August 18, 2021 3:52 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration will require that nursing home staff are vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition for those facilities to continue receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funding. Biden will announce the move Wednesday afternoon in a White House address as the administration continues to look for ways to use mandates to encourage vaccine holdouts to get shots. The new mandate, in the form of a regulation to be issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, could take effect as soon as next month. A senior administration official confirmed the announcement on the condition of anonymity to preview the news before Biden’s remarks.
August 18, 2021 1:31 pm
(AP) – The names, Social Security numbers and information from driver’s licenses or other identification of just over 40 million people who applied for T-Mobile credit were exposed in a recent data breach, the company said Wednesday. The same data for about 7.8 million current T-Mobile customers who pay for phone service in monthly bills also appears to be compromised. No phone numbers, account numbers, PINs, passwords or financial information from the nearly 50 million records and accounts were compromised, it said. It’s just the latest data breach to hit T-Mobile in recent years but experts say the sheer numbers far exceed the previous breaches.
August 18, 2021 4:15 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has tested positive for COVID-19. His office said Tuesday that Abbot is in good health and experiencing no symptoms. Spokesman Mark Miner says Abbott is isolating in the governor’s mansion in Austin and receiving monoclonal antibody treatment. Abbott was vaccinated earlier this year. The governor’s positive test came as cases of the virus soar because of the highly contagious delta variant and hospitals statewide are stretched thin. It also comes a day after Abbott tweeted a picture of himself not wearing a mask while speaking indoors to GOP supporters. Abbott has staunchly opposed mask mandates for public schools and this week saw defiant districts in some of the state’s largest cities – which are run by Democrats – require face coverings anyway.
August 18, 2021 4:13 am
GRIZZLY FLATS, Calif. (AP) – Pacific Gas & Electric says it has begun shutting off power to about 51,000 customers in 18 Northern California counties to prevent wildfires. The utility announced Tuesday evening that it has begun enacting the shutoffs as a precaution to prevent gusting winds from damaging power lines and sparking blazes in a tinder-dry region that already is struggling with a series of wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes. In the Sierra Nevada, the Caldor Fire has exploded to nearly 50 square miles (129 square kilometers), injured two people and devastated the town of Grizzly Flats. The nearby Dixie Fire has burned more than 600 homes.
August 18, 2021 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Top Democrats are planning House votes next week on a budget resolution that would clear a path for future passage of the party’s ambitious plans for social and environment programs. And that suggests a showdown ahead with rebellious party moderates. Nine centrist Democrats have said they’ll vote against their own party’s budget blueprint. That’s enough to defeat it in the closely divided House. They want the chamber to first approve a separate $1 trillion infrastructure bill. But Democratic leaders want to wait on the infrastructure vote until a separate $3.5 trillion social and environment bill is ready. Moderates will have to decide what they’ll do.
August 18, 2021 4:10 am
NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. health officials have announced plans to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and evidence that the vaccines’ effectiveness is falling. The plan, as outlined by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top health authorities, calls for booster doses eight months after people get their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The booster doses could begin the week of Sept. 20.
August 18, 2021 4:09 am
PHOENIX (AP) – Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is upping the pressure on the growing number of public school districts defying a state ban on mask mandates as they try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Republican governor announced Tuesday that schools won’t get any cash from a $163 million pot of federal virus relief funds he controls if they don’t drop mask rules within 10 days. Schools also will lose out on the $1,800 per student if they have to close because of COVID-10 outbreaks. At least 16 districts teaching nearly a third of the state’s public school students now have mask rules.
August 18, 2021 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan says the Taliban have agreed to allow safe passage for civilians trying to leave Afghanistan. Sullivan says a timetable for completing the evacuation of Americans, Afghan allies and others has yet to be worked out with the country’s new rulers. Pentagon officials say that after interruptions Monday, the airlift is back on track and being accelerated amid regular communication with Taliban leaders. Additional U.S. troops have arrived and more are on the way. The White House says 13 flights Tuesday airlifted 1,100 U.S. citizens, permanent residents and their families from the Kabul airport.
August 18, 2021 4:05 am
North Strabane Supervisors set out their agenda for next week’s voting meeting on Tuesday night. One of the main actions that will be considered is how to spend funding from the American Rescue Plan. Those funds are appropriated from the federal government to help ease the financial strain put on municipalities by the Covid-19 pandemic. North Strabane is in line to receive more than $1.5 million in funding that will be distributed over two years. Two of the items under consideration are an appropriation of $200,000 to the North Strabane Township Municipal Authority and the balance to be spent on construction projects, particularly the new public safety building. During the public comment period, supervisors were met with push back on an agenda item that would have a recreation designation taken away from a plot of ground on Demar Blvd. That piece of ground known locally as the Borland Manor Parkette was supported by nine nearby residents. They called it a jewel in the neighborhood. Supervisors and the township solicitor were presented with a deed from 1947 conveying the land to the township with covenants and restrictions for use of the land as a park. Township Solicitor Gary Sweat will review the document before any action will be taken by the township.
August 18, 2021 4:02 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – An appeals court says a Pennsylvania federal judge shouldn’t have thrown out a legal challenge to township zoning rules that restricted operations at a gun range near Pittsburgh and limited “sportsman’s clubs” to nonprofit entities. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday reinstated the case and directed the district judge to gather evidence. The three-judge panel says Second Amendment rights require a closer examination of the facts than had occurred in the case. The decision concerns William Drummond’s plans to revive the dormant gun range and operate the Greater Pittsburgh Gun Club on a 265-acre property in suburban Robinson Township.
