Hundreds took to the streets of Philadelphia on Monday night, to protest the shooting by police of Walter Wallace, a 27-year-old black man who officers said had a knife.
Related: America's protest crackdown: five months after George Floyd, hundreds face trials and prison
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It’s been a lively day on the election trail. We’re closing this blog now but will be back with all the developments in US political news, as it happens, tomorrow.
Here are the main events of the day:
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris is calling for an administration that is frank about racist police brutality in America.
“There isn’t a Black man I know, be it a relative or friend, who has not had some sort of experience with police that’s been about an unreasonable stop, some sort of profiling or excessive force,” she said.
We can’t just speak the truth about police brutality in our nation—we must act to change our systems of justice and demand accountability. pic.twitter.com/arSdFLi7Wj
Continue reading...Nationwide the need for aid at food banks and pantries has surged amid worst unemployment rate in modern times
Neisha Davis cradles brown paper lunch bags in the crook of one arm, while holding on to Demitri, her wriggling baby son, in the other and keeping a careful eye on Naya, her four-year-old daughter, as she runs around the church car park with another little girl.
It’s hectic but the free packed lunches have become a crucial part of their daily nutrition. So everyday at noon the family make the two-mile journey from Homewood, a low income predominantly African American Pittsburgh neighbourhood with no grocery stores, to the East End Community Ministry’s pop-up lunch stall in East Liberty.
Continue reading...Donald Trump’s campaign failed to produce any evidence of vote-by-mail fraud in Pennsylvania after a federal judge ordered it do so, according to a 524-page court filing obtained by the Guardian.
Related: USPS chief Louis DeJoy says he won't restore mail-sorting machines ahead of election – live
Continue reading...Epidemiologist predicts ‘new epidemic surge’ as protesters across the US flout social distancing measures
As healthcare workers in Colorado and Pennsylvania staged counter-protests against rightwing anti-quarantine rallies that continue to spread across the US, some experts warned such rallies could cause a surge in coronavirus cases.
Several nurses gathered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Monday, where a protest against stay-at-home orders was taking place. The nurses carried signs urging people to go home.
Continue reading...When I bumped into the other Davon Clark in college, it was funny. When friends confused our dating profiles, it was weird. When he got in trouble with the cops, my life started to fall apart
I walked out of class and pulled my phone out of my pocket. There were dozens of missed calls and messages from my girlfriend. She was demanding to know why I was on Tinder. One of her friends was claiming that she had found me on the app, and she had sent a screenshot of the bio to my girlfriend. Sure enough, his first name and interests were identical to mine.
After collecting myself, I gave my girlfriend a call. She answered yelling, understandably. I gave her a few minutes and then tried to explain: it was someone else. She shot back that she knew I was lying. Her friend had started a conversation with the guy and he’d told her his full name, Davon Clark – which was also my name.
Continue reading...A Pennsylvania appeals court has rejected Bill Cosby’s bid to overturn his sexual assault conviction over the trial judge’s decision to let five other accusers testify.
The superior court ruling was being closely watched because Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era. The same issue has been hard-fought in pre-trial hearings before movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial.
Continue reading...Jim Kenney urged state and federal government to stand up to NRA or ‘then let us police ourselves’
The mayor of Philadelphia has joined a growing chorus of calls for America to take action on gun control after a dramatic shooting incident in which six police officers were wounded as they served a drug warrant.
The officers were injured as part of a night of drama which saw a tense standoff eventually resolved when the suspected gunman was taken into custody. It is believed he had an automatic rifle and he exchanged multiple bursts of gunfire with police which saw civilians run for cover in a densely populated part of the city.
Continue reading...Police sergeant says authorities are ‘imploring shooter to surrender and avoid further injuries’
Multiple police officers have been wounded after a gunman opened fire in Philadelphia on Wednesday, during a standoff that extended into the evening.
The police sergeant Eric Gripp tweeted that at least six officers were shot in the incident in the city’s northern Nicetown neighborhood. All the officers’ injuries were considered non-life-threatening, he said, and were being treated at local hospitals.
Continue reading...Tom Wolf’s office has denied he ordered permits for the Mariner East 2 pipeline, which is under criminal investigation for pollution and property damage, to be accelerated
Internal government records obtained by the Guardian raise questions about the role of Pennsylvania’s governor, Tom Wolf, role in permitting construction of a controversial fossil fuel pipeline that now faces two criminal investigations stemming from widespread environmental and property damage.
The 350-mile, $2.5bn Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline through southern Pennsylvania has sparked growing outrage. It has caused roughly 140 documented industrial waste spills into wetlands and waterways, destroying numerous residential water wells, and opening large sinkholes just steps from residents’ homes.
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