March 16, 2021 4:16 am
BOSTON (AP) – U.S. guidelines that say students should be kept 6 feet apart in schools are receiving new scrutiny from federal health experts, state governments and education officials working to return as many children as possible to the classroom. The distancing guidelines have remained a major hurdle for schools as they aim to open with limited space. But amid new evidence that it may be safe to seat students closer together, states including Illinois, Indiana and Massachusetts are allowing 3 feet of distance, and others including Oregon are considering it.
March 16, 2021 4:15 am
(AP) – China’s U.N. ambassador says China is donating 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to U.N. peacekeepers, with priority given to those serving in Africa.Ambassador Zhang Jun sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres informing him of the donation. It follows the announcement by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi of Beijing’s intention to donate vaccines at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Feb. 17. The mission said “China attaches great importance to the safety and security of peacekeepers” and the donation “is a further step to make China’s vaccines a global public good, and also a demonstration of China’s firm and continuous support to the U.N. and multilateralism.”
March 16, 2021 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Security officials say they will soon scale back fencing that has circled the U.S. Capitol and cut off the entire area to pedestrian and vehicular traffic since a mob attacked the building on Jan. 6. The acting House sergeant-at-arms, Timothy Blodgett, said Monday in a memo to members of Congress that the fencing will be scaled back in two phases. The decision comes in response to guidance from the U.S. Capitol Police that “there does not exist a known, credible threat” that warrants keeping the temporary barrier in place.
March 16, 2021 4:12 am
CHESTER, Pa. (AP) – President Joe Biden has visited a small, minority-owned business in suburban Philadelphia to showcase his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. He underscored that the huge relief package was passed without any help from Republican lawmakers as he sought to highlight how the bill will help small businesses imperiled by the public health crisis. The visit to Smith Flooring, Inc. was Biden’s first stop in an ongoing administration roadshow to publicize, and take credit, for the virus relief package. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff delivered a similar message during stops in Colorado. (Photo: AP)
March 16, 2021 4:10 am
PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. (AP) – Officials say a boy who was riding in a SUV with his mother was killed when a small plane struggling to return to a South Florida airport crashed into them on a residential street. The crash happened Monday afternoon in Pembroke Pines. Fire Chief Marcel Rodriguez says two people on the plane also died. The child’s mother was released from the hospital late Monday. Rodriguez says the Beechcraft Bonanza plane had just taken off from North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines. Officials say the boy’s mother tried to free him from the car, which a neighbor said looked like it was cut in half. A Doorbell ring camera captured the entire tragedy on video.
March 16, 2021 4:09 am
(AP) – The company that makes the prescription painkiller OxyContin would be transformed into a new entity that would funnel profits into combatting the U.S. opioid crisis under a $10 billion plan submitted to a federal bankruptcy judge late Monday. Members of the Sackler family who own Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma would pay more than $4 billion. Individual victims, state and local governments, and Native American tribes would be in line for payments. Attorneys general for nearly half the states say the plan “falls short of the accountability that families and survivors deserve.” They want more money from the Sacklers, among other changes.
March 16, 2021 2:39 am
The Washington City Police Department issued a warning on their Facebook page this week, regarding a number of drug overdoses in the city. Police say they have had multiple overdoses resulting in death. They say the individuals who overdosed were snorting cocaine or what they believed to be cocaine. They say that at this point in time, they do not know what the substance is. They say their warning is not limited to powder Cocaine. They say there is a possibility that other drugs are being mixed with toxic substances that can cause death. They are asking individuals not to use any illegal or un prescribed drugs, but they say they also understand that people will still use despite the warning, so they are urging caution.
March 16, 2021 2:37 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A western Pennsylvania man who told police he was sleeping next to a 3-year-old girl with a loaded shotgun under his pillow last year and awoke to a loud bang and found the child dead has pleaded guilty to a murder charge. Fifty-two-year-old Marlin Pritchard of Pittsburgh pleaded guilty Tuesday to third-degree murder and a firearms charge. Allegheny County prosecutors said there was no agreement in place on sentencing slated for June 17. Pritchard told investigators he slept with the gun because of threats from others. The Tribune-Review reports that his girlfriend told police she had been babysitting the girl and another child that February 2020 night.
March 15, 2021 5:54 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Barbara Rickles, the widow of Don Rickles and a fictionalized target of his comic insults, died on what would have been their 56th wedding anniversary. Her death was confirmed by spokesman Paul Shefrin, who said she died Sunday at 84. Don Rickles cracked jokes about her constantly, but by many accounts, the Rickles had one of the happiest marriages in show business, right up to his death in 2017. She would help produce the Emmy-winning documentary “Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project,” which came out in 2007, and the 2020 release “Don Rickles Live In Concert.” (Photo: Yahoo)
March 15, 2021 5:50 pm
(AP) – Air travel is gaining altitude. More than 1 million people have gone through U.S. airport checkpoints each of the last four days – it was more than 1.3 million on Sunday. That was the first time TSA screened more people than it did on the comparable day in 2020. However, travel is still down sharply from 2019, before the pandemic. Airline stocks are rising after several airlines report that they’ve seen more people booking trips in March. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian says bookings began picking up five or six weeks ago. The Delta CEO thinks that after some previous false starts, this time the recovery in travel is real.
