January 1, 2021 4:07 am
Tens of thousands of people are walking on the casino-lined Las Vegas Strip on New Year’s Eve in the evening despite a plea from Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak that people reconsider their plans to go out and celebrate. While shopping, gambling, drinking yard-long frozen cocktails and gawking at the sights, most everyone out in Sin City was wearing a face mask, though not all had them covering their mouth and nose. Casinos have abided by state rules by spacing out chairs at slot machines and installing acrylic partitions separating people standing around craps and blackjack tables.
January 1, 2021 4:05 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has thanked his people for their trust and support in difficult times and wished them good health in New Year’s Day cards. Kim is expected to skip his usual televised speech and address a ruling party congress this month. State media quoted Kim as saying, “I will work hard to bring earlier the new era in which the ideals and desires of our people will come true.” North Korea is one of the world’s most cloistered countries and it’s virtually impossible to independently confirm whether all its 25 million people received Kim’s cards, the first sent by a leader since 1995. Kim faces the toughest challenges of his nine-year rule due to the pandemic, natural disasters and sanctions.
January 1, 2021 4:04 am
MIAMI (AP) – Health officials say they’ve found evidence in a Florida man of the latest U.S. case of the new and apparently more contagious coronavirus strain first seen in England. The Florida Health Department tweeted a statement late Thursday that the new virus strain was detected in a man in his 20s with no recent travel history. It comes after recent reports of confirmed cases elsewhere, in Colorado and California. The cases have triggered questions about how the COVID-19 strain circulating in England arrived in the U.S., where experts say it probably already is spreading. Florida officials say they’re investigating their case with the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
January 1, 2021 4:03 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – California surpassed 25,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic and officials disclosed that three more cases involving a mutant variant of the virus have been confirmed in San Diego County. The grim developments came as an ongoing surge swamps hospitals and pushes nurses and doctors to the breaking point as they brace for another likely increase after the holidays. Public health officials continued to plead with residents not to gather for New Year’s Eve celebrations. Hospitals are housing patients in hallways, conference rooms, a cafeteria and gift shops. The state became the third in the U.S. to reach 25,000 deaths, behind New York and Texas.
January 1, 2021 4:03 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Congress is ending a chaotic session with a rare rebuff by Republicans of President Donald Trump. GOP senators are ignoring the outgoing president’s demand to increase the $600 COVID-19 aid checks to $2,000. They are poised to override his veto of a major defense bill. Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is trying to bridge the divide. He says Congress could try again to approve bigger COVID aid checks after the new session opens Sunday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says Congress has provided enough pandemic aid, for now. The stalemate is expected to drag into the weekend.
January 1, 2021 4:02 am
SAN DIEGO (AP) – President Donald Trump has extended pandemic-related bans on green cards and work visas to large groups of applicants through March 31. Also, a federal appeals court has sided with him on a rule that requires new immigrants to have their own health insurance. The twin developments on the final day of 2020 encapsulate how Trump has reshaped the U.S. immigration system without support from Congress. President-elect Joe Biden has promised to undo many of Trump’s actions after taking office Jan. 20, but it is unclear how quickly and even to what extent that might happen.
January 1, 2021 4:01 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The revelry and shoulder-to-shoulder crowds that typify Times Square on New Year’s Eve were replaced by empty streets and an eerie quiet as the final moments of 2020 ticked away. Some celebrity performers took to stages set up in the mostly empty square to sing to a small group of masked essential workers. In the final minutes before midnight, Jennifer Lopez sang the Aerosmith classic “Dream On” beneath a blast of confetti. Spectators were banned from the area and were urged to watch the ball drop on television. Still, modest throngs of people gathered just outside the police perimeter and kissed and cheered at the stroke of midnight.
January 1, 2021 3:54 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday. Freezing rain could cause icy conditions on surfaces, including roads, bridges, and sidewalks. Temperatures rose overnight to near freezing Friday morning. Precipitation will develop from the southwest mid-morning. With temperatures near freezing at this time, there will be a chance of freezing rain or ice in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas. This threat will be short-lived as temperatures climb above freezing by late morning. The greatest threat of ice will be in northeast counties such as Clarion, Butler, Armstrong, Indiana and the ridges of Westmoreland and Fayette Counties. These areas could see up to 0.10 inches of ice. Crews advise to stay off the roads if possible during that time.
January 1, 2021 1:38 am
(WPXI) – A young child has died in a fire at a Butler home. The fire started around noon on Knox Avenue and authorities say firefighters arrived at the home, finding it fully engulfed in flames. A father and his three children were still inside. The father and two of his children were able to make it out. One of the kids did not. The age and name of that child hasn’t been revealed, but fire officials said it is a young family. The home is also considered a total loss, gutted by the fast moving fire. There was also some damage to a home next door. None of the firefighters were injured, but officials said several were affected emotionally by the death of the child on New Year’s Eve.
January 1, 2021 1:10 am
UNDATED (AP) – Former federal attorney general and Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh has died at age 88. Thornburgh died Thursday morning at a retirement community facility outside Pittsburgh, his son David said. The cause is not yet known. Thornburgh built a reputation as a crime-busting federal prosecutor in Pittsburgh and won praise for his cool handling as governor of the Three Mile Island partial nuclear meltdown in 1979.
