PITTSBURGH (AP) — A steady stream of people have been stopping by the closed Pittsburgh synagogue that one year ago was the scene of the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. Lining the fence outside the Tree of Life synagogue stand 11 flowerpots, each bearing one of the names of a person killed in the attack, which also wounded seven others. People have also been piling bouquets and crocheted hearts and hanging signs on the fence.

WEATHER FORECAST FOR MONDAY, OCTOBER 28TH, 2019

TODAY – PARTLY SUNNY. HIGH – 64.

TONIGHT – MOSTLY CLEAR. LOW – 49.

TUESDAY – INTERVALS OF CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE.
HIGH NEAR 70.

‘Just too darn old:’ Sanders, Biden confront age concerns
By STEVE PEOPLES and ALEXANDRA JAFFE Associated Press
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — Bernie Sanders insists he feels better than ever less than a month after heart surgery, but his return to the campaign trail this week sparked new questions about the unusually old age of the Democratic Party’s leading 2020 presidential candidates.
Both Sanders, 78, and Joe Biden, 76, suggest their age isn’t a major issue, but voters, particularly older voters, aren’t so sure.
Gordon Lundberg, a 71-year-old retired Lutheran pastor from Ames, said candidates’ health is a key issue for him because he understands how it feels to age. He’s leaning toward Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts because, even though she’s 70, “she’s the most liberal and she’s not got one foot in the grave yet.”
“Bernie’s just too darn old. And so is Biden,” Lundberg said. “They look old, they sound old, they are old. They fall in the shower, and they get heart attacks!”
Lundberg is not alone.
Polling has suggested that a significant number of Americans believe a candidate in his or her late 70s is too old to be president. If elected, Sanders would take office having already exceeded the average U.S. life expectancy of 78.6 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Biden would be just a few months away.
Warren would be the oldest new president in history, eclipsing Trump, who himself eclipsed Ronald Reagan. Biden and Sanders would be older on their first day in office than Reagan, a two-term president, was on his last.
While Biden, the former vice president, has often laughed off questions about his age, the issue is one that Sanders has been forced to confront more directly as he returned to Iowa this week. Sanders, a senator from Vermont, is traveling with his wife and campaign manager, whose responsibilities include ensuring that he take modest precautions not to over-exert himself, takes daily walks of at least half an hour with no phone calls and sticks to a healthier diet.
“He wants to run,” said campaign manager Faiz Shakir, who said he would likely accompany Sanders on the campaign trail for the next month. “Our job is to make sure he knows he’s in a marathon, not a sprint.”
Sanders opened up about his health during an interview at a coffee shop in Des Moines, one of several he conducted this week as he works to convince voters in the first states on the 2020 presidential primary calendar that he’s physically able to beat President Donald Trump next fall and assume the demands of the presidency.
Sanders told The Associated Press that he was looking forward to “a 100 percent recovery — full recovery.”
“Now I got three good arteries,” he said. “And three good arteries are better than two good arteries. So, I’m feeling pretty good.”
At a subsequent campaign appearance in Marshalltown, he confronted the age question directly without being asked.
“I’ve been criticized for being old. I plead guilty. I am old,” Sanders said, sparking laughter and applause in the audience.
And at a Friday event in Newton, Iowa, he insisted that his advanced age offered some advantages. Specifically, people have had decades to study him and his policies. He has supported Medicare for All, for example, for three decades.
“Having a long record gives people the understanding that these ideas that I’m talking about, they’re in my guts, they’re in my heart,” he charged. “This is who I am as a human being.”
Many in the audience applauded the message. But after the Marshalltown event, not everyone was cheering.
Retired Marshalltown resident Ed Canade, 72, described himself as “somewhat concerned” about Sanders’ age.
“I know as I age, everything isn’t quite as sharp. That’s the reality of age. I can feel it in my own body,” Canade said. “I think Bernie’s doing well for his age.”
Meanwhile, Biden called his age “a legitimate question” in an interview days after entering the presidential race in April and said it’s up to voters to “watch me” and decide for themselves.
Since then, Biden has not been forced to confront the age question as often as Sanders, despite frequent gaffes on the campaign trail. The former vice president has frequently appeared to mix up dates, offer outdated pop culture references and forget his words.
In a new CBS interview, Biden dismissed questions about his age, saying, if anything, it was an advantage.
“With age comes experience, with experience comes wisdom, and with wisdom comes judgment,” Biden said in the “60 Minutes”interview, set to air Sunday.
He promised earlier in the month to release his health records to help demonstrate his physical readiness for the nation’s top job.
While national polls suggest Biden is doing well among older voters, on the ground in the state that will hold the nation’s first presidential primary contest, Democrats see age as an issue for Biden and Sanders.
Kathy Judge, a 58-year-old nurse from Ames, went so far as to call Sanders and Biden “very self-centered and very selfish by staying in the race” when, she said, there are questions over whether they’re “physically capable” of finishing the run.
As an older individual herself, she said, she sees their ages wearing on them.
“Bernie Sanders has already had a heart attack! Joe Biden can’t remember what day it is! Now, I can’t either some days, I will admit that, but we need someone who is sharp and thinks on their feet and doesn’t fumble words,” said Judge, who supports 50-year-old Cory Booker, the New Jersey senator.
At a Biden event over the summer in Manning, Donna Forman, a 72-year-old retiree, said the former vice president is in her top three, along with Booker and 59-year-old Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. But the one major concern she has about Biden is his age.
“Because I know people that are old — including myself,” she said. “I’m getting there. And I think Donald Trump is a perfect example of why nobody over 70 should run for anything.”
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Associated Press writer Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to delete a quote mistakenly attributed to Joe Biden when it was actually stated by his wife, Jill.

