Crude pipe bombs sent to Obama, Clintons, CNN; no injuries
By MICHAEL BALSAMO, ERIC TUCKER and COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Crude pipe bombs targeting Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, CNN and others were intercepted Tuesday night and Wednesday in a rash of attacks two weeks before nationwide elections that could reshape Congress and serve as a referendum on the first two years of President Donald Trump’s presidency.
The devices, which officials said shared a similar design, were aimed at prominent Democrats and a cable news network often criticized by political conservatives. A similar device was found Monday at the New York compound of liberal billionaire George Soros, a major contributor to Democratic causes.
The bombs overtook other campaign news in an already-tense political season, which has included pitched fights over immigration, the Supreme Court and sexual violence against women.
The White House quickly condemned the attacks aimed at Democrats and perceived foes of the administration.
“Acts or threats of political violence have no place in the United States,” Trump said. “This egregious conduct is abhorrent.”
“That’s a very bipartisan statement,” he said.
All the confirmed bombs appeared to come from the same person or persons, said John Miller, the New York Police Department’s head of intelligence and counterterrorism, who briefed reporters in New York.
The U.S. Secret Service intercepted a bomb that was addressed to Hillary Clinton at the Chappaqua, New York, home she shares with former President Bill Clinton, and another that was sent to former President Obama at his home with Michelle Obama in Washington. A police bomb squad removed still another from CNN’s New York headquarters, which was evacuated.
Overhead TV shots showed a truck carrying that device, which law enforcement officials said was linked to the other explosives, being driven away. The package sent to CNN contained a live explosive and envelope with white powder, and officials said the substance was being tested to see if it was dangerous.
“We will not rest until we stop these hazardous devices from being mailed and bring the individual or individuals to justice,” said Bryan Paarmann, the FBI’s top counterterrorism official in New York.
The FBI also said it was responding to a report of a suspicious package at a Florida office of Rep. Deborah Wasserman Schultz. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his office received a similar package, but New York police officials said the office was cleared and no device was found.
Cuomo said at a briefing that “we will not allow these terrorist thugs to change the way we live our lives.”
A U.S. official told The Associated Press that investigators believe the explosive that was discovered near the Clintons’ home was linked to one found Monday at the Soros compound.
The official noted that one of the packages had the return address of Florida Rep. Schultz, a reference to the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee who was accused by Clinton rivals of secretly helping the party’s eventual presidential nominee.
Neither Clinton nor Obama received the packages, and neither was at risk of receiving them because of screening procedures, the Secret Service said.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement, “These terrorizing acts are despicable, and anyone responsible will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
Two law enforcement officials, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the pipe bomb at CNN was crude but operational and was addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, who regularly appears as a television contributor and who has publicly clashed with Trump. They said it was similar to other explosives discovered in the past few days.
The device was mailed in an envelope to CNN’s offices on Columbus Circle using six stamps. It was compact, perhaps about the length of a wooden spoon, and contained wires and a black pipe, officials said.
Hillary Clinton was attending campaign events for Democrats in Florida on Tuesday and Wednesday and was not at the family’s New York residence at the time. Bill Clinton was at the family’s Chappaqua home at the time the package was intercepted Tuesday night at a Westchester County facility, said a person familiar with his schedule. The person said the device was screened at the facility — not in proximity to their residence — and never reached the Clintons’ home.
A law enforcement official told the AP that the package discovered at Soros’ home appeared to be a pipe bomb and was in a package placed in a mailbox outside the gates of the compound. A Soros employee opened it just inside the gates, not near Soros’ quarters, the official said.
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Associated Press writers Ken Thomas in Washington and Mike Sisak and Jim Mustian in New York contributed to this report.

