February 8, 2021 7:20 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman launched a campaign Monday for U.S. Senate in 2022. Fetterman, a Democrat, will be looking to fill the seat that Republican Sen. Pat Toomey will vacate when he leaves office next year. Fetterman’s website now has information for people to support him for Senate. Fetterman released the following statement Monday morning:
“I’m running for the United States Senate for the same reason I ran for Lieutenant Governor in 2018 and Mayor of Braddock 16 years ago, because I believe in a set of core truths. I believe in the dignity of work and the dignity of a paycheck. I believe the union way of life is sacred. I believe in healthcare as a fundamental, basic human right. I believe in environmental justice, I believe our criminal justice system needs a significant overhaul. I believe that the war on drugs needs to stop and we need to legalize marijuana across this country. I believe that the LGBTQIA community deserves the same rights and protections that the rest of us enjoy in this country. I believe that every community and every county in Pennsylvania is worth fighting for. As a member of the United States Senate, I will never stop fighting for these core values and these communities, just as I have for the last 20 years.” (Photo: WPXI)
February 8, 2021 4:23 am
RISHIKESH, India (AP) – At least nine people are dead and 140 are missing in India after part of a glacier in the Himalayas broke off, releasing a torrent of water and debris that slammed into two hydroelectric plants. Experts say the disaster Sunday appears to point to global warming. Video from India’s northern state of Uttarakhand showed the muddy floodwaters tumbling through a valley and surging into a dam, breaking it into pieces with little resistance before roaring on downstream. The disaster turned the countryside into what looked like an ash-colored moonscape. Many villages were evacuated. Power plants further downstream were saved by opening up their gates. Hundreds of rescuers were working into the night to find trapped victims.
February 8, 2021 4:20 am
BOSTON (AP) – A federal judge has dismissed most of the claims in a lawsuit filed by Whole Foods Market employees who alleged the supermarket chain discriminated and retaliated against them when it barred them from wearing Black Lives Matter face coverings. More than two dozen current and former workers from 11 stores said in the July lawsuit that Whole Foods violated federal law that bars discrimination based on race. But a federal judge Friday said that because the company did not single out the workers based on race, it did not discriminate. Whole Foods said it agreed with the decision. A lawyer for the employees pledged to keep pursuing the case.
February 8, 2021 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration is set to announce this week that it will reengage with the much-maligned U.N. Human Rights Council that former President Donald Trump withdrew from almost three years ago. The decision to join the Geneva-based UNHRC as an observer with an eye toward seeking election as a full member reverses another Trump-era move away from multilateral organizations and agreements. U.S. officials say Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a senior U.S. diplomat in Geneva will make the announcement on Monday in a step likely to draw criticism from conservative lawmakers and the pro-Israel community.
February 8, 2021 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the country is still in a “deep hole” with millions of lost jobs but that President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief plan could generate enough growth to restore full employment by next year. Republican senators argues that Biden’s proposal is too expensive. Meanwhile, House Democrats plan to propose boosting the child tax credit, now at a maximum of $2,000, to as much as $3,600 per child annually. That’s according to information obtained The Associated Press. The proposal will be part of the COVID-19 relief bill they are writing that is expected to largely follow Biden’s plan.
February 8, 2021 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump’s defenders in the Senate are rallying around the former president before his impeachment trial, dismissing it as a waste of time and arguing the former president’s fiery speech before the Capitol insurrection does not make him responsible for the violence of Jan. 6. Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi on Sunday made clear that Trump should and will be acquitted and says if holding Trump accountable means that the Senate must convict him, then “no,” Trump won’t be held accountable. Asked if Congress could still consider other punishment, such as censure, Wicker said it was time to move on and “that ship has sailed.”
February 8, 2021 2:44 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — More than 36,000 UPMC patients may have had some of their personal data “inappropriately accessed” after a data breach at a company providing billing-related legal services. A news release said officials with Charles J. Hilton & Associates noted suspicious activity affecting its employee email system in June last year. In late July, the investigation found a number of staff email accounts had been logged into by hackers from April 1 to June 25. Computer forensics investigators took over, confirming to UPMC in December that some patient information may have been accessed during the information security breach. The information accessed includes Social Security numbers, dates of birth, bank or financial account numbers, driver’s license or state identification card numbers, electronic signatures, medical record numbers, patient account numbers, patient control numbers, visit numbers, trip numbers, Medicare or Medicaid identification numbers, individual health insurance or subscriber numbers, group health insurance or subscriber numbers, medical benefits and entitlement information, disability access and accommodation data, and information related to occupational health, diagnoses, symptoms, treatment, prescription or medications, drug tests, billing or claims and/or disabilities.
February 7, 2021 7:52 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is telling California that it can’t bar indoor church services because of the coronavirus pandemic, but it can keep for now a ban on singing and chanting indoors. The high court issued orders late Friday in two cases where churches had sued over coronavirus-related restrictions in the state. The high court said that for now, California can’t ban indoor worship as it had in almost all of the states because virus cases are high. The justices said the state can cap indoor services at 25% of a building’s capacity. The justices also declined to stop California from enforcing a ban put in place last summer on indoor singing and chanting. California had put the restrictions in place because the virus is more easily transmitted indoors and singing releases tiny droplets that can carry the disease. The justices were acting on emergency requests to halt the restrictions from South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista and Pasadena-based Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry, which has more than 160 churches across the state. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that “federal courts owe significant deference to politically accountable officials” when it comes to public health restrictions, but he said deference “has its limits.”
February 7, 2021 7:50 am
CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian authorities on Saturday freed an Al-Jazeera journalist after more than four years in detention, his family lawyer said. Mahmoud Hussein walked free from a police station Saturday afternoon, a few days after a court ordered his conditional release pending investigations into charges of publishing false information and belonging to a banned group, lawyer Gamal Eid said. The lawyer said Hussein will have to report to a nearby police station twice a week. The journalist’s daughter, el-Zahraa Hussein, confirmed the news in a Facebook post, saying her father had arrived home. Al-Jazeera also reported his release. Hussein, an Egyptian working for the Qatar-based satellite network, was detained at the Cairo airport in December 2016, when he arrived on a family vacation from Doha, the network said. Since the 2013 ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian authorities and pro-government media have portrayed the Al-Jazeera network as Egypt’s national enemy for its sympathy toward Islamists, especially the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
February 7, 2021 7:49 am
RAWLINS, Wyo. (AP) — The Wyoming Republican Party voted overwhelmingly Saturday to censure U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney for voting to impeach President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Only eight of the 74-member state GOP’s central committee stood to oppose censure in a vote that didn’t proceed to a formal count. The censure document accused Cheney of voting to impeach even though the U.S. House didn’t offer Trump “formal hearing or due process.” “We need to honor President Trump. All President Trump did was call for a peaceful assembly and protest for a fair and audited election,” said Darin Smith, a Cheyenne attorney who lost to Cheney in the Republican U.S. House primary in 2016. “The Republican Party needs to put her on notice.” Added Joey Correnti, GOP chairman in Carbon County where the censure vote was held: “Does the voice of the people matter and if it does, does it only matter at the ballot box?” Cheney has said repeatedly she voted her conscience in backing impeachment for the riot, which followed a rally where Trump encouraged supporters to get rid of lawmakers who “aren’t any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world.”
