July 16, 2021 3:25 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Los Angeles County will again require masks indoors even when people are vaccinated. Also Thursday, the University of California system announced that it will require coronavirus vaccinations for students, faculty and staff to return to campuses. The moves are prompted by a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases, many of them the highly transmissible delta variant. The public health officer of the nation’s largest county said the mask requirement will go into effect just before midnight Saturday. He says Los Angeles County has been recording more than 1,000 new cases each day for a week and there’s now “substantial community transmission.”
July 16, 2021 3:24 am
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Federal prosecutors say two California men have been charged with plotting to blow up the Democratic Party’s headquarters in the state capital. Authorities say the men hoped the bombing would be the first in a series of politically-motivated attacks. Officials say the pair used multiple messaging apps to plan to attack targets they associated with Democrats after the November 2020 presidential election. Their first intended target was the John L. Burton Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento. One of the men is accused of reaching out to an anti-government militia group to gather support for their movement.
July 16, 2021 3:23 am
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Firefighters are scrambling to control an inferno in southeastern Oregon that’s spreading up to 4 miles a day in windy conditions as wildfires across the U.S. West strain firefighting resources. Authorities expanded evacuations late Thursday along the eastern edge of the Bootleg Fire, currently the largest in the U.S., and worry it could merge with another blaze. Dozens more fires were burning in 12 states. Among those was a new one near Paradise, California, the site of the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history. That fire was posing little risk so far but survivors of the 2018 blaze were worried.
July 16, 2021 3:22 am
BERLIN (AP) – The death toll from devastating floods across parts of western Germany and Belgium rose above 90 on Friday, as the search continued for hundreds of people still unaccounted for. Authorities in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate said 50 people had died there. Nine of those killed were residents of an assisted living facility for people with disabilities. In neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia state officials put the death toll at 30, but warned that the figure could rise further. Belgian broadcaster RTBF reported at least 12 dead in the country. The flash floods this week followed days of heavy rainfall which turned streams and streets into raging torrents that swept away cars and caused houses to collapse across the region.
July 16, 2021 3:20 am
CANONSBURG — A West Virginia man has turned himself in about a week after he was charged for a Canonsburg shooting. Reports say Reginald Edward Quick, 48, of Weirton, went to the Sheriffs office to turn himself in, and District Judge James Saieva sent Quick to the County Jail on a $250,000 bond. He was accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend on July 7 at her residence on Ridge Avenue. Quick also was charged with aggravated assault, attempted strangulation, reckless endangerment, burglary and simple assault. He is awaiting a preliminary hearing in mid August with Saieva.
July 16, 2021 3:15 am
PITTSBURGH — The Diocese of Pittsburgh has announced the obligation to attend weekly mass is about to be reinstated for Catholics in the area. Bishop David Zubik made the announcement Thursday and says the obligation for Sundays as well as Holy Days will be put in place August 15 with the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Zubik says since the public health restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic have been restricted, more people are making it back to services. The diocese is still encouraging those who are not physically able to make it to mass to utilize the live streaming services offered by many of the parishes across the area. The church also says if you are ill to stay home until you are healthy again.
July 16, 2021 1:40 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Penn State will impose its first tuition increase for incoming in-state undergraduate students since the 2017-18 school year. Under a plan approved by trustees on Thursday, incoming Pennsylvania resident students will see a 2.5% tuition increase at all campuses for the 2021-22 school year. At the University Park campus, that will mean a per-semester increase of $224, to $9,184, while the per-semester increase at the Commonwealth Campuses will range from $162 to $184, depending on the campus. Under the plan, out-of-state undergraduate students and all graduate students will see tuition increase by 2.75%. The student fee will remain flat for full-time students at the University Park campus.
July 16, 2021 1:32 am
The Washington County Commissioners meeting on Thursday was flooded with supporters of former President Donald Trump, who were calling on commissioners to launch a forensic audit of the 2020 election. Commissioners listened to nearly an hours worth of public comment from the group who claimed election fraud, with one woman calling it a “Digital Pearl Harbour.” Many in the group called on the county to dump the electronic voting machines and go back to using paper ballots. Commissioner’s Chairperson, Diana Irey-Vaughan pointed out that the county would sustain damages, not only from spending millions of dollars to replace the brand new voting machines, but they would be decertified by the state if a third party accessed them for such an audit. Donald Trump won the election in Washington County but lost Pennsylvania. Irey-Vaughn also pointed out that a new review committee oversaw the election and out of some forty allegations of fraud, only two actually warranted investigations. Irey-Vaughan also said that the board would need a recommendation from that committee to move forward with an audit.
July 16, 2021 1:21 am
Washington County commissioners announced Thursday that a special ‘virtual’ meeting will be held Friday July 23rd at 10 a.m. to pass an ordinance to give voters the right to decide if an 11-member committee should be created to study and determine if a structural change to county government is needed. Commissioner’s chair Diana Irey-Vaughan admits issues related to county row offices and concerns expressed by President Judge John Disalle about the Clerk of Courts, Register of Wills and Prothonotary in a recent memo are behind the move. Individuals would run for seats on the commission. Irey-Vaughan says if voters approve such a board in the November election, it would be possible for them to offer recommendations and changes for the 2023 election cycle. She admits changes to county government could take numerous forms.
July 15, 2021 4:57 pm
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) – The recovery efforts for a South Florida condo building that collapsed last month might be coming to an end soon. Miami-Dade police identified four more victims of the Surfside condo collapse Thursday, meaning that 90 of the 97 confirmed dead have been identified. County officials have been able to account for 240 people connected to the building, with eight people still classified as missing, or “potentially unaccounted for.” If seven of those missing are matched to the seven still-unidentified remains, search teams would be looking for one more missing person. Officials have not confirmed that scenario nor said when the search would be complete.
