October 28, 2020 4:15 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A Southern California utility is defending its decision to avoid a widespread blackout before a fast-moving wildfire erupted in its area. Facing extreme wildfire conditions this week, Southern California Edison pulled the plug on only 30 customers to prevent power lines from sparking a blaze. A spokesman says winds hadn’t reached the level where safety shutoffs were implemented, although more were put in place later. Two Orange County fires are still burning after forcing some 100,000 people from their homes. Meanwhile, Pacific Gas & Electric this week cut power to some 350,000 customers. Fires did erupt but were contained without serious damage.
October 28, 2020 4:14 am
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Zeta has crashed ashore in storm-weary Louisiana as a powerful Category 2 storm. Zeta’s landfall on Wednesday afternoon struck the latest blow of an extraordinarily busy Atlantic tropical storm season to a stretch of the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Miami-based hurricane center says a hurricane hunter aircraft confirmed at 4 p.m. Wednesday that the menacing storm had made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana. The fast-moving storm came ashore on the southern Louisiana coastline in a region of the Gulf Coast that has already been in the crosshairs of earlier storms this season.
October 28, 2020 4:12 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The police commissioner in Philadelphia says her department will release 911 tapes and footage from police body cameras “in the near future” in the shooting death of Walter Wallace Jr. Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at a briefing Wednesday that officials will do so after talking with Wallace’s relatives to prepare them. She also says the police department should move “as soon as possible” to integrate with mental health services. Mayor Jim Kenney says looting prevention and assistance to the police are the reasons the city asked for the National Guard to be deployed after two nights of unrest after the police killing of Wallace. (Photo: CNN)
October 28, 2020 4:06 am
North Strabane Supervisors took safety measures into their hands as they voted unanimously to remove the collector street designation from Brehm Road. Ongoing development in the area of Brehm Road caused supervisor Harold Close to move that the designation be removed. He states that the road is not up to collector street standards that the other collector streets in the township are designed with. Close says that his main safety concern is the width of the road. Brehm Road is not as wide as other collector streets and developers cannot be mandated to make improvements to township roads. The township will also enter into an agreement with Washington County to take advantage of their share of federal CARES Act funds. Township Manager Andrew Walz says the township is in line to receive nearly $416,000 in funds. Walz indicates that some of that money will go to reimbursements for salaries and ppe used to protect employees during the pandemic. Improvements to the townships parks will also be considered for improvements to amenities to make them touchless. Walz says he is working on a list of items so they can use every dollar of the money that they have been awarded.
October 28, 2020 2:42 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – A federal judge has ruled in favor of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice in a lawsuit over his decision to close bars in student-heavy Monongalia due the coronavirus pandemic. The owners of 12 establishments sued the governor last month for ordering them to close after pictures were posted online of college students packing bars without masks. News outlets report the judge issued an order Tuesday denying a motion for injunctive relief on behalf of the businesses. The ruling said the “right to do business” has not been recognized as constitutionally protected and the claims “ignore the grave nature of why the Governor issued a state of emergency.”
October 27, 2020 5:39 pm
(WPXI) – Former Jeannette High School football star and NFL wide receiver Terrelle Pryor and his girlfriend have both just pleaded guilty to charges related to a domestic incident at their apartment in 2019. Pryor, 31, and Shalaya Briston were living at Heinz Lofts last November when police said Briston, 25, stabbed Pryor several times in his chest and arm after an argument, then drove him to the hospital for treatment. Pryor pleaded guilty to harassment and received 90 days unsupervised probation, while Briston pleaded guilty to simple assault and received two years probation.
October 27, 2020 4:46 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – A panel of U.S. health experts wants adults to start getting colon cancer screenings at 45. That’s five years younger than previous guidelines. The change reflects a growing concern about rising rates of colon cancer in younger people. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released the draft recommendations Tuesday. How often someone should get screened after age 45 depends on the type of test and other factors. The task force change brings it in line with the American Cancer Society, which previously lowered the age to start screening from 50 to 45.
October 27, 2020 9:24 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Police leaders are struggling to answer questions about what led to the death of Walter Wallace under more than a dozen rounds fired by two Philadelphia officers. Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw deferred many questions at a news conference Tuesday about events before the previous afternoon’s shooting of the 27-year-old Black man that led to unrest and arrests. Chief Inspector Frank Vanore says that police received a call about a man screaming and that he was armed with a knife. He says the two officers each fired at least seven rounds but could not say how many times Wallace was struck. Officials say neither officer had a stun gun. More than a dozen people were arrested and more than 30 officers injured in protests stemming from the shooting. Officials said Tuesday that the 27-year-old Wallace refused police orders to drop a knife in the confrontation captured on video. Wallace’s father told The Philadelphia Inquirer that his son appeared to have been shot 10 times and had struggled with his mental health.
October 27, 2020 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Amy Coney Barrett is headed to to the Supreme Court. The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee, with Republicans overpowering Democratic opposition a week before Election Day. Barrett will be the third Supreme Court justice nominated by Trump. At 48, she is likely secure a conservative court majority for years to come. With no real power to stop the vote, Democrats still argued the winner of the Nov. 3 election should choose the nominee. Barrett will fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal icon who died last month.
October 27, 2020 4:11 am
U.S. government officials are putting an early end to a study testing an Eli Lilly antibody drug for people hospitalized with COVID-19 because it doesn’t seem to help. Independent monitors had paused enrollment in the study two weeks ago because of a possible safety issue. But on Monday, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which sponsors the study, said a closer look found no safety problem but a low chance that the drug would prove helpful for hospitalized patients. President Donald Trump received a similar drug when he was sickened earlier this month.
