October 2, 2020 4:01 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Winds are getting stronger in California’s wine country, threatening to escalate a massive wildfire that has burned for days and destroyed hundreds of buildings. The Glass Fire north of San Francisco is burning near Calistoga, a small town known for hot springs, mud baths and wineries. More fire crews and equipment were deployed in the town of 5,000 people in the hills of Napa County, after a forecast called for strong winds and extremely low humidity. More than 2,000 firefighters are battling the blaze in Napa and Sonoma counties.
October 2, 2020 3:59 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House says President Donald Trump will spend a “few days” at a military hospital after contracting COVID-19. Trump departed the White House by helicopter late Friday for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a White House official said. The official said the visit was precautionary and that Trump would work from the hospital’s presidential suite, which is equipped to allow him to continue his official duties. Earlier Friday the White House said Trump remains “fatigued” and had been injected with an experimental antibody cocktail for the virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans. Trump and First Lady Melania were both diagnosed Thursday with COVID-19.
October 1, 2020 1:41 pm
(AP) – Health officials are urging Americans to seek a flu vaccine this month, hoping to avoid twin epidemics as COVID-19 continues to circulate. Europe is gearing up for flu vaccinations, too. Manufacturers have produced record numbers of doses, with as much as 198 million expected in the U.S. But they’re not all shipped at once, and there are sporadic reports of a drugstore or clinic temporarily out of stock. Vaccine makers say shipments still are coming. And the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions says early demand may be high but don’t get frustrated – keep trying.
October 1, 2020 12:38 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Back in 2002, Roman Catholic bishops in the United States adopted a charter containing guidelines for combating child sex abuse by priests and other church personnel. A think tank has now completed a two-year investigation of the resulting policies adopted in all 32 archdioceses in the U.S. Its verdict: The policies are inconsistent and often worryingly incomplete. CHILD USA says prevention will remain flawed as long as individual bishops remain in charge of implementation without more forceful independent oversight. The group wants the church to establish more detailed mandatory standards. The national bishops’ conference defends its overall effort, though it says improvements are needed.
October 1, 2020 8:57 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits declined last week to a still-high 837,000, evidence that the economy is struggling to sustain a tentative recovery that began this summer. The Labor Department’s report, released Thursday, suggests that companies are still cutting a historically high number of jobs, though the weekly numbers have become less reliable as states have increased their efforts to root out fraudulent claims and process earlier applications that have piled up. For example, California, which accounts for more than one-quarter of aid applications, simply provided the same figure it submitted the previous week. The state had said it would stop accepting jobless claims online so it could tackle a backlog of 600,000 claims.
October 1, 2020 4:18 am
LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Twelve Democratic governors have issued a joint statement defending American democracy, vowing that every ballot will be counted in the election after President Donald Trump sowed distrust during the first presidential debate. Trump claimed without evidence Tuesday night that mail voting is ripe for fraud, and he refused to say whether he would accept the results. The governors said Wednesday that efforts to toss ballots or refuse a peaceful transfer of power “are nothing less than an assault on democracy.” Signing the statement were the governors of Michigan, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico and Delaware.
October 1, 2020 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he “enjoyed” debating former Vice President Joe Biden, but he is falsely claiming that Biden is trying to get out of the next two debates. Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Duluth, Minnesota, Wednesday. He gloated about the television ratings the debate generated and ignored how contentious and unruly the debate quickly became, in large part thanks to his refusal to adhere to the moderator’s requests and the debate’s rules. He made no mention of the Commission on Presidential Debates’ promise earlier Wednesday to implement “additional structure … to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues” going forward.
October 1, 2020 4:13 am
(AP) – Thousands of airline employees are getting furloughed while the companies wait to see if they will get more money from taxpayers. On Thursday, the White House included $20 billion for airlines in a $1.6 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal. That’s closer to House Democrats’ $2.2 trillion plan, but an agreement is still up in the air. Airlines and their unions are lobbying for more federal money to keep workers on the job through next March. Airlines are losing billions because air travel is down nearly 70% from a year ago.
October 1, 2020 4:12 am
BERLIN (AP) – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is recovering in Germany after being poisoned in Russia by a nerve agent, is accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of being behind the crime. Navalny’s supporters have frequently maintained that such an attack could have only been ordered at the top levels, though the Kremlin has steadfastly denied any involvement in it. In his first interview since the attack, Navalny told Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine that in his mind, “Putin was behind the attack.” He said in a brief excerpt of the interview released Thursday that “I don’t have any other versions of how the crime was committed.”
October 1, 2020 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has signed a bill to fund the government through Dec. 11, averting the possibility of a government shutdown when the new fiscal year starts Thursday. Trump signed the bill, which was approved by sweeping bipartisan agreement Wednesday, into law early Thursday morning shortly after returning from campaigning in Minnesota. The temporary extension will set the stage for a lame-duck session of Congress later this year, where the agenda will be largely determined by the outcome of the presidential election. The measure passed by a 84-10 vote. The House passed the bill last week.
