June 11, 2020 4:15 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Amazon says it will ban police use of its facial recognition technology for a year in order to give Congress time to come up with ways to regulate the technology. The Seattle-based company did not say why it was doing so, but ongoing protests after the death of George Floyd have focused attention on racial injustice and how police use technology to track people. Amazon’s announcement comes a day after IBM said it would get out of the facial recognition business, concerned about how the technology can be used for mass surveillance and racial profiling.
June 11, 2020 4:14 am
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) – Arizona hospitals that are expected to be able to treat new cases of coronavirus without going into crisis mode were above 80% capacity as the state becomes a hotspot. The milestone should trigger an automatic end to elective surgeries at affected hospitals. Wednesday’s report from the Department of Health Services comes as the state deals with a surge in virus cases and hospitalizations that experts say is likely tied to Gov. Doug Ducey’s ending of statewide closure orders in mid-May. Ducey has been criticized for not adding requirements that could prevent a surge, and some say the time to put those measures in place has come.
June 11, 2020 4:13 am
HONOLULU (AP) – Hawaii Gov. David Ige extended the state’s mandatory 14-day quarantine for all arriving travelers on Wednesday in a bid to keep coronavirus cases in the islands low. Ige said the rule is being extended to the end of July as the state works to solidify a screening process that could soon allow travelers to return in some capacity. Officials said they are planning to install thermal screening stations with facial recognition in the airports by the end of the year. Hawaii has among the lowest COVID-19 infection and mortality rates in the nation. Ige enacted a mandatory self-quarantine for all arriving tourists and residents in March. Some violators of the quarantine rules have been charged.
June 11, 2020 4:12 am
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Protesters have torn down a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis along Richmond, Virginia’s famed Monument Avenue. News outlets report that the statue in the former capital of the Confederacy was toppled shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday. Richmond police were on the scene and videos on social media showed the monument being towed away as a crowd cheered.About 80 miles away, protesters in Portsmouth beheaded and then pulled down four statues that were part of a Confederate monument on Wednesday. The actions come amid national protests over the death of George Floyd who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck.
June 11, 2020 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence will make an appearance at a manufacturing plant near Pittsburgh on Friday as part of a new campaign effort showcasing the nation’s economy making a comeback. President Donald Trump had planned to run for reelection on the back of a strong economy, a hope dashed by the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing economic devastation, including a soaring unemployment rate. But he seized on a better-than-expected jobs report released last week, and his campaign quickly made an ad proclaiming “the great American comeback has begun.”
June 11, 2020 3:50 am
In their first meeting with a limited number of residents allowed to attend, Monessen City Council picked up right where they left off before the Covid-19 pandemic shut meetings down to public attendance. Councilwoman Lois Thomas waited until the very end of the meeting to address accusations made about her by City Administrator John Harhai in an executive session held after a workshop last week. Thomas addressed claims by Harhai that she met privately with a Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge in late 2018 before her appointment as councilwoman. Thomas called the accusation a bald faced lie. Thomas went on to tell of a physical attack of Councilman Tony Orzechowki. The ordeal lasted nearly 20 minutes with audience members asking Harhai for his response. He had none. Thomas called on council to change and practice new ways of thinking or Monessen will remain the laughing stock of the Mon Valley. In matters directly related to city business, council authorized a Police Accountability and Affairs Board made up of four appointed citizens and the Mayor. Council voted down a measure to repeal an ordinance to bring accountability to council members and their duties. The current ordinance allows for fines for city employees and council who do not carry out their responsibilities to attend council meetings. The motion failed 3-2 and council will look to draft an ordinance that will be stricter and carry heavier fines.
June 11, 2020 3:46 am
Charleroi Council has voted to censure one of their members. At Wednesday’s meeting, Councilwoman Jeannine Motycki motioned to censure fellow Councilwoman, Jody Cheplic for “improper actions against a council person.” Motycki claims that Cheplic will not leave alone the fact that Motycki has not paid the borough $250 for a training class registration fee that she failed to complete due to health issues. Motycki claims she has the means to pay the borough, but chooses not to because she “doesn’t have to.” Motycki says that she made the motion to censure after a right-to-know request was filed and after a host of social media posts were made about her. In other business, council is looking into downsizing its seven-member board to five members due to a declining population and the lack of contested races within the borough. Council also voted not to hold a fireworks display for the Fourth of July but rather hold fireworks during their Community Days celebration August 15-16, 2020.
June 11, 2020 2:07 am
Two Washington County residents were killed in an accident early Wednesday morning in Chartiers Township. According to the Washington County Coroner’s Office, 20-year-old Kacey Coen Shuba of Washington apparently lost control of the vehicle she was driving and slammed into a tree near 1275 Paxton Farm Road. She, along with a passenger in the vehicle, 21-year-old Garrett Evan Delvecchio, also of Washington, were pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities say the crash happened between one and five a.m. The cause and manner of death of both Shuba and Delvecchio is under investigation. Authorities say both were wearing a seatbelt.
June 10, 2020 1:48 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the GOP-controlled Legislature are heading toward a legal clash over the emergency declaration he issued at the beginning of the pandemic. Lawmakers voted to end it, Wolf insisted he holds veto power and business owners are left in limbo. Voting largely along party lines, the Legislature late Tuesday declared an end to Wolf’s 3-month-old emergency declaration. Republicans asserted their resolution paves the way for businesses that have been shut down under Wolf’s pandemic restrictions to reopen. Wolf says it does no such thing. Their dispute quickly landed in court. Wolf said that if the declaration were to end, these protections, among others, would go away:
- Burdensome eligibility requirements for more than a million Unemployment Compensation claimants would immediately go back into effect
- A school meal eligibility waiver, which has allowed more than 300 meal sites to open for distribution of food to school-age children in need, would end
- Tele-health and other health care services provided by out-of-state providers for Pennsylvanians would end
- Utility assistance for thousands of families and individuals would end, leaving people without water or electricity
- Mortgage foreclosure and eviction moratoriums that offer protection to vulnerable Pennsylvanians at risk of losing their homes during the pandemic would end
Wolf also said that by ending the disaster declaration, the state could also lose federal, public and individual disaster assistance and any additional state funding sources available through the transfer of unused General Fund dollars. Republican lawmakers, however, say that isn’t true.
June 10, 2020 10:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. consumer spending plunged by a record-shattering 13.6% in April as the viral pandemic shuttered businesses, forced millions of layoffs and sent the economy into a deep recession. Last month’s spending decline was far worse than the revised 6.9% drop in March, which itself had set a record for the steepest one-month fall in records dating to 1959. The figures reinforced evidence that the economy is gripped by the worst downturn in decades, with consumers unable or too anxious to spend much. Even with employers cutting millions of jobs, though, incomes soared 10.5% in April, reflecting billions of dollars in government payments in the form of unemployment aid and stimulus checks.
