October 21, 2021 4:04 am
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) – Maintenance and service union workers at a West Virginia hospital have given notice that they intend to strike if a new contract isn’t reached soon. News outlets report the Service Employees International Union voted Wednesday in favor of giving a 10-day strike notice to Cabell Huntington Hospital. Union officials said in a statement that “workers are fighting for quality care, safe staffing, wages that allow them to provide for their families and health insurance coverage.” Cabell Huntington Human Resources Director Molly Frick says the hospital will continue “good faith negotiations in order to reach a fair and equitable agreement.”
October 21, 2021 2:46 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The statewide mask order for Pennsylvania schools does not need to be enacted through the state’s system of passing governmental regulations, as state House Republicans had sought, a panel decided Thursday. The Joint Committee on Documents, an obscure entity that includes of members of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration, other executive branch officials and legislative leaders, voted 7-4 that Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam’s Aug. 31 order did not have to be enacted as a regulation. The committee meeting was required after the House Health Committee voted along party lines to request the review and asked the committee to take it up in a Sept. 14 letter from its Republican chair, Rep. Kathy Rapp of Warren County. The hearing came a day after a state court heard argument in a pair of lawsuits challenging the order, including one filed by Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, a Centre County Republican. The status of Beam’s order as a regulation is also an issue in those cases. Opponents of leaving Beam’s order in place as it is said they were concerned about the fact that the order does not have an end date and said they doubted existing law gives Beam the authority she exercised. The committee’s decision can be appealed to Commonwealth Court. House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, who voted to make it go through the regulatory process, said a decision about the appeal has not been made.
October 20, 2021 1:36 pm
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Authorities say human remains have been found near where items – believed to belong to Brian Laundrie – were discovered in a Florida wilderness park as the search continues for clues in the slaying of Gabby Petito. Attorney Steven Bertolino says Laundrie’s parents took part in the search Wednesday with the FBI and local police more than a month after Laundrie was reported missing. They found unspecified articles that belonged to Laundrie and law enforcement efforts were ramped up. Laundrie is a person of interest in the death of Petito, who was reported missing Sept. 11. Her body was found Sept. 19 on the edge of Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park and the coroner concluded she was strangled.
October 20, 2021 12:23 pm
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – Nikolas Cruz has pleaded guilty to murder in the 2018 massacre that left 17 dead at a Parkland, Florida, high school. A jury will now decide whether he will be executed for one of the nation’s deadliest school shootings. Relatives of the victims who sat in the courtroom or watched the hearing via Zoom on Wednesday shook their heads or broke down in tears as Cruz entered his pleas and later apologized for his crimes. Given the case’s notoriety, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer plans to screen thousands of prospective jurors for the death penalty trial. Jury selection is scheduled to begin in January.
October 20, 2021 8:07 am
One person was flown by medical helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital following an accident Wednesday morning in Beallsville. Washington County 9-1-1 dispatchers say it happened just before 6 a.m. near the intersection of Route 40 (Main St.) and Maiden Street. Dispatch says they received conflicting, initial reports; one claimed that it was a multi-vehicle accident with a person laying on the ground but another claimed it was a vehicle versus a pedestrian. State Police Belle Vernon are investigating but are not releasing any other details at this time.
October 20, 2021 4:18 am
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – Negotiations are stretching into a fourth day seeking the return of 17 members of a U.S.-based missionary group kidnapped over the weekend in Haiti by a gang that is demanding $1 million ransom per person. The group includes five children whose ages range from 8 months to 15 years, but a top Haitian official said Tuesday that authorities are not clear whether the ransom amount includes them. Sixteen of the abductees are Americans and one Canadian. The abduction is one of at least 119 kidnappings recorded in Haiti for the first half of October, according to the Center of Analysis and Research of Human Rights, a local nonprofit group. It says a Haitian driver was abducted along with the missionaries.
October 20, 2021 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Scaling back his big government-overhaul plans, President Joe Biden has described a more-limited vision to Democratic lawmakers. In meetings at the White House on Tuesday, Biden told lawmakers he wants a $2 trillion package with at least $500 billion to tackle climate change, along with money for middle-class priorities – child tax credits, paid family leave, health care and free pre-kindergarten. That’s according to lawmakers and others familiar with the private meetings. And he expects negotiations to wrap up as soon as this week. The president met with both centrist and progressive Democrats as they narrow, reshape and finish up what had been his sweeping $3.5 trillion budget plan.
October 20, 2021 4:15 am
PHOENIX (AP) – The Biden administration is threatening to revoke the authority for three Republican-controlled states to handle their own workplace safety regulations because they have refused to adopt rules to protect health care workers from COVID-19. The threats were sent to Arizona, South Carolina and Utah as the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration prepares to adopt much more far-reaching vaccination and testing rules affecting 80 million Americans. OSHA officials say Arizona, South Carolina and Utah are not complying with their promises to enforce labor standards that are at least as good as those adopted by the federal government.
October 20, 2021 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has voted unanimously to hold former White House aide Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress. The longtime ally of former President Donald Trump defied a subpoena for documents and testimony. Trump is still defending his supporters who broke into the Capitol that day. He has aggressively tried to block the committee’s work by directing Bannon not to answer questions while also suing the panel to try to prevent Congress from obtaining former White House documents. The committee’s chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, says: “We won’t be deterred. We won’t be distracted. And we won’t be delayed.”
October 20, 2021 4:08 am
North Strabane Supervisors began their evening with two public hearings on items that they will consider at their next legislative meeting. The first proposal will be for an LED billboard that is to be located on McClelland Road and will be visible to northbound drivers only on I-79. The second item will be a zoning change to a property on Burkett Lane. The owners, Frank and Kristen Ann Hornickel are requesting that their property currently zoned R-2 be changed to C-2 to match up with all surrounding properties and allow them to build an outdoor wedding pavilion. In other business, supervisors will consider allocating American Rescue Plan funds to complete the township’s required MS4 storm water management program. They will also consider allocating ARP funds to help alleviate a storm water issue in the Summerbrooke Plan. Supervisors will meet on October 26 to vote on these items.
