March 6, 2021 8:48 am
HOUSTON (AP) – U.S. immigration authorities will no longer use a small Pennsylvania detention center to hold parents and children seeking asylum. In a court filing Friday, the U.S. government said it had released all families detained at the 96-bed Berks County family detention center in Leesport, Pennsylvania. The detention center will instead be used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold adults. Larger family detention centers in two rural South Texas cities remain open, but will only be used to detain people for three days or less. Lawyers who work with detained immigrant families welcomed the news and credited the Biden administration for announcing the shift.
March 6, 2021 8:45 am
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California has cleared a path for fans to hit the stands at opening-day baseball games and return to Disneyland nearly a year after coronavirus restrictions shuttered major entertainment spots. The state on Friday relaxed guidelines for reopening outdoor venues as a fall and winter surge seemed to be ending. COVID-19 infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths have plunged, and vaccination rates are rising. New rules allow concert stadiums and sports arenas to reopen with limited attendance on April 1. Theme parks can reopen in counties that have fallen from the state’s purple tier – the most restrictive – to red.
March 6, 2021 8:42 am
PLAINS OF UR, Iraq (AP) – Pope Francis and Iraq’s top Shiite cleric have delivered a powerful message of peaceful coexistence, urging Muslims to embrace Iraq’s long-beleaguered Christian minority during an historic meeting. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said religious authorities have a role in protecting Iraq’s Christians, and that they should live in peace and enjoy the same rights as other Iraqis. The Vatican says Francis thanked al-Sistani for having “raised his voice in defense of the weakest and most persecuted” during some of the most violent times in Iraq’s recent history. The pope then traveled to the ruins of the ancient city of Ur, the traditional birthplace of the biblical patriarch Abraham, for an interfaith meeting.
March 6, 2021 8:38 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans have one goal for President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package: to erode public support. They say it’s too much public spending for a pandemic that’s almost over. Senate Republicans are prepared to vote lockstep against it. They’re taking a calculated political risk that Americans will sour on the big-dollar aid. It’s a tested strategy they used in 2009 against then-President Barack Obama’s recovery package. But it all comes at an uncertain time for the nation. So far, 70% of Americans approve of Biden’s president’s handling of the pandemic, according to an AP-NORC poll. That number includes 44% of Republicans.
March 6, 2021 8:35 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senators have worked through the night on the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid bill, dispensing with a variety of mostly Republican amendments in a marathon series of votes without substantially changing the overall package. Approval of the bill is expected later, although the timing is uncertain, after Senate leaders and moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin reached a deal late Friday over emergency jobless benefits. That compromise is backed by President Joe Biden. Once the Senate finishes work on Biden’s foremost legislative priority, the bill would return to the House for final approval. The package is aimed at battling the pandemic and nursing the economy back to health.
March 6, 2021 3:53 am
(WPXI)— Washington County this week became the seventh in Pennsylvania to proclaim itself a “second amendment sanctuary.” The resolution states the county will protect Second Amendment rights and uphold both the U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions which grant rights to gun owners. Commissioner Diana Vaughan calls it an extra layer of protection for gun owners in Washington County – making sure their right to bear arms isn’t taken away. “We’ve been watching what’s been going on in our nation and our state and discussions that have been had recently and decided we needed to step up to protect the rights of our citizens,” Vaughan said. The resolution, unanimously approved by the Washington County board of commissioners, took effect immediately. “What this resolution means for Washington County is that if there would be laws passed that would violate our constitutional right to bear arms, they would not be enforced in Washington County,” she said. Vaughan says events in the last year made them concerned that more rights could be violated. “When we look at the stay at home orders and the business closures, Washington County stood up. We took legal action to uphold our constitutional right then and this was another step to ensure that our rights are not infringed,” said Vaughan. Lori Haas is with the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence – a gun control advocacy group. “Resolutions at the county level regarding so called second amendment sanctuaries do not carry the weight of law they do not have a policy in fact don’t frankly have a practical impact,” said Haas. Last month, Greene County commissioners voted to approve a Second Amendment resolution. Fayette County approved a similar ordinance last year.
March 5, 2021 4:27 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Antivirus software entrepreneur John McAfee is charged with fraud and money laundering conspiracy crimes in a newly unsealed indictment in New York. Authorities say that he and cohorts fooled investors through social media to make over $13 million. They said McAfee and his team capitalized on zeal over the emerging cryptocurrency market as they lied to investors. The 75-year-old McAfee was charged along with 40-year-old Jimmy Gale Watson Jr. They say Watson served as an executive adviser to McAfee. Watson was arrested yesterday in Texas. McAfee is detained in Spain on separate tax-related criminal charges brought last year in Tennessee.
March 5, 2021 1:25 pm
A SWAT situation in Burgettstown ended peacefully after an hours long standoff. Smith Township Police Chief LaRue tells WJPA News that they received a call around four o’clock Friday morning of a man threatening suicide in a home on Harris Street in the area of Joffre Bulger Road. When they arrived, LaRue says the situation changed into a domestic incident and a weapon was fired from inside the home. A SWAT team was called in at that time and they in turn, called for the Allegheny County Bomb Squad. LaRue says the road in that area was shut down and residents in neighboring homes were evacuated as a safety precaution. A woman in the home, believed to be the man’s girlfriend, came out of the home, but she was alone. LaRue says they were eventually able to go into the home and clear the residence, but the man was not inside. He was picked up and taken into custody a short time later, in Hanover Township. There were no injuries. LaRue says the man was taken to Washington Hospital and charges for examination and charges are expected to be filed.
March 5, 2021 3:09 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times report that the true number of people who had died in nursing homes in New York was altered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aides in a state Health Department report in July. The newspapers cited documents and anonymous sources in reporting that the aides pushed state health officials to alter the public report so that only residents who died inside long-term care facilities, and not those who became ill there and later died at a hospital, were counted. The report was released as the Democratic governor’s administration faced criticism over its March 25 directive that sent thousands of recovering coronavirus patients into nursing homes.
March 5, 2021 3:07 am
BAGHDAD (AP) – Pope Francis is heading to Iraq to urge the country’s dwindling number of Christians to stay put and help rebuild the country after years of war and persecution, brushing aside the coronavirus pandemic and security concerns to honor its martyrs. áIraqis were keen to welcome him and the global attention his visit will bring, with banners and posters hanging high in central Baghdad and billboards depicting Francis with the slogan “We are all Brothers” decorating the main thoroughfare. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein described the visit as a historic meeting between the “minaret and the bells,” saying Iraqis were eager to welcome Francis’ “message of peace and tolerance.”
