November 29, 2020 7:48 am
JEANNETTE, Pa. (WPXI) – Shortly before 6:40 a.m. Saturday, an in-flight emergency prompted an aircraft with the Pennsylvania Air National Guard’s 171st Air Refueling Wing to make an emergency landing Saturday, which required the dumping of fuel over Westmoreland County. According to a release, the crew reported smoke in the cockpit which required an immediate emergency landing of the KC-135 Strato-tanker. The fuel was dumped over Westmoreland County per emergency protocols, the release states, out of necessity to lighten the weight of the aircraft and ensure a safe landing. The plane safely landed at Pittsburgh International Airport. The 171st Air Refueling Wing is cooperating with appropriate agencies to ascertain the effects and required follow-up actions to address the dumped fuel, according to the release.
November 28, 2020 10:33 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden has said little about the Guantanamo Bay detention center except that he supports closing it. That has brought a degree of hope to some of the 40 men still held there. Lawyers for some of the prisoners say they hope the Biden administration will resume Obama-era efforts to close the detention center. President Donald Trump said in his 2016 campaign that he would load up the prison with “bad dudes,” but he largely ignored it and only one prisoner was released under his administration.
November 28, 2020 10:29 am
ROME (AP) – Pope Francis is formally elevating 13 new cardinals in a ceremony marked in every way by the coronavirus pandemic. Two of the cardinals stayed home, the rest eschewed the usual celebrations and St. Peter’s Basilica was practically empty for Saturday’s service. The ceremony, known as a consistory, is the seventh of Francis’ pontificate and once again reflected the Argentine pope’s effort to name cardinals from places that have never had them before or whose service to the church he wants to highlight. Nine are under age 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope, further solidifying the majority of Francis-appointed prelates in the College of Cardinals.
November 28, 2020 10:27 am
ATLANTA (AP) – A panel of U.S. advisers will meet next week to recommend who should be first in line for a COVID-19 vaccine. Experts have proposed giving the vaccine to health workers first. High priority also may be given to workers in essential industries, people with certain medical conditions and people age 65 and older. Tuesday’s meeting is for a panel that advises the government on who should get vaccines and when. Pfizer and its German partner have asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow emergency use of its vaccine candidate. The FDA’s scientific advisers meet next month to review the request.
November 28, 2020 10:25 am
LONDON (AP) – The British government has appointed a vaccines minister as it prepares to inoculate millions of people against the coronavirus. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Conservative lawmaker Nadhim Zahawi will oversee the country’s biggest vaccine program in decades. The U.K. medicines regulator is assessing two vaccines, one developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the other by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. The Guardian newspaper reported Saturday that hospitals were told they could receive the first doses of the Pfizer shot the week of Dec. 7, if it receives approval. U.K. authorities have agreed to purchase up to 355 million doses of vaccine from seven different producers in a bid to vaccinate most of the country’s 67 million people.
November 28, 2020 10:22 am
BUENA VISTA, Ga. (AP) – It’s two starkly different worlds on display in Georgia, where the national political spotlight is on twin Senate runoffs that will determine which party controls the chamber to open President-elect Joe Biden’s administration. Republicans need one more seat for a majority; Democrats need a sweep on Jan. 5. For Republicans, the pandemic is secondary in a runoff blitz defined by dire warnings about what it would mean if Raphael Warnock defeats Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue falls to Democrat Jon Ossoff. Democrats, meanwhile, are more than eager to talk about COVID-19 and its economic fallout. The messaging differences bleed over to the two sides’ public health protocols.
November 28, 2020 10:17 am
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran’s supreme leader is calling for “definitive punishment” of those behind killing of a scientist linked to Tehran’s disbanded military nuclear program. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comment Saturday in a statement carried on his official website. Khamenei called Mohsen Fakhrizadeh “the country’s prominent and distinguished nuclear and defensive scientist.” Iranian officials have blamed Israel for the killing. Israel, long suspected of killing scientists a decade ago amid tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program, has yet to comment on the killing Friday. The slaying threatens to renew tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
November 28, 2020 4:02 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf is rejecting bills on firearms during the pandemic or other emergencies and about the regulation and plugging of conventional oil and gas wells. All three bills had passed the politically split General Assembly with mostly Republican support and mostly Democratic opposition. Wolf announced his vetoes on Wednesday. Two of the vetoed bills would have allowed people to carry guns during an emergency proclamation and to keep open gun and ammunition related businesses during an emergency. Wolf also signed a couple dozen bills into law, including measures on organ donation, parole of violent offenders, recycling and broadband.
November 28, 2020 3:58 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A federal appeals court in Philadelphia has rejected President Donald Trump’s latest effort to challenge the election results in a case expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court if Trump appeals. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals echoed a string of other courts in finding his campaign offered no evidence of any election fraud. Instead, the court said “the campaign’s claims have no merit.” Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani called the election process fraudulent during oral arguments in a lower court last week, but offered no proof. Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote Friday that “calling an election unfair does not make it so.”
November 28, 2020 1:54 am
A group of Pennsylvania lawmakers Friday introduced a resolution disputing the 2020 General Election Statewide Contest Results. Locally, Republican State Rep. Bud Cook, who represents the 49th District, is one of the co-sponsors of the resolution. He told WJPA NEWS that the members of the General Assembly issued the following statement: “A number of compromises of Pennsylvania’s election laws took place during the 2020 General Election. The documented irregularities and improprieties associated with mail-in balloting, pre-canvassing, and canvassing has undermined our elector process and as a result we cannot accept certification of the results in statewide races.” Cook said the members also added, “It is absolutely imperative that we take these steps if we are to ensure public trust in our electoral system. Faith in government begins with faith in the elections which select that government.”
