April 14, 2021 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Biden will withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan over the coming months, U.S. officials said, completing the military exit by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that drew the United States into its longest war. Biden declared on Wednesday that the Sept. 11 attacks, which were coordinated from Afghanistan, cannot justify American forces still being there 20 years after the deadliest terror assault on the United States. Biden called the U.S. military presence the nation’s “forever war.” He said at the White House that he is the fourth American president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan and he “will not pass this responsibility to a fifth.”
April 14, 2021 4:09 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – About 150 unaccompanied children found at the southern border of the U.S. have arrived in northwestern Pennsylvania and will be housed at a dormitory at the Pennsylvania International Academy. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said children landed Tuesday night at Erie International Airport. Children are released to sponsors in the U.S., usually parents or close relatives, while being allowed to pursue their cases in immigration courts. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie says a local volunteer effort will be led by the Pittsburgh-based Holy Family Institute, which also has received children from the border at its facilities in that city.
April 14, 2021 2:58 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – There may be nothing more nerve-wracking for a member of Congress than redistricting, when the once-a-decade redrawing of district boundaries injects uncertainty into their political career. By the end of April, the U.S. Census Bureau is releasing the first numbers from the 2020 census. It includes the state population count that determines how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets. Pennsylvania is expected to lose a district. That means there will be 17 districts for 18 incumbent U.S. House members from Pennsylvania when next year’s elections roll around. If each of the 18 wants to run again, two of them will have to run against each other.
April 13, 2021 8:21 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. is recommending a “pause” in administration of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to investigate reports of potentially dangerous blood clots. In a joint statement Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said it was investigating clots in six women in the days after vaccination, in combination with reduced platelet counts. More than 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been administered in the U.S. U.S. federal distribution channels, including mass vaccination sites, will pause the use of the J&J shot, and states and other providers are expected to follow.
April 13, 2021 7:37 am
Washington City Councilman Matt Staniszewski has been resentenced and will be released from the Washington County jail to spend 30-days at an inpatient treatment facility in Monroeville. The 44 year old councilman was jailed in February after a probation violation when State Police in Bedford County say his vehicle was found blocking a lane along the turnpike. Police say his blood-alcohol level was more than three-times the legal limit. Probation officers then went to Staniszewski’s father’s home the next day and say they found him intoxicated. The probation violation was in connection with his DUI arrest here in the city back in the summer of 2019. Staniszewski’s attorney Sean Logue tells WJPA news that he has yet to hear from police in connection with the Bedford County incident. A preliminary hearing on those charges has not been set. Logue says his client is eager to get the help he needs and to get back to work on city council. Logue says Staniszewski has no intention to resign from that position.
April 13, 2021 6:33 am
Peters Township Council deliberated several upcoming construction projects that are ongoing or will be taking place over the next year. Council approved a road paving project that will cost $1.4 million dollars. Six contractors supplied bids and A. Liberoni, Inc. was awarded the contract. Council also authorized a $250,000 design contract to EPM Architecture for the design of a new fire department substation in the Venetia area of the township. The township will also be seeking bids for the design of the new aquatic center in Rolling Hills Park. In addition to seeking bids for the aquatic center, Council also authorized a change order for $691,500 for grading work to be done for the yet approved aquatic center. Township Manager Paul Lauer explained to Council that this is the most economical and logistical means to get the grading work for the pool done. He stressed that whether the pool is done this year or in ten years this work is necessary and will avoid future disruption in the park if the pool project is delayed into the future. He also stated that if the pool is never built, the graded area could easily be repurposed. Lauer also updated council on the success of the Covid-19 Vaccination Program being run by Washington Health System in the Recreation Center. He states that now wait times for vaccinations have decreased significantly and appointments are now being met in days and not weeks.
April 13, 2021 4:20 am
Authorities say a student at a Tennessee high school fired at officers and was killed by police. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David B. Rausch said at a news conference Monday that police responded to a report of a possible gunman at Austin-East Magnet High School in Knoxville. He says the officers found him in a bathroom and ordered him to come out, but he wouldn’t comply. Rausch says that’s when the student reportedly opened fire, and police fired back. The student died at the school, and an officer was shot in the leg and taken into surgery.
April 13, 2021 4:19 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The defense for a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death started presenting its case on Tuesday. It follows 11 days of a prosecution narrative that combined wrenching video with clinical analysis by medical and use-of-force experts to condemn Derek Chauvin’s actions. Prosecutors called their final witnesses Monday, leaving only some administrative matters before they rested their case. Now that the defense has taken over, Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson has brought his own experts in to testify that it was Floyd’s drug use and bad heart, not Chauvin’s actions, that killed him. A use-of-force expert says the former officer was justified in pinning George Floyd to the ground because of his frantic resistance. The witness, Barry Brodd, testified for the defense, contradicting a parade of authorities from both inside and outside the Minneapolis police force.
April 13, 2021 4:18 am
DETROIT (AP) – The U.S. government’s highway safety agency is investigating complaints that the airbags may not inflate in a crash on thousands of General Motors vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the probe covers nearly 750,000 Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC vehicles from 2020 and 2021. Most are full-size pickup trucks and SUVs. The agency says it has 15 complaints of airbag malfunctions, including six crashes with eight reported injuries. It says that GM issued a service bulletin to dealers about the problem in March, but there hasn’t been a recall. The agency says it opened the investigation to figure out how large the problem is and to assess safety issues
April 13, 2021 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden wants Congress to know he’s sincere about cutting a deal on infrastructure. But Republican lawmakers have deep-seated doubts about the scope of his proposed package, its tax hikes and Biden’s premise that this is an inflection point for the U.S. as a world power. Biden met Monday afternoon with a bipartisan group of lawmakers and insisted the Oval Office gathering was not “window dressing.” One of the core disputes is over what counts as infrastructure in his $2.3 trillion proposal. And a fundamental disagreement has emerged about whether the United States is losing its status atop the global economy because of its deteriorating infrastructure.
