February 6, 2022 8:01 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI)– PennDOT officials worked to calm any fears about bridges with poor ratings. A week after the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed into a ravine in Frick Park in Pittsburgh, officials stressed the importance of maximum weight limits. The agency oversees more than 30,000 state and locally owned bridges across Pennsylvania. During a virtual news conference, officials said they are inspected every two years and ones with poorer ratings are checked more often. Officials would not take any questions about the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge but they said five others similarly designed have been checked again. Because of the poor rating, the Fern Hollow Bridge had a posted weight limit of 26 tons since 2014. That 60 foot Port Authority bus that was on the bridge only had a few passengers, but fully loaded it likely would have exceeded the posted weight limit. Pittsburgh Police appear to be responsible for enforcing weight limits on city-owned bridges. It’s not clear if they’ve ever cited any vehicles.
February 6, 2022 7:59 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf will pitch his eighth and last budget proposal to lawmakers Tuesday, as the Democrat pushes Republicans to spend more federal pandemic relief aid now and Wolf looks to cement his public school legacy by securing a big boost in state aid. The state’s bank accounts are brimming with cash, and Wolf, who is constitutionally required to leave office next January when his second term ends, is touting himself as the only governor since Dick Thornburgh in 1987 to leave a cash surplus to his successor. However, bullish plans on spending by Wolf and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature are getting pushback from Republican lawmakers. Wolf otherwise has seen huge parts of his agenda thwarted year after year by the large Republican legislative majorities, including billions of dollars in tax increases that Wolf had pitched as necessary to prop up the state’s finances and restructure a school-funding system that disadvantages the poorest public schools.
February 6, 2022 4:20 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The five-member commission redrawing the boundaries of Pennsylvania’s state legislative districts voted to approve new maps for the next decade. They focus on the state’s fast-growing Latino population that could change the face of the predominantly white House and Senate. The Legislative Reapportionment Commission voted 4-1 on Friday. The vote came after nearly a year of meetings, hearings and closed-door discussions to carry out the constitutionally required, once-a-decade map-drawing to account for demographic shifts identified by the census. The lone dissenter was Republican House Leader Kerry Benninghoff. Benninghoff slammed it as an unconstitutional gerrymander and vowed to challenge it in court.
February 5, 2022 10:31 am
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) – Snowboarder Shaun White says the Beijing Games will be his last competition. The three-time gold medalist held a sometimes emotional news conference not far from the halfpipe where he’ll take his last competitive ride. The 35-year-old says it’s a decision that’s been building since a rough-and-tumble training stop in Austria in November. This has been a tough season for him – including an ankle injury, a bout with COVID-19 and a late unscheduled trip to Switzerland to secure his Olympic spot.
February 5, 2022 10:27 am
Thomas Bach, the head of the International Olympic Committee, says the Olympic ideals show that even in a world full of conflict, people can build bridges and live in peace. Critics of Bach and the IOC say those ideals are nonsense, and talk of respect and bridge-building is overshadowed by Olympic officials cozying up to some of the world’s most powerful authoritarian rulers, and holding this year’s Games in a country accused of widespread human rights violations. Bach and the IOC have long steered clear of controversy, and Olympic organizers have a long history with authoritarian rulers.
February 5, 2022 10:26 am
The uproar over Whoopi Goldberg’s remarks about the Holocaust has catalyzed somber reflections by many American Jews, and not just about the Holocaust’s legacy. They also have recalled anti-Jewish discrimination in the United States and pondered the Jewish community’s sense of collective identity. Goldberg said this week on ABC’s “The View” that the Nazis’ genocide wasn’t about race. She soon apologized for failing to acknowledge that the Nazis considered Jews an inferior race. Jewish leaders are noting the complexity of describing how race fits into the concept of Jewish identity. They say it entails a mix of religion, nationality, ethnicity, culture and history.
February 5, 2022 10:24 am
A decision by Twitter and Facebook to ban former President Donald Trump a year ago has prompted many conservative social media users to join new platforms that claim to offer a refuge from overzealous content moderation. A year later, so-called alt-tech platforms like Gab, Parler and Gettr are growing fast. And while they’ve failed to replicate the success of the major sites, experts in extremism see their growth as a cause for concern and possibly leading to radicalization and even violence. While the promise of loose moderation is a selling point, it has also led to a proliferation of hate speech and harmful misinformation.
February 5, 2022 10:17 am
BEIJING (AP) – Chinese leader Xi Jinping says his country and Egypt share similar visions and strategies in defending their own interests. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi was one of at least four heads of state who met Xi after attending the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, seeking closer ties with China while shunning Western criticism of their heavy-handed rule. On Friday, Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin underscored the growing alignment of their countries as they push back against the world order dominated by the U.S. By around midday Saturday, Xi had also met with heads of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Serbia. The leaders of Argentina, Ecuador, Qatar, Poland and are also among those in town.
February 5, 2022 10:14 am
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) – Authorities in Virginia say one person was killed and another four people were injured during a shooting at a hookah lounge. The Blacksburg Police Department says officers responded to reports of shots fired at Melody Hookah Lounge in downtown Blacksburg on Friday just before midnight. Police did not identify the deceased person or any of the people who were injured in the shooting. Authorities say they were taken to local hospitals, but that their conditions are unknown. No additional information was made available, including details on potential suspects or a motive.
February 5, 2022 6:47 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers stepped up hiring in January, adding 467,000 jobs despite a wave of omicron inflections that sickened millions of workers, kept many consumers at home and left businesses from restaurants to manufacturers short-staffed. The Labor Department’s Friday report also showed the unemployment rate ticked up to 4% from 3.9%. Job gains in December were also revised much higher.
