July 11, 2020 4:29 am
MIAMI (AP) – Tropical Storm Fay has weakened into a tropical depression early Saturday morning. The National Hurricane Center says the depression has maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as it moves over the state of New York. It was located 50 miles north of New York City. Fay had closed beaches and flooded shore towns after it made landfall Friday afternoon in New Jersey. The depression is expected to dissipate on Sunday. A tropical storm warning that had been issued from East Rockaway, New York, to Watch Hill, Rhode Island was ended. No watches or warnings were in effect for the depression.
July 11, 2020 4:27 am
BOSTON (AP) – A California couple has agreed to plead guilty to paying $250,000 to get their daughter into the University of Southern California as a fake volleyball recruit. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston said in a statement that Diane Blake and Todd Blake will plead guilty in front of a judge at a future date. News outlets previously reported that the Ross, California, couple had initially pleaded not guilty. The couple was accused of tapping William “Rick” Singer to facilitate their daughter’s admission into USC. The university had no comment. Lawyers for the couple didn’t immediately respond to an email.
July 11, 2020 4:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Justice Clarence Thomas spoke and Chief Justice John Roberts ruled. The Supreme Court’s most unusual term featured victories for immigrants, abortion rights, LGBTQ workers and religious freedoms. The usually quiet Thomas’ baritone was heard by the whole world when the coronavirus outbreak upended the court’s traditional way of doing business. When the biggest decisions were handed down, the chief justice was almost always in the majority and dictated the reach of the court’s most controversial cases. The decisions in some of the biggest cases came with majorities of six or seven justices, a blurring of the stark 5-4 divide between conservatives and liberals.
July 11, 2020 4:25 am
President Donald Trump is determined to reopen the country. In his push to get schools and colleges to reopen this fall, Trump is again taking aim at their finances, this time threatening their tax-exempt status. Trump said on Twitter Friday he was ordering the Treasury Department to re-examine the tax-exempt status of schools that he says provide “radical indoctrination.” Trump did not explain what prompted the remark, but it’s one more threat Trump has issued against schools as he pressures them to open this fall. Twice this week Trump threatened to cut federal funding for schools that don’t reopen. It’s unclear on what grounds Trump could have a school’s tax-exempt status terminated.
July 11, 2020 4:24 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has commuted the prison sentence of his longtime friend Roger Stone. The president intervened in extraordinary fashion Friday in a criminal case that was central to the Russia investigation and that concerned the president’s own conduct. The move came just days before Stone was to begin serving a 40-month prison sentence for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in 2016. The action underscores the president’s lingering rage over special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and is part of a continuing effort to rewrite the narrative of a probe that has shadowed the White House from the outset.
July 11, 2020 4:22 am
WASHINGTON, Pa – Severe storms have caused power outages across Western Pennsylvania Friday night after a week of little to no rain. Damage was reported around the area, but it seems most places in Washington County escaped without major issues. According to West Penn Power, over 500 residents in the county are without power, with most of the issues in Fallowfield and Carroll Township as well as Centerville Borough. West Penn Power says full power should be restored to the area by 11:30 p.m. Saturday night.
July 11, 2020 4:13 am
WASHINGTON, Pa – Consol Energy has announced the permanent layoffs of roughly 40% of the workforce from the idled Enlow Fork Mine. According to reports, the facility has been idled since April because the demand for coal is down due to the pandemic. Consol Energy originally furloughed those employees, but decided to permanently let them go by August 31st. In a company statement, Consol said it is tough to see when the mine will return to full capacity, and that the plan is to run the facility based on market conditions. Roughly 600 people work at the Enlow Fork Mine facility during full operation.
July 11, 2020 3:58 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – New confirmed coronavirus infections in Pennsylvania hit their highest one-day mark since May on Friday, with state health officials blaming the rising numbers on crowded bars and out-of-state travel to virus hot spots. Pennsylvania reported more than 1,000 new coronavirus infections for the first time since May 10. The state Health Department also reported another 32 coronavirus-related deaths, raising the statewide toll to 6,880. Meanwhile, West Chester University has become the first state university to announce that it will stick with remote learning in the fall
July 10, 2020 3:41 pm
(WPXI) – Washington County is still waiting on word from the Governor, but we now know that there will be no state-ordered shutdown of dine-in service at bars and restaurants in Butler County, according to the county commissioners. County leaders said they were told Friday that Gov. Tom Wolf and Department of Health would not be putting a halt to it due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Butler County was one of several areas in western Pennsylvania that state officials indicated would be subject to measures aimed at curbing the rising levels of COVID-19 cases. Other counties affected included Washington and Westmoreland, but no orders have yet come down for state leaders.
July 10, 2020 12:16 pm
(WPXI) – Ascena Retail Group Inc., the owner of several high-profile mall staples, is preparing to file for bankruptcy and shutter nearly half of its almost 3,000 U.S. stores, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Mahwah, New Jersey-based Ascena owns the Ann Taylor, LOFT, Lou & Grey, Justice, Lane Bryant, Catherines and Cacique brands and operates some 2,800 stores in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, Forbes reported. Citing people with knowledge of the strategy, Bloomberg reported the company could enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy as early as this week and eliminate roughly $700 million of its $1.1 billion debt load via a negotiated lender agreement. If the plan proceeds, lenders such as Eaton Vance Corp. would assume control of the company.
