August 2, 2021 4:26 am
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – A day after it recorded the most new daily cases since the start of the pandemic, Florida on Sunday broke a previous record for current hospitalizations set more than a year ago before vaccines were available. The Sunshine State had 10,207 people hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 cases. That’s according to data reported to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on Sunday. The previous record was from more than a year ago, July 23, 2020, more than a half-year before vaccinations became widespread, when Florida had 10,170 hospitalizations. That is according to the Florida Hospital Association.
August 2, 2021 4:21 am
BLY, Oregon (AP) – Firefighters in Oregon reported good progress in the battle against the nation’s largest wildfire, while authorities canceled evacuation orders near a major blaze in Northern California. Containment of the Bootleg Fire in remote southern Oregon is up to 74% on Sunday. It was 56% contained a day earlier. The blaze has scorched 646 square miles. California’s Dixie Fire covered nearly 383 square miles in mountains where 42 homes and other buildings have been destroyed. On Hawaii’s Big Island, a fire nearly 63 square miles in size has forced evacuations, and at least one home has been destroyed.
August 2, 2021 4:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – After much delay, senators have unveiled their $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act clocks in at more than 2,700 pages. It includes new expenditures on roads, bridges, water pipes broadband and other projects, plus cyber security. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer kept the senators in a rare weekend session to wrap up the work Sunday. He said the bill could be passed “in a matter of days.” Senators will start offering amendments as soon as Monday. The bill is a key part of President Joe Biden’s agenda.
August 2, 2021 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House says that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was “unable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium.” It asks that states and local governments put in policies to keep renters in their homes. Mass evictions could potentially worsen the recent spread of the COVID-19 delta variant. Roughly 1.4 million households told the Census Bureau they could “very likely” be evicted from their rentals in the next two months. But the Biden administration says it is unable to take action. But it also notes that state-level efforts to stop evictions would spare a third of the country from evictions over the next month.
August 2, 2021 4:17 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The governor of Pennsylvania is asking state lawmakers to return to Harrisburg within a month to extend a statewide disaster emergency intended to help stem the opioid addiction crisis. In a letter to the General Assembly, Tom Wolf said he plans an Aug. 5 renewal of the disaster emergency declaration first issued in January 2018 and wants lawmakers to consider extending it by Aug. 26. The governor can no longer unilaterally extend the 90-day disaster emergency declaration, something he had done more than a dozen times, following approval by the voters of a state constitutional amendment curbing the emergency powers of a Pennsylvania governor.
August 2, 2021 4:13 am
MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) – The National Weather Service has confirmed a ninth tornado that struck during storms last week in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Forecasters said Sunday that an EF-1 tornado with peak winds up to 90 mph appeared in the Weisenberg Township area of Lehigh County during Thursday’s storms, uprooting trees and causing some minor roof damage. Authorities earlier confirmed eight other tornadoes in the neighboring states during Thursday’s storm, including the EF-3 storm in eastern Pennsylvania and an EF-2 tornado that started in the Keystone State and then moved into the Garden State.
August 2, 2021 4:08 am
HEMPFIELD TWP., Pa. — Two people were killed in a crash in Westmoreland County on Saturday evening. The Westmoreland County Coroner identified the two people as Walter J. Gardner, 61, and Catherine M. Gardner, 58, both of Jeannette. Police said the crash occurred in the 400 block of Agnew Road, Hempfield Township shortly before 5:45 p.m. Saturday. Walter Gardner was driving a 2001 Ford F-150 north on Agnew Road, when for unknown reasons the vehicle went off the road, down an embankment into a wooded area, rolled over and came to rest in a small creek. Catherine Gardner was a passenger in the vehicle. Both suffered blunt force trauma to the head and torso, and were pronounced dead at the scene. Neither was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, according to a news release. Police continue to investigate.
August 1, 2021 8:06 am
VERONA, Italy (AP) — Shouts of “Liberty!” have echoed through the streets and squares of Italy and France as thousands show their opposition to plans to require vaccination cards for normal social activities, such as dining indoors at restaurants, visiting museums or cheering in sports stadiums. Leaders in both countries see the cards, dubbed the “Green Pass” in Italy and the “health pass” in France, as necessary to boost vaccination rates and persuade the undecided. Italian Premier Mario Draghi likened the anti-vaccination message from some political leaders to “an appeal to die.” The looming requirement is working, with vaccination requests booming in both countries. Still, there are pockets of resistance by those who see it as a violation of civil liberties or have concerns about vaccine safety. About 80,000 people protested in cities across Italy last weekend, while thousands have marched in Paris for the past three weekends, at times clashing with police.
August 1, 2021 8:05 am
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) — Ohio has planted a memorial grove of native trees to remember people who died of COVID-19, and governors and state lawmakers nationwide are considering their own ways to mark the toll of the virus. Temporary memorials have sprung up across the U.S. — 250,000 white flags at RFK stadium in the nation’s capital, a garden of hand-sculpted flowers in Florida, strings of origami cranes in Los Angeles. The process of creating more lasting remembrances that honor the over 600,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus, though, is fraught compared to past memorial drives because of the politics. Last year, a bill kickstarting a national COVID-19 memorial process died in Congress as the Trump administration sought to deemphasize the ravages of the pandemic.
August 1, 2021 8:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Unable to produce the final text of a nearly $1 trillion infrastructure bill, the Senate wrapped up a rare Saturday session making little visible progress on the legislative package, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed the work would get done. The Senate planned to reconvene Sunday. Senators and staff have been laboring behind the scenes for days to write what is certain to be a massive piece of legislation. An early draft swelled beyond 2,500 pages. To prod the work along, Schumer kept senators in a weekend session, encouraging the authors of a bipartisan infrastructure plan to finish drafting the bill so that senators can begin offering amendments. Several senators had predicted that the text of the bill would be ready for review late Friday or early Saturday, but it was not done when the Senate opened for business late in the morning. Nor was it ready to be filed when Schumer closed the floor 11 hours later. Schumer, D-N.Y., said he understood that completing the writing of such a large bill is a difficult project, but he warned that he was prepared to keep lawmakers in Washington for as long as it took to complete votes on both the bipartisan infrastructure plan and a budget blueprint that would allow the Senate to begin work later this year on a massive, $3.5 trillion social, health and environmental bill.
