January 16, 2021 1:25 am
A fire at Maple Terrace in Washington is under investigation. City firefighters were called out around one-thirty Friday afternoon to reports of explosions and a fire. Washington Fire Chief Gerry Coleman tells WJPA News that when they arrived, they found an Orkin box truck with five propane tanks inside, on fire. Coleman says the truck had its rear gate open and the fire was essentially feeding into unit 119, which had been the unit the truck was being used on. Coleman says the driver of the truck, who was sitting in the cab, told them he heard a “whooshing” sound and when he got out, he saw the fire coming out of the rear of the vehicle. Coleman says several departments were called in to assist, along with the Washington County Hazmat team. He says there was one injury. A Washington City Police Officer suffered minor injuries and was taken to an area hospital for treatment. Coleman says unit 119 was gutted by the blaze and although several other units sustained some damage, once the utilities are turned back on, they will be habitable.
January 15, 2021 1:52 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence has called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to offer his congratulations. That’s, according to two peoples familiar with the conversation who were granted anonymity to share details of a private conversation. One of the people familiar with the Thursday afternoon conversation described it as a “good call,” with Pence congratulating his successor and offering assistance. The call comes less than a week before President-elect Joe Biden and Harris are set to take office, next Wednesday. It marks the first contact between elected officials from the outgoing and incoming administrations.
January 15, 2021 4:16 am
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) – The U.S. government has executed a drug trafficker for a series of slayings in Virginia in 1992, despite his recent COVID-19 infection. Corey Johnson received a lethal injection Thursday at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. He’s the 12th inmate put to death there since President Donald Trump resumed federal executions in July. Attorneys for the 52-year-old Johnson argued the injection would cause excruciating pain due to lung damage from his coronavirus infection last month. Johnson’s execution and Friday’s scheduled execution of Dustin Higgs are the last before next week’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who opposes the federal death penalty and has pledged to end its use.
January 15, 2021 4:15 am
MAMUJU, Indonesia (AP) – A strong, shallow earthquake has shaken Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, toppling homes and buildings, triggering landslides and killing at least 15 people. More than 600 people were injured during the magnitude 6.2 quake that struck just after midnight Friday and sent people fleeing their homes in the darkness. Authorities were still collecting information about the full scale of casualties and damage in the affected areas. There were reports of many people trapped in the rubble of collapsed homes and buildings. Thousands of displaced people were evacuated to temporary shelters.
January 15, 2021 4:14 am
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Federal agents have accused an Arkansas man of beating a police officer with a pole flying a U.S. flag during last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol. In an arrest affidavit filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, an FBI agent said Peter Francis Stager is shown in video and photographs striking a prone police officer repeatedly with the flagpole. That was after rioters had dragged the officer down stairs on the Capitol’s west side. Confidential informants led agents to Stager, who is charged with interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder.
January 15, 2021 4:13 am
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – A prosecutor says a retired Air Force officer who was part of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol carried plastic zip-tie handcuffs because he meant “to take hostages.” Retired Lieutenant Colonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr. appeared at a detention hearing in Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday. The 53-year-old is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. A judge said he would release Brock to home confinement. Brock’s attorney says there is no evidence that he did anything violent inside the Capitol.
January 15, 2021 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The FBI is tracking an “extensive amount of concerning online chatter,” including calls for armed protests leading up to next week’s presidential inauguration. That’s according to FBI Director Chris Wray, who participated in a law enforcement and military briefing for Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday. Wray says the FBI remains concerned about the potential for violence at protests and rallies in Washington and in state capitols around the country. But he says it’s a challenge to distinguish between what is aspirational versus what is intentional.
January 15, 2021 4:11 am
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden has unveiled a $1.9 trillion coronavirus plan to end “a crisis of deep human suffering” by speeding up vaccines and pumping out financial help to those struggling with the pandemic’s prolonged economic fallout. Biden said Thursday that the nation faces “a crisis of deep human suffering.” He hopes his multi-pronged strategy will put the country on the path to recovery by the end of his administration’s first 100 days. The plan includes $1,400 checks for individuals, on top of $600 provided in the last COVID-19 bill. There’s also money for a mass vaccination campaign and a major expansion of local public health efforts.
January 15, 2021 4:08 am
The Canon-McMillan School District held a special voting session on Thursday night. In the brief meeting the school board voted to eliminate most part time positions and bring back employees that were furloughed when school buildings closed late last year because of Covid-19 concerns. According to Superintendent Michael Daniels, the motion will bring back district employees to a full time basis because the district is phasing in a four day a week in class student schedule. That schedule began on January 5. In an agenda setting board meeting immediately after the voting session, Assistant Superintendent Scott Chambers offered his observations of nearly two weeks of in class participation by students in grades kindergarten through four. He said all of the kids were excited to be back. They were happy to meet the kids that they have been having classes with for the first time. Chambers likened the experience to the first day of school, only in January. The district was quite pleased with the announcement from the Pennsylvania Dept of Education to recommend in class teaching for students by using the same data that the district used to make their decision and practice those guidelines for a week before the announcement from the state.
January 15, 2021 2:43 am
(WPXI) – For taxpayers who like to get an early start on filing their taxes, you have time to get your W2s and receipts in order. The IRS announced Friday that it has delayed the start of the 2020 tax filing season. The date is now set for Feb. 12 for the start of accepting and filing last year’s returns instead of the late-January traditional time frame because of the COVID-19 relief package that went into effect in December. “These changes ensure that eligible people will receive any remaining stimulus money as a recovery rebate credit when they file their return,” the IRS said.
