April 15, 2020 4:04 am
For the second month in a row, North Strabane Supervisors limited their meeting numbers to one per month. Supervisors had a busy agenda and one of the items approved was an additional month of meeting cancellations. The May legislative meeting will be cancelled and all council business will be conducted on May 19 during what would normally have been their agenda meeting. Council also authorized a declaration of emergency to coincide with the county and the state of Pennsylvania. This declaration is to make reimbursements to the township easier when dealing with PEMA and FEMA for any kind of pandemic expenditures. Supervisors also extended the discount rate for real estate taxes until April 30. Taxes paid after April 30 and until December 31 will be levied at the face rate. No penalty will be assessed until January 1, 2021. Additionally supervisors froze several capital projects until funds begin to come into the township coffers. The biggest project to be frozen was the road paving project. Supervisors also formalized the furloughs of 12 township employees. Township Manager Andrew Walz spoke to all of the employees being furloughed and he states that they all understand the circumstances. Walz also indicated that all are having their health benefits paid and he expects all of them to return once the pandemic eases.
April 15, 2020 2:55 am
A tractor trailer carrying paper towels caught fire late Tuesday night on Interstate 70 in Washington County. Smoke was seen rising from the rig just after 10:30 p.m. in the westbound lanes in Somerset Township. The highway was shutdown for several hours while crews cleaned up the mess and removed the tractor trailer. It has since reopened to traffic. No one was hurt.
April 14, 2020 10:38 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Former President Barack Obama has endorsed Joe Biden in a video saying Biden has “all the qualities we need in a president right now.” That gives Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, a boost from the party’s biggest fundraiser and one of its most popular figures. Obama and Biden are known to be close friends from their two terms in the White House, and Biden leaned heavily on his affiliation with Obama throughout the Democratic primary. Obama released a 12-minute video on Tuesday endorsing his former vice president. Obama is eager to take a more active public role in the campaign, aides say.
April 14, 2020 9:44 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is suggesting that governors’ objections to his claim of absolute authority over when to lift guidelines aimed at fighting the coronavirus are tantamount to insurrection. In a tweet Tuesday, the president invoked the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” and said, “A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain.” Democratic and Republican governors are sounding alarms about a federal power grab after Trump asserted he has the ultimate say on when and how to reopen the economy after weeks of tough social distancing guidelines. (Photo: thewrap.com)
April 14, 2020 4:03 am
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A liberal challenger has ousted a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice endorsed by President Donald Trump. Court candidate Jill Karofsky on Monday overcame a successful push by Republicans to forge ahead with last week’s election even as numerous other states postponed theirs due to the coronavirus pandemic. Joe Biden also easily won the state’s presidential primary. Biden’s win was a foregone conclusion. But Karofsky’s decisive victory could be viewed as a bellwether in battleground Wisconsin ahead of the November presidential election. Her victory narrows conservative control of the state’s highest court o 4-3.
April 14, 2020 4:03 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Gov. Andrew Cuomo says New York’s death toll from coronavirus has topped 10,000, with hospitals still seeing 2,000 new patients a day. The death tally hit the milestone only about a month after the state recorded its first death. The state tallied 671 new deaths on Sunday. It was the first time in a week the daily toll dipped below 700. Still, the governor noted Monday that people are still dying at a “horrific level of pain and grief and sorrow.” Meanwhile, New York City’s health department says the city is in danger of running out of swabs for COVID-19 tests and should test only hospitalized patients.
April 14, 2020 4:02 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea’s military says a barrage of North Korean missiles fired from both the ground and fighter jets has splashed down on the waters off the country’s east coast a major show of force on the eve of a key state anniversary in the North and parliamentary elections in the rival South. The back-to-back launches Tuesday were the most high-profile among a series of weapons tests that North Korea has conducted recently amid stalled nuclear talks and outside worries about a possible coronavirus outbreak in the country.
April 14, 2020 4:01 am
BANGKOK (AP) – Singapore has reported its biggest daily jump in new coronavirus infections. Most of the new cases are linked to foreign workers living in crowded dormitories. Tens of thousands of foreign workers in the city-state are quarantined in their dorms and some were moved elsewhere to reduce crowding. A government minister says the three remaining weeks of Singapore’s partial lockdown will be “a critical window” in preventing large-scale spread. Elsewhere around the Asia-Pacific region, a U.S. sailor who was among hundreds of infections on the USS Theodore Roosevelt has died. India is extending the world’s largest lockdown into May, and almost 400 new cases were reported in Japan.
April 14, 2020 3:55 am
Peters Township Council has been keeping an eye on the financial effects of the Covid-19 virus. Township Manager Paul Lauer presented council with an early view of what needs to happen to scheduled projects for the balance of 2020. Lauer said that it is too early to tell what the full financial effects will be because we are only about a month into the stay in place order and there is no idea of when it will end. Lauer does expect to be able to weather the storm because the township conservatively budgets each year making sure that at least 15% of anticipated revenues are in savings as a rainy day fund. Lauer states that the township exceeds that 15% level. The township also has roughly $2 million dollars built into the budget in case of unforeseen expenses. Lauer is confident that Peters Township will be fine financially. That is not to say all is rosy, as some furloughs have occurred, but staff understands why they were furloughed. Because of contracts awarded and the way grants are funded, Peters Township will go forward with its 2020 road paving and sewer repair program. Also slated to begin is the Rolling Hills Drive project and the realignment of the intersection of E. McMurray Road and Valleybrook Road. One popular program that will not take place this year is Community Day. Council felt that bringing over 5000 people together in this age of social distancing would not be a good idea, furthermore, residents would probably shy away from the event because of social distancing.
April 14, 2020 3:53 am
Governors in the Northeast and along the West Coast are announcing separate state compacts to coordinate how to begin reopening society amid the coronavirus pandemic. They did not announce a timeline but said they will consider the health of residents first and will be guided by science. Nine of the 10 states involved have Democratic governors. The Northeast coalition includes Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. The West Coast one consists of California, Oregon and Washington.