Woman accused of kidnapping child now charged with homicide
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A woman accused of having kidnapped a toddler near Pittsburgh has now been charged with criminal homicide in the child’s death last month.
Allegheny County police say 25-year-old Sharena Islam Nancy was charged with criminal homicide and abuse of a corpse in the death of Nalani Johnson, who was about to have her second birthday.
Nancy, who authorities say had been romantically involved with the child’s father, was earlier charged with kidnapping of a minor, concealing the whereabouts of a child, and custodial interference.
Johnson’s body was found Sept. 3 in an Indiana County park about 37 miles (60 kilometers) east of Penn Hills, where authorities allege she had been kidnapped a few days earlier.
Nancy remains jailed without bail; a message was left for her attorney Saturday seeking comment.

One-year commemoration of synagogue shooting to be marked
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The first anniversary of the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history is being marked around the world Sunday with community service projects, music and an online remembrance.
The shooting on Oct. 27, 2018, killed 11 worshippers and wounded seven at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
The Tree of Life building has remained closed since the massacre. The three congregations now worship at two nearby synagogues. Last week, Tree of Life leaders unveiled their vision for the damaged building: a rebuilt space for places of worship; memorial, education and social events; and classrooms and exhibitions.
The commemoration’s theme is “Remember. Repair. Together.” It includes a private Jewish service, studying the portion of the Torah that was to be read when the shooting happened, opportunities to do community service, and a public memorial service.
Several hundred people have registered to volunteer at various community organizations on Sunday. In Germany, the Clarion Quartet, comprised of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians, will perform at a special event in Berlin.
Thousands are expected to participate in Sunday’s remembrance through Pause With Pittsburgh, a virtual memorial event created by the Jewish Federations of North America.
Authorities charged Robert Bowers, 47, a truck driver from Baldwin, Pennsylvania, in the massacre. Investigators say he used an AR-15 rifle and other weapons, and posted criticism of an immigrant aid society on social media before the attack, claiming the Jewish charity “likes to bring invaders that kill our people.”
Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Jury selection to open in officer slaying trial
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jury selection begins Monday for the death penalty trial of a man charged in the shooting death of a western Pennsylvania police officer almost two years ago.
Testimony is slated to begin next week for the trial of 31-year-old Rahmael Sal Holt in the November 2017 slaying of New Kensington officer Brian Shaw.
Prosecutors have said they intend to seek capital punishment if Holt is convicted of first-degree murder. Holt has maintained that he wasn’t the one who fired the shots that killed Shaw following a traffic stop in New Kensington.
A judge last week rejected a defense request to remove Holt’s previous gun charges from trial evidence, but he did agree to bar prosecutors from introducing evidence that Holt had sold drugs prior to the slaying.

