September 19, 2020 4:04 am
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) – Bail amounts have been dramatically reduced for several people accused of committing crimes during a civil disturbance last weekend in Lancaster that included vandalism to public buildings. LNP reported that bail for nine of 13 defendants was lowered Thursday. Several had faced $1 million bail, and now several of them won’t have to put up any money to be released. The charges stem from protests over the fatal police shooting on Sunday of Lancaster man Ricardo Munoz. Body camera video shows him wielding a knife when an officer responded to his sister’s request to have him committed for mental health treatment.
September 19, 2020 4:00 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate took a steep drop in August, as the labor force shrank and payrolls shot up again in a continuing rebound from the pandemic. The state Department of Labor and Industry said Friday that Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was 10.3% in August, down 2.2 percentage points from July’s adjusted rate of 12.5%. It had initially estimated July’s rate at 13.7% in July. The national rate was 8.4% in August. Payrolls gained back almost 60,000 of the more than 1.1 million jobs lost since March. Pennsylvania has now regained slightly more than half the jobs lost in the last six months, according to state figures.
September 18, 2020 3:59 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. health officials are dropping a controversial piece of coronavirus guidance and telling all those who have been in close contact with infected people to get tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention essentially returned to its previous guidance about such tests. In doing so, it got rid of language posted last month that said people who didn’t feel sick didn’t need to get tested. That August change set off a rash of criticism from health experts who couldn’t fathom why the nation’s top public health agency would say such a thing amid a pandemic that has been difficult to control. (Photo: CNN)
September 18, 2020 11:50 am
A SWAT Team, along with several other police agencies were called out Friday morning to a home in Smith Township around six-thirty. Washington County 9-1-1 tells WJPA News that the individual, who is believed to be armed, has barricaded himself inside a home on Liberty Avenue, between East Pittsburgh and East Market Streets. No other information has been released.
September 18, 2020 10:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. will ban the use of WeChat Sunday to “safeguard the national security of the United States.” The Chinese app TikTok will also be banned by Nov. 12, but Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said early Friday on CNBC that access to that app may be possible áif certain safeguards are in place. The government previously said that using and downloading the app to communicate won’t be a banned transaction, although messaging on the app “could be directly or indirectly impaired” by the ban, and people who use it for messaging won’t be subject to penalties.
September 18, 2020 9:52 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate took a steep drop in August, as the labor force shrank and payrolls shot up again in a continuing rebound from the pandemic. The state Department of Labor and Industry said Friday that Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was 10.3% in August, down 2.2 percentage points from July’s adjusted rate of 12.5%. It had initially estimated July’s rate at 13.7% in July. The national rate was 8.4% in August. Payrolls gained back almost 60,000 of the more than 1.1 million jobs lost since March. Pennsylvania has now regained slightly more than half the jobs lost in the last six months, according to state figures.
September 18, 2020 8:48 am
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) – A firefighter has died battling a wildfire in California that officials say was sparked by a device used to reveal a baby’s gender. The U.S. Forest Service says the death occurred Thursday in the San Bernardino National Forest as crews battled the El Dorado Fire. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, has said that wildfire was sparked by a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used for a gender reveal party. The name of the firefighter is being withheld until family members are notified. The cause of the death is under investigation. Wildfires in California this year are blamed for at least 25 deaths.
September 18, 2020 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence has joined the chorus of former Trump administration officials urging voters to deny him a second term. Olivia Troye was Pence’s former Homeland Security adviser and served as a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force. She says in a new video released Thursday by the group Republican Voters Against Trump that Trump was more concerned about his reelection chances than the virus. She also claims Trump once suggested the coronavirus might be a good thing because it would stop him from having to shake hands with “disgusting people.” The White House adamantly denies it.
September 18, 2020 4:15 am
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) – Hurricane Sally left some people on the Gulf Coast cut off by floodwaters until they could be rescued by teams in boats and high-water vehicles. Crews were pulling people out of flooded areas Thursday near Pensacola, Florida, while Alabama National Guard troops helped people evacuate near Mobile Bay. Homeowners and businesses along the soggy Gulf Coast were cleaning up, even as a second round of flooding took shape along rivers and creeks swollen by the storm’s heavy rains. Sally has been blamed for at least one death, in Alabama.
September 18, 2020 4:14 am
MOSINEE, Wis. (AP) – President Donald Trump is stepping up his rhetoric on cultural issues, aiming to boost enthusiasm among rural Wisconsin voters. He held a rally Thursday evening in Mosinee, in central Wisconsin, an area of the state that shifted dramatically toward Republicans in 2016. He called for a statute to ban burning the American flag in protest – a freedom protected by the Supreme Court – and criticized sports players and leagues for allowing demonstrations against racial inequality. Trump is increasingly using his public appearances to elevate cultural issues important to his generally whiter and older base.
