July 13, 2021 8:20 am
An unidentified man was injured in a motorcycle crash late Monday night in Amwell Township. Washington County 9-1-1 says it happened just before 11:30 p.m. near Exit 30, Amity/Lone Pine. A motorist came upon the motorcycle on the side of the highway and then found the operator a short distance away. The man was flown to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh. There is no word on his condition.
July 13, 2021 8:03 am
A powerful storm system rolled through Washington County early Tuesday morning. Emergency crews were busy dealing with fires, flooding and other issues. Fire crews were called to a house fire in the City of Washington just after the system rolled through. Fire was reported in the attic and behind the walls of a three-story, multi-family home in the 400 block of E. Maiden St. Everyone got out safely but there is no word on what sparked the fire. Washington County 9-1-1 dispatchers say fire fighters were also called to a lightning strike at a home in the 8-hundred block of S. Central Avenue in North Strabane. Firefighters also responded to a large shed fire behind a home along Valley View Dr. in Union Township. The heavy downpours also resulted in flooding. A portion of West Pike Street in Canonsburg flooded, as did some homes and businesses along Georgetown Rd. in Cecil Township. The storm also knocked out power to some 900 West Penn Power customers throughout Washington County.
July 13, 2021 4:14 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Texas Republicans are authorizing law enforcement to find and bring back more than 50 legislators who fled to Washington “under warrant of arrest if necessary” after Democrats left the state to again block passage of sweeping new voting restrictions. Still, it was not immediately clear Tuesday whether state troopers would actually be sent to Washington, where they would have no jurisdiction to make arrests. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has already threatened Democrats with arrest once they return home, which may not be until the current 30-day session is over. The move by Republicans was expected after most Democrats in the Texas House boarded private planes Monday to deny GOP the quorum necessary to conduct business.
July 13, 2021 4:13 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Charlie Robinson, the versatile and prolific actor who was best known for his long-running role as the court clerk Mac Robinson in the sitcom “Night Court,” has died. He was 75. His manager said Robinson died Sunday at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. His many credits ranged from stage productions of “Driving Miss Daisy” and “Fences” to such films as “Secret Santa” and “Miss Lettie and Me.” On television, he also appeared in the acclaimed, but short-lived “Buffalo Bill”; “Home Improvement”; “The Game” and “Hart of Dixie” among other series. The Houston-native’s recent credits include the teleplay “Some Old Black Man” and the stage play “The Last Romance,” co-starring Michael Learned.
July 13, 2021 4:12 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Wildfires that have torched homes and forced thousands to evacuate are burning across 10 parched Western states, and the largest, in Oregon, is threatening California’s power supply. Nearly 60 large, active wildfires are burning from Alaska to Wyoming. California’s largest has prompted evacuations on both sides of the Nevada state line. The largest fire in the U.S. is the Bootleg Fire in Oregon. It remains out of control after burning an area nearly twice the size of Portland and disrupting power transmission lines to California. The good news is that forecasters say a heat wave over the West seems to be easing in many areas.
July 13, 2021 4:10 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – The West Virginia Department of Education has a new program to encourage students, teachers and staff to get their COVID-19 vaccinations. The department says the “I Got Vaxxed Competition” will award $5,000 each to a high school, a middle school and an elementary school for having the highest percentage of eligible people vaccinated. The winners will be announced the week of Oct. 3. School participation is voluntary. Students ages 12 and older and all teachers and staff are eligible for the vaccine.
July 13, 2021 4:08 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – President Joe Biden is declaring that preserving voting rights is “a test of our time” as he urges passage of federal legislation to combat efforts by Republican-led state legislatures to restrict access to ballots. Biden laid out what the White House called “the moral case” for voting rights in a speech in Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, Democratic Texas state legislators took dramatic action to stymie their state’s latest effort in a nationwide Republican push to tighten ballot restrictions. They took flight to Washington to keep the Texas Legislature from a quorum that would allow legislative action. (Photo: AP)
July 13, 2021 4:05 am
A provision from a proposed library manual attracted both concern and opposition from Peters Township’s council. The manual formally establishes library policies, such as tutoring and using study rooms, alongside any additional provisions. Under one of the provisions, alcohol such as beer and wine, may be served in the township library on certain occasions. These events will be limited to mostly fundraising meetings and must be approved by library director Lacey Love. Council members questioned the enforcement and management of these social events. Member Frank Arcuri remarked that there are “several members of council who don’t think it’s appropriate, I was one of them”. “Some of us don’t believe that you should have alcohol, even if it’s limited to beer and wine, in public places and programs”, said Arcuri. While Arcuri expressed hope in the library staff’s management of these events, Robert Lewis was the only council member who openly rejected the manual’s adoption.
July 12, 2021 5:38 pm
HAVANA (AP) – Large contingents of Cuban police are patrolling the capital of Havana following rare protests around the island nation against food shortages and high prices amid the coronavirus crisis. Cuba’s president says the demonstrations were stirred up on social media by Cuban Americans in the United States. Many young people took part in the Sunday protests in Havana, which disrupted traffic until police moved in after several hours and broke up the march when a few protesters threw rocks. That demonstration and others in communities around the tightly controlled country marked some of the biggest displays of anti-government sentiment in decades, and authorities appeared determined to put a stop to it. (Photo: Yahoo)
July 12, 2021 5:34 pm
(AP) – The U.S. has seen a string of COVID-19 outbreaks tied to summer camps in recent weeks in places such as Texas, Illinois, Florida, Missouri and Kansas, offering what some fear could be a preview of the upcoming school year. The clusters have come as the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. has reversed course, surging more than 60% over the past two weeks from an average of about 12,000 a day to about 19,500. The rise in many places has been blamed on too many unvaccinated people and the highly contagious delta variant.
