August 31, 2021 4:14 am
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday that state and local emergency responders conducted 20 rescues from flooded areas in the state’s three coastal counties.He said he decided to let federal search-and-rescue teams leave Mississippi to help with bigger problems in Louisiana. Reeves said Mississippi had plenty of local teams to do what was needed. Meanwhile, early Monday evening hundreds of utility trucks with buckets and ladders were seen parked at an outlet mall in Gulfport, Mississippi, that was being used as a staging area. Workers said they were waiting on roads to be cleared and electrical substations restored before heading west into Louisiana to erect new poles and lines.
August 31, 2021 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Social Security and Medicare, the government’s two biggest benefit programs, remain under intense financial pressure with the retirement of millions of baby boomers and a devastating pandemic putting increased pressures on the two programs’ finances. A report from the programs’ trustees released Tuesday moved up by one year the date for the depletion of Social Security’s reserves. It now projects Social Security will be unable to pay full benefits starting in 2034 instead of 2035. Medicare is still expected to exhaust its reserves in 2026, the same date as estimated last year.
August 31, 2021 4:10 am
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – The Taliban now have full control of Kabul’s international airport after the last U.S. plane took off. The scene on Tuesday marks the end of America’s longest war, a quiet airfield in the Afghan capital and a few Afghans outside the gates still hoping to flee the insurgents’ rule. Vehicles raced back and forth along the Hamid Karzai International Airport’s sole runway on the northern military side of the airfield. Before dawn broke, heavily armed Taliban fighters walked through hangars on the military side, passing some of the seven CH-46 helicopters the U.S. State Department used in its evacuations before rendering them unflyable.
August 31, 2021 4:06 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A former state lawmaker and two-time congressional candidate from the Pittsburgh area says he’ll run for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor next year. Rick Saccone said Monday that he’ll make a formal announcement Sept. 10. Saccone drew attention Jan. 6 when he posted videos online from outside the U.S. Capitol that appeared to support the violent insurrection by supporters of then-President Donald Trump to prevent Congress from confirming Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. Saccone said Monday that he hasn’t had any run-in with law enforcement over his statements and insisted he knew of no violence at the Capitol until he was at his bus, ready to leave.
August 31, 2021 3:15 am
(WPXI) – A judge has denied the motion for a temporary restraining order in federal court Monday after a group of parents wanted the Canon-McMillan School District to require masks. Classes resumed last week and masks are optional right now. The lawsuit asked a judge to require students and staff to wear masks. Parents of some students say that with how the delta variant is spreading, masks should be mandatory. The attorney representing the parents was successful in obtaining a temporary restraining order in the North Allegheny School District that made masks mandatory. The district reverted back to an optional policy, according to the attorney, just days before the start of the school year and by then, parents had missed the deadline for alternative educational programs like learning from home.
August 31, 2021 2:40 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians will lose federal unemployment benefits after this week, including an extra $300 per week, an extra 13 weeks of benefits and benefits for the self-employed. Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration said Monday that there are sources of help for people who need it once those benefits run out, including federal rental assistance through counties, Medicaid, food stamps and temporary cash-assistance for low-income families. The state’s regular 26-week unemployment compensation benefits will continue, without the extra $300 federal benefit on top. The American Rescue Plan Act, signed by President Joe Biden in March, extended those federal benefits and set them to expire after this week.
August 31, 2021 2:22 am
COVID cases in Washington County are continuing to climb and so are the number of fatalities. Over the weekend, Washington County reported two new COVID related deaths, bringing the county’s death toll to 317. There were also 182 new infections reported, bringing the overall total to 19,369. In Allegheny County, over the past seventy-two hours, there were 945 new cases and one new death. Across Pennsylvania, over that same time period, health officials reported more than 9,000 new cases along with 34 new deaths. Hospitalizations across the state are going up as well, with more than seventeen-hundred individuals hospitalized. Four-hundred and seventy-six of those patients are 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-five-point-seven-percent of eligible adults have been fully vaccinated.
August 30, 2021 1:56 pm
UNDATED (AP) – The Education Department says it’s investigating five Republican-led states that have banned mask requirements in schools, saying the policies could amount to discrimination against students with disabilities or health conditions. The department’s office for civil rights sent letters to education chiefs in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. Those states have barred schools from requiring masks among students and staff, a move that the department says could prevent some students from safely attending school. It marks a sharp escalation in the Biden administration’s battle with Republican states that say wearing masks should be a personal choice.
August 30, 2021 4:19 am
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) – Fire officials have ordered more evacuations around the Tahoe Basin as crews deal with a two-week old blaze. Officials said Sunday evening the fire was “more aggressive than anticipated” as it continues to edge toward Lake Tahoe. Cal Fire Division Chief Erich Schwab said the Caldor Fire has been growing by about a half-mile each day for the last few days but on Sunday expanded by 2.5 miles. The Caldor Fire is 19% contained after burning nearly 245 square miles. More than 600 structures have been destroyed and at least 18,000 more were under threat.
August 30, 2021 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The United States has completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war and closing a sad two-decade chapter in military history. It’s likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises and a frantic final exit that cost the lives of 13 service members, some barely older than the war. The last U.S. Air Force evacuation flight from Kabul airport late Monday marked the end of a frantic effort to get out Americans, Afghans and others desperate to escape the Taliban’s return to power 20 years after they were ousted in a U.S.-led invasion. More than 2,400 Americans lost their lives in the long war.
