November 6, 2021 3:35 am
The Pleasant Valley School District in Brodheadsville, Pa. has unanimously approved Dr. James Konrad as their new Superintendent. School Board President Donna Yozwiak tells WJPA News the vote was unanimous (8-0). She called Konrad “articulate, charismatic, and very well educated”. She says he was, by far, their top candidate. According to Yozwiak, Konrad will receive a five-year contract with a salary of $170,000. She says some details of that contract are still being finalized but Konrad is to begin his new job before January 10. Yozwiak says Konrad was in attendance at Thursday nights meeting and will be touring district facilities Friday. Konrad has been superintendent at Washington since July of 2017. Attempts to reach Dr. Konrad and other Washington School District officials for comment have been unsuccessful.
November 6, 2021 1:11 am
Don’t forget that the clocks turned back one hour early Sunday morning at 2:00 a.m.!
November 5, 2021 10:26 am
The Trinity School District sent out an alert to parents and guardians Friday morning letting them know that the high school went into, what they called, a short-term administrative lockdown. The message said it happened around 8:40 a.m. “for a safety and security sweep due to reports and allegations.” It goes on to say; “The building was searched and cleared by 8:56 a.m., and the students were dismissed to attend class.” Attempts to reach district officials for comment were unsuccessful. Trinity School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Lucas responded with an e-mail that simply including the message sent to parents. No other details were provided.
November 5, 2021 8:57 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – America’s employers stepped up their hiring in October, adding a solid 531,000 jobs, the most since July and a sign that the recovery from the pandemic recession may be overcoming a virus-induced slowdown. Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate fell to 4.6% last month, from 4.8% in September. The economy’s emergence from the pandemic, by most measures, remains on course. Services companies in such areas as retail, banks and warehousing have reported a sharp jump in sales. More Americans bought new homes last month. And consumer confidence rose in October.
November 5, 2021 7:50 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Pfizer says its experimental pill for COVID-19 cut rates of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% among patients with mild-to-moderate infections. The company announced Friday it will soon ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and international regulators to authorize its pill, which is taken twice a day for five days. A similar pill from competitor Merck is currently under FDA review and was cleared Thursday by U.K. regulators. Drugmakers around the world have been racing to develop an easy-to-use pill to blunt the effects of COVID-19. All therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection.
November 5, 2021 4:17 am
MEXICO CITY (AP) – A commando of masked drug gang gunmen stormed ashore at a beach on Mexico’s Caribbean coast in front of luxury hotels and executed two drug dealers from a rival gang. The dramatic shooting attack Thursday sent tourists scrambling for cover at the resort of Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancun. One of the targets of the shooting fled into a hotel before dying. The killers then escaped in a boat. One person was injured, but state officials could not immediately say whether it was a hotel employee or guest. The shootings were the latest chapter in drug gang violence that has sullied the reputation of Mexico’s resort-studded Caribbean coast.
November 5, 2021 4:16 am
PHOENIX (AP) – Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is defying a demand that he stop using federal coronavirus relief money to fund an education grant program that can only go to schools without mask mandates. He is also continuing to give private school vouchers to parents upset their children’s schools require masks or exposure quarantines. Ducey’s staff sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday that ignored the department’s demand that he stop using the money. Instead, Ducey aide Jason Mistlebauer said the cash was appropriately being used to help students who were harmed by school mask mandates. The Treasury Department last month told Ducey the programs were “not a permissible use” of the federal funding.
November 5, 2021 4:15 am
TOKYO (AP) – The president of Japanese video game maker Nintendo says the shortage in computer chips needed to make its Switch machine is a serious problem unlikely to be fixed soon. Shuntaro Furukawa said Friday that the Switch sales forecast for this fiscal year was cut to 24 million machines from an earlier 25.5 million units. Furukawa said plans for the following fiscal year, and the year after, are difficult to predict. Automakers and other manufacturers around the world have been hit hard by the dearth of chips, caused by production disruptions related to the coronavirus pandemic.
November 5, 2021 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Thousands of intelligence officers could soon face dismissal for failing to comply with the U.S. government’s vaccine mandate, leading to concerns from Republican lawmakers about potentially hurting agencies considered critical to national security. Several intelligence agencies had at least 20% of their workforces that were unvaccinated as of late October. That’s according to U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who says he’s vaccinated but opposes mandates as counterproductive. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines says she doesn’t anticipate the mandate affecting the mission of national security agencies.
November 5, 2021 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Top Democrats have abruptly postponed an expected House vote on the 10-year, $1.85 trillion social and environment measure. The decision on Friday came as the leaders’ long struggle to balance demands from progressives and moderates once again dogged the pillar of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda.áIn a bid to hand him a needed victory, leaders prepared to try pushing an accompanying $1 trillion infrastructure measure through the chamber and to his desk. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the broader legislation is historic and, “hence, challenging.”
