December 30, 2020 10:18 am
LONDON (AP) – Britain has authorized an easy-to-handle coronavirus vaccine and decided to stretch out the time between doses to allow more people to get some level of protection faster as infections surge. The first greenlight Wednesday for the shot dubbed the “vaccine for the world” brought a measure of hope that the pandemic could be brought under control. The vaccine developed by Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca is expected to be relied on in many countries because of its low cost and the fact that it can be kept in refrigerators rather than at the ultra-cold or freezer temperatures some other vaccines require.
December 30, 2020 4:17 am
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Louisiana’s newest Republican member of the U.S. House, Luke Letlow, has died from complications related to COVID-19 only days before being he would have been sworn into office. He was 41. Letlow spokesman Andrew Bautsch confirmed the congressman-elect’s death Tuesday night. Bautsch said in a statement that the family is asking for privacy. The incoming congressman was elected in a December runoff and was set to take office in January. He was admitted to a Monroe hospital on Dec. 19 after testing positive for the coronavirus disease. He was later transferred to Ochsner-LSU Health Shreveport and placed in intensive care, where he died.
December 30, 2020 4:15 am
DENVER (AP) – The first person in the U.S. reported infected with a new and apparently more contagious variant of the coronavirus has been identified as a Colorado National Guardsman who had been sent to help out at a nursing home struggling with an outbreak. And health officials say a second Guard member may be infected, too. The cases have triggered a host of questions about how the mutant version circulating in England arrived in the U.S. and whether it is too late to stop it now. Some top experts say it is probably already spreading in this country. The discovery has also added urgency to the nation’s vaccination drive.
December 30, 2020 4:13 am
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said direct payments to Americans, which were signed into law by President Donald Trump on Sunday, could be deposited as soon as Tuesday night. These are the $600 payments Trump approved Sunday. Mnuchin added that paper checks could be mailed as soon as today. “Treasury and the IRS are as working with unprecedented speed to issue a second round of Economic Impact Payments to eligible Americans and their families,” Mnuchin said in a statement. In a tweet, Mnuchin said the U.S. Treasury delivered a file to the Federal Reserve for the payments. Mnuchin added that direct deposits could hit some accounts by Tuesday night and will continue into next week. Mnuchin added that paper checks will be mailed beginning Wednesday. Mnuchin’s announcement came after House Democrats on Monday passed a measure to increase the stimulus payments from $600 to $2,000. The $2,000 figure was the amount sought by President Donald Trump, a move that caught many Republicans by surprise. On Tuesday, Democrats attempted to get the measure approved in the Senate, but the first voting attempt was blocked by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
December 30, 2020 4:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has shut the door on President Donald Trump’s push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks. The Republican leader says Congress has provided enough pandemic aid and he’s blocked another attempt by Democrats to force a vote. McConnell is unwilling to budge, despite political pressure from Trump and even some fellow GOP senators. Trump wants the recently approved $600 checks increased threefold. But McConnell is dismissing the idea of “survival checks,” saying the money would go to plenty of American households that don’t need it. McConnell’s refusal to act means Trump’s demand for more aid is all but dead.
December 30, 2020 4:03 am
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — (WPXI) – The man wanted in connection with shooting a McKeesport police officer was arrested near Clarksburg, West Virginia Tuesday evening. Koby Francis, 22, was arrested by United States Marshals, West Virginia State Police troopers, Harrison County Sheriff deputies and local police. A SWAT team was able to take him into custody without incident.
State police were looking for Francis in connection with a shooting of a police officer in McKeesport. According to investigators, Francis was served with a protection from abuse (PFA) order at the McKeesport police station around 2:55 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 20. Officers eventually located Francis and report he was combative during the arrest. When Francis and an officer arrived back at the station that evening, security camera video showed Francis getting out and shooting at the officer who was hit in the neck and twice in the shoulder and was taken to a nearby hospital. Four other people were charged with helping Francis following the shooting.
December 29, 2020 7:56 am
PARIS (AP) – France’s Academy of Fine Arts says Pierre Cardin, the French designer whose Space Age style was among the iconic looks of 20th century fashion, has died at 98. A licensing maverick, Cardin’s name embossed myriad products from wristwatches to bed sheets, making his label among the world’s most famous. In the brand’s heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, his products were sold at some 100,000 outlets worldwide, though that number dwindled dramatically in later decades. A savvy businessman, Cardin used his fabulous wealth to snap up top-notch properties in Paris, including the Belle Epoque restaurant Maxim’s. He was inducted into the Fine Arts Academy in 1992. The academy announced his death in a tweet Tuesday.
December 29, 2020 4:07 am
(AP) – American Airlines flew a commercial flight using a Boeing 737 Max on Tuesday, the first one in U.S. skies since Max planes were grounded after two deadly crashes. American flight 718 left Miami International Airport with about 100 passengers, according to an airline spokeswoman, and landed Tuesday afternoon at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration approved changes that Boeing made to an automated flight-control system implicated in crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people in all. In both crashes, the system pushed the nose down repeatedly based on faulty sensor readings, and pilots were unable to regain control.
December 29, 2020 4:06 am
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A motive for the Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville remains elusive. But the 63-year-old man who killed himself and wounded three other people in the blast left behind clues that he never intended to survive. Anthony Quinn Warner gave away his car, telling the recipient he had cancer. He signed a document that transferred his Tennessee home to a California woman for nothing in return. And the computer consultant told an employer that he was retiring. But he didn’t leave behind a clear digital footprint or any other obvious clues to explain why he set off Friday’s explosion or played a message warning people to flee before the blast.
December 29, 2020 4:05 am
DENVER (AP) – The first reported U.S. case of the COVID-19 variant that’s been seen in the United Kingdom has been discovered in Colorado. Gov. Jared Polis and state health officials announced Tuesday that the case was found in a man in his 20s who’s in isolation and has no travel history. British scientists believe the new virus variant is more contagious than previously identified strains. Colorado health officials say the vaccines being given now are thought to be effective against this variant. Public health officials are investigating other potential cases and doing contract tracing to determine the variant’s spread in Colorado.
