November 11, 2020 3:37 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has won the state of Alaska. The Republican nominee was awarded the state’s three electoral votes, pushing his Electoral College tally to 217. His Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, was declared the winner of the presidential election on Nov. 7 after flipping Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump won those states in 2016. Biden has 290 electoral votes. The Associated Press has not called Georgia and North Carolina. Control of the Senate won’t be decided until the new year after Republicans won a seat in Alaska on Wednesday. Incumbent Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan defeated Al Gross, an independent running as a Democrat. Neither party can lock the Senate majority until January runoffs in Georgia.
November 11, 2020 4:34 am
Officials in Charleroi Borough have taken some heat after their “Virtual Community Days” celebration featured a band that displayed a Confederate Flag on stage. At Tuesday’s council meeting, David Hunter, president of the Mon Valley NAACP, addressed council after he said residents contacted them about the event that took place on borough property and in the presence of borough officials back in October. Hunter said, “it sends a very bad message because that flag is a symbol of the Confederacy, slavery, and discrimination.” Council President, Mark Alterici, offered an apology on behalf of council and said the videos have since been removed from social media. It is estimated that 10-15 thousand viewers watched the virtual concerts due to the pandemic. The band, Six Gun Sally, is a local Southern/Classic Rock band. Both council and the NAACP say they want to work together to prevent issues like these from happening again and to address the lack of diversity among borough employees and regional police officers.
November 11, 2020 4:08 am
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden is promising that “we’re going to get right to work” and is downplaying concerns that President Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his victory could undermine national security. Trump has blocked his Democratic rival from receiving the intelligence briefings traditionally shared with incoming presidents, according to someone with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to disclose private conversations. Asked Tuesday about the Republican resistance, Biden says it “does not change the dynamic at all in what we’re able to do.” He says additional intelligence briefings “would be useful,” but “we don’t see anything slowing us down.”
November 11, 2020 4:06 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The U.S. has hit a record number of coronavirus hospitalizations and surpassed 1 million new confirmed cases in just the first 10 days of November. The grim milestones Tuesday come amid a nationwide surge of infections that shows no signs of slowing. The new wave appears bigger and more widespread than the surges that happened in the spring and summer – and threatens to be worse. Deaths are climbing again, reaching an average of more than 930 a day. However, experts say medical and testing advances give them reason to believe the nation is better able to deal with the virus this time.
November 11, 2020 4:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democrats have clinched two more years of controlling the House. But they’ll do it with a potentially razor-thin majority. That would mean a bittersweet finale to last week’s elections that’s leaving them divided and with scant margin for error for advancing their agenda. The Associated Press has determined that Democrats have now nailed down at least 218 seats in the 435-member chamber. They could still win several others when more votes are counted. But while they will control the House, they had expected to win perhaps 15 new seats until they were blindsided by a surge of Republican voters in districts around the country.
November 11, 2020 4:03 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s campaign has been blasting out emails and text messages to supporters, raising money for an “election defense fund” to contest the outcome of last week’s election. But a close read of the fine print reveals the messages are misleading. Much of the money has instead paid down Trump’s campaign debt, replenished the Republican National Committee and, more recently, helped get Save America, a new political action committee Trump founded, off the ground. The unusual way the Trump campaign is divvying up the contributions has drawn scrutiny from election watchdogs, who say Trump and his family could financially benefit from the arrangement.
November 11, 2020 4:02 am
ATLANTA (AP) – State officials and election experts say the 2020 election unfolded smoothly across the country and without any widespread irregularities. That’s a stark contrast to the baseless claims of fraud being leveled by President Donald Trump following his defeat. Election experts say the large increase in advance voting helped take pressure off Election Day operations. There were also no incidents of violence at the polls or voter intimidation. Trump has made numerous claims of fraud, though he has not provided evidence to back up those claims.
November 11, 2020 3:59 am
WASHINGTON, D.C. — (WPXI) -A postal worker, who acknowledged issues with Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting system, has admitted that he lied to U.S. Postal Service investigators. In an article published by The Washington Post, three officials briefed on the investigation say the postal employee, Richard Hopkins, fabricated his story. Hopkins claimed that the Erie postmaster instructed employees to backdate ballots mailed after Election Day. This claim was cited in an official letter to the Justice Department by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) as he was asking for a federal investigation into Tuesday’s election results. But, according to The Washington Post, Hopkins told the U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general that the story was not true and signed an affidavit — reversing his claims. Hopkins did post a video on YouTube saying he did not recant his statement. Erie’s postmaster has denied Hopkins’ allegations and cited the employee’s disciplinary record as a reason for his statement. According to the article, Hopkins was walked out of the post office on Monday and told not to come back until the investigation was complete.
November 11, 2020 3:56 am
As baseless allegations of voter fraud continue to circulate online, social media users are falsely claiming that people cast extra votes using the identities of dead people in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Michigan. There’s no evidence that this happened. Experts tell The Associated Press it is common for state voter rolls to include voters with birthdates that make them appear impossibly old, but these are usually explained by human error, software quirks or voter confidentiality issues. And sometimes a person simply shares a name and birthdate with someone else.
November 11, 2020 3:50 am
North Franklin Supervisors approved a preliminary budget for 2021 bringing good news to residents. Supervisor Chairman Bob Sabot states that the budget will include a tax cut for residents. Even though the tax cut will take effect, the budget will include $480,000 in road projects and nearly double the contribution the township makes to the fire department. Sabot says the tax savings will be approximately $50 on a house assessed at $200,000. Supervisors also adopted amendments to ordinances. The first will allow Factory Authorized Dealers in the Master Overlay district. Director of Planning and Development, Erin Dinch says that the township never allowed such businesses before. A car dealership is interested in locating to the former Sears store in the Washington Crown Center. A second amendment will allow privacy fencing to be installed along the back and sides of properties. The township will advertise an ordinance adopting the Township Code. Dinch states that the code will be much more user friendly. Residents will now be able to look up ordinances and find all the information they are seeking in one spot. The code will also be available on the township webpage.
