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.
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.
