June 8, 2021 4:14 am
UNDATED (AP) – Federal regulators have approved the first new drug for Alzheimer’s disease in nearly 20 years, leaving patients waiting to see how insurers will handle the pricey new treatment. Health care experts expect broad coverage of the drug, which was approved Monday. But but what that means for patients will vary widely depending on their health insurance plan. In some cases, that could mean coming up with several thousand dollars to pay for what the insurer doesn’t cover. Insurers also are expected to require pre-approval of both the drug and brain scans needed to monitor patients before they agree to coverage.
June 8, 2021 4:12 am
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) – A Southern California couple could face a murder charge over a road rage shooting that killed a 6-year-old boy last month on a freeway. Marcus Eriz and Wynne Lee are facing arraignment Tuesday, two days after they were arrested in Costa Mesa, southeast of Los Angeles. Orange County prosecutors are considering murder or other charges over the May 21 shooting of Aiden Leos. The boy was killed as his mother drove him to kindergarten. About $500,000 in reward money was offered for information leading to arrests. Authorities say they believe they have the car and gun used in the killing.
June 8, 2021 4:12 am
TORONTO (AP) – Police in London, Ontario, say a driver plowed a pickup truck into a family of five, killing four of them and seriously injuring the other in a deliberate attack that targeted the victims because they were Muslims. Authorities say a young man was arrested in the parking lot of a nearby mall after the incident Sunday night. Police say the dead were a 74-year-old woman, a 46-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl. A 9-year-old boy was reported in serious condition. Twenty-year-old Nathaniel Veltman is in custody facing four counts of first-degree murder. The city’s mayor says the incident “was an act of mass murder perpetuated against Muslims.”
June 8, 2021 4:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The chief executive of the massive fuel pipeline hit by ransomware last month is expected to detail his company’s response to the cyberattack and to explain his decision to authorize a multimillion-dollar payment when he testifies before Congress this week. Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount will face the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday, one day after the Justice Department revealed it had recovered the majority of the $4.4 million ransom payment the company made in hopes of getting its system back online. A second hearing is set for Wednesday before the House Homeland Security Committee.
June 8, 2021 4:09 am
GHOTKI, Pakistan (AP) – Pakistani officials say the death toll from a collision of two trains in the country’s south has risen to 63 after rescuers pulled 12 more bodies from crumpled cars a day after the crash. Rescue work continued into Tuesday in Ghotki, a district in the southern Sindh province where an express train barreled into another that had derailed minutes earlier. The bodies of the killed passengers have been taken to their hometowns for burial. The scope of the collision and the high death toll have stunned Pakistan, even though train accidents are common in this country where successive governments have paid little attention to improving the poorly maintained railroad system.
June 8, 2021 4:05 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The state House is advancing revisions to Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana law, seeking to make permanent some of the changes put in place temporarily because of the coronavirus pandemic. Representatives on Monday voted 164 to 38 for the bill, sending it to the Senate. It would permit dispensing a three-month supply at a time, up from one month’s supply. Patients will be able to continue to pick up their medicine outside a dispensary, rather than coming inside the building. The legislation would ease the process by which contaminants must be removed before the final testing. Grower-processors would be permitted to use pesticides under standards the Agriculture Department would develop.
June 8, 2021 4:04 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — (WPXI) – Washington & Jefferson College in Washington has become the latest institution to require students have the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the college’s website, the vaccine has been added to its list of immunization requirements. The college will honor vaccine exemptions for medical, religious and philosophical reasons. Any student who receives an exemption will still be allowed to fully participate in classes, campus activities and athletics. There will be new rules released next month for students who choose not to be vaccinated. Those may include surveillance testing, symptom tracking and masking in certain situations. (PHOTO; WPXI)
June 8, 2021 4:00 am
Washington City Council held its first in person meeting in many months due to the Covid-19 pandemic on Monday evening. Mayor Scott Putnam stated he was happy to be back in front of residents to hear their opinions and concerns. Much of the meeting was taken up by public comment. The vast majority of the comment centered on the reopening of the park swimming pool. Residents’ interest prompted council to reconsider keeping the pool closed for this summer. Councilman Joe Manning stated that now the city is trying to get the dangerous lighting concerns addressed. Lights inside the pool are not properly grounded. Neither are the ladders and other equipment associated with the pool. Manning also said that buying the necessary chemicals needed to keep the pool clean may be an issue as the main chemical chlorine is in very short supply. Manning did say that if all goes well, the pool could reopen by the end of June.
June 8, 2021 3:55 am
Two men accused of beating a man in Charleroi on May 24 had their preliminary hearings in front of District Justice Eric Porter on Monday. Jose Manuel Garcia-Hernandez faces felony aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault for his role in the beating of Miguel Chacon. Chacon was called as a witness to the beating he received from Garcia-Hernandez and Antonio Rohaz Gonzalas that caused him to be flown to a Pittsburgh hospital. The hearing that lasted more than an hour because of the need for a translator culminated in all charges against Garcia-Hernandez being held for court by Porter. A similar case against Gonzalas that contains an additional charge of attempted homicide was continued when the public defender discovered a conflict of interest. The victim, Chacon is also incarcerated for incidents separate from this case. The assigned public defender is representing Chacon in those incidents. Both Garcia-Hernandez and Gonzalas are being held in the Washington County Jail on $500,000 bond.
June 7, 2021 5:56 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department has recovered the majority of a multimillion-dollar ransom payment to hackers after a cyberattack that caused the operator of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline to halt its operations last month. The operation to recover the cryptocurrency from the Russia-based hacker group is the first undertaken by a specialized ransomware task force created by the Biden administration Justice Department. Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline, which supplies roughly half the fuel consumed on the East Coast, temporarily shut down its operations on May 7 after a gang of criminal hackers known as DarkSide broke into its computer system.
