July 4, 2021 7:31 am
NORTH STRABANE, Pa. — Crews were called to the scene of a two-alarm fire in Eighty Four early Saturday evening. Reports say the fire started around 5:00 p.m. on Rush Lane. Nobody was injured in the blaze. North Strabane Fire Department was assisted by Peters Township, City of Washington, Canonsburg, Chartiers and South Strabane along with Canonsburg EMS. Houston, Mt. Pleasant Township, Muse and Canton Township were on stand-by while the crews took care of the incident. There is no word on what caused this fire. (Photo: Facebook)
July 4, 2021 6:54 am
Reports from the union that represents striking workers at Allegheny Technologies, Inc. steel mills in the region are saying that a deal is in place to end the steelworkers’ strike at ATI. The union says it’s reached a tentative agreement with the company. Contract talks had hit a wall over healthcare costs. On Friday night, the union says it had “preserved premium-free health insurance” and secured better pay. Workers will have to ratify the deal in the coming weeks. Around 1,300 employees at nine facilities have been on strike for the last three months.
July 3, 2021 9:21 am
(AP)-Coronavirus deaths in Russia have hit a record for the fifth straight day, with the authorities reporting 697 fatalities Saturday as the country faces a rapid surge of infections. The previous record on Friday was 679. Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 24,439 new coronavirus cases – the highest daily tally since January and 1,200 more than the day before. Moscow, its outlying region and St. Petersburg accounted for nearly half of the new cases. The Kremlin insisted on Friday that the authorities are not discussing another lockdown. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted that the situation with the coronavirus remains “tense” in a number of regions, but said that “no one wants any lockdowns.”
July 3, 2021 9:19 am
ROME (AP) – The Vatican’s criminal tribunal has indicted 10 people and four companies on charges including extortion, abuse of office and fraud in connection with the Secretariat of State’s 350 million-euro investment in a London real estate venture. The tribunal president, Judge Giuseppe Pignatone, set July 27 as the trial date, according to a Vatican statement. Indicted were four former Vatican officials, including two officials from the Secretariat of State, as well as Italian businessmen who handled the London investment. Also indicted on alleged embezzlement charges was an Italian intelligence expert.
July 3, 2021 9:15 am
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A coalition of Minnesota’s largest law enforcement groups has sued the state to overturn a state law that changed the standard for justified use of deadly force by police. The lawsuit claims the law, which took effect in March, violates officers’ rights to self-defense and unconstitutionally compels officers to forfeit their rights to refuse to testify against themselves in deadly force cases. The law underwent a major rewrite following George Floyd’s death in the custody of four Minneapolis police officers last May. Minnesota Public Radio reports the rewritten standard narrowed the conditions for when deadly force is deemed appropriate.
July 3, 2021 9:12 am
PHOENIX (AP) – Newly released records show the top Republicans in Arizona’s largest county dodged calls from Donald Trump and his allies in the aftermath of the 2020 election, as the then-president sought to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in key battleground states. The records – including voicemails and text messages – shed light on another state where Trump, his attorneys and others mounted a behind-the-scenes pressure campaign on Republican officials overseeing elections. Days before Congress certified Biden’s win on Jan. 6, Trump pressed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find enough votes to overturn Biden’s win there.
July 3, 2021 9:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A ransomware attack has paralyzed the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies. That’s according to a cybersecurity researcher whose company was responding to the incident. John Hammond of the security firm Huntress Labs says a major Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate appears to be behind the attack. He says the criminals in the REvil gang targeted a software supplier called Kaseya, using its network-management software as a conduit to spread the ransomware more widely. Other researchers agreed with Hammond’s assessment. It was not immediately clear how many Kaseya customers might be affected or who they might be.
July 3, 2021 4:21 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Senate is considering an investigation into how last year’s presidential election was conducted. It’s a quest fueled by former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that fraud was behind his loss in Pennsylvania. An Arizona-style “election audit” will face strident opposition from Democrats and, almost certainly, challenges in Pennsylvania’s courts. Senate Republicans have been mostly silent about their internal deliberations. Sen. Doug Mastriano, who has talked of bringing an Arizona-style audit to Pennsylvania, led a private briefing Wednesday for Republican senators. He also solicited legal advice from a Philadelphia-based law firm about using private money to finance consultants and lawyers.
July 3, 2021 4:19 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Republican-crafted bill to ban so-called COVID-19 “vaccine passports” and restrict the health secretary’s actions during health emergencies is dead after a veto by Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor. The measure that split both legislative chambers along party lines last month was vetoed Thursday by Gov. Tom Wolf. Legislative Republicans had sought to prevent what they view as a violation of health privacy through stigmatizing policies requiring proof of vaccination. The bill would have kept colleges and universities that receive state money from mandating proof of COVID-19 vaccination to undertake any activity. It also would have kept the health secretary from ordering closures or directing people to engage in disease mitigation efforts.
July 3, 2021 4:15 am
Rev. Dr. Roger Raymond Fischer, a former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, has died at the age of 80. Fischer, who was from Washington, was elected to the State House of Representatives from the 47th Legislative District in 1966 and served until his retirement in 1988. At the age of twenty-five, Fischer was one of the youngest members to serve in the history of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. During his time in Harrisburg, Fischer also served as Chairman of the House Education Committee and on the State Board of Education. In 1998, Fischer received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Washington and Jefferson College. Friends will be received from one to three and six to eight p.m. on Tuesday, in the Hummell and Jones Funeral Home at 420 Locust Avenue in Washington. Services will be held at ten a.m. on Wednesday in the First Lutheran Church at 92 West Walnut Street in Washington. Burial will follow in Washington Cemetery.
