January 12, 2022 2:38 am
(WPXI) – Gasoline at a Sunoco in Canonsburg that led to complaints about cars breaking down had “high water content,” the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture confirmed Tuesday. Inspectors took samples from the pumps at the Sunoco on West Pike Street on Dec. 22nd. Drivers reported that their vehicles broke down or experienced issues after the gas was put in their tanks. They said mechanics told them there might have been water in the gas, which was confirmed by the Department of Agriculture’s testing. “The pumps are closed until the business corrects the issue. The process generally involves flushing fuel lines and changing filters in the affected pumps, then replacing the fuel,” the Department of Agriculture’s press secretary said in a statement. Once that process is complete, samples will again be taken and officials say the affected pumps will only be allowed to reopen if the fuel samples pass.
January 11, 2022 4:18 pm
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – New Orleans is bringing back an indoor mask mandate to fight the spread of COVID-19 while preparing for an influx of visitors for the Mardi Gras season. The city health director, Dr. Jennifer Avegno, announced the plan Tuesday. The mandate takes effect Wednesday at 6 a.m. Avegno said growing COVID cases have put a strain on hospital emergency rooms, which also routinely see an influx of patients during the city’s raucous season of parades and street parties. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, falls on March 1 this year and major parades will roll in the last two weeks of February. (Photo: AP)
January 11, 2022 3:40 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Environmental Protection Agency is taking its first major action to address toxic wastewater from coal-burning power plants. It’s ordering utilities to stop dumping waste into unlined storage ponds and speed up plans to close leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash sites. The EPA says plants in four states will have to close the coal ash ponds months or years ahead of schedule. Coal ash is the substance that remains when coal is burned to generate electricity. It can pollute waterways, poison wildlife and cause respiratory illness among those living near massive ponds where the waste is stored. The action marks the first time the EPA has enforced a 2015 rule aimed at reducing groundwater pollution from coal-fired power plants.
January 11, 2022 3:32 pm
(AP) – Scientists are seeing signals that COVID-19’s alarming omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the U.S., at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically. The reason: The variant has proved so wildly contagious that it may already be running out of people to infect, just a month and a half after it was first detected in South Africa. Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle says omicron is “going to come down as fast as it went up.”
January 11, 2022 2:51 pm
UPPER DARBY, Pa. (AP) – Authorities and a witness say a pilot crash landed a medical helicopter without casualties in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia, miraculously avoiding a web of power lines and buildings as the aircraft fluttered, hit the street and slid into bushes outside a church. Upper Darby police Superintendent Timothy M. Bernhardt said at a press conference Tuesday that rescue crews rushed to the crash near a church at an intersection in Upper Darby’s Drexel Hill neighborhood at about 1 p.m. and helped pull the pilot, two crew members and an infant patient from the aircraft. None of them suffered life-threatening injuries.
January 11, 2022 4:26 am
Peters Township School Directors met Monday evening to review the school district’s health and safety plan in a policy committee meeting in advance of their voting meeting on January 18. School Director Lisa Anderson led the discussion to make recommendations for the school board to formally adopt. The meeting started with a power point presentation by Superintendent Dr. Jeannine French outlining what about the pandemic changed since last August. She outlined positive changes such as vaccination availabilities for all students age 5 and up, decreased isolation and quarantine times as suggested by the CDC and the need for students to be taught in person during the school year. She also outlined the negatives such as the increased case count of coronavirus in the schools. She did point out that most of those cases were developed outside the school buildings during the Christmas holiday vacation. Board directors concentrated on how they would like to try and roll back current mask requirements. During discussion, directors’ views on rolling back the mask requirements varied from letting it stand for the next three months to using Department of Health transmission rates as a guide to remove masks. Directors’ thoughts varied on whether a roll back should be automatic or be voted on by the board. No formal policy was put forth. Directors were instructed to communicate with Dr. French and or Board Chairman Thomas McMurray their thoughts so that a plan would be drawn up for next week’s meeting.
January 11, 2022 4:24 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Betty White died from a stroke she had six days before her Dec. 31 death at age 99, according to her death certificate. The Los Angeles County certificate obtained Monday by The Associated Press lists White’s cause of death as a cerebrovascular accident, the medical term for a stroke, on Dec. 25. The cause of death was provided by White’s doctor, as is typical in such cases. The certificate says White was cremated. The beloved “Golden Girls” and “Mary Tyler Moore Show” actor died less than three weeks before her 100th birthday.
January 11, 2022 4:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Attorneys for former President Donald Trump and his associates argue that incendiary statements by Trump and others last Jan. 6 prior to the Capitol riot were protected speech and in line with their official duties. Trump’s lawyers claim he had no intention to spark violence when he called on thousands of supporters to “march to the Capitol” and “fight like hell” to disrupt the Senate’s certification of the 2020 election results. The five-hour hearing Monday in Washington before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta concerned Trump’s attempts to have civil suits against Trump and his associates dismissed.
January 11, 2022 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden in recent days has singled out the protection of voting rights in the U.S. as a top priority. He’s heading to Georgia with the vice president on Tuesday afternoon to help cement that point. But civil rights activists are afraid it may already be too late. While in Atlanta, Biden will visit Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once held forth from the pulpit. Biden isn’t expected to announce new executive action on voting rights, and major civil rights groups say they need action, not another speech.
January 11, 2022 4:17 am
BOSTON (AP) – The U.S. Northeast is girding for extreme cold that was expected to reach a wind chill value of minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit in some northern areas and closed some schools elsewhere. The largest public school district in Massachusetts announced Monday that schools will not open Tuesday because of expected extremely cold temperatures. Low temperatures below zero, not including the wind chill, are also expected in Burlington, Vermont, and Concord, New Hampshire. Forecasters said Providence, Rhode Island, should expect a wind chill value of as low as minus 1 degree Fahrenheit. And New York City also is in for subzero temperatures when wind chill is factored in.
