September 9, 2021 4:09 am
(AP) – Michael Constantine, an Emmy Award-winning character actor who reached worldwide fame playing the Windex bottle-toting father of the bride in the 2002 film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” has died. He was 94. He made appearances on such TV shows as “My Favorite Martian,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Bonanza,” “Hogan’s Heroes,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Fugitive,” “Quincy, M.E.,” “The Love Boat,” “Remington Steele,” “MacGyver” and “Murder, She Wrote.” His big break came on “Room 222,” an ABC comedy-drama set in a fictional, racially diverse Los Angeles high school, for which he won an Emmy for outstanding performance by an actor in a supporting role in 1970. (Photo: CNN)
September 9, 2021 4:09 am
BOISE, Idaho (AP) – Idaho’s move to crisis standards of care this week is allowing some hospitals to ration health care amid an onslaught of coronavirus patients and officials are warning the rationing could spread to hospitals statewide. The main hospital currently affected by the designation is Kootenai Health in the city of Coeur d’Alene. Some COVID-19 patients there are being treated at a conference center that now resembles a field hospital because the main hospital building is full. Smaller hospitals in the region are not rationing health care but they are frequently unable to transfer patients with serious conditions to Kootenai Health. Idaho has one of the lowest U.S. vaccination rates.
September 9, 2021 4:05 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf is asking President Biden to declare a major disaster in Pennsylvania due to heavy rains, severe flash flooding and tornadoes in the commonwealth last week from the remnants of Hurricane Ida. The governor is seeking a major disaster declaration allowing assistance to individuals for Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Philadelphia, and York counties. It would provide federal funding and services to eligible individuals and households and federal funding to local, county and state governments. Businesses would be eligible for aid through the Small Business Administration.
September 9, 2021 4:04 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Republican primary for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat is turning personal, as real estate developer Jeff Bartos slammed rival Sean Parnell for allegations related to his contentious divorce and child custody dispute. Parnell, the Trump-endorsed candidate, accused Bartos of lying and demanded he drop out of the race. Bartos launched the attack by bringing up restraining orders sought by Parnell’s wife in 2017 and in 2018 during divorce proceedings that are still ongoing. Parnell’s campaign disputed the notion that the temporary orders – granted prior to a hearing involving both parties – were evidence of any wrongdoing. Neither lasted more than a matter of days.
September 9, 2021 4:02 am
ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) – With rising COVID-19 cases, especially among children younger than 12, Allegheny County officials said Wednesday they’re worried about the numbers and that events like football games could be canceled. “We continue to see an increase in cases among children, especially among children who are not old enough to get vaccinated,” said Allegheny County Health Department director Dr. Debra Bogen. At a news conference Wednesday, Bogen said there were 157 cases in children younger than 12 in July. That number skyrocketed to 773 cases in August. She said the county reported 450 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, with more than half of them classified as probable cases. She said cases are being tracked back to large and small gatherings, weddings, parties, concerts and youth football games.
September 9, 2021 2:17 am
(WPXI) – Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Hamlet, who was found to have violated ethics codes, is resigning. The announcement was made Wednesday by the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education and Pittsburgh Public School District Solicitor Ira Weiss. Hamlet’s resignation will be effective Oct. 1st. When asked if Hamlet was pressured to resign, the board said he was not asked to leave and the decision was his own. In late August, the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission said Hamlet violated state ethics codes related to travel expenses. That included being reimbursed for travel that had already been paid for by the school district.
September 8, 2021 1:37 pm
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – A Florida judge has ruled the state cannot enforce its ban on mask mandates in public schools to guard against the coronavirus while an appeals court sorts out whether the ban is ultimately legal. Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper lifted an automatic stay of his decision last week that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state education officials exceeded their authority by imposing the blanket ban through executive order and tagging defiant pro-mask local school boards with financial penalties. The case next goes before the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee. DeSantis says he is optimistic the state would prevail.
September 8, 2021 12:59 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will return to New York City’s streets this year with COVID-19 protocols including a vaccination requirement for parade volunteers. Macy’s says the Nov. 25 parade will be broadcast on NBC and will feature the traditional giant balloons, celebrity performers, clowns and marching bands. Macy’s presented a curtailed version of the parade last year with balloons and performers confined to an area near the retailer’s flagship Manhattan store. Marching bands that had been slated to join the 2020 parade will be participating this year instead. Parade staff members and volunteers will have to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
September 8, 2021 4:16 am
MIAMI (AP) – Tropical Storm Mindy has formed in the northeast Gulf of Mexico, prompting forecasters to issue a tropical storm warning for part of the Florida Panhandle. Mindy could cause as much as 6 inches of rainfall across the Florida Panhandle and portions of southern Georgia and South Carolina through Thursday morning. The tropical storm warning is in effect from Mexico Beach, Florida, to the Steinhatchee River to the east. The storm on Wednesday evening was about 90 miles west-southwest of Apalachicola, Florida, and moving northeast at 21 mph with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph.
September 8, 2021 4:13 am
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina health officials on Tuesday released a report showing 170 ongoing COVID-19 clusters in K-12 schools or child care settings. While the state Department of Health and Human Services said it does not have data on the number of pupils quarantined statewide or the share of those forced to miss school without a remote learning option, districts without mask-wearing requirements are seeing substantially more spread of the virus and hours of lost learning among students. Union County Public Schools, which voted down a proposal last month to require mask wearing in the state’s sixth-largest public school district, reported about one in 8 of the more than 41,000 students in the district were under quarantine, as of Friday.
