as the hashtag #EpsteinMurder was trending worldwide on Twitter, the president joined Twitter speculation around Epstein’s death while under the federal government’s watch.
Trump, who rose to conservative prominence by falsely claiming Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., retweeted unsubstantiated claims about Epstein’s death.
When asked on “Fox News Sunday” about the president’s retweet, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said, “I think the president just wants everything to be investigated.”
She also said “it’s not for me to go further than where the DOJ and FBI are right now,” though that’s what Trump appeared to be doing in his retweet.
Other politicians also took to social media to question the circumstances.
Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the state where some of Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse crimes took place, suggested the possibility that others might have been involved in Epstein’s death when he called on corrections officials to explain what happened at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
“The Federal Bureau of Prisons must provide answers on what systemic failures of the MCC Manhattan or criminal acts allowed this coward to deny justice to his victims,” he tweeted.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now an attorney for Trump, tweeted out several questions about Epstein’s death.
“Who was watching? What does camera show? … Follow the motives” Giuliani tweeted Saturday afternoon.
The FBI and the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General will investigate the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death, Attorney General William Barr said.
“Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered,” Barr said in a news release.
Epstein’s suicide was likely recorded by jail cameras, according to Preet Bharara, the former federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
“One hopes it is complete, conclusive, and secured,” he tweeted.
Epstein’s arrest last month launched separate investigations into how authorities handled his case initially when similar charges were first brought against him in Florida more than a decade ago. U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned last month after coming under fire for overseeing that deal when he was U.S. attorney in Miami.
Epstein’s lawyers maintained that the new charges in New York were covered by the 2008 plea deal and that Epstein hadn’t had any illicit contact with underage girls since serving his 13-month sentence in Florida.
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Klepper reported from Albany, New York. Seitz, a member of the AP’s Fact Check team, reported from Chicago.