The Latest: Olga bringing heavy rains to central Gulf Coast
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The Latest on tropical weather in the South (all times local):
10:10 p.m.
Olga has been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone as it continues churning toward the Gulf Coast.
The National Hurricane Center said Friday night that the cyclone will bring heavy rain and possibly flash floods across the central Gulf Coast and parts of the Lower Mississippi Valley and western Tennessee Valley.
Olga had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph) and was centered about 275 miles (443 kilometers) south-southeast of Lake Charles, Louisiana on Friday night. It was moving north-northeast at 17 mph (27 kph).
It’s expected to weaken as it moves over land on Saturday morning.
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4:55 p.m.
A tornado has been reported on the ground in southwestern Alabama.
The National Weather Service on Friday afternoon issued a tornado warning for Mobile County.
The National Weather Service in Mobile tweeted that a there was a large and dangerous” tornado on the ground near Semmes, Alabama and people should seek shelter immediately. A second possible tornado was in Washington County.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
WKRG reported that viewers sent in video of what appeared to be a large tornado on the ground.
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3:45 p.m.
Forecasters say Tropical Storm Olga has formed in the Gulf of Mexico while Tropical Storm Pablo has formed in the northeast Atlantic.
On Friday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center said the storm is expected to soon merge with a cold front and become a post-tropical low with gale force winds.
The storm has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (64 kph) and was centered about 260 miles (418 kilometers) south of Lake Charles, Louisiana. It’s moving north-northeast at 18 mph (29 kph).
Forecasters expect the storm’s center to move over the northern Gulf coast late Friday or early Saturday.
No coastal tropical cyclone watches or warnings are currently in effect.
Officials say Tropical Storm Pablo is a small storm that is moving east-southeast. There are no coastal tropical cyclone watches or warnings in effect.
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10:45 a.m.
Parts of the drought-parched South are under flood watches and warnings with forecasters saying as much as 10 inches of rain could fall.
The National Weather service says an advancing cold front will collide with a weather disturbance that became a tropical depression early Friday in the Gulf of Mexico.
The National Hurricane Center said the storm’s center was 320 miles (515 kilometers) south-southwest of Lake Charles, Louisiana. It had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph).
Forecasters say coastal Louisiana could receive as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain Friday and Saturday; 6 inches (15 centimeters) was possible across a wide section of Mississippi.
Rainfall totals ranging from 1 to 4 inches (2.5 to 10 centimeters) are possible from Alabama to South Carolina.

2 dead, 14 injured after shooting at Texas homecoming party
By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press
GREENVILLE, Texas (AP) — A gunman opened fire at an off-campus party for a nearby Texas college, leaving two people dead and 14 injured before he escaped in the ensuing chaos, a sheriff said Sunday.
Authorities believe the shooter may have been targeting just one person at the party of about 750 people outside Greenville, 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of a satellite campus for Texas A&M University, and that others may have been shot at random, Hunt County Sheriff Randy Meeks said.
The shooting took place around midnight Saturday at what Meeks described as a Halloween and homecoming party for Texas A&M University-Commerce, though officials have said it was not a school-sanctioned event. Meeks described “complete chaos” after the shots rang out, with hundreds of people fleeing, including the gunman. The injured included four people who did not have gunshot wounds but who were hurt in the melee, he said.
Authorities believe there was one male shooter who entered the venue through the back door and began firing with a handgun, Meeks said. Authorities were still looking for the suspect and did not yet know who he was or have a description of him.
The two people killed were both males, Meeks said, but he did not know if they were A&M-Commerce students. He said he believed four or five students may have been among those injured and estimated that most of the people at the party were in their late teens and early 20s. Some of the partygoers were wearing costumes, he said.
Word of the shooting spread online overnight, with many sharing on social media graphic video purported to show seriously wounded victims lying on the ground as crying and screaming could be heard in the background.
“I just briefly saw one that was a very graphic video,” Meeks said. “I don’t know that’s going to help anything at all.”
Meeks said the party was held at a facility called The Party Venue and that the owner was cooperating with authorities. The venue sits along a highway in a rural area some 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from the Greenville city limits. Meeks said he was not aware of any surveillance video in the area.
Outside the venue Sunday, a few Halloween masks and other debris were strewn about. Pools of blood could be seen on the ground.
A patrol sergeant and deputy were at the venue when the shooting happened, having been called there for complaints about illegal parking, Meeks said. An off-duty Farmersville police officer was also there, working as security for the party.
Authorities were questioning someone who appeared to be intoxicated when they heard gunshots from the back of the building, Meeks said.
Meeks praised the patrol sergeant and deputy, saying the sergeant quickly determined that one of gunshot victims had life-threatening injuries and transported that person to a hospital, while the deputy triaged others until paramedics arrived.
The shooting came as Texas A&M University-Commerce, east of Dallas, celebrated homecoming weekend. According to its website, it is the second-largest university in the Texas A&M University System. The school was founded in 1889 and was known by several names, including East Texas State University, before joining the Texas A&M system in 1996. The university has around 6,000 undergraduate students and 4,000 graduate students.
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Associated Press writer Mallika Sen in New York contributed to this report.