January 27, 2021 4:10 am
President Joe Biden says the U.S. is ramping up vaccine deliveries to hard-pressed states over the next three weeks and expects to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall. Biden is calling the push a “wartime effort.” He said Tuesday that his administration is working to buy an additional 100 million doses of each of the two approved coronavirus vaccines. And he acknowledged that states in recent weeks have been left guessing how much vaccine they will have from one week to the next. He called that “unacceptable” and said “lives are at stake.”
January 27, 2021 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is dispatching the nation’s top scientists and public health experts to regularly brief the American public about the pandemic that has claimed more than 425,000 U.S. lives. Beginning Wednesday, the experts will host briefings three times a week on the state of the outbreak and efforts to control it. Americans can expect a sharp contrast from the Trump administration’s briefings, when public health officials were repeatedly undermined by a president who shared his unproven ideas without hesitation. Wednesday’s briefing will feature the Biden administration’s coordinator for pandemic response, as well as government scientists and public health officials.
January 27, 2021 4:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden says “we can’t wait any longer” to address the climate crisis, and that’s driving his ambitious effort to stave off the worst effects of global warming. He’s issued executive orders to cut oil, gas and coal emissions and double energy production from offshore wind turbines. They target federal subsidies for oil and other fossil fuels and halt new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters. The orders also aim to conserve 30 percent of the country’s lands and ocean waters in the next 10 years. There’s political risk for Biden and Democrats as oil- and coal-producing states face job losses from moves to sharply increase U.S. reliance on clean energy.
January 27, 2021 4:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden plans to reopen the HealthCare.gov insurance markets for a special sign-up opportunity, as he promised during his campaign. It would be geared to people needing coverage in the coronavirus pandemic. Two people familiar with the plan tell The Associated Press that Biden is expected to sign an executive order Thursday, with details still being finalized. The new enrollment period would not go into effect immediately. Instead, the White House wants to provide time for the government to mount a marketing campaign, and for insurers to get ready for an influx of new customers.
January 27, 2021 4:05 am
North Strabane Township Supervisors held a busy voting meeting on Tuesday night. North Strabane Municipal Authority Manager Mark Wolinsky kicked off the meeting by delivering the authority’s budget that included no rate increase to township residents. Supervisors then went on to approve a conditional use application for the construction of a Starbucks restaurant and Chase Bank drive through ATM location adjacent to the Doubletree Hotel on Racetrack Road. And in a tense vote, supervisors approved Fire Chief Mark Grimm as the township’s new Public Safety Director. Grimm will take on the responsibilities of this position in addition to his position as Fire Chief. The approval was 4-1 with supervisor Marcus Staley dissenting indicating that attention needs to be paid to an eleventh hour set of concerns from the Chief of Police. Staley also pointed to possible budget impacts and alleged cronyism in his objection to the appointment. The remaining supervisors were not swayed. They pointed to the fact that this has been in the works since budget workshops in the fall and there was plenty of time to raise concerns over the last three months. When asked for further comment, Staley did not want to make a comment indicating he would have more to say in the future.
January 27, 2021 2:19 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s state Senate is advancing legislation to distribute just over $900 million to aid schools and hospitality-related businesses hit hard by the coronavirus, as well as people struggling to pay rent or utility bills. The bill passed the Senate unanimously on Wednesday. It still requires approval from the state House of Representatives and Gov. Tom Wolf. Most of the $912 million is federal aid. Some of it, $145 million, is reserve cash from a worker’s compensation fund that Wolf asked lawmakers to send to businesses hit hard by the pandemic. The majority of the money, $570 million, would help people struggling to pay rent or utilities. Private schools would get $150 million.
January 26, 2021 9:57 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Hundreds of members of the Pennsylvania National Guard will be in Washington for the next two months. The Guard said Tuesday they’ll be helping help with crowd management, assisting with traffic control and performing other duties. The Guard says about 2,350 members of the Pennsylvania National Guard were in Washington at one point to help secure the Capitol after the Jan. 6 riot and for Joe Biden’s inauguration last week. About 450 members are expected to be helping in Washington until mid-March. They will be housed in hotel rooms. Their duties also include communications, logistics and medical services.
January 26, 2021 6:51 am
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – Officials say one person is dead after a tornado tore through an Alabama city north of Birmingham, leaving the area significantly damaged. Fultondale Police Chief D.P. Smith told AL.com a young man trapped in the basement of his home was pronounced dead at the scene around 3 a.m. Tuesday. Smith says a tree fell onto the family’s home, causing it to collapse. Several other family members were critically injured and one escaped harm. The National Weather Service in Birmingham says officials are evaluating the damage to determine the strength of the tornado, which hit the Fultondale area of Jefferson County late Monday night.
January 26, 2021 4:19 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – After two days of silence, Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania is confirming a New York Times report, saying he had introduced then-President Donald Trump to a top Justice Department lawyer who, according to the newspaper, discussed a plan to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Perry, who has disputed the validity of President Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania, said in Monday’s statement that he obliged Trump’s request for an introduction. The Justice Department’s inspector general says he’s launching an investigation to examine whether any Justice Department officials “engaged in an improper attempt” to overturn the results of the presidential election.
January 26, 2021 4:15 am
(AP) – Internet users across the northeast U.S. experienced widespread outages for several hours Tuesday, interrupting work and school, because of an unspecified Verizon network issue. The company said in the afternoon, Eastern time, that the issue affecting its Fios service had been resolved and that service was returning to normal. A fiber cut in Brooklyn was unrelated to the problem, which Verizon said it was still investigating. People complained about internet issues and not being able to use major online services in an area that stretched from Washington to Boston.
