February 7, 2021 4:45 am
Roman Catholic parishioners will be receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday differently this year. The pandemic has changed the way parishioners will receive ashes. Instead of the traditional sign of the cross on the forehead, priests will sprinkle ashes on the tops of the head. According to Diocesan Associate General Secretary and Vicar for Canonical Services, Fr. Tom Kunz, this practice will help priests and deacons avoid having direct contact with large amounts of people. “This method of receiving ashes is common in other countries.” The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh also announced the schedule of Masses to be celebrated by Bishop David Zubik on Ash Wednesday. Zubik will be at the Divine Mercy Parish, St. Mary of Mercy Church in downtown Pittsburgh at noon. At 6:00 PM he will celebrate Mass at St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland. Masses can be viewed via live stream through the diocesan website.
February 6, 2021 10:42 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The executions at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, completed in short windows over a few weeks, likely acted as a superspreader event. That’s according to records reviewed by The Associated Press. It was something health experts had warned could happen when the Justice Department insisted on resuming executions during a pandemic. By the end of 2020, 70% of death row inmates were sick with COVID-19. Guards were ill. Traveling prisons staff on the execution team had the virus. So did media witnesses, who may have unknowingly infected others when they returned home because they were never told about the spreading cases.
February 6, 2021 9:34 am
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – There is another dramatic change for the Iditarod this year. Officials on Friday announced that the cfan-favorite ceremonial start for the world’s most famous sled dog race has been canceled over crowd-size concerns during the pandemic. The event usually draws large crowds to downtown Anchorage, where beer and food tents line city streets. Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach says they take the health and well-being of the racers, volunteers, staff and spectators very seriously. The race has been shortened this year, and it will start and finish north of Anchorage instead of having the finish line in Nome. There will be limited areas for spectators for the race’s start and end, and fans are encouraged to watch on television.
February 6, 2021 9:31 am
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) – Guatemala says the U.S. government is ending an arrangement that sent asylum-seekers who reached U.S. borders back to the Central American nation to seek protection there instead. The Guatemalan government said in a statement Friday it welcomed the decision to end the accord, known as a safe third country agreement. Only 20 of 939 Hondurans and El Salvadorans who have been turned back from the U.S. and flown to Guatemala decided to seek asylum there. With so many returning to their home countries instead, the policy instituted by former president Donald Trump became known as “deportation with a layover.”
February 6, 2021 9:28 am
BOSTON (AP) – Election integrity activists and computer security experts are complaining that leaders of federal agency that oversees voting technology have quietly weakened a key element of standards due for a vote next week designed to improve security. The Election Assistance Commission’s leadership says the change – removing a ban on wireless hardware – doesn’t mean future voting systems will be less secure because they will be prohibited from running wireless software. It says the change lets voting equipment vendors continue to purchase cheaper off-the-shelf components, boosting competition in an industry dominated by a handful of privately held companies.
February 6, 2021 9:26 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Fox Business Network’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” has been canceled. In a statement Friday, Fox News Media said the move was part of routine programming changes that it had foreshadowed last fall. The company said plans were in place to launch new formats post-election, including on Fox Business. Fox News Media said the Dobbs cancellation was among the changes. The statement appeared to distance the show’s end from a multibillion-dollar defamation suit filed against Fox and three of its hosts, including Dobbs, by an election technology company. Whether the cancellation ends Dobbs’ career with Fox News wasn’t addressed, and the company had no further comment.
February 6, 2021 9:19 am
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The U.N. chief is pledging that the United Nations will do everything it can to unite the international community and create conditions for the military coup in Myanmar to be reversed. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a news conference Friday it is absolutely essential to carry out the U.N. Security Council’s calls for a return to democracy, respect for the results of November elections, and release of all people detained by the military, which he says means the reversal of the coup. He says that requires all possible areas of pressure to make it happen. He says Christine Schraner Burgener, the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, had a first contact Friday with the military since the coup and expressed the U.N.’s strong opposition to the takeover.
February 6, 2021 9:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden says Donald Trump’s “erratic behavior” should prevent him from receiving classified intelligence briefings, a courtesy that historically has been granted to outgoing presidents. Asked in an interview with CBS News on Friday what he feared if Trump continued to receive the briefings, Biden said he did not want to “speculate out loud.” But he made clear he did not want Trump to continue to receive the briefings. Whether to give a past president intelligence briefings is solely the current officeholder’s prerogative. Trump’s second impeachment trial is set to begin next week.
February 6, 2021 5:01 am
A bill sponsored by Representative Tim O’Neal (R-48) passed the state house. That bill will allow the Pennsylvania National Guard assist in the distribution and administration of Covid-19 vaccinations throughout Pennsylvania. House Bill 326 will have the National Guard within 45 days of the bill becoming law, coordinate with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to develop plans to establish and operate vaccination sites across the Commonwealth. According to O’Neal “More than 20 states have successfully used National Guard members to assist with Covid-19 vaccination efforts.”
February 6, 2021 4:52 am
Governor Tom Wolf signed Senate Bill 109 into law on Friday. The bill allocates $145 million to help support businesses suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic. The Wolf administration authorized a transfer of $145 million from the Workers Compensation Security Fund at the Pennsylvania Insurance Department to the General Fund so that money could be appropriated by state legislature to aid businesses. The bill also addresses funding for rental and utility assistance to Pennsylvania residents to keep them in their homes.
