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.
January 26, 2021 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Janet Yellen has been confirmed as President Joe Biden’s treasury secretary in an overwhelming Senate vote. She is the first woman to hold the job in the 232-year history of the department. Yellen is a former chairwoman of the Federal Reserve and is expected to play a key role in gaining congressional approval of Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. The plan is running into stiff opposition from Republicans who believe the price tag is far too high. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says the support for Yellen reflects “just how well suited she is to manage the economic challenges of our time.”
January 26, 2021 4:12 am
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A major winter storm blanketed parts of the middle of the country with snow that was forecast to continue into late Tuesday in some areas, disrupting traffic and closing some coronavirus testing sites. The National Weather Service said at least 4 inches of snow fell across most of an area stretching from central Kansas northeast to Chicago and southern Michigan. The weather service forecast the light snowfall that began around sunset Monday in northern Illinois was expected to get heavier overnight, accumulation totaling about three to six inches by early Tuesday. Snowfall in the area could total up to eight inches or more before it ends Tuesday evening.
January 26, 2021 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is backing off his demand that Senate Democrats preserve the procedural tool known as the filibuster. In its current form, the tool requires a 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation. McConnell said late Monday he has essentially accomplished his goal after two Democratic senators said they would not agree to the rules change. With McConnell’s announcement, a standoff over organizing the Senate that has stalled proceedings in the opening days of the Biden administration may subside. The new Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, had refused to cede to McConnell’s demands.
January 26, 2021 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden appears to be boosting his goal for coronavirus vaccinations in his first 100 days in office, suggesting the nation could soon be vaccinating 1.5 million Americans on average per day. Biden made the comments Monday as talks with Congress over a $1.9 trillion stimulus package showed few signs of progress. He signaled his increasing bullishness on the pace of vaccinations after signing an executive order to boost government purchases from U.S. manufacturers. It was among a flurry of moves by Biden during his first full week to publicly show he’s taking swift action to heal an ailing economy.
January 26, 2021 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House impeachment case against Donald Trump has been delivered to the Senate for his upcoming trial. House Democratic prosecutors made the ceremonial walk across the Capitol late Monday to deliver the charge of incitement of insurrection, but Republican senators are easing off their criticism of the former president. It’s an early sign of Trump’s enduring sway over the party, even out of office. Instead Republicans are presenting a tangle of legal arguments against the legitimacy of the trial and questioning whether Trump’s repeated demands to overturn the Joe Biden’s election really amounted to incitement. The trial is to begin in two weeks.
January 26, 2021 2:40 am
Washington & Jefferson College supports the Presidents’ Athletic Conference decision to limit spectators at athletic competition during the spring 2021 semester. W&J home athletic event venues will be limited to student-athletes, coaches, support staff and essential game personnel only. We will continue to discuss and monitor our plan with our campus Covid-19 advisory groups as we navigate through the spring 2021 semester. The PAC’s decision to begin the semester with either no fans or limited fans (on-campus students only) in attendance was reached by the PAC Presidents Council during their most recent meeting earlier in January. Officials say that both the PAC and W&J share and appreciate the frustration we all feel regarding these limitations on fan attendance, but we must keep our initial focus on our top priority, which is a successful “return to competition” for our student-athletes. W&J says it and fellow PAC members plan to video stream as many athletic contests as possible through the PAC Digital Network, which can be downloaded as an app for Roku and Apple TV devices in addition to streaming on PCs and mobile devices.
