November 6, 2021 7:51 am
MEXICO CITY (AP) – The U.S. government is offering $5 million rewards for information leading to the capture of four Mexican drug lords. Those subject to the $5 million bounty included Aureliano Guzman-Loera, the brother of imprisoned capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The State Department said Friday the four operate in the northern Mexico states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua. áGuzman-Loera and three brothers from the Salgueiro-Nevarez family were indicted in the United States of conspiring to traffick marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, was responsible for about 61,000 overdose deaths in the United States between March 2020 and 2021.
November 6, 2021 7:50 am
DIAMOND BAR, Calif. (AP) – Southern California air regulators have approved new restrictions on area oil refineries that could remove tons of smog-forming pollutants from the air. The board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District adopted rule changes Friday requiring emissions limits on oxides of nitrogen. Those are the gases produced by combustion that contribute to ozone smog. The AQMD says the new rules could reduce those gases by about eight tons a day over the next 14 years. California has some of the nation’s dirtiest air, and some of the worst air quality is near refineries clustered near low-income, heavily minority neighborhoods.
November 6, 2021 7:47 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House has approved a $1 trillion package of road and other infrastructure projects after Democrats resolved a months-long standoff between progressives and moderates. The vote late Friday notches a victory that President Joe Biden and his party had become increasingly anxious to claim. The legislation would create legions of jobs and improve broadband, water supplies and other public works. The 228-206 House vote prompted prolonged cheers from the relieved Democratic side of the chamber. The measure now goes to the desk of a president whose approval ratings have dropped and whose party got a cold shoulder from voters in this week’s off-year elections.
November 6, 2021 4:20 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Jake Corman is the ranking Republican in Pennsylvania’s state Senate. He is widely expected to run for governor and has begun inviting donors to an announcement next Thursday night. The event is billed as a “special announcement” in Corman’s hometown of Bellefonte. Corman’s entry into the race would swell an already big field of Republicans running for governor. It’s double-digits deep and growing. The party is searching for a nominee to potentially succeed outgoing Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat. Corman is the Senate’s president pro tempore and has served in the Senate since 1999. Corman has said he would discuss his political plans after Tuesday’s election.
November 6, 2021 4:19 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf says his mail-in ballot was dropped off by his wife before Tuesday’s election despite a state law requirement that voters deliver them in person. Wolf’s spokeswoman Beth Rementer calls it an honest mistake. Wolf, a Democrat, told a radio interviewer Tuesday that he’d voted two weeks earlier and that first lady Frances Wolf had delivered it. State law requires voters who do not mail their absentee or mail-in ballot to “deliver it in person to (their) county board of election,” although with preapproval others can do it under certain circumstances.
November 6, 2021 3:35 am
The Pleasant Valley School District in Brodheadsville, Pa. has unanimously approved Dr. James Konrad as their new Superintendent. School Board President Donna Yozwiak tells WJPA News the vote was unanimous (8-0). She called Konrad “articulate, charismatic, and very well educated”. She says he was, by far, their top candidate. According to Yozwiak, Konrad will receive a five-year contract with a salary of $170,000. She says some details of that contract are still being finalized but Konrad is to begin his new job before January 10. Yozwiak says Konrad was in attendance at Thursday nights meeting and will be touring district facilities Friday. Konrad has been superintendent at Washington since July of 2017. Attempts to reach Dr. Konrad and other Washington School District officials for comment have been unsuccessful.
November 6, 2021 1:11 am
Don’t forget that the clocks turned back one hour early Sunday morning at 2:00 a.m.!
November 5, 2021 10:26 am
The Trinity School District sent out an alert to parents and guardians Friday morning letting them know that the high school went into, what they called, a short-term administrative lockdown. The message said it happened around 8:40 a.m. “for a safety and security sweep due to reports and allegations.” It goes on to say; “The building was searched and cleared by 8:56 a.m., and the students were dismissed to attend class.” Attempts to reach district officials for comment were unsuccessful. Trinity School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Lucas responded with an e-mail that simply including the message sent to parents. No other details were provided.
November 5, 2021 8:57 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – America’s employers stepped up their hiring in October, adding a solid 531,000 jobs, the most since July and a sign that the recovery from the pandemic recession may be overcoming a virus-induced slowdown. Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate fell to 4.6% last month, from 4.8% in September. The economy’s emergence from the pandemic, by most measures, remains on course. Services companies in such areas as retail, banks and warehousing have reported a sharp jump in sales. More Americans bought new homes last month. And consumer confidence rose in October.
November 5, 2021 7:50 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Pfizer says its experimental pill for COVID-19 cut rates of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% among patients with mild-to-moderate infections. The company announced Friday it will soon ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and international regulators to authorize its pill, which is taken twice a day for five days. A similar pill from competitor Merck is currently under FDA review and was cleared Thursday by U.K. regulators. Drugmakers around the world have been racing to develop an easy-to-use pill to blunt the effects of COVID-19. All therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection.
