September 19, 2020 7:43 am
MIAMI (AP) – A hurricane watch is in effect Saturday for coastal Texas as Tropical Storm Beta gains strength in the Gulf of Mexico. A storm surge watch and a tropical storm watch are also in effect for the area during an exceptionally busy Atlantic hurricane season. Beta is forecast to become a hurricane on Sunday. Forecasters ran out of traditional storm names on Friday, forcing the use of the Greek alphabet. Teddy remains a powerful hurricane headed toward Bermuda less than a week after Hurricane Paulette there. And, parts of the Alabama coast and Florida Panhandle were still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Sally, which roared ashore Wednesday.
September 19, 2020 7:41 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday has cast an immediate spotlight on the vacancy on the high court, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowing to bring President Donald Trump’s nominee to a vote with just over six weeks before the election. Democrat Joe Biden says there should be no nomination or vote until the next president is decided. McConnell, in a statement released just over an hour after Ginsburg’s death was announced, declared unequivocally that Trump’s nominee would receive a vote. The Republican-controlled Senate did not give President Barack Obama’s pick a vote in the months ahead of the 2016 election.
September 19, 2020 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a diminutive yet towering women’s rights champion who became the court’s second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 87. Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said. Her death just over six weeks before Election Day is likely to set off a heated battle over whether President Donald Trump should nominate, and the Republican-led Senate should confirm, her replacement, or if the seat should remain vacant until the outcome of his race against Democrat Joe Biden is known. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said late Friday that the Senate will vote on Trump’s pick to replace Ginsburg, even though it’s an election year. Chief Justice John Roberts mourned Ginsburg’s passing. “Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice,” Roberts said in a statement. Ginsburg announced in July that she was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for lesions on her liver, the latest of her several battles with cancer. Ginsburg spent her final years on the bench as the unquestioned leader of the court’s liberal wing and became something of a rock star to her admirers. Young women especially seemed to embrace the court’s Jewish grandmother, affectionately calling her the Notorious RBG, for her defense of the rights of women and minorities, and the strength and resilience she displayed in the face of personal loss and health crises.
September 19, 2020 4:04 am
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) – Bail amounts have been dramatically reduced for several people accused of committing crimes during a civil disturbance last weekend in Lancaster that included vandalism to public buildings. LNP reported that bail for nine of 13 defendants was lowered Thursday. Several had faced $1 million bail, and now several of them won’t have to put up any money to be released. The charges stem from protests over the fatal police shooting on Sunday of Lancaster man Ricardo Munoz. Body camera video shows him wielding a knife when an officer responded to his sister’s request to have him committed for mental health treatment.
September 19, 2020 4:00 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate took a steep drop in August, as the labor force shrank and payrolls shot up again in a continuing rebound from the pandemic. The state Department of Labor and Industry said Friday that Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was 10.3% in August, down 2.2 percentage points from July’s adjusted rate of 12.5%. It had initially estimated July’s rate at 13.7% in July. The national rate was 8.4% in August. Payrolls gained back almost 60,000 of the more than 1.1 million jobs lost since March. Pennsylvania has now regained slightly more than half the jobs lost in the last six months, according to state figures.
September 18, 2020 3:59 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. health officials are dropping a controversial piece of coronavirus guidance and telling all those who have been in close contact with infected people to get tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention essentially returned to its previous guidance about such tests. In doing so, it got rid of language posted last month that said people who didn’t feel sick didn’t need to get tested. That August change set off a rash of criticism from health experts who couldn’t fathom why the nation’s top public health agency would say such a thing amid a pandemic that has been difficult to control. (Photo: CNN)
September 18, 2020 11:50 am
A SWAT Team, along with several other police agencies were called out Friday morning to a home in Smith Township around six-thirty. Washington County 9-1-1 tells WJPA News that the individual, who is believed to be armed, has barricaded himself inside a home on Liberty Avenue, between East Pittsburgh and East Market Streets. No other information has been released.
September 18, 2020 10:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. will ban the use of WeChat Sunday to “safeguard the national security of the United States.” The Chinese app TikTok will also be banned by Nov. 12, but Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said early Friday on CNBC that access to that app may be possible áif certain safeguards are in place. The government previously said that using and downloading the app to communicate won’t be a banned transaction, although messaging on the app “could be directly or indirectly impaired” by the ban, and people who use it for messaging won’t be subject to penalties.
September 18, 2020 9:52 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate took a steep drop in August, as the labor force shrank and payrolls shot up again in a continuing rebound from the pandemic. The state Department of Labor and Industry said Friday that Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was 10.3% in August, down 2.2 percentage points from July’s adjusted rate of 12.5%. It had initially estimated July’s rate at 13.7% in July. The national rate was 8.4% in August. Payrolls gained back almost 60,000 of the more than 1.1 million jobs lost since March. Pennsylvania has now regained slightly more than half the jobs lost in the last six months, according to state figures.
September 18, 2020 8:48 am
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) – A firefighter has died battling a wildfire in California that officials say was sparked by a device used to reveal a baby’s gender. The U.S. Forest Service says the death occurred Thursday in the San Bernardino National Forest as crews battled the El Dorado Fire. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, has said that wildfire was sparked by a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used for a gender reveal party. The name of the firefighter is being withheld until family members are notified. The cause of the death is under investigation. Wildfires in California this year are blamed for at least 25 deaths.
