November 30, 2020 4:20 am
NEW YORK (AP) – If you were to choose a word that rose above most in 2020, which word would it be? Ding, ding, ding: Merriam-Webster on Monday announced “pandemic” as its 2020 word of the year. Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, Peter Sokolowski, tells The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s announcement that pandemic rose to the top in March. That’s when the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus crisis a pandemic. Interest in the word on the company’s website, Merriam-Webster.com, has been high through the year. Among the runners up for word of the year: kraken, mamba and defund. President-elect Joe Biden’s fondness for the word malarkey lifted the word to runner up status as well.
November 30, 2020 4:19 am
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden will likely wear a walking boot for several weeks after breaking his right foot. Biden’s office says the president-elect suffered the injury Saturday while playing with one of his dogs, then visited an orthopedist Sunday afternoon in Newark, Delaware. His doctor, Kevin O’Connor, says a scan found tiny fractures of two small bones in the middle of Biden’s right foot. Fractures are a concern generally as people age, but Biden’s appears to be a relatively mild one based on his doctor’s statement and the planned treatment. At 78 he will become the oldest president when he’s inaugurated in January.
November 30, 2020 4:18 am
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden will have an all-female communications team at his White House, led by campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield. Bedingfield will serve as Biden’s White House communications director, and Jen Psaki, a longtime Democratic spokeswoman, will be his press secretary. The choices reflect Biden’s stated desire to build out a diverse White House team as well as what’s expected to be a return to a more traditional press operation. Meanwhile, The Associated Press has learned that Biden also plans to name the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, Neera Tanden, as director of the Office of Management and Budget.
November 30, 2020 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Congress is returning to Washington for one last attempt at deal-making this year. The only absolute must-do is preventing a government shutdown on Dec. 11. But lawmakers are also debating whether to deliver another round of coronavirus relief before President Donald Trump leaves office. A virus bill would provide funding for vaccines and testing, for reopening schools and for helping small businesses. But the parties remain divided on the details and the cost. Failure to pass a measure would push virus aid to the top of President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.
November 30, 2020 4:16 am
President-elect Joe Biden is expected in the coming days to name several of his most senior economic advisers. The group includes liberal economists and policy specialists who established their credentials during the previous two Democratic administrations. Biden is placing a premium on diversity in his selection of Cabinet nominees and key advisers. Two expected to be named are former Fed chair Janet Yellen as treasury secretary and Neera Tanden to head the Office of Management and Budget. Yellen would be the first female treasury secretary. Tanden would be the first woman of color and the first South Asian woman to lead the agency that oversees the federal budget.
November 30, 2020 4:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania state senator abruptly left a West Wing meeting with President Donald Trump after being informed he had tested positive for the coronavirus, a person with direct knowledge of the meeting told The Associated Press on Sunday. Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano had gone to the White House last Wednesday with like-minded Republican state lawmakers shortly after a four-hour-plus public meeting that Mastriano helped host in Gettysburg — maskless — to discuss efforts to overturn president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state. Trump told Mastriano that White House medical personnel would take care of him, his son and his son’s friend, who were also there for the Oval Office meeting and tested positive. The meeting continued after Mastriano and the others left, the person said.
November 30, 2020 4:06 am
A strong weather system will move through our area over the next few days. As a result, a Winter Weather Advisory is in effect from one a.m. Tuesday until 7 a.m. Wednesday. In addition, a Winter Storm Warning will go into effect for Mercer and Venango Counties as well as the ridges of Westmoreland and Fayette Counties at 1 a.m. Tuesday and continue until 7 a.m. Wednesday. Snow will fall throughout the morning Tuesday and continuing into Tuesday night. Parts of Mercer and Venango Counties could see 5 to 7 inches of snow through Wednesday morning. The ridges could also see up to 7 inches in spots. Parts of Lawrence and Butler Counties could see 3 to 6 inches of snow. The rest of the area will range from 2 to 5 inches, depending on your location. Use caution if you’re traveling early Tuesday as there could be some icy spots. Air temperatures will be cooling below freezing and any moisture or snow on the road will make it slick. Along with the snow, the wind will be strong and could lead to blowing snow and reduced visibility with wind gusts around 30 mph.
November 30, 2020 2:44 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s highest court on Saturday night threw out a lower court’s order preventing the state from certifying dozens of contests on its Nov. 3 election ballot in the latest lawsuit filed by Republicans attempting to thwart President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the battleground state. The state Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, threw out the three-day-old order, saying the underlying lawsuit was filed months after the expiration of a time limit in Pennsylvania’s expansive-year-old mail-in voting law allowing for challenges to it. Justices also remarked on the lawsuit’s staggering demand that an entire election be overturned retroactively. “They have failed to allege that even a single mail-in ballot was fraudulently cast or counted,” Justice David Wecht wrote in a concurring opinion. The state’s attorney general, Democrat Josh Shapiro, called the court’s decision “another win for Democracy.” President Donald Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, have repeatedly and baselessly claimed that Democrats falsified mail-in ballots to steal the election from Trump. Biden beat Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, a state Trump had won in 2016. The week-old lawsuit, led by Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of northwestern Pennsylvania, had challenged the state’s mail-in voting law as unconstitutional.
November 30, 2020 2:00 am
The 2020 Two-Thousand Turkeys Campaign turned out to be a smashing success! Far exceeding its goal of one-hundred-thousand-dollars. The grand total for this years fundraiser; $207,863. The fundraiser is a grassroots effort supported by local businesses, organizations and individuals whose donations put a turkey dinner on the table of families being served each month by the Greater Washington County Food Bank. This year, the need is great. An estimated 29,000 people in Washington County are food-insecure, and about half of those are served by the food bank. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, dependence on the food bank has increased. By summer, requests for food skyrocketed 150% since the onset of the pandemic. Donations are still being accepted through the Washington County Food Bank’s website at gwcfb.org. You’ll find a listing for 2000 Turkeys. Just click on the link and make your donation. You can also mail your donation to “2000 Turkeys, P.O. Box 2000, Washington, PA, 15301.” Co-sponsored by WJPA Radio and the Observer-Reporter, 2000 Turkeys has been around since the early 1980s, when it was launched to help feed the underemployed and unemployed during the holiday. The 2000 Turkeys campaign is the largest fundraiser for the food bank.
November 29, 2020 7:59 am
LONDON (AP) — The British government appointed a vaccines minister on Saturday as it prepares to inoculate millions of people against the coronavirus, potentially starting within days. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Conservative lawmaker Nadhim Zahawi will oversee the country’s biggest vaccine program in decades. The U.K. medicines regulator is currently assessing two vaccines — one developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the other by Oxford University and AstraZeneca — to see if they are safe and effective. The Guardian newspaper reported that hospitals have been told they could receive the first doses of the Pfizer shot the week of Dec. 7, if it receives approval.
