January 24, 2021 1:15 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Larry King, who interviewed presidents, movie stars and ordinary Joes during a half-century in broadcasting, has died at age 87. Ora Media, the studio and network he co-founded, tweeted that King died Saturday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. No cause of death was given, but CNN had earlier reported he was hospitalized with COVID-19. King was a nightly fixture on CNN from 1985 through 2010. He won two Peabody Awards but made no claims to being an intellectual. He preferred to ask presidents what they liked about their jobs rather than their foreign policy. He welcomed everyone from the Dalai Lama to Elizabeth Taylor.
January 24, 2021 1:12 am
A Greene County man was killed in an accident just after six o’clock Friday morning on Interstate 79. According to the Washington County Coroner’s Office, 54-year-old Timothy Hardin of Jefferson died when his vehicle collided with a tractor trailer. Authorities say Hardin was traveling north on the interstate in Amwell Township, near the Amity/Lone Pine exit, when his vehicle left the roadway, crossed the median into the southbound lanes and plowed into the truck. Hardin was taken to Washington Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Hardin’s cause of death is pending an autopsy. The trucker, John E. Berry, 62, of McConnelsville, Ohio, was not injured. Both southbound lanes of the interstate were closed until shortly before ten a.m. Authorities continue to investigate the crash.
January 23, 2021 9:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden has made his first calls to foreign leaders as America’s commander in chief. He dialed up Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday at a strained moment for the U.S. relationship with its North American neighbors. Biden’s call to Trudeau came after the Canadian leader publicly expressed disappointment over Biden’s decision to issue an executive order halting construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Biden also spoke with López Obrador on Friday, a week after the Mexican president accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of fabricating drug trafficking charges against the country’s former defense secretary.
January 23, 2021 9:21 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial for Donald Trump on the charge of incitement of insurrection will begin the week of Feb. 8. That’s according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who announced the schedule Friday evening. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will send the article of impeachment against Trump to the Senate on Monday. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell wanted to postpone the impeachment trial until February to give the former president time to prepare his case, and he welcomed the agreement. The House impeached Trump on a single charge of incitement of insurrection for the deadly attack on the Capitol that unfolded on Jan. 6
January 23, 2021 9:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will have to contend not only with a world of security threats and a massive military bureaucracy, but also with a challenge that hits closer to home: rooting out racism and extremism in the ranks. Austin took office Friday as the first Black defense chief, in the wake of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, where retired and current military members were among the rioters touting far-right conspiracies. The retired four-star Army general told senators this week that the Pentagon’s job is to “keep America safe from our enemies. But we can’t do that if some of those enemies lie within our own ranks.”
January 23, 2021 9:13 am
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – One winning ticket has been sold in the $1 billion Mega Millions jackpot. The top prize drawn on Friday is the third-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history. The winning numbers are: 4, 26, 42, 50, 60 and a Mega Ball of 24. The winning ticket was sold at a Kroger store in Novi, Michigan. The Mega Millions jackpot had been growing since Sept. 15, when a winning ticket was sold in Wisconsin. Friday night’s drawing comes two days after a ticket sold in Maryland matched all six numbers drawn and won a $731.1 million Powerball jackpot.
January 23, 2021 4:40 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The son of a couple killed in a Pittsburgh synagogue attack that killed 11 worshippers is suing the National Rifle Association, saying the group’s inflammatory rhetoric led to the violence. Marc Simon is the son of Sylvan and Bernice Simon. He filed the wrongful death lawsuit Thursday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court against the NRA, the gun maker Colt’s Manufacturing Co. and the accused synagogue shooter, Robert Bowers. Colt manufactured the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle allegedly used by Bowers. Bowers is charged with killing 11 congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018 in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. He has pleaded not guilty.
January 23, 2021 4:35 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Democratic state lawmaker is criticizing Pennsylvania’s vaccine rollout as muddled, saying other states are doing a much better job at distribution and communication. The scolding from Sen. Lindsey Williams of Allegheny County is a sign of mounting frustration over the stubbornly slow pace of vaccinations and shifting guidance about who is eligible to get them. Williams says Pennsylvania residents “deserve clearer communication and more concrete answers” from the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf, a fellow Democrat. The Wolf administration blames a lack of supply for slow vaccine rollout. Meanwhile, unions representing police and prison guards are expressing outrage at having been placed behind smokers in line for COVID-19 shots.
January 23, 2021 4:33 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf is elevating two officials involved in his administration’s response to the coronavirus to replace the departing Dr. Rachel Levine as his health secretary and physician general. Wolf said Friday he intends to nominate a deputy chief of staff, Alison Beam, to take over as secretary of the Department of Health. Wolf, meanwhile, elevated Dr. Wendy Braund, the Covid-19 response director for the department, to the position of the acting interim physician general. Beam has helped coordinate the administration’s pandemic response. Levine’s last day was to be Friday, as she prepares to become President Joe Biden’s nominee to be his assistant secretary of health.
January 22, 2021 1:53 pm
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – The NFL says 7,500 health care workers vaccinated for the coronavirus will be given free tickets to next month’s Super Bowl to be played in Tampa, Florida. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also said in a news release Friday that attendance at the Feb. 7 game would be limited to those workers and about 14,500 other fans. Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has a capacity of just under 66,000. Most health care workers who will get free game tickets will come from the Tampa Bay area and central Florida. Goodell says all 32 NFL teams will choose workers for the game.
