January 12, 2022 3:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Wolf administration says it has no plans to pursue another COVID-19 emergency declaration, or attempt new statewide mitigation measures or vaccine mandates in response to the omicron variant. The highly contagious strain of the coronavirus is spreading quickly and overloading Pennsylvania hospitals. Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter says the state is “not considering further mitigation at this time,” but is moving to support hospitals hit by staffing shortages and a wave of COVID-19 patients. Gov. Tom Wolf told KDKA-AM radio in Pittsburgh vaccines are his administration’s primary strategy for fighting COVID-19.
January 12, 2022 2:50 am
(WPXI) – A former Greensburg-based dentist is accused of killing his wife with a shotgun while on an African safari in Zambia five years ago and collecting millions in life insurance. Federal authorities charged Lawrence Rudolph, 67, on Dec. 22nd. He was in custody a day later while on a trip to Mexico. Authorities say Rudolph and his wife, Bianca, frequently went on hunting trips to Africa. In 2016, the criminal complaint said Rudolph’s wife wanted to kill a leopard and they had a Remington .375 and Browning 12-gauge with them. Documents said the couple was unsuccessful in their hunt and were packing up to leave their hunting camp in the Kafue National Park when Bianca Rudolph was shot in the chest with the shotgun. Lawrence Rudolph told Zambian investigators he was in the bathroom, heard the blast and found his wife bleeding on the floor. He suspected the gun had been left loaded from the hunt and went off as his wife was loading it in a case. A friend of Bianca Rudolph contacted an FBI office in South Africa about two weeks later asking for her death to be investigated further. The friend said Lawrence Rudolph had affairs in the past and was having one at the time of his wife’s death. FBI agents said Rudolph collected on nine insurance policies, totaling $4.8 million. A jury trial is scheduled for Feb. 28th. Rudolph’s attorney says his client is looking forward to demonstrating his innocence.
January 12, 2022 2:38 am
(WPXI) – Gasoline at a Sunoco in Canonsburg that led to complaints about cars breaking down had “high water content,” the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture confirmed Tuesday. Inspectors took samples from the pumps at the Sunoco on West Pike Street on Dec. 22nd. Drivers reported that their vehicles broke down or experienced issues after the gas was put in their tanks. They said mechanics told them there might have been water in the gas, which was confirmed by the Department of Agriculture’s testing. “The pumps are closed until the business corrects the issue. The process generally involves flushing fuel lines and changing filters in the affected pumps, then replacing the fuel,” the Department of Agriculture’s press secretary said in a statement. Once that process is complete, samples will again be taken and officials say the affected pumps will only be allowed to reopen if the fuel samples pass.
January 11, 2022 4:18 pm
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – New Orleans is bringing back an indoor mask mandate to fight the spread of COVID-19 while preparing for an influx of visitors for the Mardi Gras season. The city health director, Dr. Jennifer Avegno, announced the plan Tuesday. The mandate takes effect Wednesday at 6 a.m. Avegno said growing COVID cases have put a strain on hospital emergency rooms, which also routinely see an influx of patients during the city’s raucous season of parades and street parties. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, falls on March 1 this year and major parades will roll in the last two weeks of February. (Photo: AP)
January 11, 2022 3:40 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Environmental Protection Agency is taking its first major action to address toxic wastewater from coal-burning power plants. It’s ordering utilities to stop dumping waste into unlined storage ponds and speed up plans to close leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash sites. The EPA says plants in four states will have to close the coal ash ponds months or years ahead of schedule. Coal ash is the substance that remains when coal is burned to generate electricity. It can pollute waterways, poison wildlife and cause respiratory illness among those living near massive ponds where the waste is stored. The action marks the first time the EPA has enforced a 2015 rule aimed at reducing groundwater pollution from coal-fired power plants.
January 11, 2022 3:32 pm
(AP) – Scientists are seeing signals that COVID-19’s alarming omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the U.S., at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically. The reason: The variant has proved so wildly contagious that it may already be running out of people to infect, just a month and a half after it was first detected in South Africa. Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle says omicron is “going to come down as fast as it went up.”
January 11, 2022 2:51 pm
UPPER DARBY, Pa. (AP) – Authorities and a witness say a pilot crash landed a medical helicopter without casualties in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia, miraculously avoiding a web of power lines and buildings as the aircraft fluttered, hit the street and slid into bushes outside a church. Upper Darby police Superintendent Timothy M. Bernhardt said at a press conference Tuesday that rescue crews rushed to the crash near a church at an intersection in Upper Darby’s Drexel Hill neighborhood at about 1 p.m. and helped pull the pilot, two crew members and an infant patient from the aircraft. None of them suffered life-threatening injuries.
January 11, 2022 4:26 am
Peters Township School Directors met Monday evening to review the school district’s health and safety plan in a policy committee meeting in advance of their voting meeting on January 18. School Director Lisa Anderson led the discussion to make recommendations for the school board to formally adopt. The meeting started with a power point presentation by Superintendent Dr. Jeannine French outlining what about the pandemic changed since last August. She outlined positive changes such as vaccination availabilities for all students age 5 and up, decreased isolation and quarantine times as suggested by the CDC and the need for students to be taught in person during the school year. She also outlined the negatives such as the increased case count of coronavirus in the schools. She did point out that most of those cases were developed outside the school buildings during the Christmas holiday vacation. Board directors concentrated on how they would like to try and roll back current mask requirements. During discussion, directors’ views on rolling back the mask requirements varied from letting it stand for the next three months to using Department of Health transmission rates as a guide to remove masks. Directors’ thoughts varied on whether a roll back should be automatic or be voted on by the board. No formal policy was put forth. Directors were instructed to communicate with Dr. French and or Board Chairman Thomas McMurray their thoughts so that a plan would be drawn up for next week’s meeting.
January 11, 2022 4:24 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Betty White died from a stroke she had six days before her Dec. 31 death at age 99, according to her death certificate. The Los Angeles County certificate obtained Monday by The Associated Press lists White’s cause of death as a cerebrovascular accident, the medical term for a stroke, on Dec. 25. The cause of death was provided by White’s doctor, as is typical in such cases. The certificate says White was cremated. The beloved “Golden Girls” and “Mary Tyler Moore Show” actor died less than three weeks before her 100th birthday.
January 11, 2022 4:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Attorneys for former President Donald Trump and his associates argue that incendiary statements by Trump and others last Jan. 6 prior to the Capitol riot were protected speech and in line with their official duties. Trump’s lawyers claim he had no intention to spark violence when he called on thousands of supporters to “march to the Capitol” and “fight like hell” to disrupt the Senate’s certification of the 2020 election results. The five-hour hearing Monday in Washington before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta concerned Trump’s attempts to have civil suits against Trump and his associates dismissed.
