January 28, 2021 4:10 am
WUHAN, China (AP) – A World Health Organization team has emerged from quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan to start field work in a fact-finding mission on the origins of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers could be seen leaving their hotel and boarding a bus on Thursday afternoon. It wasn’t immediately clear where they were going. They were required to complete 14 days quarantine in the hotel after their arrival in China. The mission has become politically charged, as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak.
January 28, 2021 4:06 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania voters will be having the final say on a proposal by legislative Republicans to limit the governor’s powers during a disaster emergency. The House on Wednesday gave its OK to a proposed constitutional amendment that will cap disaster declarations at 21 days unless lawmakers extend them. It would also give lawmakers the ability to end a disaster declaration with a two-thirds vote. It’s expected to be on the ballot for the May 18 primary. Legislative Republicans have repeatedly tried to overturn pandemic response policies undertaken by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf over the past year. Because the two chambers have passed separate bills, one more vote in the House is expected on the Senate version before it’s considered approved.
January 28, 2021 2:46 am
Washington City Police have confirmed that authorities have found the stolen black BMW that was used by the suspect who is wanted in a deadly shooting in Washington and another shooting in Donora on Wednesday. Washington Police Sgt. Jack Hancock tells WJPA that the car was found abandoned on Main Street in West Alexander. No further information was available. Police continue their search for 36-year-old Zackory Sadler of Donora (pictured), who is believed to have shot and killed 41-year-old Darnell Steven Brown in the parking lot outside of the Dollar Store on Highland Avenue in Washington around 4:30 p.m. Police said it appears the shooting was targeted. Brown’s girlfriend and her six children, all under the age of 9, were in an SUV at the time of the shooting. According to police, the suspect, 36-year-old Zackory Sadler, and Brown’s girlfriend have a child together. Children of both Sadler and Brown were in the SUV. Brown was shot as he walked out of the dollar store. Police said Sadler was waiting for him and fired at least two rounds from a car, one of which hit Brown in the head. A second shooting was being investigated in Donora on Heslep Avenue, nearly 30 miles away. It happened at the house of an ex-girlfriend of Sadler. A man was shot in the leg and foot. Authorities say the man was flown from the scene around the same time the situation unfolded in Washington. Washington police have charged Sadler with criminal homicide, seven counts of recklessly endangering another person, former convict not to possess a firearm and firearm not to be carried without a license. Police say Sadler has been charged previously with violent crimes.
January 28, 2021 2:34 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Facing a deep, pandemic-inflicted budget deficit, Gov. Tom Wolf will ask lawmakers for a multibillion-dollar investment into workforce development and employment assistance to help Pennsylvania recover. Wolf’s office said Thursday it would aid workers whose jobs were upended by the pandemic. Wolf, a Democrat, also wants lawmakers to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage. Wolf is scheduled to issue his full budget proposal Tuesday to the Legislature. He has said he is counting on the federal government for more coronavirus recovery aid to help fill the state’s projected budget deficit. Wolf is also entering the lame-duck stretch of his final term, when Republican legislators may be less interested in helping his agenda.
January 27, 2021 5:37 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The state House has given final approval to a proposal to change the Pennsylvania constitution to give alleged victims of child sexual abuse a retroactive two-year “window” in which to file civil lawsuits no matter how long ago the alleged abuse occurred. It passed the state House on Wednesday, leaving only one more vote in the Senate and approval in a public referendum before it can become law. State representatives voted 187 to 15 for the constitutional amendment. If the Senate follows suit, it could be on the ballot for the May 18 primary.
January 27, 2021 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Homeland Security Department has issued a national terrorism bulletin warning of the potential for lingering violence from people motivated by anti-government sentiment after President Joe Biden’s election. The bulletin suggests the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol may embolden extremists and set the stage for additional attacks. The department isn’t citing a specific threat. But DHS points to “a heightened threat environment across the United States” that it believes “will persist” in the weeks since Biden took office. The wording of the single-page document suggests national security officials see a thread between recent violence over the past year motivated by anti-government grievances, whether over COVID-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results or police use of force.
January 27, 2021 4:14 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A defense lawyer says a laptop stolen from the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the U.S. Capitol attack hasn’t been recovered by investigators. Public defender A.J. Kramer told a federal judge Tuesday that investigators didn’t find it in Riley Jean Williams’ car or home in Harrisburg. The 22-year-old Williams is accused of helping steal the laptop, which a Pelosi aide has said was only used for presentations. Prosecutors say there’s evidence Williams directed others to delete data after the attack. A judge in Washington restricted Williams’ internet access while she awaits trial.
January 27, 2021 4:11 am
(AP) – The stock market posted its biggest drop since October Wednesday, led by declines in several Big Tech companies. The S&P 500 gave up 2.6%. The benchmark index had set a record high just two days earlier. The selling was broad, though technology giants including Facebook, Netflix and Google’s parent company accounted for a big part of the pullback. The stock of beleaguered video game seller GameStop more than doubled as an army of small investors ganged up against hedge funds that made huge bets that the stock would fall. The Federal Reserve stressed its commitment to keep interest rates low.
January 27, 2021 4:10 am
President Joe Biden says the U.S. is ramping up vaccine deliveries to hard-pressed states over the next three weeks and expects to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall. Biden is calling the push a “wartime effort.” He said Tuesday that his administration is working to buy an additional 100 million doses of each of the two approved coronavirus vaccines. And he acknowledged that states in recent weeks have been left guessing how much vaccine they will have from one week to the next. He called that “unacceptable” and said “lives are at stake.”
January 27, 2021 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is dispatching the nation’s top scientists and public health experts to regularly brief the American public about the pandemic that has claimed more than 425,000 U.S. lives. Beginning Wednesday, the experts will host briefings three times a week on the state of the outbreak and efforts to control it. Americans can expect a sharp contrast from the Trump administration’s briefings, when public health officials were repeatedly undermined by a president who shared his unproven ideas without hesitation. Wednesday’s briefing will feature the Biden administration’s coordinator for pandemic response, as well as government scientists and public health officials.
