December 20, 2021 4:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey say they have tested positive for COVID-19. Their announcements on Sunday of breakthrough infections come as the country deals with another surge in cases and the emergence of the omicron variant. In separate statements, the Democrats say they have been fully vaccinated with two doses and a booster and that their symptoms have been mild so far. They also encouraged others to get the trio of shots if eligible.
December 20, 2021 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Sen. Joe Manchin has all but delivered a death blow to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion domestic initiative. Saying he can’t support the package, the West Virginia Democrat has single-handedly thrown his party’s agenda into jeopardy. Furious colleagues are desperate to salvage what’s left of a top priority. Next steps are highly uncertain. Congress has recessed for the holidays but some lawmakers are demanding a vote, though that seems unlikely. Others are at work on changes to win Manchin’s support. Manchin said on “Fox News Sunday” that after months of negotiations, “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation.”
December 20, 2021 4:14 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Police say an adult was taken into custody after a 4-year-old child was critically wounded in a shooting in Pennsylvania’s capital over the weekend. Harrisburg police said patrol units were called to a home in the city at about 10:15 a.m. Sunday and found the child with a gunshot. The child was taken to a hospital and was listed in critical condition after emergency surgery. Police said the adult caretaker of the residence was taken into custody and what the department called “appropriate charges” are forthcoming. Anyone with information is being asked to call city police.
December 20, 2021 4:12 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Federal authorities say 15 historical artifacts stolen almost a half-century ago from a number of Pennsylvania museums have been returned to the institutions. The FBI’s Philadelphia office said the FBI art crime team and other law enforcement agencies repatriated the 18th and 19th century rifles and pistols as well as a Native American silver concho belt in a ceremony Friday at the Museum of the American Revolution. FBI art crime agents and detectives from the Upper Merion Township Police Department recovered the artifacts as part of an investigation into the 1971 theft and 2018 sale of a rare surviving 1775 rifle made by Pennsylvania master gunsmith Christian Oerter, officials said.
December 20, 2021 3:06 am
CECIL TWP. (WPXI) — Green wreaths with red bows lay against the white tombstones as local residents take part in Wreaths Across America this weekend. As they place the greenery at each of the 14,500 veterans graves at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies, volunteers will say the deceased’s name. They will take a moment to pause and thank him or her for their service to this country. A brief ceremony was held to recognize each veteran in the cemetery, which encompasses 292 acres. It opened in 2008. The ceremony was on Facebook Live because of covid-19 concerns. Usually, this event is held on a Saturday in December and has a full in-person ceremony. This year, the event was spread over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Most of the wreaths were laid by Friday evening this year.
December 20, 2021 2:19 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — A Rices Landing woman has been charged in the death of Thomas Ringer earlier this year. Star Dawn Lowery-Rutan, 43, is being held in the Washington County Jail without bond on charges of homicide, arson, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. Ringer, who was 40-years-old at the time of his death, was discovered in a car fire in East Finley Township back on May 16th. State Police arrested three people on Bayard Avenue this week, which is the same street that Lowery-Rutan lived on in Rices Landing, but officials did not release the names of people involved in that standoff or if that incident is related. Lowery-Rutan’s case is sealed as the investigation continues according to the Washington County District Attorney’s Office. A preliminary hearing on this case is set for December 23rd.
December 19, 2021 7:30 am
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration said Saturday that it would not issue citations tied to its coronavirus vaccination mandate before Jan. 10, so that companies have time to adjust to and implement the requirements. The federal agency separately said there would be no citations of companies regarding its testing requirements before Feb. 9. The announcement came after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District in Cincinnati decided on Friday that the mandate for large employers could go forward, reversing a previous court decision made after 27 Republican-led states, conservative groups, business associations and some individual companies challenged the mandate. OSHA said in a statement that it would not issue citations before the listed dates “so long as an employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance with the standard.” The mandate was previously slated to take effect Jan. 4.
December 19, 2021 7:25 am
LONDON (AP) — A senior member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Cabinet resigned Saturday night, adding to a sense of disarray within a government that has faced rebellion from his own lawmakers and voters this week. Brexit Minister David Frost said in a letter to Johnson that he was stepping down immediately after a newspaper reported that he had planned to leave the post next month. Frost said the process of leaving the EU would be a long-term job. “That is why we agreed earlier this month that I would move on in January and hand over the baton to others to manage our future relationship with the EU,″ he said in his resignation letter. However, the Mail on Sunday said earlier that he resigned because of growing disillusionment with Johnson’s policies. The newspaper said Frost’s decision was triggered by last week’s introduction of new pandemic restrictions, including a requirement that people show proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test to enter nightclubs and other crowded venues.
December 19, 2021 7:23 am
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The governor of an island province in the central Philippines said Sunday at least 72 people died in the devastation wrought by Typhoon Rai in more than half of the towns that managed to contact him, bringing the death toll in the strongest typhoon to batter the country this year to at least 146. Gov. Arthur Yap of Bohol province said 10 others were missing and 13 injured, and suggested the fatalities may still considerably increase with only 33 out of 48 mayors able to report back to him due to downed communications. Officials were trying to confirm a sizable number of deaths caused by landslides and extensive flooding elsewhere. In statements posted on Facebook, Yap ordered mayors in his province of more than 1.2 million people to invoke their emergency powers to secure food packs for large numbers of people along with drinking water. Both have been urgently sought in several hard-hit towns. After joining a military aerial survey of typhoon-ravaged towns, Yap said “it is very clear that the damage sustained by Bohol is great and all-encompassing.”
December 19, 2021 3:57 am
NEW YORK (AP) – After 12 days of testimony over three weeks, jurors heard from the final witnesses in the Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking trial. The British socialite told the judge Friday she wouldn’t testify because she was confident prosecutors hadn’t proved their case. Closing arguments are now set for Monday in the trial, in which Maxwell is accused of helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse four teenage girls. The defense rested its case after a tight, two days of presenting witnesses who attested to Maxwell’s character or said they hadn’t witnessed any wrongdoing.
