January 15, 2022 1:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House says the federal website where Americans can request free COVID-19 tests will begin accepting orders on Wednesday. The announcement on Friday comes as the administration looks to address nationwide shortages, but supplies will be limited to just four free tests per home. Americans shouldn’t expect a rapid turn-around on the orders and Americans will have to plan ahead and request the tests well before they meet federal guidelines for when to use a test. The White House said “tests will typically ship within 7-12 days of ordering” through the United States Postal Service, which reports shipping times of 1-3 days for its first class package service in the continental United States.
January 14, 2022 5:28 pm
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico wants to improve children’s diets, so it seized 380,000 boxes of Corn Flakes, Special K and other Kellogg’s cereal, claiming the boxes had cartoon drawings on them. While Cornflakes are clearly not the worst thing Mexican children eat, recently enacted laws prohibit food companies from using marketing tactics that might appeal to children, like cartoons or mascots. Mexico’s consumer protection agency also claimed Friday the cereal boxes did not clearly state nutritional values like calories, fats, salt or sugar, or didn’t have the warning signs for levels of those ingredients that are considered excessive. Kellogg’s did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
January 14, 2022 3:23 am
MOSCOW (AP) – A senior Russian diplomat has refused to rule out a Russian military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela if tensions with the United States over Ukraine and NATO’s expansion in Eastern Europe mount. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in televised remarks on Thursday that he couldn’t confirm or exclude the possibility of Russia sending military assets to Latin America if the U.S. and its allies don’t curtail their activities on Russia’s doorstep. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan dismissed the statement as “bluster.” Russia held talks with the U.S. and NATO this week amid a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine that the West fears might be a prelude to an invasion.
January 14, 2022 3:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden will nominate three people for the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, including Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Fed and Treasury official, for the top regulatory slot and Lisa Cook, who would be the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board. Biden will also nominate Phillip Jefferson, an economist, dean of faculty at Davidson College in North Carolina and a former Fed researcher, according to a person familiar with the decision Thursday who was not authorized to speak on the record. The three nominees, who will have to be confirmed by the Senate, would fill out the Fed’s seven-member board.
January 14, 2022 3:20 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – For the first time in half a year, families on Friday are going without a monthly deposit from the child tax credit. The program was intended to be part of President Joe Biden’s legacy but has instead become a flashpoint over who is worthy of government support. The monthly tax credits started arriving thanks to Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, and the president had proposed extending them for another full year as part of a separate measure focused on economic and social programs. But that bill is stalled in the Senate. More than 36 million families received the payments in December.
January 14, 2022 3:14 am
GEORGES TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WPXI) — A baby girl from Fayette County is in the intensive care unit at Ruby Memorial hospital, after being found unresponsive with no pulse and ice cold to the touch in her playpen. Troopers in Uniontown arrested her father, 26-year-old Keith Kalbaugh, who told police that his daughter spends the majority of her time in the playpen, while he spends his time playing online computer games in his bedroom. The baby had been sleeping and living in the playpen that first responders found her in. She was found in just a diaper, surrounded by feces, decaying food, stains and dirt. Doctors at Ruby Memorial say she was “filthy” and “emaciated” as a result of severe neglect. She is severely underweight, experiencing kidney failure, and multiple abrasions were found on her body. Investigators say the conditions in the home were worse than the conditions outside, and that the floor was covered in trash, diapers, feces, toys, decayed food, dirt, and other unidentifiable items. A 3-year-old child was living there as well. Police say the baby’s mother has not been charged at this time and that she does not live in the home. (Photo: WPXI)
January 13, 2022 4:50 pm
Information has been difficult to come by regarding an accident Wednesday night on the Washington & Jefferson College Campus. Washington City Police say the investigation is being handled by the school’s police force, while the college’s police force tells WJPA News that the investigation is being done by the city police force. A W&J Police spokeswoman told WJPA that a man was riding a bicycle around ten-thirty p.m. on East Beau Street, when he ran into a pedestrian sign in the crosswalk and tumbled off his bike. Initial reports were that the man had been hit by a car. The man was flown to a Pittsburgh area hospital for treatment but there has been no word on his condition.
January 13, 2022 3:25 pm
LONDON (AP) – Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II has stripped Prince Andrew of all his honorary military titles and royal roles in charities and other civic groups, amid a growing furor over allegations he sexually abused a teenage girl supplied to him by financier Jeffrey Epstein. The palace statement Thursday came after more than 150 navy and army veterans wrote to the queen asking her to strip Andrew of all his military ranks and titles. A U.S. district judge on Wednesday refused to dismiss a civil case against Andrew by an American woman, Virginia Giuffre, who alleges the royal sexually abused her when she was 17. Andrew’s lawyers deny the claims. (Photo: AP)
January 13, 2022 9:24 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since mid-November. U.S. jobless claims climbed by 23,000 last week to 230,000, still low by historic standards. The four-week moving average, which smooths out week-to-week blips, was up nearly 6,300 to almost 211,000. The weekly applications, a proxy for layoffs, have now risen four of the last five weeks, possibly a sign that the omicron variant is having an impact on the job market, which has bounced strongly from last year’s coronavirus recession.
January 13, 2022 4:06 am
BOSTON (AP) – Navient, a major student loan servicing company, has settled allegations of predatory lending practices for $1.85 billion. The settlement was announced Thursday and could cancel student loans of tens of thousands of borrowers. The settlement includes $1.7 billion in debt cancellation and $95 million in restitution and involves 39 state attorneys general. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro says the settlement would resolve claims that Navient led student borrowers into long-term forbearances instead of giving them advice on less costly repayment plans. Navient says it did not act illegally and it did not admit fault in the settlement.
