December 7, 2020 4:14 am
ATLANTA (AP) – Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s is blasting her Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock as a radical while she also continues to deny that President Donald Trump lost his re-election attempt. In an earlier debate session Sunday, Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff hammered Republican Sen. David Perdue for “cartoonish abuse of power.” Ossoff was debating an empty podium in Atlanta since Perdue refused to attend. The high-stakes runoffs for two Georgia Senate seats have prompted a huge wave of money and organizing efforts. The state’s voters opted narrowly for Democrat Joe Biden over Trump in November.
December 7, 2020 4:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for coronavirus. Giuliani was exhibiting some symptoms and was admitted on Sunday to Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. The 76-year-old former New York mayor has traveled extensively to battleground states in an effort to help Trump subvert his election loss. On numerous occasions he has met with local officials for hours at a time without wearing a mask. Trump wished Giuliani a speedy recovery, tweeting: “Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!”
December 7, 2020 4:08 am
NEW YORK (AP) – It’s back to school again for some New York City schoolchildren, weeks after the schools were closed to in-person learning because of rising COVID-19 infections. Public preschool students and children in kindergarten through fifth grade whose parents chose a mix of in-school and remote learning will be back inside school buildings starting Monday. Special education students in all grades who have particularly complex needs will be welcomed back starting Thursday. Middle school and high school will remain all remote at least until after the holiday break. School buildings in the city have been shuttered since Nov. 19.
December 7, 2020 4:06 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Temple University will pay the U.S. Department of Education $700,000 to settle claims regarding years of falsified data submitted to U.S. News & World Report. The department announced the settlement Friday, noting that Temple didn’t admit any wrongdoing or liability. The matter involves false reporting about the school’s online MBA program at the Fox School of Business that officials have said was done intentionally to boost the school’s rankings and revenues. Temple issued a statement Friday saying it was grateful to have reached a conclusion in the matter and noted the changes its made, including establishing an internal verification unit and making online and telephone hotlines available for whistle-blowers.
December 7, 2020 4:05 am
GARY, Ind. (AP) – An Indiana steel mill that was taken offline earlier this year for a planned maintenance project is expected to restart this month. The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports that the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel is restarting blast furnace #4 at its Gary Works steel mill next Tuesday – an earlier date than anticipated as the steel market recovers. The furnace was halted in April for maintenance and then left idle due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company has been recalling its steelworkers back to work as production resumes and blast furnaces come back online.
December 7, 2020 4:04 am
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – States are facing a deadline on Friday to place orders for the coronavirus vaccine as many reported record infections, hospitalizations and deaths. The number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 hit an all-time high in the U.S. on Thursday at 100,667, and hospitals were at the breaking point. Arizona on Friday reported more than 5,000 new known COVID-19 cases for the second straight day as the number of available intensive care beds fell below 10%. Nevada reported 48 new deaths on Thursday, the deadliest day since the onset of the pandemic. Pennsylvania’s top health official says intensive care beds could be full this month.
December 6, 2020 7:53 am
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Seven contractors were injured, four critically, when a storage tank at a petroleum facility in Texas exploded after catching fire Saturday morning, according to fire officials. The fire began about 10 a.m. near a crude oil storage tank in Corpus Christi that was being cleaned and inspected, said Mark Calhoun, operations manager for Magellan Midstream Partners. A shelter in place order that was issued after the blast was lifted shortly before noon, and there were no other injuries or property damage and no air contamination, according to deputy Fire Chief Richie Quintero. The fire was extinguished and firefighters left the site shortly after 2 p.m.
December 6, 2020 7:51 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Faced with a dire shortage of hospital beds, health officials announced Saturday the vast region of Southern California and a large swath of the Central Valley will be placed under a sweeping new lockdown in an urgent attempt to slow the rapid rise of coronavirus cases. The California Department of Public Health said the intensive care unit capacity in both regions’ hospitals had fallen below a 15% threshold that triggers the new measures, which include strict closures for businesses and a ban on gathering with anyone outside of your own household. The new measures will take effect Sunday evening and remain in place for at least three weeks, meaning the lockdown will cover the Christmas holiday. Much of the state is on the brink of the same restrictions. Some counties have opted to impose them even before the mandate kicks in, including five San Francisco Bay Area counties where the measures also take effect starting Sunday. With a new lockdown looming, many rushed out to supermarkets Saturday and lined up outside salons to squeeze in a haircut before the orders kicked in.
December 6, 2020 7:50 am
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese probe that landed on the moon transferred rocks to an orbiter Sunday in preparation for returning samples of the lunar surface to Earth for the first time in almost 45 years, the space agency announced. The upper stage of the Change’e lander blasted off Friday from the lunar surface. If the mission succeeds, it will make China the third country after the United States and former Soviet Union to bring moon rocks to Earth. The ascent stage docked with a robot spacecraft orbiting the moon at 5:42 a.m. Sunday (2142 GMT Saturday), state media reported, citing the China National Space Administration. A container with 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rocks was transferred to the orbiter 30 minutes later. A capsule carrying the rock samples is due to land in China’s northern grasslands in the Inner Mongolia region in mid-December. They will be the first fresh samples of the lunar surface obtained by scientists since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 probe in 1976.
December 6, 2020 7:49 am
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Provincial governments across China are placing orders for experimental, domestically made coronavirus vaccines, though health officials have yet to say how well they work or how they may reach the country’s 1.4 billion people. Developers are speeding up final testing, the Chinese foreign minister said during a U.N. meeting last week, as Britain approved emergency use of Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine candidate and providers scrambled to set up distribution. Even without final approval, more than 1 million health care workers and others in China who are deemed at high risk of infection have received experimental vaccines under emergency use permission. There has been no word on possible side effects. China’s fledgling pharmaceutical industry has at least five vaccines from four producers being tested in more than a dozen countries including Russia, Egypt and Mexico. Health experts say even if they are successful, the certification process for the United States, Europe, Japan and other developed countries might be too complex for them to be used there. However, China said it will ensure the products are affordable for developing countries.
