July 7, 2020 4:21 am
ATLANTA (AP) – Atlanta’s mayor says she has tested positive for COVID-19, despite having what she describes as “no symptoms.” 50-year-old Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms is among the women named as a potential vice-presidential running mate for presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden. Bottoms announced her positive test in a tweet on Monday. She says she decided that she and family members should get retested because her husband has been sleeping an unusual amount since Thursday. Bottoms’ national profile has risen in recent months both as a mayor handling the coronavirus pandemic and amid the national reckoning on race since the death of George Floyd.
July 7, 2020 4:18 am
BEIJING (AP) – China is accusing the U.S. of flexing its military muscles in the South China Sea by conducting joint exercises with two U.S. aircraft carrier groups in the strategic waterway. A foreign ministry spokesperson says the exercises were performed “totally out of ulterior motives” and undermined stability in the area. The U.S. Navy said over the weekend that the USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan along with their accompanying vessels and aircraft conducted exercises “designed to maximize air defense capabilities, and extend the reach of long-range precision maritime strikes from carrier-based aircraft.” China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Five other governments claim all or part of the sea.
July 7, 2020 4:17 am
(AP) – President Donald Trump says he will pressure governors to reopen schools and colleges this fall, arguing that some want to keep schools closed for political reasons against the will of families. Trump said he is “very much gong to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.” Trump did not immediately explain how he would pressure governors, but he repeated an earlier claim that Democrats want to keep schools closed for political reasons and not health reasons. Trump held a meeting at the White House Tuesday as part of an all-out effort to get the nation’s schools to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic.
July 7, 2020 4:16 am
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – New York is now requiring people from three additional states to quarantine for 14 days as more individuals are testing positive for COVID-19 nationwide. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a Tuesday press release that Delaware, Kansas and Oklahoma now join a total of 19 states that qualify under New York’s metrics for community spread. Cuomo’s advisory applies to states with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average, or states with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.
July 7, 2020 4:14 am
Cecil Township Supervisors met Monday evening in a live streamed format. Supervisors authorized a new 5 year contract with the Police Department for the years 2021-2025. Chairwoman Cindy Fisher in a quick review of the contract indicated that the only change to the existing contract is the annual merit increases. This contract calls for increases of 3.5% in the first 3 years and 3% in the remaining 2 years. The motion passed 4-1. Supervisor Eric Sivavec dissented complaining that he did not have time to review the contract. Fisher pointed out that he was emailed a copy of the contract on June 24. Supervisors authorized the Township Manager to obtain an appraisal for a property located on Klinger Road for the purposes of building a new Public Works complex. Supervisors also agreed with its Parks Board and authorized the cancellation of the Fall Festival. The Parks Board was concerned that all preparation would be lost if any new restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic would be instituted. The board also brought up difficulties enforcing current social distancing practices.
July 7, 2020 4:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence will travel again to Pennsylvania this week, dropping in on an important presidential battleground state. Pence on Thursday will take a bus tour from Lancaster to Philadelphia, going to a suburban Philadelphia maker of wireless communication technology and speaking to Philadelphia police officers at their union hall before a “Back the Blue” rally. Bob Asher, Pennsylvania’s Republican national committeeman, says Pence will also attend a fundraiser. Pence was last in Pennsylvania last month. The presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, has numerous ties to Pennsylvania. He grew up in the Democratic bastion of Scranton and is making his headquarters in Philadelphia.
July 7, 2020 4:07 am
DELMONT, Pa. — How hot is it? So hot that a road in Westmoreland County has a lane closed until repairs can be made to the pavement, which buckled from the heat. The Delmont Borough Police Department posted on its Facebook page that State Route 66 North had a lane closed just before the West Pittsburgh Street intersection. It’s unclear how long the repairs will take. Monday marked the fourth day in a row of temperatures climbing past 90 degrees.
July 6, 2020 4:38 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Treasury Department has released the names of more than 26,000 businesses or organizations based in Pennsylvania that received funds from a federal program intended to support the economy as states shut down to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The Treasury on Monday only identified borrowers that got more than $150,000. So far, that’s about one-quarter of the more than 97,000 entities from Pennsylvania that borrowed from the program. The average loan amount for the entire program was $107,000, the Treasury says. The government handed out $521 billion through the Paycheck Protection Program. The Trump administration has refused to release details on loans under $150,000.
July 6, 2020 1:16 pm
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Country music firebrand and fiddler Charlie Daniels, who had a hit with “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” has died at age 83. A statement from his publicist said the Country Music Hall of Famer died Monday at a hospital in Hermitage, Tennessee, after doctors said he had a stroke. He had suffered what was described as a mild stroke in January 2010 and had a heart pacemaker implanted in 2013 but continued to perform. Daniels, a singer, guitarist and fiddler, started out as a session musician, even playing on Bob Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline” sessions. Beginning in the early 1970s, his five-piece band toured endlessly, sometimes doing 250 shows a year. “I can ask people where they are from, and if they say ‘Waukegan,’ I can say I’ve played there. If they say ‘Baton Rouge,’ I can say I’ve played there. There’s not a city we haven’t played in,” Daniels said in 1998. Daniels performed at White House, at the Super Bowl, throughout Europe and often for troops in the Middle East. He played himself in the 1980 John Travolta movie “Urban Cowboy” and was closely identified with the rise of country music generated by that film.
“I’ve kept people employed for over 20 years and never missed a payroll,” Daniels said in 1998. That same year, he received the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music. In the 1990s Daniels softened some of his lyrics from his earlier days when he often was embroiled in controversy.
July 6, 2020 3:40 am
MIAMI (AP) – Tropical Storm Edouard has formed over the far North Atlantic, but the storm poses no immediate threat to land. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Edouard has top sustained winds of 40 mph, with higher gusts. It was located late Sunday night about 685 miles south-southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland, Canada. The tropical storm is expected to become a post-tropical storm on Monday. No coastal storm watches or warnings are in effect. A hurricane researcher says Edouard is the earliest fifth named storm on record. Two named storms formed in the Atlantic before the official start of the hurricane season June 1.
