November 6, 2020 4:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers may have slowed their hiring in October for a fourth straight month with confirmed viral cases reaching record levels and the loss of government aid deepening the hardships for many. Economists have forecast that employers added 580,000 jobs last month, down from 661,000 in September and 1.5 million in August. If that estimate proves accurate, last month’s gain will have been the weakest since employers began calling some employees back to work in May. And it would mean that the economy has regained only about 12 million of the 22 million jobs that vanished when the pandemic paralyzed the economy in early spring.
November 6, 2020 4:09 am
(AP) – Election officials in key battleground states are pushing back on claims by the Trump campaign that Republican poll watchers were being improperly denied access to observe the counting of ballots. They say rules are being followed and they are committed to transparency. Partisan poll watchers are designated by a political party or campaign and tasked this year with monitoring a record number of mail ballots. They are also a central element of legal battles that have erupted in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada. Monitoring polling places and election offices is allowed in most states, but rules vary and there are limits to avoid harassment or intimidation.
November 6, 2020 4:08 am
(AP) – Election officials in several states say they are worried about the safety of their staffs amid a cascade of threats and protesters responding to President Donald Trump’s baseless insistence of widespread voter fraud in the race for the White House. Groups of Trump supporters have gathered at vote tabulation sites in Phoenix, Detroit and Philadelphia, decrying counts that showed Democrat Joe Biden leading or gaining ground. While the protests have not been violent or very large, local officials were exasperated and concerned by the relentless accusations.
November 6, 2020 4:07 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania vote counters are edging closer to wrapping up their tally. Mail-in votes gave Democrat Joe Biden a narrow lead Friday in the fight for the state’s cache of 20 electoral votes. Republican President Donald Trump needs to pull off a repeat of his 2016 victory in Pennsylvania to have a shot at reelection. Pennsylvania elections officials weren’t allowed to process mail-in ballots until Election Day under state law, and those ballots have skewed heavily in Biden’s favor after Trump spent months claiming without proof that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud. The millions of mail ballots from across the state are overwhelmingly breaking in Biden’s direction.
November 6, 2020 4:04 am
The Canon-McMillan School Board was presented a plan from their Pandemic Planning Team to return students to full time classroom education. The 30 minute presentation weighed pros and cons of staying in the current hybrid learning model and moving to a full time model. The team presented their findings about managing the spread of coronavirus and how contact tracing would be more difficult in a full time model if an outbreak was to occur. They explained that social distancing would be much more difficult. The team did recognize that a return to full time in class teaching would be beneficial to the students from the participation aspect as well as mental and physical well being. The team recommended a January 19, 2021 return to classrooms on a four day a week schedule, keeping Wednesdays as remote learning days to allow building sanitization. The reaction from the public was not favorable. Seven people stood up to comment about how their students are not performing up to normal standards from when they were in school full time. One commenter was a high school freshman who related his difficulty when learning at home versus his better performance when in the classroom. Several comments were made about neighboring schools like Trinity, Chartiers-Houston and Peters Township having success with their five day a week schedules.
November 6, 2020 4:01 am
Washington City Council returned to virtual meetings due to coronavirus concerns at City Hall. On Thursday Council previewed the 2021 budget. The budget as currently proposed is not a balanced budget. Deputy Finance Officer Susan Koehler indicates that there is a $229,000 shortfall. Council is fully confident that they will be able to work out the deficit to present a balanced budget that contains no tax increase in time to adopt it in December. Most of the shortfall comes from contractual obligations and extremely conservative budgeting due to shortfalls in revenue from the Covid-19 pandemic. Some discussion was held about the scheduling of meetings in the upcoming year. Mayor Scott Putnam is looking to make all meetings evening meetings. Councilman Joe Manning thinks having four afternoon meetings a year allows for people who are not available at night to attend. More discussion will be held before any final schedule will be adopted.
November 6, 2020 2:41 am
Democratic State Representative Pam Snyder has declared victory in her 50th Legislative District race with Republican challenger Larry Yost. According to reports, Snyder leads Yost by more than eight-hundred votes after Greene County elections officials released results from their count of mail-in ballots on Thursday. That count is to continue on Friday but Snyder is confident that Yost will not be able to catch her. There has been no word from the Yost campaign.
November 5, 2020 7:44 am
An outbreak of COVID-19 has closed Peters Township High School, Middle School and McMurray Elementary through Monday. The district has announced that four students at the high school, one at the middle school and one at the elementary have tested positive for the virus. All students in grades 4-12 will attend class remotely. The district has cancelled all non-essential sports practices, however, the boys soccer and football playoff games will go on as scheduled with strict mitigation efforts in place. An SAT exam scheduled for students on Saturday will also be held as they are working to add additional testing rooms so that students can be spread out.
November 5, 2020 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to perform twice daily sweeps of processing centers in states with extended ballot receipt deadlines to check for mail-in votes and to expedite them for delivery. Thursday’s order will remain in place until the end of states’ windows for accepting ballots. According to court records, a similar order by the same judge earlier this week found just 13 ballots in a search of 27 processing hubs in several battleground areas. Elections officials in key battleground states are continuing presidential vote counting. Democrat Joe Biden is urging patience, while President Donald Trump is pursuing his legal options.
November 5, 2020 4:17 am
The delay in knowing the U.S. election winner is jarring to a planet weaned on American speediness. World leaders generally refrained from commenting about the possibilities either way. But the particularly fractious contest between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden has sparked concerns overseas America’s sharp divisions will endure long after the winner is declared. Gloating was heard in some countries that have been on the receiving end of U.S. criticism about how they run their own elections. But others see the slow vote-counting as a living example of how democracy works.
