January 6, 2021 4:11 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The crush of patients with the coronavirus is so severe in Los Angeles that they exceeded the normal capacity at one community hospital. The interim chief of operations and nursing at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital said on Tuesday that it had 135 patients with COVID-19 at the hospital that has a capacity of 131 beds. It was treating 215 total patients. It’s emblematic of the surge of coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County that has overwhelmed medical staff, created a shortage of oxygen and led to a directive to ambulance crews to stop transporting patients they can’t revive in the field.
January 6, 2021 4:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Defying President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence says he doesn’t have the power to discard electoral votes that will make Democrat Joe Biden the next president on Jan. 20. That’s what Pence says in a statement issued minutes before he was to begin presiding over a joint session of Congress to count those votes. Pence says it is “my considered judgement that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.” In the days before the joint session, Trump has pressured his vice president to toss electors from battleground states that voted for Biden.
January 6, 2021 4:08 am
ATLANTA (AP) – Democrat Raphael Warnock has won one of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the party’s reach. Warnock, a pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler. It’s a stinging rebuke of outgoing President Donald Trump, who traveled to Georgia to rally for Loeffler and the Republican running for the other seat, David Perdue. The focus now shifts to the second race between Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff. That contest was too early to call as votes were still being counted.
January 6, 2021 4:04 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Eight Republican members of Congress from Pennsylvania say they’ll oppose the state’s electoral votes being cast for President-elect Joe Biden. Those eight will join dozens of other Republicans around the country who President Donald Trump has enlisted to challenge the Electoral College vote when Congress convenes in a joint session Wednesday to confirm Biden’s 306-232 win. In statements last week, they complained about election-related policies of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration and decisions by the state Supreme Court, generally dealing how mail-in ballots were to be collected and counted.
January 6, 2021 4:02 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania lawmakers are starting their new two-year legislative term with a bitter dispute in the Senate that prevented the seating of a Democratic member. Both chambers swore in their newly elected members on Tuesday. Republicans hold large majorities in both chambers. Democrats in the Senate began protesting and in some cases shouting after the Republican majority refused to seat Sen. Jim Brewster of Allegheny County. His election was certified by the state but is being contested by Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli. The fight followed weeks of President Donald Trump challenging President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania with baseless allegations of fraud and lawsuits that have repeatedly lost in the courts.
January 6, 2021 2:45 am
Osso’s Pizza in Washington, which has been closed since Tuesday because of a positive COVID-19 test among their employees, is hoping to reopen this weekend. The owner of the pizza shop, Lisa Osso-Hasson, tells WJPA News that she was informed of the first positive test Monday evening and took the immediate action of shutting down. Osso-Hasson says they have been keeping their customers informed of their status through their Facebook page. She says they have had the building professionally deep-cleaned twice. Since the first positive test though, Osso-Hasson says they have had two more employees test positive and they’re awaiting the test results for the remainder of the workers. Osso-Hasson says they are paying for all of their workers to get tested and will not allow anyone to come back to work until they can provide a negative test. She tells us that they are hoping to reopen on Saturday, January 9th, if they can put together a crew of employees.
January 5, 2021 3:52 pm
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – An Illinois teenager who fatally shot two people and wounded a third amidst sometimes violent summer protests on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, has pleaded not guilty to charges including intentional homicide. Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, entered his plea Tuesday in a brief hearing conducted by teleconference. Prosecutors say Rittenhouse, who is white, left his home in Antioch, Illinois, and traveled to Kenosha after learning of a call to protect businesses in the wake of the Aug. 23 shooting by police of Jacob Blake. During protests two nights later, Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded a third man.
January 5, 2021 3:25 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania lawmakers are starting their new two-year legislative term with a bitter dispute in the Senate that prevented the seating of a Democratic member. Both chambers swore in their newly elected members on Tuesday. Republicans hold large majorities in both chambers. Democrats in the Senate began protesting and in some cases shouting after the Republican majority refused to seat Sen. Jim Brewster of Allegheny County. His election was certified by the state but is being contested by Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli. The House is expected to elect Lancaster County Republican Rep. Bryan Cutler as speaker. The Senate made Centre County Republican Sen. Jake Corman its presiding officer, president pro tempore.
January 5, 2021 12:44 pm
(WPXI) – A 4-year-old girl has been found safe after a Pennsylvania State Police Amber Alert was issued Tuesday, authorities said. The girl went missing from her home in Corry, which is in Erie County. She was reported to have been abducted by a 20-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man. Further information about what happened was not provided when state police announced the cancellation of the Amber Alert.
January 5, 2021 4:32 am
Peters Township Police have issued a warning to residents about counterfeit currency that has turned up. Police say the bills have Chinese writing on them and they have seen them before. They want residents to know that they are not legal tender and may be used to deceive businesses or individuals in order to steal goods and services.
