November 20, 2020 4:07 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Legislature is set to vote on an $11 billion no-new-taxes spending package to carry state government through the rest of the fiscal year and fill a multibillion-dollar deficit inflicted by the pandemic. The legislation emerged Thursday from closed-door talks as lawmakers rush to wrap up their two-year session. Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, earlier this fall asked the Republican-controlled Legislature for another $10 billion in spending to round out the fiscal year. That was after lawmakers approved a piecemeal $25.8 billion budget in May. To close the deficit, lawmakers are using more than $3 billion in federal pandemic aid and transferring more than $500 million from off-budget state accounts. House and Senate floor votes are possible Friday.
November 20, 2020 4:05 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Republicans in the Pennsylvania House are getting a review of election procedures despite opposition from Democrats. The chamber voted Thursday for a resolution directing the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to conduct the study and report back by early February. Republicans say they’re responding to constituents who were confused by some of the procedures as the state conducted a high-turnout election during a pandemic and under greatly expanded mail-in voting eligibility. Democratic arguments that the measure should be revised or isn’t constitutional were defeated by the GOP majority.
November 20, 2020 4:02 am
The Center for Coalfield Justice held a virtual town hall meeting to update people who are concerned about rare cancers and pediatric cancers about progress with studies by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Heaven Sensky, a community organizer with the Center stated that progress has been minimal due to the coronavirus pandemic and a seemingly lack of interest from the Department of Health. Organizers want health officials to look into effects on health due to improper treatment and disposal of radioactive fracking waste. Department of Health officials were invited to attend the meeting but all declined invitations. A panel of experts updated the community on their research. Scientific Journalist Justin Nobel went into great detail of his studies of the effects of radioactive waste from fracking. He detailed several avenues of how radioactivity can enter the environment. Dr. Ned Ketyer from the Physicians for Social Responsibility reported on health symptoms and the way cancers develop. He also touched on the June 2020 Pennsylvania grand jury report finding acts of criminal negligence throughout the fracking industry and in the agencies tasked with monitoring public health. Sensky asked that anyone with concerns about their health or home environment contact the Center for Coalfield Justice and they will assist with your questions.
November 20, 2020 2:04 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Jan Morris, the celebrated journalist, historian, world traveler and fiction writer who became a pioneer of the transgender movement, has died at 94. Her literary representative, United Agents, says Morris died in Wales on Friday morning. Her agent Sophie Scard confirmed her death. The British author lived as James Morris until the early 1970s, when she underwent surgery at a clinic in Casablanca and renamed herself Jan Morris. Morris was a prolific and accomplished author and journalist who wrote dozens of books in a variety of genres. Her best-selling memoir “Conundrum,” which came out in 1974, continued the path of such earlier works as Christine Jorgensen’s “A Personal Autobiography” in presenting her decision as natural and liberating.
November 20, 2020 2:03 am
UNDATED (AP) – Another major movie theater chain has struck a deal with Universal Pictures to allow for shorter exclusive theatrical windows. Canada’s Cineplex has agreed on a multiyear “dynamic window” agreement, the film exhibitor and Universal Filmed Entertainment Group said Friday. Like the deal struck with Cinemark earlier this week and AMC Theaters before that, Universal and Focus Features films will have at least three weeks of theatrical exclusivity before hitting premium video on demand services. Titles that have an opening weekend of $50 million or more in North American theaters will be guaranteed at least five weeks in theaters.
November 19, 2020 9:52 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose last week to 742,000, the first increase in five weeks and a sign that the resurgent viral outbreak is likely slowing the economy and forcing more companies to cut jobs. The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that applications for benefits rose from 711,000 in the previous week. Claims had soared to 6.9 million in March when the pandemic first intensified. Before the pandemic, applications typically hovered about 225,000 a week. The economy’s modest recovery is increasingly at risk, with newly confirmed daily infections in the United States having exploded 80% over the past two weeks to the highest levels on record.
November 19, 2020 8:45 am
DETROIT (AP) – Two Michigan Republicans who initially blocked certification of election results for the county that includes Detroit despite no evidence of fraud before approving them now say they want to rescind their certification. Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, the two Republican canvassers in Wayne County, said in a statement late Wednesday that they only voted to certify the results after “hours of sustained pressure.” Palmer and Hartmann initially voted against certification Tuesday, leaving the Wayne County Board of Canvassers deadlocked at 2-2 along party lines. The canvassers later voted again and certified the results, 4-0. Unofficial results say Biden crushed Trump in Wayne County, a Democratic stronghold, by a more than 2-1 margin on his way to winning Michigan by 146,000 votes.
November 19, 2020 4:12 am
Five Florida mayors are expressing concern about the rising number of coronavirus cases in the state, and are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to change his approach to the pandemic. Following a months-long decline from a huge summer spike in coronavirus infections, Florida has seen a mid-autumn climb in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Still, the governor has resisted a return to statewide restrictions in place earlier in the year. The mayors of Miami Beach, Hialeah, Miami Shores Village, Sunrise and St. Petersburg called Wednesday for consistency in statewide regulations, implementation of a mask mandate and restoration of state testing sites to full capacity.
November 19, 2020 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Although a growing number of Republicans have quietly acknowledged that Joe Biden won the election, few are publicly challenging President Donald Trump. The GOP’s public silence on the reality of Biden’s victory amounts to tacit approval of Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. That has significant repercussions, delaying the transition during a deadly pandemic, sowing public doubt and endangering Biden’s ability to lead the portion of the country that may question his legitimacy. Republicans are closing the Trump era much the way they started it: by joining the president in shattering civic norms and sowing uncertainty in institutions.
November 19, 2020 4:06 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Texas is sending medical staff to overworked hospitals by the thousands amid as a worsening surge of cases across the state. State health officials say more than 5,400 extra medical personnel have been deployed across Texas, the highest levels since the pandemic began. That doesn’t capture the waves of extra help surging into Texas, as the military and volunteer outfits have also dispatched extra hands to America’s second-biggest state. Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases has increased by nearly 3,300, an increase of more than 50%.
