November 26, 2020 4:36 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – California has reported a record number of coronavirus cases on the eve of Thanksgiving. More than 18,000 COVID-19 infections were reported Wednesday. That surpassed a previous daily record of more than 15,000 cases announced Saturday. As officials urged people to reconsider their Thanksgiving gatherings, Los Angeles restaurants were preparing to close for three weeks and firefighters in Silicon Valley were being enlisted to help enforce public health rules to try to halt the spread of infections. Los Angeles, which has been hard hit by the virus, has been mulling a new stay-home order but has not yet issued one.
November 26, 2020 4:35 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – As coronavirus cases surge again nationwide, the Supreme Court is barring New York from enforcing certain attendance limits at houses of worship in areas designated as hard hit by the virus. The court’s action late Wednesday won’t have any immediate impact since the two groups that sued as a result of the restrictions, the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Jewish synagogues, are no longer subject to them. The groups had challenged attendance limits in areas designated red and orange zones, but they are now in the less-restrictive yellow zones.
November 26, 2020 4:34 am
HOUSTON (AP) – The U.S. government has appealed a judge’s order barring the expulsions of immigrant children who crossed the border alone, a policy enacted during the coronavirus pandemic to deny the children asylum protections. Judge Emmet Sullivan issued a preliminary injunction on Nov. 18 sought by advocates for immigrants that barred expulsions of unaccompanied children under public health laws. The Justice Department on Wednesday night also asked Sullivan to issue a stay of the injunction pending appeal, a request he previously denied.
November 26, 2020 4:32 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn despite Flynn’s guilty plea to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts. Trump announced the pardon on Wednesday, calling it his “Great Honor.” Flynn’s family thanked Trump “for answering our prayers and the prayers of a nation” by issuing the pardon. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Flynn pardon “an act of grave corruption and a brazen abuse of power.” The pardon is part of a broader effort by the president to undo the results of a Russia investigation that shadowed his administration and yielded criminal charges against a half dozen associates.
November 26, 2020 4:30 am
UNIONTOWN, Pa — Pennsylvania State Police are searching for an elderly man who disappeared Wednesday evening in Fayette County. Clarence Frederick Robinson, 97, was last seen around 3:00 p.m. Wednesday afternoon traveling north along State Route 119 in his 2012 Maroon/Tan Ford 5-150 pickup truck. He stands at 5’10”, is balding with gray hair and brown eyes while weighing roughly 170 pounds. The Smithfield man was last seen wearing navy blue pants, a button down shirt and a U.S. Air Force ball cap. Anyone with information on Robinson’s disappearance is asked to call State Police in Uniontown at 724-439-7111.
November 26, 2020 4:20 am
A Pennsylvania appeals court judge has ordered state officials on Wednesday to halt any further steps toward certifying election results. The ruling comes a day after Gov. Tom Wolf said he had certified Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election in Pennsylvania. Wolf’s administration quickly asked the state Supreme Court to block the ruling from taking effect, saying there was no ‘conceivable justification’ for it. Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough, a Republican, had issued the order. It wasn’t immediately clear if she hoped to hold up the certification of state and local contests on the ballot or interrupt the scheduled Dec. 14 meeting of the state’s 20 electors.
November 26, 2020 4:15 am
PITTSBURGH, Pa (WPXI) — Did your phone blare with a message about COVID-19 Wednesday evening? Gov. Wolf’s office announced the state will start using the national Wireless Emergency Alert system to put out messages about the pandemic. According to a news release, WEA is a national public safety system that allows people who own a cellphone to receive targeted, text-like messages. The system is currently used to issue alerts to your phone for things like Amber Alerts or severe weather warnings. The Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau allows the state to use the system as a COVID-19 communications tool. State officials said the plan is target specific regions of the state for future messages.
November 25, 2020 4:59 pm
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – In a time of plague and raw division, President-elect Joe Biden is appealing for unity in a Thanksgiving-eve address to the nation. He’s asking Americans to “steel our spines” for a fight against the coronavirus that he predicted would continue for months. With COVID-19 cases surging nationwide, Biden called on Americans to take precautions to try to stem the tide of the virus, by wearing masks and practicing social distancing. But even as he urged common purpose and healing, President Donald Trump asserted that the election results must be overturned.
November 25, 2020 4:57 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn, taking direct aim in the final days of his administration at a Russia investigation that he has long insisted was motivated by political bias. Trump announced the pardon on Wednesday, calling it his “Great Honor.” Flynn is the second Trump associate convicted in the Russia probe to be granted clemency by the president. Trump commuted the sentence of longtime confidant Roger Stone just days before he was to report to prison. It is part of a broader effort to undo the results of an investigation that has shadowed his administration and yielded criminal charges against a half dozen associates.
November 25, 2020 1:29 pm
The NFL has announced that the Thanksgiving prime time game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens has been postponed. The NFL issued a statement stating “This decision was made out of an abundance of caution to ensure the health and safety of players, coaches and game day personnel and in consultation with medical experts,”. Several Ravens players and office personnel have tested positive for Covid-19 this week. The game has been moved to Sunday afternoon, kickoff is at 1:15 and can be seen on NBC.
