May 20, 2022 4:09 am
Washington County Commissioners recognized the hard work that county hospitals have put in during the Covid-19 pandemic during their meeting on Thursday. Brook Ward, President and CEO of Washington Health System and Lou Panza, President Penn Highlands Mon Valley Hospital were awarded money from the county that was made available from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Washington Health System was awarded $4,088,556 and Penn Highlands Mon Valley received $1,990,117. Both Ward and Panza thanked the commissioners for the funds indicating that the monies will be well used to make up for losses accrued during the Covid-19 pandemic. Commissioner Chairwoman Diana Irey-Vaughn stated that the commissioners recognize the vital role that the health systems play in the county and were pleased that the ARPA funds were a method for the county to help.
May 20, 2022 4:05 am
The Trinity Area School District approved a preliminary budget for the 2022-2023 school year. The spending plan approved at the district’s planning meeting on May 5 is $67,099,354 and calls for a tax increase of .58 mills. Taylor Hott, Director of Physical Services indicates that the tax increase was taken to the limit allowed by law and was needed for several reasons. The biggest reason is the $60 million bond issue that was taken on to build the new middle school. Other drivers for the tax increase include rising health care and pension costs, maintaining a police department and rising fuel and energy costs. Hott indicates that the tax increase will cost each taxpayer an additional $53 per year for every $100,000 of property assessment. The budget will be voted on in June.
May 19, 2022 4:58 pm
RIVERVIEW, Fla. (AP) – Officials say a 64-year-old Florida man whose wife and stepdaughter were terminally ill fatally shot the women and then called 911 before killing himself. The Hillsborough County sheriff said Thomas Schultz told a dispatcher Wednesday morning that the family was “in an impossible situation with no way out.” A neighbor said Schultz told him that caring for both women had become overwhelming. Sheriff Chad Chronister said Schultz asked the dispatcher to send someone to “secure the residence” and then said he had to go because he was “fixing to shoot.” He said deputies found him dead on the back porch. The bodies of his wife and stepdaughter were in their bedrooms.
May 19, 2022 4:21 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A $40 billion infusion of military and economic aid for Ukraine and its allies has cleared the Senate and will head to President Joe Biden for his signature. All Democrats and most Republicans rallied behind the latest, and possibly not last, U.S. financial salvo against Russia’s invasion. Approval comes three weeks after Biden requested a smaller $33 billion version. Though the margins in both chambers were overwhelming, many of the “no” votes in the House and Senate came from supporters of former President Donald Trump’s isolationist agenda. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said before Thursday’s vote that it was “beyond troubling” that some Republicans were adopting Trump’s “soft-on-Putin playbook.”
May 19, 2022 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The federal government is warning law enforcement agencies around the nation of the increased potential for extremist violence after the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion striking down the constitutional right to abortion. A memo from the Department of Homeland Security says violence could come from either side of the abortion issue or from other types of extremists seeking to exploit tensions. Separately, the Justice Department announced Wednesday that the U.S. Marshals Service has the justices of the Supreme Court under 24-hour security.
May 19, 2022 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act to speed production of infant formula and has authorized flights to import supply from overseas. He is facing mounting political pressure over a domestic shortage caused by the safety-related closure of the country’s largest formula manufacturing plant. The Defense Production Act order requires suppliers of formula manufacturers to fulfill orders from those companies before other customers. Biden is also authorizing the Defense Department to use commercial aircraft to fly formula supplies that meet federal standards from overseas to the U.S., in what the White House is calling “Operation Fly Formula.”
May 19, 2022 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House has passed legislation that would devote more federal resources to preventing domestic terrorism in response to the racist mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. The vote Wednesday night was along party lines, 222-203, with one Republican, Illinois’ Adam Kinzinger, in favor. The House passed a similar measure in 2020 only to have it languish in the Senate. But Democrats are pushing for a broader federal focus on domestic terrorism as they lack support in the Senate to move ahead with gun-control legislation. Numerous Republican lawmakers opposed bolstering the Justice Department’s domestic surveillance efforts.
May 19, 2022 4:13 am
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) – The man accused of opening fire on a Southern California church congregation because of his political hatred for Taiwan sent a newspaper a seven-volume diary before the attack. The Chinese-language World Journal bureau in the Los Angeles area said it received the stacks of photocopied pages and a flash drive on Monday – a day after David Chou allegedly opened fire on people at a luncheon at a Taiwanese church in Laguna Woods. The paper didn’t report details of what was in the handwritten Chinese pages but the title referred to a “destroying angel” opposed to Taiwan’s independence from China. The documents were turned over to police. Chou is charged with killing one man and wounding seven other people. He has not yet entered a plea.
May 19, 2022 4:12 am
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – The white man accused of killing 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket appeared briefly in court Thursday after a grand jury indicted him on a first-degree murder charge. Assistant district attorney Gary Hackbush said the indictment of 18-year-old Payton Gendron was handed up Wednesday. He was silent throughout the proceeding and sent back to jail. Someone shouted “Payton you’re a coward!” as he was led out. Ten people were killed and three others wounded in the Saturday shooting at the Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo. Authorities are continuing to investigate the possibility of hate crime and terrorism charges.
May 19, 2022 4:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Vote counting in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate has dragged into a third day as Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick remain essentially tied with tens of thousands of ballots left to tally. Oz led McCormick by 1,240 votes as of midday Thursday. The race remains close enough to trigger Pennsylvania’s automatic recount law, and Oz’s margin has narrowed. Pennsylvania’s Department of State, which oversees elections, says there are about 51,000 mail-in and absentee ballots – 17,000 in the Republican primary – left to be counted. Oz and McCormick have said they believe victory is near.
