August 13, 2021 4:14 am
LAME DEER, Mont. (AP) – Wildfires in Montana and California are threatening rural towns and ranchland while the West sees a continuing bout of dangerously hot, dry weather. In Montana, firefighters are scrambling to save hundreds of homes near the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. The Richard Spring Fire there has prompted evacuation orders for thousands of people and is also threatening grasslands that are crucial for cattle ranchers. In California, the Dixie Fire that virtually destroyed the Sierra Nevada town of Greenville is less than a third surrounded. Fire officials say Northern California will see dangerous fire weather Friday, including a chance of lightning storms.
August 13, 2021 4:13 am
HAVANA (AP) – Forecasters say tropical depression Fred is slowly strengthening and could regain tropical storm status Friday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the system is moving along the northern coast of Cuba on a forecast track toward Florida. Maximum sustained winds are around 35 mph with higher gusts. A tropical storm watch has been issued for parts of Cuba, the Florida Keys and the southwest coast of Florida. Fred became a tropical storm on Tuesday but weakened to a depression as it spun over Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where it knocked out power to some 400,000 customers and caused flooding.
August 13, 2021 4:11 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The former branch manager of a western Pennsylvania credit union is accused of stealing $340,000 and then setting the bank safe on fire to throw off investigators. A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted 63-year-old Patty Lynn Mavrakis of Belle Vernon on charges of embezzlement, wire fraud and using a fire to commit a federal felony. Authorities say Mavrakis was working at the Valley 1st Community Federal Union in September 2016 when the alleged theft occurred. She’s accused of starting the fire and then claiming the blaze had destroyed the missing money.
August 13, 2021 4:09 am
(AP) – Philadelphia and its suburbs have continued to attract new residents, and south-central Pennsylvania also grew at a healthy clip. But most of the rest of the state’s 67 counties lost people over the past decade. That’s according to new population data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Pennsylvania as a whole added about 300,000 residents to surpass 13 million, but its anemic 2.4% growth rate cost the state another U.S. House seat. The detailed Census data released Thursday will be used to redraw the boundaries of Pennsylvania’s state legislative and congressional districts.
August 13, 2021 3:47 am
The death of a Donora man is under investigation after he was found in his home at Highland Terrace. The Washington County Coroner’s Office says 60-year-old Peter Jankowski died in a house fire that broke out around eleven-thirty Thursday morning. Several fire departments were called to the scene, including Donora and Carroll Township firefighters. The coroner’s office says the cause and manner of Jankowski’s death is pending an autopsy. There was no word on what caused the fire.
August 13, 2021 2:34 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – A federal lawsuit says Policies that allow West Virginia officials to refuse to change a transgender person’s gender on their birth certificates should be declared unconstitutional. The Exponent Telegram reports the American Civil Liberties Union and the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic on Thursday sued the Department of Health and Human Resources on behalf of two transgender men born in West Virginia. Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic Director Alexander Chen said West Virginia is among the last states where gender can’t be changed. The Department of Health and Human Resources says it is unable to comment on pending litigation.
August 13, 2021 2:27 am
The death of a Washington County man who was running a portable gas-powered generator in his basement is being investigated as a suspected carbon monoxide poisoning. The Washington County Coroner says 60-year-old Jeffrey McClay was found unresponsive Thursday in his home on Covered Bridge Road in Prosperity after a power outage Wednesday. As a result of McClay’s death, the coroner’s office is urging users of portable generators to use them safely and follow the manufacturer’s instructions, saying gas-powered generators should never be used inside homes or enclosed spaces.
August 12, 2021 3:48 pm
(AP) – The U.S. Census Bureau has released new population data that will be used to reshape U.S. House seats and state legislative districts for the next decade. The 2020 census data released Thursday shows that much of the fastest population growth occurred in the nation’s largest cities, particularly the suburbs. The data will serve as the building block for redistricting that must be done in most states before the 2022 elections. The official goal is to redraw districts with roughly the same number of people. But many Republicans and Democrats also will be trying to draw districts that make it more likely for their candidates to win.
August 12, 2021 1:37 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The union that represents about 10,000 guards in Pennsylvania’s state prisons is telling Gov. Tom Wolf it plans legal action to stop his effort to force them to get COVID-19 vaccines over the next month. The president of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association sent a letter to the Democratic governor Thursday. It comes two days after Wolf ordered the guards and some other state workers to get fully vaccinated by Sept. 7 or face weekly testing. Union president John Eckenrode is telling Wolf his policy announcement is “a slap in the face.” Wolf press secretary Lyndsay Kensinger says the union’s opposition to the initiative “is extremely disappointing.”
August 12, 2021 4:32 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul waited more than a year to disclose that his wife bought stock in a company that makes a COVID-19 treatment. It’s an investment that was made after Congress was briefed on the threat of the virus but before the public was largely aware of its danger. The Republican filed a disclosure Wednesday revealing that Kelley Paul purchased as much as $15,000 in Gilead stock in February 2020. Trades are supposed to be reported within 45 days. A spokeswoman says Kelley Paul used her own earnings to make the investment and said the failure to disclose it was an oversight.
