December 22, 2021 4:12 am
CHICAGO (AP) – Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the nation’s third-largest city will require proof of coronavirus vaccination at restaurants, bars, gyms and other indoor venues. Lightfoot said Tuesday that the requirement will take effect Jan. 3. It comes as the rapidly spreading omicron variant has led to a spike in COVID-19 infections. Lightfoot says she hasn’t been as concerned about COVID-19 as she is now since the early days of the pandemic in 2020. On Monday, Illinois reported about 12,330 new COVID-19 cases, which is the highest daily total in more than a year. Chicago is seeing an average of 1,700 cases per day, up from about 300 per day just weeks ago. Much of that increase has been driven by the omicron variant, prompting fears of a winter surge.
December 22, 2021 4:11 am
NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. health officials say 2021 is shaping up to be even deadlier than last year. It’s too early to say for sure, since all the death reports for November and December won’t be in for many weeks. But based on available information, it seems likely 2021 will surpass last year’s record number of deaths by at least 15,000. That’s according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year was the most lethal in U.S. history, due largely to the COVID-19 pandemic. A CDC report being released Wednesday shows 2020 was actually even worse than it previously reported, with more than 3.3 million U.S. deaths.
December 22, 2021 4:08 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s highest court is putting a final nail into the coffin of a proposed victims’ rights constitutional amendment that state voters supported by a large margin more than two years ago but which has never gone into effect. The justices ruled Tuesday by a 6 to 1 vote that the sprawling proposal violated the Pennsylvania Constitution’s requirement that amendments address a single topic to prevent lawmakers from bundling together items that might not pass on their own individual merits. Unofficial tallies indicate the so-called “Marsy’s Law” amendment question passed by a ratio of 3 to 1 in 2019.
December 22, 2021 4:07 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Republican lawmakers aiming to expand what they call a “forensic investigation” of Pennsylvania’s 2020 election into the inspection of voting machines must wait until next month. A Commonwealth Court judge said Tuesday that Fulton County must first work out an agreement with the state. Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt gave them until Jan. 10. State lawyers last week discovered that Fulton County commissioners had voted to allow a contractor hired by Senate Republicans to inspect voting systems it used in last year’s presidential election. Wolf’s administration says such access by someone who isn’t federally accredited to inspect voting systems posed a risk of damaging or altering their software or data.
December 22, 2021 4:05 am
North Strabane Township supervisors buttoned up their year by approving the budget for 2022. No tax increase is in store for residents this year as the $36 million spending plan was adopted by a vote of 4-1. Council chairman Neil Kelly was the dissenting vote and offered no comment on why he voted no. The new budget is $6 million more than last year. According to Township Manager Andrew Walz, a bond floated earlier this year figures into the budget total. The Building Construction fund is the biggest category holding more than $9.4 million in funds. Walz indicates that a lot of construction is ongoing and will begin in 2022 to use that fund category. The township will finish the Eighty Four fire department substation, they will put out to bid the new public safety building on Rt. 19 and they hope to begin design on the new administration building near the park.
December 21, 2021 3:56 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – A strike at Kellogg that has gone on since early October has ended after workers voted to ratify a new labor contract at the company’s four U.S. cereal plants. The contract covers approximately 1,400 workers represented by the union at plants in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Kellogg said Tuesday that the new contract provides immediate, across the board wage increases and enhanced benefits for all. It also provides an accelerated, defined path to top-tier wages, a major sticking point for workers. The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union said the contract is a win for workers.
December 21, 2021 3:52 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania has rebuffed a request for him to sit down for an interview and turn over documents to the committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Perry joins other allies of former President Donald Trump in trying to stonewall the committee. Perry said Tuesday the nine-member panel is “illegitimate” and “not duly constituted under the rules of” the House. Perry is the first sitting member of Congress the panel has requested to speak with. The committee has requested Perry provide information for its investigation surrounding his efforts to “install former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark as acting Attorney General.”
December 21, 2021 4:43 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Republican state senator who has helped spread conspiracy theories about last year’s presidential election and led opposition to pandemic-related shutdowns, vaccine mandates and masking orders is all but officially declaring that he’ll run for governor. Sen. Doug Mastriano said in appearances online over the weekend that he has reached the fundraising goal he set to formally become a candidate and is organizing an announcement rally Jan. 8 near his home in south-central Pennsylvania. Mastriano is the third state senator to enter the double-digits-deep Republican field to potentially succeed outgoing Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat.
December 21, 2021 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection has requested an interview and documents from congressman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. The Republican lawmaker is the first sitting member of Congress the panel has requested to speak with. The committee has requested Perry provide information for its investigation surrounding his efforts to “install former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark as acting Attorney General.” Investigators say Perry pushed the Justice Department to overturn the election and met with President Donald Trump ahead of the violent attack.
December 21, 2021 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden plans to stress in an upcoming speech the importance of getting vaccinated to protect from a wave of COVID-19 infections tied to the new omicron variant as Christmas approaches. The world is confronting the prospect of a second straight holiday season with COVID-19. Scientists don’t yet know whether omicron causes more serious disease, but they do know that vaccination should offer strong protections against severe illness and death. Biden’s top medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says Biden will issue “a stark warning of what the winter will look like” for unvaccinated Americans when he speaks on Tuesday.
