March 8, 2021 4:22 am
CENTER VALLEY, Pa. (AP) – Officials say a vehicle left the road and slammed into a tree in eastern Pennsylvania, killing three people and injuring one. The Lehigh County coroner’s office says the crash occurred shortly after 8:30 p.m. Saturday in Upper Saucon Township. The coroner’s office says two males and a female were pronounced dead at the scene about an hour later. Their identities haven’t been released. Autopsies are planned Monday. The (Allentown) Morning Call reports that the office said Sunday that a fourth person was transported to a hospital. The crash is under investigation by township police and the county district attorney’s office as well as the coroner’s office.
March 8, 2021 4:21 am
WHITEHALL, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say a second person has died following a shooting in the parking lot of a Walmart store in eastern Pennsylvania last month that killed a woman. The Lehigh County coroner’s office reported Sunday that 22-year-old Jonathan Martinez of Allentown died at 1:30 a.m. Sunday at Lehigh Valley Hospital, Cedar Crest. An autopsy is planned to determine the cause of death, but the coroner’s office ruled the manner of death homicide. Twenty-year-old Nicolette Law of Allentown was pronounced dead earlier of gunshot wounds following the Feb. 26 shooting in the parking lot of the Whitehall Township store. A man was charged earlier.
March 8, 2021 4:19 am
ALLEGHENY CO., Pa. — (WPXI) – Allegheny County Police are investigating a shooting in Clairton that left a man in critical condition Sunday night. The shooting happened around 9:45 p.m. in the 500 block of Farnsworth Avenue — near First United Methodist Church. First responders found the victim, who has not yet been identified, shot in the back. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. It’s unclear what led to the shooting, and police did not provide information on a suspected shooter. Anyone with information is asked to call police.
March 7, 2021 7:24 am
BANGKOK (AP) — The escalation of violence in Myanmar as authorities crack down on protests against the Feb. 1 coup is raising pressure for more sanctions against the junta, even as countries struggle over how to best sway military leaders inured to global condemnation. The challenge is made doubly difficult by fears of harming ordinary citizens who were already suffering from an economic slump worsened by the pandemic but are braving risks of arrest and injury to voice outrage over the military takeover. Still, activists and experts say there are ways to ramp up pressure on the regime, especially by cutting off sources of funding and access to the tools of repression. The U.N. special envoy on Friday urged the Security Council to act to quell junta violence that this week killed about 50 demonstrators and injured scores more.
March 7, 2021 7:23 am
BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister warned the Biden administration on Sunday to roll back former President Donald Trump’s “dangerous practice” of showing support for Taiwan, the island democracy claimed by Beijing as its own territory. The claim to Taiwan, which split with the mainland in 1949, is an “insurmountable red line,” Wang Yi said at a news conference during the annual meeting of China’s ceremonial legislature. The United States has no official relations with Taiwan but extensive informal ties. Trump irked Beijing by sending Cabinet officials to visit Taiwan in a show of support. “We urge the new U.S. administration to fully understand the high sensitivity of the Taiwan issue” and “completely change the previous administration’s dangerous practices of ‘crossing the line’ and ‘playing with fire,’” he said. President Joe Biden says he wants a more civil relationship with Beijing but has shown no sign of softening Trump’s confrontational measures on trade, technology and human rights. Surveys show American public attitudes turning more negative toward China, which is seen as an economic and strategic competitor.
March 7, 2021 7:21 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean and U.S. militaries are scaling back their annual exercises this month due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to support diplomacy focusing on North Korea’s nuclear program, officials said Sunday. Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the allies decided to start the nine-day drills on Monday after reviewing factors like the status of the pandemic and diplomatic efforts to achieve denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula. It said the drills are defensive in nature and are mostly tabletop exercises and simulations that won’t involve field training. Last year, the allies canceled their springtime drills after some of their troops were infected with the coronavirus. In recent years, the countries have also suspended or downsized many of their regular training to create more space for the now-stalled U.S.-led diplomatic drive to convince North Korea to denuclearize in return for economic and political incentives. U.S.-South Korea drills have been a major source of animosities on the peninsula, with North Korea viewing them as invasion rehearsals and responding with its own weapons tests. In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged the U.S. to withdraw its hostile policy and South Korea to end drills with the U.S., warning the fate of their relations with North Korea depends on how they behave.
March 7, 2021 7:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — An exhausted Senate narrowly approved a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill Saturday as President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies notched a victory they called crucial for hoisting the country out of the pandemic and economic doldrums. After laboring all night on a mountain of amendments — nearly all from Republicans and rejected — bleary-eyed senators approved the sprawling package on a 50-49 party-line vote. That sets up final congressional approval by the House next week so lawmakers can whisk it to Biden for his signature. The huge measure — its cost is nearly one-tenth the size of the entire U.S. economy — is Biden’s biggest early priority. It stands as his formula for addressing the deadly virus and a limping economy, twin crises that have afflicted the country for a year. Saturday’s vote was also a crucial political moment for Biden and Democrats, who need nothing short of party unanimity in a 50-50 Senate they run with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote. They hold a slim 10-vote House edge.
March 7, 2021 7:17 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — A new study has found microplastics in every one of Pennsylvania’s rivers and waterways, including major rivers near Pittsburgh. Researchers from PennEnvironment sampled water from more than 50 different rivers, lakes and streams. In our region, samples were taken from the Allegheny River, Chartiers Creek, Monongahela River, Nine Mile Run, Ohio River, Sewickley Creek, Turtle Creek, Connoquenessing Creek, and the Youghiogheny River. They reported finding fibers, fragments, film and microbeads in varying amounts in each body of water. The fibers were primarily from clothing and textiles. Fragments were from harder plastics or plastic feedstock. Film was from bags and flexible plastic packaging. The beads found were primarily from facial scrubs and other cosmetic products. The 20-page study defined a microplastic as a piece of plastic less than 5mm in length, or smaller than a grain of rice, and said they’ve been found in tap water, sea salt and beer. Research showed wheat and lettuce crops can take up microplastics found in the soil through their roots. Microplastics have also been found in human fetuses, according to the study, and it’s estimated that humans consume roughly a credit card’s worth of plastic every week. The report urged local, state and federal lawmakers to make policy changes to combat this problem.
March 7, 2021 4:01 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Reflecting on a year of pandemic, Gov. Tom Wolf says Pennsylvania has been through a tough and trying time but that he sees “light at the end of the tunnel” with the growing availability of vaccines. Wolf spoke at a news conference Friday outside a Rite Aid pharmacy where people were getting COVID-19 shots. The state Department of Health says more than 868,000 people have been fully vaccinated in Pennsylvania. It was on March 6, 2020, that Wolf announced Pennsylvania’s first two confirmed cases of the new coronavirus. Since then, Pennsylvania has counted more than 944,000 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 and attributed more than 24,200 deaths to it.
March 7, 2021 3:55 am
Peters Township Police are reporting an increase in identity theft cases in the township. The Peters Township Police Department is currently investigating more than 25 cases of identity theft. These cases are tied to a growing problem of individuals gaining personal information of victims and opening bank accounts at Chase Bank. Several hundred victims in the area have received letters from Chase Bank welcoming them as new customers and getting new checking and savings account numbers along with a debit card in the victim’s name. Police recommend that when receiving a mailing from Chase Bank they open it and make sure they are not victims of fraud. If they are a victim, contact local police immediately so they can make a report and go directly to Chase Bank and demand that the accounts be closed due to fraud. Police indicate that attempts to include Chase Bank in the investigation have met with negative results locally and regionally.
