November 18, 2020 4:18 am
North Strabane Supervisors met at their agenda setting meeting on Tuesday night and indicated that there is a tax increase for residents on the horizon. Township Manager Andrew Walz stated that the proposed increase will be a one half mil increase. That increase will be used to cure a deficit spending practice that has been occurring for the last 5 or more years. The township has been supplementing funding for the fire department and the parks and recreation departments. The tax increase will be divided by giving .35 mil to the fire department and .15 mil to the parks and recreation department. Solid budget numbers are still being worked out but Walz indicates that the budget will be in line with the 2020 budget of $30,406,937. In other township business, the Canon-McMillan School District is asking supervisors to discount building permit fees for the new middle school being built on Rt. 519. School Director Manuel Pihakis was met with pushback from supervisors over the request. Supervisors will consider the request at their legislative meeting next week.
November 18, 2020 4:13 am
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A deadly rise in COVID-19 infections is forcing state and local officials to adjust their blueprints for fighting a virus that is threatening to overwhelm health care systems. Schools are scrapping plans to reopen classrooms. More states are adopting mask mandates. But they often face blowback from dissenters who fear the new restrictions will kill off more businesses and jobs. With Thanksgiving coming up next week, public health officials are bracing for a holiday-fueled surge. Physicians have been urging families to stick to small gatherings and avoid large parties and events where vulnerable populations could be infected.
November 18, 2020 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The longest-serving Republican senator and third in the line of presidential succession, Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, says he has tested positive for the coronavirus. The 87-year-old Grassley had said Tuesday morning that he was quarantining after being exposed to the virus and was waiting for the results of a test. On Tuesday evening, he tweeted that he had tested positive. Grassley says he looks forward to resuming his normal schedule soon. He hasn’t said how he was exposed, but was in the Senate and voting Monday. By missing votes Tuesday, Grassley broke a 27-year streak of not missing a single Senate vote.
November 18, 2020 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Rep. Kevin McCarthy has easily won reelection as House Republican leader. The vote is a stunning turnaround as the entire GOP leadership team was rewarded by their colleagues for reducing the Democrats’ House advantage in the November election. Republicans saw little reason to shake up their leadership after not a single GOP lawmaker in the House lost reelection. For the California Republican, it cements McCarthy’s role as a political survivor who endured setbacks but parlayed an alliance with President Donald Trump to revive his path to one day possibly becoming House speaker.
November 18, 2020 4:08 am
DETROIT (AP) – Michigan’s largest county has unanimously certified election results showing Democrat Joe Biden defeating President Donald Trump, hours after Republicans first blocked formal approval of voters’ intentions. The initial move was quickly condemned by Democrats, election experts and spectators at the Wayne County Board of Canvassers online meeting as a dangerous attempt to block the results of a free and fair election. The ultimate resolution in Wayne County propels Biden toward formal victory in Michigan, but Tuesday’s chaotic developments are likely to sow more doubt among Trump’s supporters in the election results.
November 18, 2020 4:07 am
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) – Rudy Giuliani showed some rust returning to a courtroom as an attorney for the first time in decades as he tried to make a stand in Pennsylvania for President Donald Trump. During several hours of arguments in a Williamsport federal courtroom, Giuliani threw around unsupported accusations about a nationwide conspiracy by Democrats to steal the election from Trump. No such evidence has emerged since Election Day. It’s not clear whether Giuliani making a personal appearance for Trump helped the case. Withering questions from the judge gave Trump’s opponents hope that the lawsuit will be tossed out of court.
November 18, 2020 4:03 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has fired the nation’s top election security official, a widely respected member of the administration who had dared to refute the president’s unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud. The dismissal Tuesday of the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Christopher Krebs, was abrupt but not a surprise. Since his loss to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump has been ridding his administration of officials seen as insufficiently loyal and denouncing how the election was conducted. Krebs has been issuing a stream of statements and tweets over the past week attesting to the proper conduct of the election.
November 18, 2020 2:17 am
Students at the Washington Junior/Senior High School will be moved to remote learning, effective Wednesday, November 18th, after a second case of COVID-19 was confirmed at the school. District officials say the school will be closed for in-person learning until Tuesday, December 1st. Part of that time, they say, is due to the scheduled Thanksgiving holiday break. Officials say all athletic activities have also been cancelled until December first and no students will be attending the Western Area Vo-Tech School during that time. District officials say the elementary school remains on a hybrid schedule but parents should pay attention to school updates by phone, text and email. They say they are monitoring the district’s health daily and as situations change, the their pandemic team is making adjustments.
November 17, 2020 5:57 pm
(AP) – Two COVID-19 vaccines might be nearing the finish line, but scientists say it’s critical that enough people volunteer to help finish studying other candidates. Moderna and competitor Pfizer recently announced preliminary results showing their vaccines appear to be strongly effective. More vaccine types will be needed to meet global demand. And different types may work better in different people, something only testing can tell. Most vaccines in late-stage testing around the world target the “spike” protein on the coronavirus surface but they’re made using a variety of technologies, some of them brand new. Still, some countries are sticking with older vaccine approaches.
November 17, 2020 5:28 pm
SEATTLE (AP) – A federal judge in Seattle has awarded $10 million to the family of a severely disabled child who was born after a community clinic nurse inadvertently gave the mother a flu shot instead of a birth-control injection. The Seattle Times reports a federal judge last week awarded the child $7.5 million for her medical, educational and other expenses. The award came on top of $2.5 million in damages for her parents. The judge found that the mother would not have become pregnant in 2011 if the nurse at a clinic had given her the correct shot. The federal government is responsible for the damages because the clinic is federally funded.
