December 2, 2020 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic leaders have swung behind a bipartisan COVID-19 relief effort. They’re cutting their demands for a $2 trillion-plus measure by more than half in hopes of breaking a monthslong logjam and delivering much-sought aid at the end of a tempestuous congressional session. It’s aimed at budging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who so far has been unwilling to abandon a $550 million Senate GOP plan that has failed twice this fall. The new plan would establish a $300 per week jobless benefit, send $160 billion to help state and local governments, revive popular “paycheck protection” subsidies for businesses, and bail out transit systems and airlines.
December 2, 2020 4:07 am
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – U.S. hospitals slammed with COVID-19 patients are trying to lure nurses and doctors out of retirement, recruiting students and new graduates who have yet to earn their licenses and offering eye-popping salaries in a desperate effort to ease staffing shortages. The number of U.S. patients in the hospital with the virus has more than doubled over the past month to a record high of nearly 100,000, pushing medical centers and health care workers to the breaking point.
December 2, 2020 4:06 am
Drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech say they’ve won permission for emergency use of their COVID-19 vaccine in Britain. That is the world’s first coronavirus shot to be approved that’s backed by rigorous science – and a major step toward eventually ending the pandemic. The move Wednesday makes Britain one of the first countries to begin vaccinating its population as it tries to curb Europe’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreak. Other countries aren’t far behind: The United States and the European Union also are vetting the Pfizer shot along with a similar vaccine made by competitor Moderna Inc. British regulators also are considering another shot made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. Pfizer said it would immediately begin shipping limited supplies to the U.K.
December 2, 2020 4:02 am
CHESTER, Pa. (AP) – Police say a man who asked to use a phone made off with approximately $24,000 from a casino in Pennsylvania. The heist took place around 12:15 a.m. Tuesday at Harrah’s Casino in Chester. Police say the suspect asked an employee in the area where customers bet on horse races if he could use the phone. The employee was counting cash from a money drawer. Police say the employee turned away for a moment and the suspect grabbed the cash and took off. Police plan to review surveillance video. The investigation is ongoing.
December 2, 2020 4:01 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Regional “strike teams” will fan out across Pennsylvania over the next 12 weeks in a bid to improve the state’s coronavirus testing efforts. Health officials are anticipating a post-Thanksgiving surge in new cases. The Department of Health is expanding an existing contract with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, which will dedicate five virus testing teams to the new effort. Each week, the teams will operate temporary testing sites in counties identified as virus hot spots, eventually making it to every Pennsylvania county that doesn’t have its own health department. Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday the goal is to make sure that “everyone who needs a test in Pennsylvania can get one.”
December 2, 2020 4:00 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Republicans attempting to undo President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up their lawsuit, three days after it was thrown out by the battleground state’s highest court. Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of northwestern Pennsylvania and the other plaintiffs want the court to prevent the state from certifying any contests from the Nov. 3 election, and undo any certifications already made, such as Biden’s victory. They maintain that Pennsylvania’s expansive year-old vote-by-mail law is unconstitutional because it required a constitutional amendment to authorize its provisions. Biden beat Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania.
December 2, 2020 3:58 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s state treasurer says his agency has come up with plans to prevent shutdowns of highway construction and safety work amid tax collections lagging because of economic fallout from the pandemic. In a statement Tuesday, Treasurer Joe Torsella said he was prepared to authorize financial support to the Motor License Fund to keep contractors paid and on the job through the fiscal year ending June 30. Torsella said he could loan treasury funds to the Motor License Fund, as well as advance a portion of a loan that lawmakers may decide to authorize against future tax collections that go into the fund, such as motorist fees and gas taxes.
December 2, 2020 2:34 am
UNDATED (AP) – Three female former inmates with psychiatric disabilities filed a federal lawsuit accusing an Allegheny County Jail sergeant of using excessive force on them while they were detained. April Walker, LaVonna Dorsey and Alexus Diggs filed the lawsuit Tuesday against Sgt. John Raible and other jail officials. They allege Raible’s supervisors knew he had a history of using excessive force. The lawsuit is the second this year alleging the county’s jail or its employees routinely use physical force or restraint in response to mental health episodes or against people with psychiatric disabilities. An Allegheny County spokeswoman confirmed Raible’s active employment but declined to comment on the lawsuit or on use-of-force policies for inmates with mental health issues.
December 1, 2020 4:10 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud and has seen nothing that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. In an interview with The Associated Press, Barr said U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working diligently to follow up on specific complaints and information they’ve received, but they’ve uncovered no evidence that would affect the final results. Trump’s attorney and presidential campaign scoffed that they hadn’t seen “any semblance” of an investigation of his complaints by his attorney general’s department.
December 1, 2020 10:47 am
BERLIN (AP) – German officials say two people have been killed and 15 others seriously injured in the southwestern German city of Trier when a car drove into a pedestrian zone. Trier police tweeted that the driver, a 51-year-old man from the area, had been arrested and the vehicle impounded. Police and rescue crews were on the scene and authorities told people to avoid the city center. Mayor Wolfram Leibe told the SWR broadcaster that in addition to the two dead, 15 people had suffered serious injuries. No details were available on the cause of Tuesday’s crash and police didn’t answer their phones or email. Trier is about 120 miles west of Frankfurt, near the border with Luxembourg.
