February 27, 2021 4:35 am
New Mexico health officials have confirmed an additional 659 COVID-19 infections, the highest daily case count in more than three weeks. Nearly 30% of the new cases announced Friday involved state inmates. Officials earlier this week expressed optimism about downward trends in the overall spread of the virus, with all of the state’s counties reporting positivity rates below 10%. However, they acknowledged that the seven-day rolling average of daily cases remained above targets. In all, New Mexico has reported nearly 185,000 cases since the pandemic began. The death toll stands at 3,685, with more than a dozen deaths reported Friday.
February 27, 2021 4:32 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House has approved a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill in a win for President Joe Biden. But even as Democrats savor that major step, party leaders are trying to assure progressives that they’ll revive their derailed drive to boost the minimum wage. The bill, which passed early Saturday on a near party-line vote, flushes cash to individuals, businesses and states battered by COVID-19. Now it goes to the Senate. Democrats there seem bent on resuscitating their minimum wage push, and other fights could erupt, too. Democrats say the still-faltering economy and rampaging virus demand action, but Republicans call the legislation bloated and partisan.
February 27, 2021 4:30 am
Pennsylvania State Representative Jason Ortitay (R-46) and State Senator Devlin Robinson (R-37) held a joint press conference to draw attention to their opposition to the recent announcement of PennDot’s plan to place a toll on the bridge that carries Interstate 79 over Route 50 in Bridgeville. The proposed toll will be a two way toll. It is undetermined whether it will cost one or two dollars per usage. A driver could be charged between two and four dollars if they travel Interstate79 each direction once each day. Neither Ortitay nor Robinson had any communication with PennDot or the Governor’s office as to whether this is a temporary or permanent toll. Robinson likened it to the Johnstown Flood tax placed on liquor that is still in existence today. Ortitay says that he is irritated because he felt he has a good working relationship with PennDot and the Governor’s office and he was caught off guard when the announcement was made. Jim Scalo, President of Burns-Scalo Real Estate says that this could affect as many as 50,000 jobs in the area and as a developer he feels betrayed by government. Gwen Rodi, President of the South Fayette Board of Commissioners is worried because it will cost her township dearly in increased road maintenance costs due to drivers trying to avoid tolls and using township streets. Ortitay and Robinson are looking for alternate ways to fund the bridge rehabilitation project.
February 27, 2021 4:30 am
(AP) – The head of the CDC is sounding the alarm that recent gains against the coronavirus may be stalling. Dr. Rochelle Walensky says the CDC is looking at data that COVID-19 cases have been increasing the past three days. However, more time is needed to see if that is a blip or the start of a trend. Walensky says mutations are spreading in the U.S., with strains first detected in Britain and now variants in New York and California. She stressed now is not the time to relax protective measures of wearing masks and avoiding gatherings. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths have fallen since the January peak. But Walensky says those gains could be in jeopardy because the background level of cases is still too high.
February 27, 2021 4:30 am
HOUSTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is in Texas on his first trip to a major disaster site since he took office a little over a month ago. The president’s empathy will be on full display as he and his wife, Jill, survey damage caused by severe winter weather and encourage people to get their coronavirus shots. The brutal winter weather across the South over Valentine’s Day weekend battered multiple states. Texas bore the brunt of unseasonably frigid conditions that caused widespread power outages and frozen pipes that burst and flooded homes. Millions of residents lost heat and running water.
February 26, 2021 4:24 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Costco will increase its starting wage to $16 an hour, surpassing most of its main competitors at a time when efforts to raise the minimum wage are gaining traction in the U.S.áCostco CEO Craig Jelinek announced the increase Thursday at a Senate Budget Committee hearing, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, to examine wages at major companies. Jelinek said the starting wage for Costco employees would rise to $16 next week, up from $15 the company instituted two year ago. The starting wage scale puts Costco above competitors including Amazon, Target and Best Buy, which have $15 minimum wages. Walmart’s starting pay is $11 an hour.
February 26, 2021 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Saudi Arabia’s crown prince likely approved the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. That’s according to a newly declassified U.S. intelligence report released Friday. The finding could escalate pressure on the Biden administration to hold the kingdom accountable for a murder that drew widespread outrage in the U.S. and abroad. The central conclusion of the report was widely expected given that intelligence officials were said to have reached it soon after the brutal October 2018 murder of Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s authoritarian consolidation of power. Still, the public blaming amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of the ambitious 35-year-old crown prince.
February 26, 2021 4:16 am
BAGHDAD (AP) – An Iraqi militia official says a U.S. airstrike in Syria has killed one militiaman and wounded a number of others with a powerful Iranian-backed Iraqi group. The official told The Associated Press that the strikes against facilities belong to the Kataeb Hezbollah militia, or Hezbollah Brigades, struck a site on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak of the attack. The Pentagon said the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and other coalition troops.
February 26, 2021 4:10 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania are maintaining it was a mistake for Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to order COVID patients to be readmitted to nursing homes from hospitals, although it’s not clear the policy led to an outbreak or death. Despite a high number of nursing home deaths in Pennsylvania, no investigation has pointed to the policy. Nursing home trade associations say they’re not aware it led to death or an outbreak. Rep. Natalie Mihalek during Thursday’s Appropriations Committee hearing urged acting Health Secretary Alison Beam to say the department’s order was a mistake. Beam responded that the state wanted to ensure hospitals weren’t overrun and clarify confusing federal guidance.
February 26, 2021 2:43 am
A regulatory agency that’s responsible for the water supply of more than 13 million people in four states has voted to permanently ban natural gas drilling and fracking in the watershed. The Delaware River Basin Commission first imposed a moratorium on gas development more than a decade ago. The agency says fracking poses too great of a risk to the water supply. Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania as well as a landowners group have filed lawsuits challenging the commission’s right to regulate gas development. The Delaware and its tributaries supply drinking water to Philadelphia and half the population of New York City.
