September 22, 2021 8:54 am
There is new leadership at the former Greater Washington County Food Bank, now known as Food Helpers. The Board of Directors has selected George Omiros as Chief Executive Officer. He takes over for Connie Burd who will officially retire at the end of the month. She had informed the board of her retirement plan back in October of last year. Omiros is described as a “nationally recognized leader with decades of philanthropic leadership experience in non-profit management. Prior to forming Omiros Philanthropic Advisors in 2019, he was Associate Vice President of Medicine and Health Science Development at the West Virginia University Foundation. He has also held leadership positions with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
September 22, 2021 4:25 am
NORTH PORT, Fla. (AP) – A county coroner has confirmed that human remains found in remote northern Wyoming along the border of Grand Teton National Park are those of Gabby Petito. The 22-year-old disappeared while on a cross-country road trip with a boyfriend who is now being sought by authorities in Florida. The FBI said Tuesday that the coroner determined Petito was a homicide victim, but officials did not disclose a cause of death pending final autopsy results. Police in North Port, Florida, say investigators returned to a swampy preserve area to look for her 23-year-old boyfriend Brian Laundrie. They paused for the night and planned to resume searching Wednesday.
September 22, 2021 4:22 am
DEL RIO, Texas (AP) – U.S. officials say many Haitian migrants camped in a small Texas border town are being released in the United States, undercutting the Biden administration’s public statements that Haitians who enter the country illegally face immediate expulsion. One official says Haitians have been freed on a “very, very large scale” in recent days, many of them with notices to appear at an immigration office. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press. The releases come despite a massive effort to expel Haitians on flights to Haiti under pandemic-related authority that denies migrants an opportunity to seek asylum.
September 22, 2021 4:21 am
President Joe Biden is pushing well-off nations to do more to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control around the world as world leaders and health experts sound the alarm about the slow pace of global vaccinations. Biden is convening a virtual vaccine summit on Wednesday, timed to coincide with this week’s U.N. General Assembly. He wants more nations to follow the lead of the U.S., which has donated more doses than any other. But even the American response has come under criticism for being too modest. Biden is expected to announce additional U.S. commitments at the summit.
September 22, 2021 4:20 am
PHOENIX (AP) – A Republican official in Arizona resigned Tuesday from the board overseeing Maricopa County after a recording emerged of him criticizing his GOP colleagues in a meeting with activists demanding an audit of the 2020 election. During the meeting recorded surreptitiously last March, Supervisor Steve Chucri suggested two fellow Republican county supervisors opposed an audit because they nearly lost their own races. Chucri apologized in a statement announcing his resignation and said he shouldn’t have made the comments, adding “the political landscape has changed for the worst this year.”
September 22, 2021 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House has approved legislation to fund the government, suspend its borrowing limit and provide federal disaster and refugee aid. Republicans in the Senate are expected to block the measure, however, as Congress works to avoid a federal shutdown at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The GOP senators are insisting that Democrats go it alone when it comes to suspending the nation’s borrowing limit to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its debt. The measure includes $28.6 billion in disaster relief and $6.3 billion to support Afghanistan evacuees.
September 22, 2021 3:22 am
The search for a missing South Strabane Township man is intensifying. Sandra Duncan is the sister-in-law of 65-year-old John Ruffing who was last seen around three o’clock on Saturday afternoon at his home in Windsor Highlands. Duncan tells WJPA News that the family, along with police, have organized a Citizens Search team. Duncan says every day that her brother-in-law is missing becomes more crucial because of his medication needs. Duncan says he is on at least ten medications for various health issues, one of them being a blood thinner. She says if he is off of that medication for very long, he’ll begin developing blood clots. Ruffing, a Vietnam War veteran recently suffered a stroke and is believed to be traveling on foot, is described as being 5’9 and weighing about 200 pounds and was last seen wearing a red t-shirt with the phrase “Colonial Williamsburg,” tan shorts and black boots. Police are asking anyone with information to contact them.
September 22, 2021 2:46 am
HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s top health official says the state’s network of vaccine providers is ready to deliver booster shots of the coronavirus vaccine as soon as federal authorities sign off. The state says more than 2,000 providers have COVID-19 vaccine inventory. Federal authorities are considering a recommendation to give extra vaccine doses to people aged 65 or older and those who are at heightened risk from COVID-19. Pennsylvania’s acting health secretary, Alison Beam, says the state’s providers are “well prepared to start administering booster shoots.” Beam ordered providers to offer online vaccination appointments as well as live telephone support and serve walk-ins where possible.
September 21, 2021 10:43 am
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – President Joe Biden used his first address before the U.N. General Assembly to declare that the world stands and at an “inflection point in history” and that the world must act with haste to move quickly and cooperatively to address the festering issues of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and human rights abuses. With China tensions growing, he also declared America “is not seeking a new Cold War.” The president noted his decision to end America’s longest war, in Afghanistan, last month and set the table for his administration to shift the U.S. attention to intensive diplomacy with no shortage of crises facing the globe.
September 21, 2021 7:25 am
LONDON (AP) – Johnson & Johnson released data showing that a booster dose to its one-shot coronavirus vaccine provides a strong immune response months after people receive a first dose. The study’s results haven’t yet been peer-reviewed. J&J said in a statement Tuesday that it ran two early studies in people previously given its vaccine and found that a second dose produced an increased antibody response in adults from age 18 to 55.
