September 3, 2021 2:30 am
COVID deaths and infections in Washington County continue to climb. Washington County has added another new COVID death, bringing the death toll to 320, There were also 150 new infections reported, bringing the overall total to 19,576. Across Pennsylvania, health officials reported one of the highest daily totals in several months. There were 4,816 new cases along with 90 new deaths. Hospitalizations across the state are going up as well, with more than eighteen-hundred individuals hospitalized and 481 of those patients in the intensive care unit. Vaccinations continue to remain rather stagnant, even with the FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine. State health officials say sixty-six-percent of eligible adults have been fully vaccinated.
September 2, 2021 10:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 340,000, a pandemic low, another sign that the job market is steadily rebounding from the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Jobless claims dropped by 14,000. Vaccinations for COVID-19 have been supporting the job market by encouraging businesses to reopen or expand hours and consumers to return to restaurants, bars and shops. In response, employers across the country have been boosting hiring to meet a surge in consumer demand. Still, a resurgence of cases tied to the highly contagious delta variant has clouded the economic outlook.
September 2, 2021 4:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Millions of jobless Americans who have depended on federal unemployment aid as a financial lifeline are about to lose those benefits just as the delta variant of the coronavirus poses a renewed threat to the economy and the job market. Two programs – one that provides jobless aid to self-employed and gig workers, the other to people who’ve been unemployed for more than six months – will expire Monday. As a result, an estimated 8.9 million people will lose these weekly benefit payments. An additional 2.1 million people will lose a $300-a-week federal supplemental unemployment payment, which also expires Monday. These recipients will continue to receive state unemployment benefits.
September 2, 2021 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A deeply divided Supreme Court is allowing a Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in force. The court’s action for now strips most women of the right to an abortion in the nation’s second-largest state. In an unsigned order just before midnight the court voted 5-4 to deny an emergency appeal from abortion providers and others that sought to block enforcement of the law that went into effect Wednesday. The Texas law, signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May, prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks and before most women know they’re pregnant.
September 2, 2021 4:17 am
DETROIT (AP) – The global shortage of computer chips is getting worse, forcing automakers to temporarily close factories including those that build popular pickup trucks. General Motors announced Thursday that it would pause production at eight North American plants during the next two weeks, including two that make the company’s top-selling Chevrolet Silverado pickup. Ford will stop making pickups at its Kansas City Assembly Plant for the next two weeks. Shifts will be cut at two more truck plants in Dearborn, Michigan, and Louisville, Kentucky. Industry analysts say the delta variant of the novel coronavirus has hit employees at chip factories in southeast Asia hard, forcing some plants to close. That’s worsened a chip shortage that was starting to improve earlier in the summer.
September 2, 2021 4:15 am
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) – Officials say they lucked out with favorable weather conditions that kept a huge forest fire out of the city of South Lake Tahoe, California. But they also say the tourist hot spot of 22,000 residents on the southern end of the lake remains in danger. Strong winds and dry conditions are forecast for Wednesday. A Cal Fire spokesman says crews are working to keep flames out of urban communities, where homes set close together would provide even more fuel. The South Tahoe Public Utility District pleaded with residents to turn off hoses and irrigation systems to save water for firefighters.
September 2, 2021 4:15 am
NEW YORK (AP) – A stunned U.S. East Coast has woken up to a rising death toll, surging rivers and destruction after the remnants of Hurricane Ida walloped the region with record-breaking rain. At least 26 deaths have been linked to flooding from Maryland to New York from the storm’s strike Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Police in New York City reported nine deaths, as basement apartments suddenly filled with water and roads turned into rivers. Local media reported at least eight deaths in New Jersey and three were reported in a county outside Philadelphia.
September 2, 2021 4:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Former President Donald Trump is backing Republican Sean Parnell in what is expected to be one of the nation’s most competitive Senate contests in next year’s election. Parnell, a former Army Ranger who penned a memoir of his service in Afghanistan, was already getting enthusiastic support from Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., before Trump’s Wednesday endorsement. Parnell became politically active in recent years, running unsuccessfully for Congress last year and landing a coveted speaking slot at the 2020 Republican National Convention. The Democratic field includes Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, who narrowly beat Parnell last year.
September 2, 2021 4:09 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Fourteen Republican state lawmakers are the plaintiffs in a new lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law, asking for it to be thrown out. The legal challenge was filed just before midnight Tuesday in the state Commonwealth Court. It is the latest attempt by Republicans to invalidate the 2019 law that Republican lawmakers almost unanimously supported. Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, says the lawsuit is “not only the height of hypocrisy, but it also has real consequences and damages public trust in our elections.” Republicans soured on mail-in voting last year after then-President Donald Trump began baselessly attacking it as rife with fraud.
September 2, 2021 4:08 am
WEST NEWTON, Pa. — (WPXI) – First responders are keeping close watch on the Youghiogheny river. “We know we’re probably going to have some kind of flooding in West Newton so we’re just watching everything,” said West Newton Mayor Mary Popovich. Popovich said they’re keeping an eye on the river banks and have the emergency operations center ready to go around the clock. “The fire department is available and is ready for pumping water,” she said. “We do have sandbags in place to help people that might get flooding.” The National Weather Service predicts the river will reach flood stage in Sutersville by Thursday morning, causing flooding in basements along the banks. Five miles upstream in West Newton, the business district could start to see flooding too. The Yough also flows into the Monongahela River, creating even more flooding concerns for later in the week.
