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.
January 11, 2022 4:15 am
CHICAGO (AP) – Students in the nation’s third-largest school district will resume classes this week after leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union accepted a proposal with the district over COVID-19 safety protocols. Both sides had been locked in an increasingly bitter standoff that canceled classes for five days in the nation’s third-largest district. The full deal still requires approval by the union’s full 25,000 members, but students are expected back in class Wednesday with teachers returning a day earlier. Issues on the table have been metrics to close schools and expanded COVID-19 testing. The union voted last week to revert to online instruction and told teachers not to show up in person at schools as negotiations continued amid a surge in COVID-19 infections.
January 11, 2022 4:08 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – A number of Pittsburgh area schools are impacted by COVID-19 starting Tuesday. In the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Saint Therese School (Munhall) will be closed for in-person instruction Today and Wednesday. In-person classes are scheduled to resume on Thursday, January 13, 2022. Principal Jon Cuniak sent a message to parents informing them about the need for the closure, and detailing procedures for virtual learning. All athletic events (home and away) and extra-curricular activities are also cancelled. Serra Catholic High School (McKeesport) is also experiencing COVID-related staffing shortages, and has moved to online learning for Tuesday and Wednesday. Practices and extracurricular activities will continue. Pittsburgh Public Schools have announced that five schools: Pittsburgh Carrick High School, Pittsburgh Liberty PreK-5, Pittsburgh Lincoln PreK-5, Pittsburgh South Hills 6-8, and Pittsburgh Whittier PreK-5 will reopen Tuesday for in-person learning while six other sites have been added to the District’s rolling building closures. Staff and students at 21 locations will work and learn remotely Tuesday.
January 10, 2022 5:26 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania court won’t block an entire subpoena to state election officials in what Republican state lawmakers call a “forensic investigation” of 2020’s presidential election, fueled by former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that Democrats stole the election. But the statewide Commonwealth Court that issued the seven-page order Monday also did not appear to immediately greenlight the release of some information that Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro challenged as being protected by privacy laws. In the unsigned order, the court said state officials did not persuade it that the subpoena issued in September by a Republican-controlled Senate committee had no legitimate legislative purpose.
