January 10, 2022 4:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Starting Saturday, private health insurers will be required to cover up to eight home COVID-19 tests per month for those on their plans. The Biden administration announced the change Monday as it looks to lower costs and make testing for the virus more convenient amid rising frustrations. Under the new policy, first detailed to the AP, Americans will be able to either purchase home testing kits for free or submit receipts for the tests for subsequent reimbursement, up to the monthly per-person limit. A family of four, for instance, could be reimbursed for up to 32 tests per month. Only tests purchased on or after Jan. 15 will be required to be reimbursed.
January 10, 2022 4:18 am
GENEVA (AP) – Russia and the U.S. remained far apart after talks aimed at defusing tensions over Ukraine, with Moscow insisting on guarantees to halt NATO’s eastward expansion and even roll back the military alliance’s deployments in Eastern Europe, and Washington firmly rejecting the demands as a nonstarter. With both sides dug in on their positions, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said “no progress” was made on the central demand to halt NATO expansion, although he insisted: “We have no intention to invade Ukraine.” He spoke after 5 1/2 hours of talks with his U.S. counterpart, Wendy Sherman. It’s part of a flurry of diplomatic activity in Europe this week over a Russian military buildup on the border with Ukraine.
January 10, 2022 4:17 am
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – An Australian judge has reinstated tennis star Novak Djokovic’s visa, which was canceled last week because he is unvaccinated. Circuit Court Judge Anthony Kelly also ordered the government to release Djokovic from Melbourne hotel quarantine within 30 minutes of his decision. The Australian government canceled the visa shortly after Djokovic arrived in Melbourne last week because officials decided he didn’t meet the criteria for an exemption to an entry requirement that all non-citizens be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. The judge noted that Djokovic had provided officials at Melbourne’s airport with a medical exemption given him by Tennis Australia.
January 10, 2022 4:14 am
GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania state senator who has pushed to overturn last year’s presidential election and led protests against pandemic shutdowns and mitigation efforts formally announced on Saturday that he will run for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Sen. Doug Mastriano of Franklin County launched his campaign at a Gettysburg rally more than four months before voters will pick the major-party candidates in the race to succeed Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who is term-limited. Mastriano’s decision to join the large field of GOP hopefuls was widely expected, particularly after he said last month he had reached his goal for campaign donations.
January 10, 2022 1:44 am
The investigation continues into reports of shots fired in Canonsburg early Saturday morning. Canonsburg police responded to the area of North Central Avenue and Pitt Street at around 2:30 AM. Police arrived and found 8 shell casings at the scene. According to Canonsburg Police Chief Alex Coghill, the alleged shooting seems to revolve around an altercation between two pedestrians and someone in a vehicle. The shots are believed to have been fired from the vehicle. Police are looking for a white pick up truck and a dark sedan that were in the area at the time. Coghill states that there is only property damage at this point. Calls by the Canonsburg Police to local hospitals have not turned up any injuries. Police are asking that if anyone has information regarding this incident, please call them at 724-745-8020.
January 10, 2022 1:10 am
AMWELL TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Crews were called to the scene of a chimney fire Saturday evening in Amwell Township. Reports say the incident occurred on the 200 block of Sanitarium Road around 7:00 p.m. Amwell Township, along with North Franklin, Lone Pine, South Strabane Township and the Washington County Department of Public Safety all responded to the scene. When crews arrives, they reportedly did not see any fire showing from the exterior. A closer look into the structure revealed light smoke inside of the residence. Fire crews were able to take care of the incident quickly and no one was hurt.
January 9, 2022 8:18 am
MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan’s health ministry said Sunday that 164 people have been killed in protests that have rocked the country over the past week. The figures reported on the state news channel Khabar-24 are a significant rise from previous tallies. It is not clear if the deaths refer only to civilians or if law-enforcement deaths are included. Kazakh authorities said earlier Sunday that 16 police or national guard had been killed. Authorities previously gave the civilian death toll as 26. Most of the deaths — 103 — were in Almaty, the country’s largest city, where demonstrators seized government buildings and set some afire, according to the ministry. the country’s ombudswoman for children’s rights said that three of those killed were minors, including a 4-year-old girl. The ministry earlier reported more than 2,200 people sought treatment for injuries from the protests, and the Interior Ministry said about 1,300 security officers were injured. The office of Kazakhstan’s president said that about 5,800 people were detained by police during the protests that developed into violence last week and prompted a Russia-led military alliance to send troops to the country. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s office said Sunday that order has stabilized in the country and that authorities have regained control of administrative buildings that were occupied by protesters, some of which were set on fire.
January 9, 2022 8:16 am
NEW YORK (AP) — More than 800,000 noncitizens and so-called “Dreamers” in New York City will have access to the ballot box — and could vote in municipal elections as early as next year — after Mayor Eric Adams allowed legislation approved by the City Council a month ago to automatically become law on Sunday. Opponents have vowed to challenge the new law. Unless a judge halts its implementation, New York City is now the most populous city in the United States to grant voting rights to noncitizens. More than a dozen communities across the U.S. already allow noncitizens to cast ballots in local elections, including 11 towns in Maryland and two in Vermont. The Board of Elections must now begin drawing an implementation plan by July, including voter registration rules and provisions that would create separate ballots for municipal races to prevent noncitizens from casting ballots in federal and state contests. It’s a watershed moment for a city where legally documented, voting-age noncitizens comprise nearly one in nine of the city’s 7 million voting-age inhabitants. The movement to win voting rights for noncitizens prevailed after numerous setbacks.
January 9, 2022 8:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the fate of Ukraine and potentially broader post-Cold War European stability at stake, the United States and Russia are holding critical strategic talks that could shape the future of not only their relationship but the relationship between the U.S. and its NATO allies. Prospects are bleak. Though the immediacy of the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine will top the agenda in a series of high-level meetings that get underway on Monday, there is a litany of festering but largely unrelated disputes, ranging from arms control to cybercrime and diplomatic issues, for Washington and Moscow to overcome if tensions are to ease. And the recent deployment of Russian troops to Kazakhstan may cast a shadow over the entire exercise. With much at risk and both warning of dire consequences of failure, the two sides have been positioning themselves for what will be a nearly unprecedented flurry of activity in Europe this week. Yet the wide divergence in their opening positions bodes ill for any type of speedy resolution, and levels of distrust appear higher than at any point since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
January 9, 2022 8:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — In what’s become a familiar scene President Joe Biden lingered after delivering a recent speech on the pandemic as reporters fired a barrage of questions. He bristled at a query about the shortage of COVID-19 rapid tests, answered another about omicron-spurred travel restrictions and sidestepped a third about whether Sen. Joe Manchin failed to keep his word when he torpedoed Biden’s social services and climate spending plan. “I’m not supposed to be having this press conference right now,” Biden said at the end of a meandering response that didn’t directly answer the question about the West Virginia Democrat. Seconds later, Biden turned and walked out of the room, abruptly ending what’s become the president’s preferred method for his limited engagements with the press. As Biden wraps up his first year in the White House, he has held fewer news conferences than any of his five immediate predecessors at the same point in their presidencies, and he has taken part in fewer media interviews than any of his recent predecessors. The dynamic has left the White House facing questions about whether the president, who vowed to have the most transparent administration in the nation’s history, is falling short in pulling back the curtain on how his administration operates and missing opportunities to explain his agenda to Americans.
