August 19, 2021 12:30 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The man who claimed to have bomb in a pickup truck near the U.S. Capitol has surrendered to law enforcement, ending an hours long standoff. The man, identified by law enforcement officials as 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry of North Carolina, crawled out of the vehicle and was being taken into custody shortly before 2:30 p.m. He had pulled up outside the library earlier in the day and told police he had a bomb in his truck. An officer saw what appeared to be a detonator in the man’s hand. The man had been negotiating with police during a standoff that lasted around five hours.
August 19, 2021 8:41 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fourth straight time to a pandemic low, the latest sign that America’s job market is rebounding from the pandemic recession as employers boost hiring to meet a surge in consumer demand. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims fell by 29,000 to 348,000. The weekly pace of applications for unemployment aid has fallen more or less steadily since topping 900,000 in early January. The dwindling number of first-time jobless claims has coincided with the widespread administering of vaccines, which has led businesses to reopen or expand their hours and drawn consumers back to shops, restaurants and entertainment venues.
August 19, 2021 4:16 am
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Authorities in North Carolina have found two people dead and about 20 remain missing in Haywood County in floods caused by Tropical Storm Fred. Now as a post-tropical cyclone, Fred is drenching New York and New England. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Henri is sending dangerous swells onto East Coast beaches and is expected to become a hurricane as it approaches the northeastern U.S. early next week. More than 200 people searched flooded areas in western North Carolina along the Pigeon River. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper planned to join Haywood County officials Thursday afternoon to survey the flood damage. Farther north, about 10 families evacuated their homes in the rural town of Western in central New York as waters rose.
August 19, 2021 4:16 am
GRIZZLY FLATS, Calif. (AP) – A small wildfire that swept through a mobile home park and left dozens of homes in ashes is the latest in a series of explosive blazes propelled by gusts through Northern California. The drought-parched region is expected to see red flag warnings for dangerously high winds and hot, dry weather through Thursday. Those conditions have fed a dozen uncontrolled wildfires, including the Dixie Caldor fires in the Sierra Nevada that incinerated much of the towns of Greenville and Grizzly Flats. On Wednesday, another wind-driven fire destroyed dozens of mobile homes in Lake County and injured at least one resident before firefighters stopped its progress.
August 19, 2021 4:15 am
LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) – Tensions have been growing over the slow pace of aid efforts in Haiti after a powerful weekend earthquake that killed more than 2,100 people and was followed by a drenching tropical depression. At the small airport in the southwestern community of Les Cayes, a police officer fired shots to disperse a group of young men among throngs who had gathered to watch aid being unloaded. Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency raised the number of deaths from the earthquake to 2,189. Officials say the magnitude 7.2 earthquake destroyed more than 7,000 homes and damaged more than 12,000, leaving about 30,000 families homeless.
August 19, 2021 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. officials are struggling to speed the pace of evacuations of Americans and Afghans at the Kabul airport. In a hopeful sign, the State Department says it expects a major increase in the number to be airlifted soon. But obstacles remain, including Taliban checkpoints and paperwork problems. With an Aug. 31 deadline looming, tens of thousands remain to be airlifted to safety. áAs of Thursday, about 7,000 people had been evacuated in the U.S. airlift, including about 2,000 on each of the past two days. The State Department said it expects another 6,000 to be flown out soon.
August 19, 2021 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Educated young women, former U.S. military translators and other Afghans most at-risk from the Taliban are appealing to the Biden administration to get them on evacuation flights. President Joe Biden and his top officials say the U.S. is working to speed up the evacuation, but they’re making no promises about how long it will last or how many desperate people it will fly to safety. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says evacuations will continue “until the clock runs out or we run out of capability.” The White House said Wednesday night that nearly 6,000 people had been evacuated so far.
August 19, 2021 4:08 am
The Ringgold School Board did what many of the other school districts in western Pennsylvania are doing on Wednesday night. School Directors updated their health and safety plan for the 2021-2022 school year. Superintendent Randall Skrinjorich outlined the modifications that were made to the earlier plan from July. Those changes are that masks in the Ringgold School District will remain optional, however if any governmental guidance mandates masks to be worn, then they will be worn. Also at issue was Covid-19 testing and vaccinations. The plan specifically states that any testing must be approved by the parent. Skrinjorich went further to state that Ringgold will not administer tests or vaccinations at all. Skrinjorich did make clear that there is one place that masks must be worn and that is on school buses. He stated that that is a federal mandate and Ringgold must comply with that rule. During discussion before the vote, director Larry Mauro voiced his dissent for the policy saying it did not go far enough to protect students. Director Carol Flament countered Mauro saying that if parents want to send the kids with masks that is fine, but those parents that do not want to use masks should be allowed to do so. The vote was a roll call vote. It went down 7-2 accepting the amendments. The first day of school for students is August 23.
August 19, 2021 4:04 am
California Area School District amended optional mask wearing to their Return to School Plan at Wednesday evening’s Board of Directors meeting. The decision follows feedback from the board’s July “Universal Masking” survey, sent through their online student information system. 238 district parents responded, with a 73.9% majority preferring non-mandated masking. The survey results, which were finalized last week, were reviewed by Superintendent Dr. Laura B. Jacob at the meeting. The Board motioned to amend optional masking afterwards, however Jacob says other COVID-19 policies will take place. “We’ve a 50 page health and safety Return to School Plan, so there’s a very significant amount of items that we’ve listed that we’re doing as far as mitigation for COVID-19,” says Jacob. Although students may choose to wear masks in schools, mask wearing is mandatory on all buses. Vaccinations are not mandatory for staff members, however Jacob says they will have to wear masks regardless. Still, Jacob says staff worked “tremendously well” last year and that she’s “looking forward to a more positive school year here”. The first school day for California Area School District is on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021.
August 18, 2021 4:22 pm
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A judge has ruled that a statue of Christopher Columbus can remain in south Philadelphia, reversing a decision by city officials to have it removed. The explorer became a focus of protesters after the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick said last year’s decision to remove the now-boarded-up statue from Marconi Plaza was unsupported by law and based on insufficient evidence. A city representative expressed disappointment and officials were exploring all options “including a possible appeal.” Attorney George Bochetto said the plaintiffs were “ecstatic” and vowed to seek removal of a wooden box covering the 144-year-old statue.
