July 22, 2021 4:21 am
A judge says victims and families who suffered losses in the collapse of a 12-story oceanfront Florida condominium will get a minimum of $150 million in compensation initially. Judge Michael Hanzman said at a hearing Wednesday that sum includes insurance on the Champlain Towers South building and the expected proceeds from sale of the Surfside property where the structure once stood. It does not include proceeds from any of the numerous lawsuits filed since the June 24 collapse that left at least 97 people dead. Those lawsuits are being consolidated into a single class action potentially covering all victims and family members.
July 22, 2021 4:19 am
BEIJING (AP) – Local authorities say they have recovered the bodies of all 14 workers trapped when a tunnel under construction was flooded last week in central China. A brief statement on the Zhuhai city government’s social media site gave no further information about the cause of the disaster or the deaths. The tunnel is a section of an expressway being built beneath a reservoir in the city close to Hong Kong and Macao. The rescue effort involved divers, remote controlled submarines and other high-tech equipment, while workers on the surface rushed to pump out water from the tunnel. Zhuhai is a relatively wealthy coastal city at the mouth of the Pearl River delta, which is now being heavily developed for manufacturing and high-tech industries.
July 22, 2021 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden’s administration says it is making $3 billion in economic development grants available to communities – a tenfold increase in the program paid for by this year’s COVID-19 relief bill. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo tells The Associated Press her agency will begin accepting applications for the competitive grants, which officials hope will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. The goal is to help struggling cities and towns make long-term investments to drive development for years to come. The grants will be targeted at supporting local infrastructure, job training programs and developing new industries.
July 22, 2021 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republicans have rejected an effort to begin debate on a bipartisan infrastructure deal that senators brokered with President Joe Biden. But pressure is mounting as supporters insist they just need more time before another vote, possibly next week. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says the procedural vote Wednesday was meant only as a first step as talks progress. But Republican senators say they need to review the final details and sought a delay until Monday. Negotiators have been meeting around the clock this week to try to reach a final agreement.
July 22, 2021 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is rejecting two Republicans tapped by House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy to sit on a committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. McCarthy denounced the decision Wednesday as “an egregious abuse of power” and said the GOP wouldn’t participate in the investigation if Democrats won’t accept the members he appointed. Pelosi cited the “integrity” of the probe in refusing to accept the appointments of Indiana Rep. Jim Banks or Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan. The two men are outspoken allies of former President Donald Trump, whose supporters laid siege to the Capitol that day and interrupted the certification of President Joe Biden’s win.
July 22, 2021 4:14 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Justice Department says it has decided not to open an investigation into whether Pennsylvania violated federal law by ordering nursing homes to accept residents who had been treated for COVID-19 in a hospital. Thursday’s letter comes 11 months after the agency told the governors of Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey and New York that it wanted information to determine whether orders there may have resulted in the deaths of nursing home residents. Michigan received an identical letter Thursday. The orders by the four governors were criticized for potentially fueling the spread of the virus. In Pennsylvania, it is far from clear that the policy led to an outbreak or death.
July 22, 2021 4:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Advocates for the unemployed say the backlog of people in Pennsylvania waiting for a decision on whether they can receive unemployment compensation benefits has ballooned following the introduction of a new online portal for the system. The Mon Valley Unemployed Committee and other advocates say the backlog has surged to about 315,000 people waiting. State officials contend that some applications are fraudulent claims and have reported an “uptick” in fraudulent claims for regular state unemployment benefits. The Mon Valley Unemployed Committee and Community Legal Services in Philadelphia also say thousands of people have reported that their unemployment benefits stopped illegally without any notice.
July 22, 2021 4:11 am
Avella Area students might return to class with new pencils and books, but likely not masks. At Wednesday evening’s school board meeting, Superintendent Cyril Walther announced that all vaccinated students and staff do not have to wear masks. Although the CDC recommends that non-vaccinated people wear masks, the district decided that mask-wearing would be entirely optional for students. “I don’t have any legal means to identify what individuals have been vaccinated and what individuals have not been vaccinated”, said Walther. Otherwise, Walther said the schools will do their best to maintain student distancing. Masks still must be worn on all school buses. For all Avella schools, the first in-service day for teachers is on August 23rd, while the first school day for students is on August 25th.
July 22, 2021 3:35 am
Washington County Commissioners announced on Wednesday that a special meeting scheduled for Friday, July 23rd, has been rescheduled for Thursday, July 29th at nine a.m. The meeting, which was to be held virtually, was to discuss the creation of an eleven-member board to study and review county government. The board, which would first have to be approved by voters in the next election, along with electing eleven county residents to sit on the board, would conduct a review of government operations and could recommend changes. An ordinance to get the process moving had to be advertised for seven days before the commissioners voted on it. Friday’s special meeting, was going to be virtual, and they were expected to vote on whether to put the issue on the ballot for the public to decide. Commissioners say the change in the meeting time and date is an effort to let all residents who want to be heard on the matter attend in person.
July 22, 2021 3:33 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A former medical assistant at the Allegheny County Jail is facing charges of institutional sexual assault and indecent assault after three female inmates filed complaints about the man. Shiquille Desesso was arrested Thursday and was awaiting arraignment, Allegheny County Police said. Online court information showed the 29-year-old Desesso initially declined a public defender, but no other attorney information was available on the court website. The department did not name the inmates or release details of Desesso’s alleged conduct, but called it “concerning” and described it as “inappropriate touching.”
