August 1, 2021 8:06 am
VERONA, Italy (AP) — Shouts of “Liberty!” have echoed through the streets and squares of Italy and France as thousands show their opposition to plans to require vaccination cards for normal social activities, such as dining indoors at restaurants, visiting museums or cheering in sports stadiums. Leaders in both countries see the cards, dubbed the “Green Pass” in Italy and the “health pass” in France, as necessary to boost vaccination rates and persuade the undecided. Italian Premier Mario Draghi likened the anti-vaccination message from some political leaders to “an appeal to die.” The looming requirement is working, with vaccination requests booming in both countries. Still, there are pockets of resistance by those who see it as a violation of civil liberties or have concerns about vaccine safety. About 80,000 people protested in cities across Italy last weekend, while thousands have marched in Paris for the past three weekends, at times clashing with police.
August 1, 2021 8:05 am
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) — Ohio has planted a memorial grove of native trees to remember people who died of COVID-19, and governors and state lawmakers nationwide are considering their own ways to mark the toll of the virus. Temporary memorials have sprung up across the U.S. — 250,000 white flags at RFK stadium in the nation’s capital, a garden of hand-sculpted flowers in Florida, strings of origami cranes in Los Angeles. The process of creating more lasting remembrances that honor the over 600,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus, though, is fraught compared to past memorial drives because of the politics. Last year, a bill kickstarting a national COVID-19 memorial process died in Congress as the Trump administration sought to deemphasize the ravages of the pandemic.
August 1, 2021 8:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Unable to produce the final text of a nearly $1 trillion infrastructure bill, the Senate wrapped up a rare Saturday session making little visible progress on the legislative package, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed the work would get done. The Senate planned to reconvene Sunday. Senators and staff have been laboring behind the scenes for days to write what is certain to be a massive piece of legislation. An early draft swelled beyond 2,500 pages. To prod the work along, Schumer kept senators in a weekend session, encouraging the authors of a bipartisan infrastructure plan to finish drafting the bill so that senators can begin offering amendments. Several senators had predicted that the text of the bill would be ready for review late Friday or early Saturday, but it was not done when the Senate opened for business late in the morning. Nor was it ready to be filed when Schumer closed the floor 11 hours later. Schumer, D-N.Y., said he understood that completing the writing of such a large bill is a difficult project, but he warned that he was prepared to keep lawmakers in Washington for as long as it took to complete votes on both the bipartisan infrastructure plan and a budget blueprint that would allow the Senate to begin work later this year on a massive, $3.5 trillion social, health and environmental bill.
August 1, 2021 8:01 am
WILKINSBURG, Pa. — The Allegheny County Police Department’s General Investigations Unit responded to a shooting in Wilkinsburg. At approximately 10.16 p.m., Allegheny County 911 was notified of a shooting in the 1900 block of McNary Blvd. First responders found two men with gunshot wounds, both non-life-threatening. The victims were taken to local hospitals. Allegheny County Police Department detectives are initiating the investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the County Police Tip Line 1-833-ALL-TIPS. Callers can remain anonymous.
August 1, 2021 7:59 am
HEMPFIELD TWP., PA — A Jeannette couple died in a single-vehicle collision Saturday night in Westmoreland County. According to coroner Kenneth Bacha, 61-year-old Walter Gardner was the operator of a 2001 Ford F-150 traveling north on Agnew Road. Catherine Gardner, 58, was riding as the lone passenger when the vehicle left the roadway for an unknown reason just before 6:00 p.m. The truck traveled down an embankment into a wooded area, rolled over, and came to rest upright in a small creek according to reports. The couple both died of blunt force trauma of the head and torso and were pronounced dead just after 6:30 p.m. Both victims were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash, and cellphones do not believe to be a factor. The air bags did deploy during the crash. Pennsylvania State Police Greensburg also investigated on scene.
August 1, 2021 7:50 am
MORGAN TWP., PA. — A Jefferson woman is dead following a motor vehicle accident in Greene County Friday night. According to Coroner Gene Rush, 37-year old Christin Whateley was the lone victim in an accident on State Route 188 in Morgan Township just before 11:00 p.m. The cause and manner of Whateley’s death are still pending investigation.
August 1, 2021 4:23 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Department of Health will carry out a text messaging campaign to encourage roughly 254,000 people in the state to follow through and get the second shot of the two-shot COVID-19 vaccine that they never received. Officials said Thursday that the campaign will begin early next week as the resurgent coronavirus in the form of the highly contagious delta variant is skyrocketing cases in Pennsylvania. The state’s acting health secretary, Alison Beam, said the second dose will provide stronger protection against the delta variant. She said it’s not too late to get it, and it’s not necessary to start over with the first shot.
July 31, 2021 9:30 am
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Two U.N. agencies are warning that hunger is expected to rise in 23 global hotspots in the next three months with the highest alerts for “catastrophic” situations in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, southern Madagascar, Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria. The Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Program said in Friday’s report that between August and November “acute food insecurity is likely to further deteriorate” especially in Ethiopia where the number of people facing starvation and death is expected to rise to 401,000 — the highest number since the 2011 áSomalia famine — if aid isn’t provided quickly.
July 31, 2021 9:28 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Russian hackers behind the massive SolarWinds cyberespionage campaign broke into the email accounts of some of the most prominent federal prosecutors’ offices around the country last year. The Justice Department made the announcement Friday. The department says 80% of Microsoft email accounts used by employees in the four U.S. attorney offices in New York were breached. All told, the Justice Department says 27 U.S. Attorney offices had at least one employee’s email account compromised during the hacking campaign. The Justice Department says it believes the accounts were compromised from May 7 to December 27, 2020.
July 31, 2021 9:24 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senators are returning to the Capitol for a rare Saturday session as they try to make further progress on a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan. A bipartisan group of senators helped it clear one more hurdle Friday and braced to see if support can hold during the next few days of debate and efforts to amend it. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber should be able to process the legislation quickly given the bipartisan support. But as Friday evening came around, the full text of what promises to be a massive bill was not finished by the time lawmakers adjourned.
