April 12, 2021 4:14 am
(AP) – A number of top executives and corporate leaders gathered online this weekend to discuss what to do in response to changes to some state voting laws, according to multiple news reports. The Washington Post reported that more than 100 leaders, including executives from major airlines, retailers and manufacturers – plus at least one NFL owner – talked about potential ways to show they opposed the legislation, which has already been signed into law in Georgia and is being considered elsewhere. While many companies feel a responsibility to speak out, The Wall Street Journal reported that some remain reticent about getting involved in the politically charged issue.
April 12, 2021 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The chairman of the Federal Reserve says the U.S. economy is poised for an extended period of strong growth and hiring even though the coronavirus still poses some risk. Chair Jerome Powell also tells CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he doesn’t expect this year to raise the Fed’s benchmark interest rate, currently pegged at nearly zero. In the interview aired Sunday night, Powell also downplays the risk of higher inflation stemming from sharp increases in government spending and expanding budget deficits.
April 12, 2021 4:12 am
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say several cars of a freight train derailed in a Pennsylvania city, but no injuries were reported. A security officer for Station Medical Center told WJAC-TV that four cars came off the track in downtown Altoona at about 10:30 p.m. Friday. The officer said the Norfolk Southern train was hauling coal, and the track needed repairs. The president of Altoona firefighters local 299, Patrick Miller, told WTAJ-TV that there were no concerns about hazardous material.
April 12, 2021 4:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Pennsylvania Game Commission has approved concurrent hunting for antlered and antlerless deer through the duration of the 2021-22 firearms deer season. Last year, 10 of the 23 wildlife management units in the state had two weeks of concurrent buck and doe hunting, while the other 13 had one week of buck-only hunting, followed by a week of concurrent hunting. Commissioners also made what they called a “difficult” vote to ban use of rifles for fall turkey hunting, citing a declining turkey population. Commissioners approved the use of digital licenses in place of standard paper licenses.
April 12, 2021 4:10 am
FERNDALE, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say four teenage girls ranging in age from 12 to 14 are accused of setting a fire that destroyed an unoccupied western Pennsylvania house earlier this month, sending a police officer and a firefighter to the hospital. Police in the suburban Johnstown borough of Ferndale say a 12-year-old and three 14-year-olds face multiple charges of felony arson as well as causing catastrophe, trespassing and endangering another person. Chief John Blake says they told police that they set the fire because “they were bored.” The girls were released to their parents’ custody and their case will be heard in juvenile court.
April 12, 2021 4:07 am
SOMERSET Co. — (WPXI)- Two spectators were injured after a skier lost control and went into a crowd during Seven Springs annual end of the season event Saturday. The two spectators were taken to the hospital. Their conditions are unknown. “At our annual end of season pond skim event, our last skier of the day lost control and skied off the course, broke through a fence and hit 2 spectators. Our ski patrol swiftly attended to them. The spectators were taken to local hospitals,” resort officials said in a statement. “Our entire Seven Springs family extends our thoughts, prayers and support to all those involved.”
April 11, 2021 7:56 am
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Prince Charles offered a heartfelt tribute to his “dear Papa” on Saturday as Buckingham Palace offered the broad outlines of a royal funeral that will be attended by the family and broadcast to the world. As Queen Elizabeth II and other relatives mourned, Charles offered a personal video message saying the royal family was “deeply grateful” for the outpouring of support they’ve received following the death Friday of his 99-year-old father, Prince Philip. The heir to the throne said he was touched by the number of people around the world who have shared his family’s loss and sorrow. Philip’s royal ceremonial funeral will take place April 17 at Windsor Castle — a slimmed-down service amid the COVID-19 pandemic that will be entirely closed to the public. The palace insisted the royals would strictly adhere to national virus guidelines, measures that in theory would entail mask wearing in an enclosed space and social distancing. The palace declined to comment on specifics.
April 11, 2021 7:54 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors hope to preserve a July trial date for Ghislaine Maxwell by defending a late-hour expansion of charges against her, saying they developed when a woman spoke after Maxwell’s arrest about her abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein in the early 2000s. The rewritten indictment lodged against the 59-year-old British socialite on March 29 added sex trafficking charges to allegations that Maxwell recruited three teenage girls from 1994 to 1997 for then-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse. New charges stretched the conspiracy to 2004. Two days after the superseding indictment was returned in Manhattan federal court, defense attorney Bobbi Sternheim called it “shocking, unfair, and an abuse of power,” saying the charges were based on evidence prosecutors had in their possession for years.
April 11, 2021 7:51 am
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A sixth person has died following a shooting earlier this week at the hands of a former NFL player who also killed four members of a South Carolina family, local officials said Saturday. Robert Shook, 38, an air conditioning technician from Cherryville, North Carolina, has died from injuries sustained in the Wednesday shooting while he was working at the home, according to York County Coroner Sabrina Gast. Authorities say Phillip Adams killed Rock Hill physician Robert Lesslie; his wife, Barbara; two of their grandchildren, 9-year-old Adah Lesslie and 5-year-old Noah Lesslie; and another air conditioning technician, James Lewis, who had been working with Shook at the Lesslie home. Adams later shot himself to death. His brain is now being examined for possible degenerative disease that has been shown to cause violent mood swings and other cognitive disorders in some athletes and members of the military. Adams, 32, played in 78 NFL games over six seasons for six teams. He joined the 49ers in 2010 as a seventh-round draft pick out of South Carolina State, and though he rarely started, he went on to play for New England, Seattle, Oakland and the New York Jets before finishing his career with the Atlanta Falcons in 2015.
April 11, 2021 7:49 am
BEIJING (AP) — In a rare admission of the weakness of Chinese coronavirus vaccines, the country’s top disease control official says their effectiveness is low and the government is considering mixing them to get a boost. Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates,” said the director of the China Centers for Disease Control, Gao Fu, at a conference Saturday in the southwestern city of Chengdu. Beijing has distributed hundreds of millions of doses abroad while trying to promote doubt about the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine made using the previously experimental messenger RNA, or mRNA, process.
