December 20, 2020 7:56 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California hospitals are battling to find beds to house patients amid fears the explosion of coronavirus cases will exhaust staffing resources. As of Saturday, nearly 17,400 people were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections — more than double the previous peak reached in July — and a state model that uses current data to forecast future trends shows the number could reach 75,000 by mid-January. More than 3,600 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients were in intensive care units. All of Southern California and the 12-county San Joaquin Valley to the north have exhausted their regular intensive care unit capacity, and some hospitals have begun using “surge” space. Overall, the state’s ICU capacity was just 2% on Saturday. The enormous crush of cases in the last six weeks has California’s death toll spiraling ever higher. Another 272 fatalities were reported Saturday and in the last week nearly 1,600 people died.
December 20, 2020 7:54 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top congressional lawmakers struck a late-night agreement on the last major obstacle to a COVID-19 economic relief package costing nearly $1 trillion, clearing the way for votes as early as Sunday. A Democratic aide said in an email that an agreement had been reached late Saturday and that compromise language was being finalized to seal a deal to be unveiled on Sunday. The breakthrough involved a fight over Federal Reserve emergency powers that was defused by an odd couple: the Senate’s top Democrat and a senior conservative Republican. “We’re getting very close, very close,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said earlier Saturday as he spent much of the day going back and forth with GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Toomey had been pressing a provision to close down Fed lending facilities that Democrats and the White House said was too broadly worded and would have tied the hands of the incoming Biden administration.
December 20, 2020 7:53 am
OLIVE BRANCH, Miss. (AP) — Workers on Sunday began packaging shipments of the second COVID-19 vaccine authorized in the U.S., a desperately needed boost to efforts to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control. Employees at a factory in the Memphis area were boxing up the vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health. The much-needed shots are expected to be given starting Monday, just three days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized their emergency rollout. Later Sunday, an expert committee will debate who should be next in line for early doses of the Moderna vaccine and a similar one from Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech. Pfizer’s shots were first shipped out a week ago and started being used the next day, kicking off the nation’s biggest vaccination drive. Public health experts say the shots — and others in the pipeline — are the only way to stop a virus that has been spreading wildly. Nationwide, more than 219,000 people per day on average test positive for the virus, which has killed more than 314,000 in the U.S. and nearly 1.7 million worldwide. The Pfizer and Moderna shots shipped so far and going out over the next few weeks are nearly all going to health care workers and residents of long-term care homes, based on the advice of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
December 20, 2020 7:50 am
GREENSBURG, Pa. (WPXI) — Cassandra Gross has been missing since April 2018 but her mother, Kathe, said she’s not giving up or backing down until the man she believes is responsible is behind bars for good. Thomas Stanko has been in jail on charges not related to the disappearance. Officials believe murder charges will be filed against him soon. Two days after she spoke to her daughter on the phone, she was reported missing when she didn’t show up for work and her dog was spotted wandering the streets in Latrobe. The next day, her burned out car was found near Twin Lakes Park in Hempfield. Kathe Gross said she’s not sure what investigators found that linked Stanko to her daughter, but she always knew in her heart he was responsible.
December 20, 2020 5:49 am
A Coal Center man was arrested for his role in a stabbing. In a statement released by Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone, Pennsylvania State Police have arrested Dylan Lesnik in connection with a stabbing death of a young man in coal center. Police responded to an apartment building at 135 Spring Street on Friday and found 27 year old Marshal Y. Craig dead of apparent stab wounds. Police learned from other residents of the apartment building that Lesnik was wanted for an aggravated assault with a knife earlier this week. Lesnik was located in Fayette County. Police arrested Lesnik and will charge him with criminal homicide, theft and abuse of a corpse.(photo credit pittsburgh.cbslocal)
December 20, 2020 2:00 am
In defiance of Governor Tom Wolf’s order temporarily suspending indoor dining, the owner of Angelo’s Restaurant in North Franklin Township opened his doors to indoor dining on Friday morning at eleven o’clock. Owner Michael Passalacqua posted a YouTube video earlier in the week in which he said that he could no longer sit on his hands, but instead, would have to risk whatever needs to be risked. In the video, he questioned the ability of diners to contract the coronavirus while eating inside a restaurant. Passalacqua claimed that restaurants are not responsible for COVID because of they were, all of the employees would be sick, home and in bed. WJPA News was there when the restaurant opened and spoke with Passalacqua who told us that he is grateful for the support of the community over his decision. He said he has some four-hundred reservations over the course of the next two days. He did say, however, that he has already suffered some backlash. A food service contract with Advanced Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation, which is directly behind his restaurant has been canceled. He says the business was notified Thursday evening by officials that he was no longer allowed to be their food vendor. As for any legal repercussions, Passalacqua says he expects to be paid a visit by the state.
**Update: Angelo’s owner Michael Passalacqua told WJPA News Friday afternoon that an inspector from the state visited the restaurant and presented him with paperwork saying he is being ordered to close. Passalacqua tells WJPA that he refused to do so and was told that the refusal would be noted and sent on to Harrisburg where, he believes, it will eventually make its way into the courts, where he believes the legality of Governor Tom Wolf’s order will be tested.
December 19, 2020 9:33 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – California hospitals are battling to find beds to house patients amid fears that the exploding coronavirus infection rate will exhaust resources and health care workers. Nearly 17,000 people were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections – more than double the previous peak reached in July. One state model estimates that number could reach 75,000 by mid-January. Hospitals around the state are putting patients where they can to free up ICU beds, including using tents for emergency room overflows. Top government infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says some areas of California are “just right at that cusp of getting overrun.”
December 19, 2020 9:30 am
LONDON (AP) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is holding emergency talks with his Cabinet as the government’s scientific advisors said a new variant of the coronavirus was accelerating the spread of infections. England’s chief medical officer said that based on preliminary modeling data and rapidly rising incidence rates in the south of England, a government virus advisory group thinks the new strain can spread more quickly. He says there is no current evidence to suggest the new strain is more deadly or that it affects vaccines. The World Health Organization has been informed. The government has planned to ease restrictions on socializing from Dec.23 to Dec.27 to allow people to celebrate Christmas with family and friends.
December 19, 2020 9:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Congress has passed a two-day stopgap spending bill to avert a partial government shutdown this weekend. It’s part of an effort by lawmakers to buy additional time for frustratingly slow endgame negotiations on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package. The lawmakers are aiming for a vote Sunday to close out the broad package. Negotiators are seeking to resolve a battle over emergency Federal Reserve lending powers. Democrats say the GOP proposal would deprive President-elect Joe Biden of crucial tools to manage the economy. The hoped-for agreement would provide more than $300 billion in aid to businesses, a $300-per-week bonus federal jobless benefit, and $600 direct payments to individuals.
December 19, 2020 9:24 am
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Russia was “pretty clearly” behind the gravest cyberattack against the United States on record. He’s the first administration official to publicly tie the Kremlin to the widespread intrusion at a time when President Donald Trump has kept silent on the failure to protect government and private-sector computer networks. It’s not clear exactly what the hackers were seeking, but experts say it could include nuclear secrets, blueprints for advanced weaponry, COVID-19 vaccine-related research and information for dossiers on key government and industry leaders. Russia has said it had “nothing to do” with the hacking.
