June 11, 2021 4:13 am
CARBIS BAY, England (AP) – World leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are set to commit at their summit to share at least 1 billion coronavirus shots with struggling countries around the world – half the doses coming from the U.S. and 100 million from the U.K. Vaccine sharing commitments from President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday set the stage for the G-7 leaders’ meeting in England. Leaders on Friday will pivot from opening greetings and a “family photo” directly into a session on “Building Back Better From COVID-19.” Biden says the leaders will “help lead the world out of this pandemic working alongside our global partners.”
June 11, 2021 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A bipartisan group of senators is eyeing an infrastructure deal with $579 billion in new spending as part of a $1 trillion total package. That’s according to people briefed on the plan. Negotiators are trying to strike a deal on President Joe Biden’s top priority. The 10 senators have been huddling behind closed doors, encouraged by Biden to keep working on the effort after he walked away from a Republican-only proposal this week unable to resolve differences. The senators are cautioning that changes could still be made, but call their tentative agreement a “realistic, compromise framework” that would be paid for without any tax increases.
June 11, 2021 4:09 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The owner of three coal-fired power plants in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio says that it will shut them down. Houston-based GenOn Holdings LLC said Thursday that it will shut down a generating unit at both Avon Lake station on Lake Erie near Cleveland and Cheswick station on the Allegheny River outside Pittsburgh by Sept. 15. It says it will shut down two generating units at the much larger Morgantown station on Maryland’s Cobb Neck peninsula by next June 1. Coal has fallen out of favor in the climate change era and it’s been buffeted by a flood of cheaper natural gas from shale formations.
June 11, 2021 4:07 am
Washington City Council held the first in person voting meeting in several months and the most anticipated item on the agenda was saved for the end of the meeting. Council was scheduled to approve or reject an ordinance to form a police review board. That board would be a mechanism to allow citizens to review allegations of police misconduct. When the motion was raised for a vote, Councilman Ken Westcott read from a prepared statement requesting that the motion be tabled. He pointed to possible litigation circumstances that may be brought on by the city’s Fraternal Order of Police chapter. Mayor Scott Putnam pointed to a case brought by the police union in Morgantown, WV over a similar ordinance. Putnam and council want to make sure the police union in Washington has its concerns addressed. Dr. Andrew Goudy, President of the Washington, PA branch of the NAACP was shocked at the motion. He indicated that he was not given any advance notice that tabling the measure was even an option. He stayed after the meeting to talk with Putnam to see exactly what brought on the tabling and where the process will go from here.
June 11, 2021 3:42 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit by Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania that sought to overturn a ban on gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the Delaware River basin. Judge Paul Diamond in Philadelphia ruled that GOP lawmakers had no legal right to sue. Senate Republicans led by Sens. Gene Yaw and Lisa Baker claimed the Delaware River Basin Commission overstepped its authority and usurped the Legislature with its moratorium on natural gas development near the river and its tributaries. Diamond says the dispute “is best resolved through the political process.” But the judge gave four municipalities that had joined the suit permission to refile.
June 11, 2021 2:56 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Republican proposal to revamp Pennsylvania election law would affect deadlines, early voting and mail-in ballots and require ID for all in-person voters. The measure, sponsored by Republican State Government Committee Chairman Seth Grove, was made public Thursday. It’s likely to encounter pushback from Democrats in a state where statewide elections are usually competitive. The state’s counties have urged lawmakers to pass something by the end of the month so that changes to how and when ballots are counted will be in place for the Nov. 2 vote.
June 10, 2021 2:52 pm
ROYAL PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – Authorities say a shooting inside a Florida supermarket has left three people dead, including the shooter. Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Spokeswoman Teri Barbera says a man, woman and child died in the shooting Thursday at a Publix in Royal Palm Beach. She says the shooter is among the dead. Publix had no immediate comment. Publix is Florida’s largest grocery chain, with more than 1,200 stores in the South. Further information was not immediately available.
June 10, 2021 10:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell for the sixth straight week as the U.S. economy reopens rapidly after being held back for months by the coronavirus pandemic. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims fell by 9,000 to 376,000 from 385,000 the week before. áThe number of people signing up for benefits exceeded 900,000 in early January and has fallen more or less steadily ever since. Still, claims are high by historic standards. Before the pandemic brought economic activity to a near-standstill in March 2020, weekly applications were regularly coming in below 220,000.
June 10, 2021 8:20 am
An internal inventory report determined that more than $298,000 in food purchased by the Greater Washington County Food Bank went undistributed last year. The report says that food was bought through a state food program with federal COVID-19 relief funds. It came as food insecurity was at its highest during the pandemic. Staff reportedly conducted the inventory in February after Washington County Commissioners voted to redirect some $240,000 in state and federal money to the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank. Commissioner’s Chairman Diana Irey-Vaughan tells WJPA News that they were aware “there was an issue with the distribution of product” but says “the volume was larger than we had anticipated”. Irey-Vaughan says “twelve pantries were closed during the pandemic” and “going from the truck-to-trunk model, we knew that food insecurity was on the rise and there wasn’t enough product getting to the community.” WJPA has reached out to the Greater Washington County Food Bank for comment but has yet to hear back from them.
June 10, 2021 5:10 am
A lengthy search for a new borough manager in Charleroi has ended with the hiring of a Washington City Councilman. Joe Manning was approved for the position in a 5-1 vote by council Wednesday evening. Councilman Frank Pattera cast the lone no vote. Manning is to be paid a salary of $60,000 and will begin work this month. Manning tells WJPA that he plans to finish out his current term on Washington City Council. However, he hasn’t ruled out another re-election bid in the fall. To do so, Manning says he “would have to determine that he could effectively serve both communities.” Charleroi hasn’t had a borough manager since 2014 and officials say they received applications from throughout the state. All applications were submitted through the State Department of Community and Economic Development.