THE BEAVER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AT THEIR REGULAR WORK SESSION TODAY…HEARD A PROGRESS REPORT FROM DISTRICT ATTORNEY DAVID LOZIER CONCERNING THE OPIOID CRISIS. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO’S GREG BENEDETTI HAS DETAILS…

This breaking news report is brought to you by…

FIRST ENERGY OFFICIALS SAY THE PLACING OF HALF A DOZEN TOWERS AT THE SITE OF AN EXPLOSION IN CENTER TOWNSHIP ABOUT SIX WEEKS AGO…IS NEARLY COMPLETE. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO HAS MORE. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…

 

MONACA BOROUGH COUNCIL DISCUSSED THE POSSIBILITY OF HIRING A SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER FOR ITS MIDDLE SCHOOL…DURING THE COUNCIL MEETING LAST NIGHT. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO WAS THERE. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…

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A man is in custody after police say he terrorized a local neighborhood along Boundry Street in Aliquippa in a bizarre incident in which he was driving naked and crashing a work van into parked vehicles. Witnesses say the driver – who didn’t have any clothes on – hit several vehicles then jumped back into the van, drove around the corner and ended up on Davidson Street. The suspect, still naked, was taken into custody by Aliquippa Police after the van he was driving hit a parked camper,  this time causing only minimal damage to that vehicle. The man, who is in his 30s, was taken to a local hospital for an evaluation. Aliquippa Police say he will be facing charges.

Aliquippa Police Sgt. Kenneth Watkins has returned to work.Watkins was placed on leave in May following the murder of Rachel DelTondo, who was shot outside of her family’s home in Aliquippa. Watkins was not placed on leave for disciplinary reasons but rather because he and his family were close friends with DelTondo. His return to work was confirmed by acting Aliquippa Police Chief Robert Sealock. DelTondo’s murder remains unsolved.

WEATHER FORECAST FOR WEDNESDAY, OCT. 24TH, 2018

 

TODAY – PARTLY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF A RAIN
SHOWER. HIGH – 48.

TONIGHT – PARTLY CLOUDY SKIES. LOW – 32.

THURSDAY – PARTLY SUNNY. HIGH – 52.

Pennsylvania expands income rules for seniors’ drug subsidy
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — More older Pennsylvanians will qualify for prescription drug assistance under newly enacted eligibility standards.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf inked into law on Tuesday the legislation that passed the General Assembly unanimously earlier this month.
The income limits for PACENET will increase from $23,500 to $27,500 for individuals and from $31,500 to $35,500 for married couples.
It’s the first increase in income eligibility in 15 years.
Supporters say it will allow more than 14,000 people to enroll over the coming couple years, and prevent about 3,000 people from being kicked off the program.
PACENET and its companion program, PACE, are funded by the state lottery.

Wolf signs revisions to Pennsylvania’s organ donation law
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A revision to Pennsylvania’s law governing organ and tissue donations is going into effect, and backers say it will improve survival rates for transplant patients.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday signed the bill that passed both legislative chambers unanimously earlier this month.
The bill imposes rules to prevent organ donation from interfering with criminal investigations.
It lets those with power of attorney give permission for organs to be donated and sets out a procedure for determining the intention of a dying person if he or she hasn’t made clear if they want to donate their organs and tissues.
A voluntary organ donation fund on driver’s license and vehicle registration applications will increase from $1 to $3.
Officials say the state’s transplant waiting list currently has about 7,500 people.

