June 19, 2022 8:05 am
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An anonymous bidder has shelled out a record $19 million for a private lunch with billionaire Warren Buffet at a steakhouse in New York City. The meal with the Berkshire Hathaway CEO was offered on an eBay auction to benefit the San-Francisco-based charity GLIDE, which helps homeless people and those in poverty. The winner can bring up to seven guests. Buffett has raised $53 million for GLIDE since the auction began in 2000. The charity earned the philanthropist billionaire’s support when his first wife, Susie, introduced him to it after she started volunteering there. She died in 2004. This year’s event will be the first private lunch offered with the 91-year-old billionaire since the previous record-setting bid of $4.5 million by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun in 2019. The past two auctions were called off due to COVID-19 concerns and Buffett has said this will be the last. Like the winner this year, some other past winners have chosen to remain anonymous. One past winner, Ted Weschler, received a job offer from Buffett’s company after he spent nearly $5.3 million on two auctions in 2010 and 2011. Weschler now works as an investment manager for the Omaha, Nebraska, conglomerate, Berkshire.
June 19, 2022 8:03 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. on Saturday opened COVID-19 vaccines to infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The shots will become available this week, expanding the nation’s vaccination campaign to children as young as 6 months. Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccines for the littlest children, and the final signoff came hours later from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the agency’s director. While the Food and Drug Administration approves vaccines, it’s the CDC that decides who should get them. The shots offer young children protection from hospitalization, death and possible long-term complications that are still not clearly understood, the CDC’s advisory panel said. The government has already been gearing up for the vaccine expansion, with millions of doses ordered for distribution to doctors, hospitals and community health clinics around the country. Roughly 18 million kids will be eligible, but it remains to be seen how many will ultimately get the vaccines. Less than a third of children ages 5 to 11 have done so since vaccination opened up to them last November.
June 19, 2022 8:00 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s workforce grew again in May as the state’s unemployment rate sank to another post-pandemic low, according to new state figures released Friday. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped two-tenths of a percentage point to 4.6% from April’s rate, the state Department of Labor and Industry said. The national rate was 3.6% in May. In a survey of households, the labor force grew by 30,000, as the number of employed grew by 40,000 to farther above 6.1 million and the number of unemployed fell by 10,000 to below 300,000. The state’s labor force is rebounding after falling during the COVID-19 pandemic. It hit a record high of almost 6.6 million just before the pandemic hit, and still remains below 2008′s levels. In a separate survey of employers, non-farm payrolls in Pennsylvania grew in May by almost 7,000, driven primarily by hiring in leisure and hospitality and the education and health services sectors. The trade, transportation and utilities sector fell the most. At just above 5.9 million, payrolls are at their highest point since hitting a record high of nearly 6.1 million just before the pandemic, according to state figures. Pennsylvania has regained more than 80% of the 1.1 million jobs lost in the early months of the pandemic, figures show.
June 19, 2022 7:52 am
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. (WPXI)— A fatal car accident in Westmoreland County shut down a portion of Interstate 70 overnight. According to Westmoreland County 911, the interstate was shut down for a few hours because of the crash. According to police, the crash happened at mile marker 53 at the Yukon exit at 12:05 a.m. Dispatch said one person, later identified as 25-year-old David Ott from Perryopolis, was killed and another person was flown to UPMC Presbyterian. Pennsylvania State Police said Ott wasn’t wearing his seatbelt at the time of the crash. There’s no word on the injured person’s condition or identity.
June 19, 2022 4:29 am
Washington Police were called to 246 Burton Avenue for an alleged shooting at 2:00 AM Saturday. According to county 9-1-1 officials, when police arrived they found a man with a gunshot wound near the intersection with East Hallam Avenue. The victim was taken to an undetermined hospital. The Washington Fire Department was called to wash down the area. WJPA will update this story as details emerge.
June 19, 2022 3:30 am
A state police trooper accused of being drunk while on patrol last month waived the case to court during his preliminary hearing Friday. Jared Clyde Johnson, 46, of South Franklin, is facing one misdemeanor charge of drunken driving and two summary offenses after state police said he damaged his police vehicle after hitting a curb on patrol and was later found by a supervisor to be intoxicated. Johnson waived his case to court and will appear in DUI court on August 22.Johnson was on patrol when he was dispatched to a report of an injured deer on Interstate 70 near the Claysville exit. According to court documents he never went to the scene, and a supervisor later tracked Johnson down and found him sitting in his police vehicle in a gravel parking lot near the Taylorstown exit. The supervisor found a rum bottle in the passenger seat. A state police spokesman said Johnson has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of his case. He could face termination because the alleged offense happened with a state-issued vehicle.
June 19, 2022 1:37 am
LONDON (AP) – The price of bitcoin has fallen below $20,000 for the first time since late 2020, in a fresh sign that the selloff in cryptocurrencies is deepening. Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, fell below the psychologically important threshold on Saturday. It dropped as much as 9% to less than $19,000, according to CoinDesk. The last time bitcoin was at this level was November 2020, when it was on its way up to an all-time high. Bitcoin has now lost more than 70 percent of its value since reaching that peak. It’s the latest sign of turmoil in the cryptocurrency industry amid wider turbulence in financial markets.
June 19, 2022 1:32 am
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) – President Joe Biden fell when he tried to get off his bike at the end of a ride Saturday at Cape Henlopen State Park near his beach home in Delaware, but said he wasn’t hurt. “I’m good,” he told reporters after U.S. Secret Service Agents quickly helped him up. He said he got his foot caught in the toe cages. The 79-year-old Biden and first lady Jill Biden were wrapping up a morning ride when the president decided to pedal over to a crowd of well-wishers standing by the bike trail. Biden tumbled when he tried to dismount. The president quickly collected himself and spent several minutes chatting with people who had gathered to watch him bike.
June 18, 2022 10:43 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal appeals court has rejected a Trump administration finding that the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup does not pose a serious health risk and is “not likely” to cause cancer in humans. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Friday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reexamine its 2020 finding that glyphosate did not pose a health risk for people. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, the most widely used herbicide in the world. Its original producer, Monsanto, was bought in 2018 by pharmaceutical giant Bayer, which now faces thousands of claims from people who say Roundup exposure caused their cancer.
June 18, 2022 10:41 am
Hot real estate markets have made some homeowners wary of participating in voluntary flood buyout programs. And that is impacting efforts to move people away from flooding from rising seas and more frequent storms. Flood buyout programs typically purchase flood-prone homes, raze them and turn the property into green space. They can help prevent flood-related deaths and health problems. Buyouts are also considered cheaper for taxpayers compared to rebuilding flooded houses with government payouts and federal flood insurance. Some cities have seen waning interest in the programs in the wake of rising home prices. People who take buyouts usually want to relocate to similar homes in the same community. But some worry that buyout dollars won’t be enough to buy the homes they want.
