February 2, 2021 4:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden panned a Republican alternative to his $1.9 trillion COVID rescue plan as insufficient. Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged Senate Democrats on a private call Tuesday to take bold action to address the pandemic and economic crisis. Senate Democrats marshaled their slim majority to vote, 50-49, on a first step toward approving Biden’s plan with or without Republican votes. The procedural vote launches a lengthy budget process toward passage by March. Biden told Republican senators late Monday he’s unwilling to settle on too small a coronavirus aid package after meeting for two hours over their slimmed-down $618 billion proposal.
February 2, 2021 4:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate has approved Pete Buttigieg to be transportation secretary, which makes him the first openly gay person confirmed to a Cabinet post. Buttigieg is tasked with advancing President Joe Biden’s wide-ranging agenda of rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and fighting climate change. He easily passed a vote on Tuesday. The 39-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has pledged to promote safety and restore consumer trust in America’s transportation sector, which has been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic. He takes over a Transportation Department with 55,000 employees and a budget of tens of billions dollars.
February 2, 2021 4:24 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Democrats say the Senate should convict former President Donald Trump and bar him from office because he endangered the lives of all members of Congress when he aimed a mob of supporters “like a loaded cannon” at the U.S. Capitol last month. Trump’s lawyers deny that he incited rioters and call the upcoming Senate trial unconstitutional. Both sides filed their legal briefs Tuesday in advance of next week’s trial. The Democrats forcefully linked Trump’s baseless efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election to the deadly riot at the Capitol, saying he bears “unmistakable” blame. Trump’s lawyers rejected those charges and said the Senate can’t put him on trial now that he has left the White House.
February 2, 2021 4:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is blasting newly elected Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, calling the far-right Georgia Republican’s embrace of conspiracy theories and “loony lies” a “cancer for the Republican Party.” The statement Monday comes as House Democrats are mounting an effort to formally rebuke Greene, who has a history of making racist remarks, promoting conspiracy theories and endorsing violence directed at Democrats. Democrats have said they will strip Greene of her committee assignments if House Republican leadership refuses to. Greene says Democrats will regret the move if Republicans regain the majority after the 2022 elections.
February 2, 2021 4:20 am
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) – The FBI has confirmed that two agents were killed and three were wounded while serving a federal search warrant in a case involving violent crimes against children in South Florida. The agency says the suspect also is dead. Authorities said the shootings Tuesday involved a suspect barricaded inside a home in an apartment complex in Sunrise, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale. Multiple law enforcement agencies swarmed the neighborhood. More officers have gathered outside a hospital where victims were taken. Sunrise police told neighbors to stay inside their homes.
February 2, 2021 4:11 am
Cecil Township Supervisors welcomed the public back to their meetings on Monday night. For the first time in several months meetings were open to public attendance. One item of particular interest was the approval to begin the hiring process of a Township Fire Chief. Supervisor Chairperson Cindy Fisher says that the position will be one of organization and coordination. One of the responsibilities will be the oversight of fire department funds. Cecil Township does not have one distinct fire department. It is served by three separate and totally independent fire departments that are responsible for their own existence. Fisher indicated that she met with the three chiefs last week and she felt supported in the township’s decision to go forward. The position will be a paid township position. Hiring will be done through advertisements and qualifications set forth by the civil service. Fisher says they hope to have the new chief in place in the next several months.
February 2, 2021 2:46 am
The body of a missing Morgantown, West Virginia woman was found in the trunk of her car in a Walmart parking lot in Morgantown, West Virginia, police said. Thirty-two-year-old Alexa Randolph, a native of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, had last been seen Thursday at her apartment on Overdale Street. Randolph’s car was found Friday afternoon in the parking lot of the Walmart on Hornbeck Road. Investigators then discovered her body in the trunk. The Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office said the case is being investigated as a homicide and they are asking anyone with information on Randolph’s disappearance or death to contact the sheriff’s office at 304-291-7218.
February 2, 2021 2:31 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Former AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has died at age 86. The Washington, D.C.-based union’s current president, Richard Trumka, says Sweeney “was a great leader and true innovator, driving the labor movement forward.” Sweeney spent 14 years steering the nation’s largest labor federation during declining union membership and rising internal dissent. He helped build the AFL-CIO into a political powerhouse more firmly aligned with the Democratic Party and progressive groups on the left. Sweeney stepped down as president in 2009, then served as president emeritus, offering advice to the group’s executive council and delivering speeches. Sweeney was born in New York City, the son of working-class Irish immigrants. He died Monday at his Maryland home.
February 2, 2021 2:25 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Administration officials say Gov. Tom Wolf will propose a sweeping new plan to dramatically boost funding for public schools to be supported by an increase in the state’s personal income tax rate. The Democratic governor will ask the Republican-controlled Legislature for what could approach $2 billion for public schools. The personal income tax increase would take the rate to 4.49% from 3.07%, but increase the exemption for the lowest earners. The last increase in Pennsylvania’s personal income tax rate took effect in 2004. The governor’s plan to increase the personal income tax would raise about $3 billion extra. Wolf’s administration began releasing details of the plan ahead of Wednesday’s planned budget address.
February 2, 2021 2:13 am
NEW YORK (AP) -The award-winning character actor who toured the world as Mark Twain in a one-man show and uttered the immortal advice “Follow the money” in the political thriller “All the President’s Men,” has died. His representative Steve Rohr says Holbrook died Jan. 23. He was 95. Holbrook played the mysterious informant “Deep Throat” who helped steer Washington Post reporters during Watergate and played Twain whenever he wasn’t busy with other acting jobs. He would update the show to fit the times and performed the role by his account some 2,200 times and hung up the white suit in 2017.
