July 23, 2021 4:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican lawmakers are under increasing pressure to persuade vaccine skeptics to roll up their sleeves and take the shots as a new, more contagious COVID-19 variant sends caseloads soaring. But it may be too late to change the minds of many who are refusing. After months of ignoring – and, in some cases, stoking – misinformation about the virus, more Republicans have been imploring their constituents to lay lingering doubts aside. The outreach comes as COVID-19 cases have nearly tripled in the U.S. over the last two weeks, driven by the explosion of the new delta variant, especially in pockets of the country where vaccination rates are low.
July 23, 2021 4:04 am
BLY, Ore. (AP) – Crews are making progress against the nation’s largest wildfire in Oregon even as fires in neighboring California continue to threaten homes. The Bootleg Fire, which has destroyed an area half the size of Rhode Island, is 40% surrounded after burning some 70 homes. Fire officials say they’ve surrounded much of the bottom half. An upper eastern edge is still advancing toward thousands of homes but authorities say the pace is slower than last week, when the fire exploded. In California, blowing embers from the Tamarack Fire south of Lake Tahoe ignited a fast-moving spot fire, prompting a new evacuation near Topaz Lake on the California-Nevada line.
July 23, 2021 4:02 am
LOGANVILLE, Pa. (AP) – With talks on wider election-related legislation at a standstill, Gov. Tom Wolf says his position on expanding Pennsylvania’s voter identification requirements hasn’t changed, and that he’s against anything that would “suppress the vote.” When Wolf vetoed a Republican-penned election bill on June 30, he cited a list of reasons, including imposing additional voter ID restrictions. Hours later, at a news conference, he said, “we can have that conversation” about whether Pennsylvania’s existing voter ID requirements are enough. On Thursday, he said, “I’m willing to have a conversation about voting reform. … But if you’re trying to suppress the vote, that’s just a nonstarter for me.”
July 23, 2021 3:59 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Justice Department says it has decided not to open an investigation into whether Pennsylvania violated federal law by ordering nursing homes to accept residents who had been treated for COVID-19 in a hospital. Thursday’s letter comes 11 months after the agency told the governors of Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey and New York that it wanted information to determine whether orders there may have resulted in the deaths of nursing home residents. Michigan received an identical letter Thursday. The orders by the four governors were criticized for potentially fueling the spread of the virus. In Pennsylvania, it is far from clear that the policy led to an outbreak or death.
July 22, 2021 1:42 pm
(WPXI) – A car hit four bicyclists, killing one, early Thursday morning on Route 22 in Murrysville, officials said. The crash happened about 4 a.m. on Route 22 eastbound at Brick Hill Road. Eastbound lanes of Route 22 were closed until just before 7:30 a.m. Police said the bicyclists were part of a church group riding from Ohio to Altoona. The bicyclist who was killed, Marcus Coblentz, 25, of Sugarcreek, Ohio, died at the scene, officials said. The other three bicyclists were taken to a hospital and are expected to be OK, according to officials. Police said the 16-year-old driver of the car was not hurt and stayed at the scene to talk with investigators. It is not suspected that drugs or alcohol were involved. A 17-year-old was also in the car and was not hurt.
July 22, 2021 8:47 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week from the lowest point of the pandemic, even as the job market appears to be rebounding on the strength of a reopened economy. The Labor Department says jobless claims increased to 419,000 from 368,000 the previous week. The weekly number of first-time applications for benefits, which generally tracks layoffs, has fallen steadily since topping 900,000 in early January. Americans are shopping, traveling and eating out more as the pandemic has waned, boosting the economy and forcing businesses to scramble for more workers. Complaints by companies that they can’t find enough workers have led 22 states to prematurely end a $300-a-week federal unemployment benefit, which comes on top of state jobless aid.
July 22, 2021 4:21 am
UNDATED (AP) – The White House says there’s been no decision to change the COVID-19 guidance on wearing face masks. Press secretary Jen Psaki insisted Thursday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and not the White House, makes the decisions about public health. Psaki says any change in the guidance would come from CDC. The current guidance is that fully vaccinated individuals do not need to wear face masks while those who are unvaccinated should continue to wear them. White House and public health officials have been discussing whether to update the mask guidance because of the surge in COVID-19 infections blamed on the highly contagious delta variant.
July 22, 2021 4:21 am
A judge says victims and families who suffered losses in the collapse of a 12-story oceanfront Florida condominium will get a minimum of $150 million in compensation initially. Judge Michael Hanzman said at a hearing Wednesday that sum includes insurance on the Champlain Towers South building and the expected proceeds from sale of the Surfside property where the structure once stood. It does not include proceeds from any of the numerous lawsuits filed since the June 24 collapse that left at least 97 people dead. Those lawsuits are being consolidated into a single class action potentially covering all victims and family members.
July 22, 2021 4:19 am
BEIJING (AP) – Local authorities say they have recovered the bodies of all 14 workers trapped when a tunnel under construction was flooded last week in central China. A brief statement on the Zhuhai city government’s social media site gave no further information about the cause of the disaster or the deaths. The tunnel is a section of an expressway being built beneath a reservoir in the city close to Hong Kong and Macao. The rescue effort involved divers, remote controlled submarines and other high-tech equipment, while workers on the surface rushed to pump out water from the tunnel. Zhuhai is a relatively wealthy coastal city at the mouth of the Pearl River delta, which is now being heavily developed for manufacturing and high-tech industries.
July 22, 2021 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden’s administration says it is making $3 billion in economic development grants available to communities – a tenfold increase in the program paid for by this year’s COVID-19 relief bill. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo tells The Associated Press her agency will begin accepting applications for the competitive grants, which officials hope will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. The goal is to help struggling cities and towns make long-term investments to drive development for years to come. The grants will be targeted at supporting local infrastructure, job training programs and developing new industries.
