December 30, 2020 4:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has shut the door on President Donald Trump’s push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks. The Republican leader says Congress has provided enough pandemic aid and he’s blocked another attempt by Democrats to force a vote. McConnell is unwilling to budge, despite political pressure from Trump and even some fellow GOP senators. Trump wants the recently approved $600 checks increased threefold. But McConnell is dismissing the idea of “survival checks,” saying the money would go to plenty of American households that don’t need it. McConnell’s refusal to act means Trump’s demand for more aid is all but dead.
December 30, 2020 4:03 am
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — (WPXI) – The man wanted in connection with shooting a McKeesport police officer was arrested near Clarksburg, West Virginia Tuesday evening. Koby Francis, 22, was arrested by United States Marshals, West Virginia State Police troopers, Harrison County Sheriff deputies and local police. A SWAT team was able to take him into custody without incident.
State police were looking for Francis in connection with a shooting of a police officer in McKeesport. According to investigators, Francis was served with a protection from abuse (PFA) order at the McKeesport police station around 2:55 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 20. Officers eventually located Francis and report he was combative during the arrest. When Francis and an officer arrived back at the station that evening, security camera video showed Francis getting out and shooting at the officer who was hit in the neck and twice in the shoulder and was taken to a nearby hospital. Four other people were charged with helping Francis following the shooting.
December 29, 2020 7:56 am
PARIS (AP) – France’s Academy of Fine Arts says Pierre Cardin, the French designer whose Space Age style was among the iconic looks of 20th century fashion, has died at 98. A licensing maverick, Cardin’s name embossed myriad products from wristwatches to bed sheets, making his label among the world’s most famous. In the brand’s heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, his products were sold at some 100,000 outlets worldwide, though that number dwindled dramatically in later decades. A savvy businessman, Cardin used his fabulous wealth to snap up top-notch properties in Paris, including the Belle Epoque restaurant Maxim’s. He was inducted into the Fine Arts Academy in 1992. The academy announced his death in a tweet Tuesday.
December 29, 2020 4:07 am
(AP) – American Airlines flew a commercial flight using a Boeing 737 Max on Tuesday, the first one in U.S. skies since Max planes were grounded after two deadly crashes. American flight 718 left Miami International Airport with about 100 passengers, according to an airline spokeswoman, and landed Tuesday afternoon at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration approved changes that Boeing made to an automated flight-control system implicated in crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people in all. In both crashes, the system pushed the nose down repeatedly based on faulty sensor readings, and pilots were unable to regain control.
December 29, 2020 4:06 am
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A motive for the Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville remains elusive. But the 63-year-old man who killed himself and wounded three other people in the blast left behind clues that he never intended to survive. Anthony Quinn Warner gave away his car, telling the recipient he had cancer. He signed a document that transferred his Tennessee home to a California woman for nothing in return. And the computer consultant told an employer that he was retiring. But he didn’t leave behind a clear digital footprint or any other obvious clues to explain why he set off Friday’s explosion or played a message warning people to flee before the blast.
December 29, 2020 4:05 am
DENVER (AP) – The first reported U.S. case of the COVID-19 variant that’s been seen in the United Kingdom has been discovered in Colorado. Gov. Jared Polis and state health officials announced Tuesday that the case was found in a man in his 20s who’s in isolation and has no travel history. British scientists believe the new virus variant is more contagious than previously identified strains. Colorado health officials say the vaccines being given now are thought to be effective against this variant. Public health officials are investigating other potential cases and doing contract tracing to determine the variant’s spread in Colorado.
December 29, 2020 4:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The stage is set for the first veto override of Donald Trump’s presidency. The House voted 322-87 on Monday to override Trump’s veto of the defense policy bill, a margin well above the two-thirds required. The Senate is expected to consider overriding the veto sometime this week. Trump says the bill fails to limit social media companies he claims were biased against him during his failed reelection campaign. And he opposes language that allows for the renaming of military bases that honor Confederate leaders. The defense bill authorizes more than $740 billion in military programs and construction, and it affirms 3% pay raises for U.S. troops.
December 29, 2020 4:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has blocked Democrats’ push to immediately bring President Donald Trump’s demand for bigger $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks up for a vote. The GOP leader said the Senate would “begin a process” to address the issue. But the next steps are highly uncertain. Trump has been pushing to more than triple the $600 payments approved by Congress. The House approved the larger checks, but the issue divides Republicans. On Tuesday, two Georgia Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, said they support Trump’s plan. They are in the fights of their political lives in runoff elections Jan. 5 that will determine which party controls the Senate.
December 29, 2020 3:58 am
LAWRENCE CO., Pa. — (WPXI) – Pennsylvania State Police have cancelled an alert for a 77-year-old woman who went missing after visiting from Ohio over Christmas weekend. Ruby Hopson — who lives in Youngstown, Oh. — has been found safe. No other details were immediately released. She was in western Pennsylvania this weekend visiting family and was headed back to Ohio Sunday around 11 p.m. on Interstate 70, but troopers said she never made it home. Investigators feared Hopson was “at special risk of harm or injury and may be confused.”
December 29, 2020 2:57 am
Washington County residents will be entering a new year without fear of a tax increase. County Commissioners on Monday, unanimously approved a new 104-point-seven-million dollar budget that holds the line on taxes. Commission Chairperson (R) Diana Irey-Vaughan says it was not easy to balance the budget and as they look to the future, admits that a close review of all departments is already underway. The lone Democrat on the board, Larry Maggi, voted in favor of the spending plan, but admitted he has concerns regarding the use of ten-million-dollars in the fund balance to pay for the new Crossroads Building in downtown Washington. He says he also has concerns regarding some two-point-five-million-dollars that will be used for the expansion of the county’s Human Services Department.
