September 9, 2021 2:17 am
(WPXI) – Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Hamlet, who was found to have violated ethics codes, is resigning. The announcement was made Wednesday by the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education and Pittsburgh Public School District Solicitor Ira Weiss. Hamlet’s resignation will be effective Oct. 1st. When asked if Hamlet was pressured to resign, the board said he was not asked to leave and the decision was his own. In late August, the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission said Hamlet violated state ethics codes related to travel expenses. That included being reimbursed for travel that had already been paid for by the school district.
September 8, 2021 1:37 pm
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – A Florida judge has ruled the state cannot enforce its ban on mask mandates in public schools to guard against the coronavirus while an appeals court sorts out whether the ban is ultimately legal. Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper lifted an automatic stay of his decision last week that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state education officials exceeded their authority by imposing the blanket ban through executive order and tagging defiant pro-mask local school boards with financial penalties. The case next goes before the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee. DeSantis says he is optimistic the state would prevail.
September 8, 2021 12:59 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will return to New York City’s streets this year with COVID-19 protocols including a vaccination requirement for parade volunteers. Macy’s says the Nov. 25 parade will be broadcast on NBC and will feature the traditional giant balloons, celebrity performers, clowns and marching bands. Macy’s presented a curtailed version of the parade last year with balloons and performers confined to an area near the retailer’s flagship Manhattan store. Marching bands that had been slated to join the 2020 parade will be participating this year instead. Parade staff members and volunteers will have to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
September 8, 2021 4:16 am
MIAMI (AP) – Tropical Storm Mindy has formed in the northeast Gulf of Mexico, prompting forecasters to issue a tropical storm warning for part of the Florida Panhandle. Mindy could cause as much as 6 inches of rainfall across the Florida Panhandle and portions of southern Georgia and South Carolina through Thursday morning. The tropical storm warning is in effect from Mexico Beach, Florida, to the Steinhatchee River to the east. The storm on Wednesday evening was about 90 miles west-southwest of Apalachicola, Florida, and moving northeast at 21 mph with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph.
September 8, 2021 4:13 am
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina health officials on Tuesday released a report showing 170 ongoing COVID-19 clusters in K-12 schools or child care settings. While the state Department of Health and Human Services said it does not have data on the number of pupils quarantined statewide or the share of those forced to miss school without a remote learning option, districts without mask-wearing requirements are seeing substantially more spread of the virus and hours of lost learning among students. Union County Public Schools, which voted down a proposal last month to require mask wearing in the state’s sixth-largest public school district, reported about one in 8 of the more than 41,000 students in the district were under quarantine, as of Friday.
September 8, 2021 4:11 am
HOUMA, La. (AP) – Officials have raised the death toll from Hurricane Ida in Louisiana to 26. The additional 11 deaths all occurred in the city of New Orleans. The state Health Department said Wednesday that the deaths happened between Aug. 30 and Monday, but were just confirmed as storm-related by the Orleans Parish coroner. Nine of the deaths were from excessive heat. The remaining two deaths involved carbon monoxide poisoning. The health department says the heat-related deaths involved people ages 64 to 79.
September 8, 2021 4:07 am
NEW YORK (AP) – There will be something missing at two Whole Foods stores opening next year: the rows of cashiers. Amazon, which owns the grocery chain, said Wednesday that it will bring its cashier-less technology to two Whole Foods stores for the first time, letting shoppers grab what they need and leave without having to open their wallets. Cameras and sensors track what’s taken off shelves. Items are charged to an Amazon account after customers leave the store with them. But there will be an option for those who want to shop the old-fashioned way: Self-checkout lanes will be available that take cash, gift cards and other types of payment. One of the new stores will be in Washington, D.C., the other in Sherman Oaks, California.
September 8, 2021 4:05 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s highway agency wants to prevent a major heavy equipment contractor from doing state work for up to three years because it pleaded no contest to theft after being accused of illegally diverting money and other benefits from its workers. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation on Friday asked an administrative hearing officer to sanction Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc. of State College. Hawbaker pleaded no contest last month and is on probation for five years. It also is paying more than $20 million in restitution to some 1,200 victims. Hawbaker says it will vigorously defend the company and workers and is vowing to do everything it can to fight the proposed sanction.
September 8, 2021 4:00 am
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) – A Canon-McMillan school board meeting turned downright nasty Tuesday night with parents screaming at each other, cursing and refusing to wear masks. The board eventually shut the whole thing down after about 20 minutes. “I think it was a total fiasco. A lot of tensions are high,” said Robert Barnard. One of the parents started screaming about the weight of one of the board members, fat shaming them. Board members asked the crowd to wear masks to be in compliance with the new statewide requirement for school buildings. When parents in the crowd refused, the board said they had no choice but to adjourn. “It’s a very touchy subject right now. I think a lot of people are very agitated, very frustrated and aren’t getting any answers,” Barnard said. It’s a similar situation in many other local school districts, but the issue won’t be going away any time soon. The next Canon-Mac board meeting is penciled in for Sept. 23.
September 7, 2021 3:53 pm
TYLER, Texas (AP) – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law an overhaul of the state’s election rules following months of protests by Democrats. The sweeping bill signed Tuesday by the two-term Republican governor further tightens Texas’ strict voting laws. Texas joins more than a dozen states that have passed Republican-backed voting changes since the 2020 election. The new laws have been driven in part by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Opponents of the changes in Texas have already begun filing lawsuits in federal court.
