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.
___
Klepper reported from Albany, New York. Seitz, a member of the AP’s Fact Check team, reported from Chicago.

Norway: Alleged mosque gunman suspect in stepsister’s death
MOSCOW (AP) — A shooting at a mosque in Norway is being investigated as an attempted terrorist attack and the alleged gunman also is a suspect in his younger stepsister’s slaying, police in the Norwegian capital said Sunday.
A man in his 20s was taken into custody after the shooting inside the Al-Noor Islamic Center that wounded one person, Oslo police said. Investigators so far think no one else was involved in Saturday’s violence at the mosque, located in the Oslo suburb of Baerum.
When officers went to the shooting suspect’s residence, they found the body of his 17-year-old stepsister, police said Sunday evening. The alleged mosque gunman was being investigated in her death, police said.
The Oslo Police department said forensic work at the mosque “confirms that several shots were fired, but the number of shots and the type of weapons are not yet established.”
The department said it was working with the Norwegian Police Security Service, Norway’s national domestic security agency, since the “investigation has given us a better overall understanding of the attack” at the mosque.
“The fact that the aggressor entered a mosque armed and from the investigation so far has been found to have expressed hostile attitudes against immigrants has led the police to investigate this attack as an attempted act of terrorism,” the police department said in a statement.
Oslo Deputy Police Inspector Rune Skjold said during a news conference Sunday that mosque shooting was being treated as an attempted terror attack in part because the investigation uncovered evidence of the man’s “right-wing extremist views” and alleged animosity toward immigrants.
“Because of that, in relation to what he’s done, it’s clear that what he did has caused fear among the public, Skjold said. “And based on the views he’s expressed online, it means we can safely say we are investigating an attempted act of terrorism.”
Police said the suspect refused to answer questions and investigators plan to interview neighbors for information about his stepsister and her death.
Skjold said the alleged gunman was prepared to cause deaths and more injuries at the Al-Noor Islamic Center and didn’t succeed because of the “great courage” of people inside the mosque.
“There is no doubt that the swift and firm response from the persons inside the mosque stopped the aggressor and prevented further consequences,” Skjold said. “Trying to neutralize an armed person is always dangerous.”

The Martin Luther King Celebration Committee will be hosting a community day on August 10, 2019, from 12-8 pm. Beaver County Radio News Intern, Christina Sainovich, has the story.