In chaotic era, conference aims to amplify 1st Amendment
By TED ANTHONY, AP National Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Not long ago in the American republic, information was less chaotic — or, at least, seemed to be. Newspapers appeared reliably on stoops every morning. Reassuring men from three networks delivered the news at dinnertime. We knew what was true, what was false, what was important.
Except it never actually was that way. Not really. And we now know that like never before.
A generation-long technological rumpus that upended how information is delivered and gave everyone with a device in their pocket the ability to speak globally has revealed, as never before, the chaos that is free expression in the United States.
For two days in Pittsburgh, a national exploration of what the First Amendment means to America in 2018 dug into every corner of this notion to understand where we are, and where we’re going, in terms of the rights Americans have to express themselves.
“Too many people in this country don’t understand how freedom works in their native land,” said Maxwell King, former editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and head of the Pittsburgh Foundation, a philanthropy that co-sponsored the event at Duquesne University.
In the spirit of the amendment itself, a barrage of provocative ideas surfaced. And, predictably when it comes to free speech, few produced unanimous conclusions.
Among news leaders, government officials and academics, the consensus seemed to be this: In an era upended by technology and the behaviors that have grown up around it, the First Amendment remains pivotal to a functioning democracy — perhaps more so than ever in a society increasingly suspicious of the role that the mass media plays.
“I don’t believe democracies can exist without a free press,” Tom Ridge, secretary of Homeland Security under former Republican President George W. Bush and the onetime governor of Pennsylvania, said Monday.
Nevertheless, there’s much to consider about the role of the First Amendment in our sometimes-brave new world, and the rapid-fire questions ran the gamut Sunday and Monday, as they are wont to do in a free society:
Is “fake news” — however it is defined, and whoever uses the term — protected speech? Who checks facts, and who watches them do it? How do we balance the desire for open debate and the rising need for “safe spaces” on college campuses? When are leaks legal?
And what is speech, precisely, in this new world? Am I expressing myself by my choice of locations, and does that make my GPS data protected expression? Are veiled dark-internet encouragements to hurt or dismember someone speech that should be protected? Are social networks the new arbiters of who can be amplified? Should they be required to police content?
Finally: What does it mean when the president of the United States continually takes verbal potshots at the press and encourages disdain for media whose stories run counter to his narrative?
“The social media companies themselves don’t understand social media,” said Sree Sreenivasan, a leader in digital journalism and former associate dean of the Columbia Journalism School. He says Donald Trump’s presidency was “a direct result of him understanding social media better than the social media companies.”
So how do we sort this all out? First of all, you probably can’t. A strong portion of chaos is natural — healthy, even — when it comes to freedom of expression in a society based on personal liberty.
But the fragmentation of media, society and politics, and the willingness of partisans to exploit that to contentious ends, have made many wonder whether the relationship between polarization and unfettered, unverified expression is too corrosive. The approaching midterm elections lend an urgency to this as well.
“I think it’s really hard to have a democracy when we don’t agree on a baseline set of facts,” said Martin Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post. That, he said, is where responsible journalism must play a role.
Other reflections from speakers at the conference:
THE NORTH KOREA EXAMPLE — Suki Kim, a journalist who went undercover in North Korea for six months to chronicle life there, spoke of the deep indoctrination she encountered in that society. “If you cannot tell the difference between what is true and not true,” she said, “it changes your foundations.”
THE SMORGASBORD MODEL — Ohio Gov. John Kasich, appearing via video, exhorted Americans to ingest their media mindfully — as one might consider choosing items from a restaurant buffet. “Don’t be a siloed consumer of the press. Take a bite of everything,” Kasich said. “The ability to sample a lot and draw a conclusion is the best way to be a consumer of the news.”
THE EXPANDING WAYS WE COMMUNICATE — Noel Francisco, the solicitor general of the United States, marveled at how many more methods of communication exist than when the First Amendment was ratified in the 18th century. “We have a lot more speech today,” he said. “And I think that just means we will have a lot more kinds of speech that are protected.”
Hugh Hewitt, the radio host and media critic, took a moment to muse about the republic’s founders as well. What, he wondered, might people who measured information’s speed in days and weeks, not minutes and seconds, have made of this phantasmagorical media landscape that might well have left them, well, speechless?
“I wish we could summon their brains,” he said, “to deal with issues they could never have imagined.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — Ted Anthony, director of digital innovation for The Associated Press, writes frequently about American culture. Follow him on Twitter at @anthonyted.
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This story has been corrected to show the former associate dean of Columbia Journalism School is Sree Sreenivasan, not Sree Srinivasan.