October 25, 2020 6:26 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — Multiple agencies were on scene for an apartment fire in the City of Washington Saturday morning. According to reports, the blaze broke out around 5:40 a.m. on the 300 block of East Wheeling Street near the W&J Campus. This is not a campus building, and crews on scene said no college students lived in the apartment. Callers reported heavy smoke coming from an upstairs door. The City of Washington was joined by North Strabane, South Strabane, North Franklin and Canton Township Fire Departments. Officials say the fire was knocked down around 6:15 a.m. The scene was cleared just before 7:00 a.m. There is no word on what caused the fire, and there were no injuries reported.
October 24, 2020 4:13 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Pacific Gas & Electric says it may power to some 1 million people this weekend in central and Northern California, which could see the most dangerous fire weather of the season. PG&E says it could begin safety shutoffs Sunday morning as gusts and low humidity ramp up the risk of downing power lines and sparking massive fires in tinder-dry brush. The shutoffs in 38 counties could last into Tuesday. PG&E equipment has been blamed for sparking some of the most devastating fires in recent years, including a 2018 blaze in Butte County that killed 85 people. This year, wildfires already have destroyed some 9,200 buildings and killed 31 people.
October 24, 2020 4:13 am
FOLEY, Ala. (AP) – Authorities say a U.S. Navy training plane traveling from Florida has crashed in an Alabama residential neighborhood near the Gulf Coast, killing both people in the plane. Navy spokesman Zach Harrell says both people in the T-6B Texan II training plane died Friday. No injuries were reported on the ground. Foley Fire Chief Joey Darby told news outlets that responders encountered and extinguished a “large volume of fire” that had engulfed a home and cars. The crash occurred near the city of Foley and the town of Magnolia Springs. A Navy spokeswoman says the plane had flown out of Naval Air Station Whiting Field, about 30 miles northeast of Pensacola.
October 24, 2020 4:12 am
India has reported 53,370 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the overall tally past 7.8 million. The Health Ministry on Saturday also reported 650 deaths, driving the country’s toll to 117,956. The highest number of new infections is coming from Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka states. They’re also reporting the maximum number of daily recoveries. Last month, India hit a peak of nearly 100,000 cases in a single day, but since then daily infections have fallen by about half and deaths by about a third, even as testing has remained consistent. India is still adding more than 50,000 cases a day as the country prepares for a festival season when large crowds gather. Health officials warn about the potential for the virus to spread.
October 24, 2020 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – As President Donald Trump sows doubts about the election, an obscure government agency he created is working behind the scenes to inspire confidence in the vote amid unprecedented challenges. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, which Trump signed into existence in 2018, is working with other parts of the government to safeguard an election in the middle of a pandemic. Trump hasn’t made it easy by predicting that voting at a time of COVID-19 will be a “disaster,” insisting mail-in balloting is a recipe for fraud and dismissing reports of Russian interference. CISA quietly offers a counternarrative on these issues and more, and its director projects optimism about the election.
October 24, 2020 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans and Democrats are unleashing millions in eleventh-hour spending in Senate races. But with Election Day less than two weeks off, much of it is coming in states that wouldn’t normally see late spending. They include normal GOP strongholds like Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, South Carolina and Texas. President Donald Trump’s unpopularity is putting red-leaning seats into play and Democratic candidates are raising so much money that national Democrats can afford to spend money in races they might normally ignore.
October 24, 2020 4:09 am
BOISE, Idaho (AP) – The United States is approaching a record for the number of new daily coronavirus cases in the latest ominous sign of the disease’s grip on the nation. The surge’s impact is being felt in every section of the country. Among the latest developments: a lockdown at the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s reservation in South Dakota and a plea by a Florida health official for a halt to children’s birthday parties. There’s an increasingly desperate situation at a hospital in northern Idaho, which is running out of space for patients and considering airlifts to Portland, Oregon, or Seattle. The surge in the U.S. mirrors a similar spike in Europe.
October 24, 2020 4:07 am
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) – President Donald Trump is set to cast his own ballot in his adopted home state of Florida Saturday before rallying supporters in three other critical battleground states. Democrat Joe Biden is throwing his attention – with a little help from rock legend Jon Bon Jovi – on the closely contested pockets of Pennsylvania that could prove key to deciding the outcome there. Trump promises to go full throttle over the final 10 days of the campaign with a series of big rallies even as the number of new daily coronavirus cases continues to climb. Biden is making the case that Trump doesn’t deserve a second term because of his handling of the pandemic.
October 24, 2020 4:05 am
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — There are new COVID-19 situations, and updates in cases announced earlier this week from schools within the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. School administrators continue to follow policies and protocols which include immediate reporting of the cases to appropriate health agencies. With an abundance of caution and a focus on keeping school communities safe, actions are taken based on medical guidance as offered through those health agencies. Following health and safety protocols after a third person reported a positive COVID-19 test result, St. Louise De Marillac Catholic School in Upper Saint Clair will close, and students will learn online until November 2, 2020. Based on updated direction from the Allegheny County Health Department, the boys’ soccer program at North Catholic High School will be back at school Monday, October 26, and able to resume practices and matches effective immediately. All 27 people involved with the North Catholic Varsity Boys Soccer Team had begun quarantine based on original guidance from the Allegheny County Health Department upon being notified that the team was potentially exposed to COVID-19 in a recent match.
October 24, 2020 4:00 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court is prohibiting counties from rejecting ballots if the voter’s signature on it does not resemble the signature on the voter’s registration form. Two Republican justices joined five Democratic justices in Friday’s decision. It addresses a key concern surrounding an avalanche of mail-in ballots in the presidential battleground state. The verdict was a victory for the state’s top election official. Kathy Boockvar is a Democrat who had asked the court to back her up in a legal dispute with President Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican lawmakers. Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are locked in a battle to win Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes.
