October 20, 2020 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump plans to attend Thursday’s debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden despite rule changes – opposed by his campaign – that are meant to foster more ordered discussions. Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien says Trump “is committed to debating Joe Biden regardless of last minute rule changes from the biased commission.” The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates announced Monday that the second and final debate between the two candidates will have each nominee muted while the other delivers his two-minute remarks at the outset of each of the six debate topics. The remainder of each 15-minute block will be open discussion, without any muting, the commission said.
October 20, 2020 4:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Wasting no time, the Senate is on track to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court by next Monday. Republicans are charging toward a rare weekend session to push past procedural steps and install President Donald Trump’s pick before Election Day. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he will begin the process as soon as the Senate Judiciary Committee wraps up its work Thursday. Democrats decry the rush, but don’t have the votes to block. Trump’s nominee is on a glide path to confirmation. Barrett’s ascent would seal a 6-3 conservative hold on the court for years to come.
October 20, 2020 4:09 am
USHUAIA, Argentina (AP) – Argentina has reached a grim milestone in the pandemic, becoming the fifth country in the world to surpass 1 million coronavirus cases. Across Latin America, three other nations are expected to reach 1 million cases in the coming weeks – Colombia, Mexico and Peru. The somber point comes as Latin America continues to register some of the world’s highest daily case counts. And though some nations have seen important declines, overall there has been little relief, with cases dropping in one municipality only to escalate in another. The trajectory is showing that the pandemic is likely to leave no corner of Latin America unscathed.
October 20, 2020 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reporting some progress in advance of a Tuesday deadline for reaching a pre-election deal with President Donald Trump on a new coronavirus relief package, but the same problems bedeviling the effort remain in place despite optimistic talk from the president and his team. Pelosi negotiated for nearly an hour Monday with Trump’s top emissary, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and a top aide called it productive. But with time nearly up for Congress and the White House to deliver aid to Americans before the election, the question remains: If not now, when?
October 20, 2020 4:07 am
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – President Donald Trump has come out swinging against Dr. Anthony Fauci and polls that show Trump trailing Democrat Joe Biden in key battleground states. The president is trying to buck up his team two weeks out from Election Day as he campaigns in the West. He’s dismissing the cautionary coronavirus advice of his scientific experts as well as polling that shows him trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden across key battleground states. Trump, back on the trail after his own coronavirus hospitalization, blasted government scientists for their criticism of his handling of the pandemic and called Fauci “a disaster.”
October 20, 2020 4:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court will allow Pennsylvania to count mailed-in ballots received up to three days after the election, rejecting a Republican plea. The justices divided 4-4 Monday, an outcome that upholds a state Supreme Court ruling that allowed election officials to receive and count ballots until Nov. 6, even if they don’t have a clear postmark. Republicans, including President Donald Trump’s campaign, have opposed such an extension, arguing that it violates federal law that sets Election Day as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November and that such a decision constitutionally belongs to lawmakers, not the courts.
October 20, 2020 2:37 am
PITTSBURGH — Multiple school districts around southwestern Pennsylvania are closing school campuses as more students and staff are becoming infected with the novel coronavirus. “Over the last two weeks, we’ve reported 2,000 news cases of COVID-19 among school-age children,” said Dr. Rachel Levine, Pa. Department of Health secretary. Monday night, the Baldwin-Whitehall school district announced three elementary schools will be closed for the rest of the week after a substitute teacher who had worked at each campus tested positive for the virus. In the Quaker Valley School District, 129 students and staff are in quarantine; 14 current COVID-19 cases in the middle and high school forced the district to close both schools for the next two weeks. The McKeesport School District reported six new cases in the past 24 hours among students, teachers and staff. Officials said they believe the cases are “fully contained” and that custodians are using “spray-striker machines” to disinfect all surfaces. In Westmoreland County, Hempfield, Latrobe and Norwin schools are also grappling with a spike in coronavirus cases. Latrobe has 28 current cases, and students are in classes five days a week despite the community spread entering the “significant phase” in the county. The Pa. Department of Health’s recommendation for that district is to move 100% virtual until it’s contained. Norwin reported seven new cases Monday alone among students and staff. The district is considering transitioning from hybrid to five days a week in-person instruction next month. However, some students and board members publicly said they are not comfortable with that. State officials said it has been extremely tough to pinpoint where cases are coming from. The health secretary said two out of every three people who spoke with contact tracers between Oct. 4 and Oct. 10 refused to say whether they traveled to a business or attended a mass gathering in the prior two weeks.
October 20, 2020 2:14 am
ERIE, Pa. (AP) – Dozens of Pennsylvania doctors have called on President Donald Trump to cancel his Erie campaign rally on Tuesday night, citing the rising number of coronavirus cases in the state. A letter signed by more than 75 physicians from around the state said such campaign events endanger public health and give a false impression that the coronavirus is “no longer with us.” The doctors also raised concerns about what they claimed was Trump spreading misinformation about the virus. If Trump does not cancel the rally, the doctors urged people not to attend.
October 19, 2020 3:34 pm
MIAMI (AP) – Tropical Storm Epsilon has formed in the central Atlantic, the latest in what has been a very active hurricane season. The storm has maximum sustained winds near 40 mph. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says additional strengthening is expected and Epsilon is forecast to be at or near hurricane strength by early Thursday. The storm is centered about 735 miles southeast of Bermuda and is currently stationary. This year’s hurricane season has had so many storms that the Hurricane Center has turned to the Greek alphabet for storm names after running out of official names.
October 19, 2020 3:19 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Six Russian military officers sought to disrupt through computer hacking the French election, the Winter Olympics and U.S. businesses. That’s according to a Justice Department indictment unsealed Monday that details attacks on a broad range of political, financial and athletic targets. The indictment also accuses the defendants, all alleged officers in the Russian military agency known as the GRU, in destructive attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and in a hack-and-leak effort directed at the political party of French President Emmanuel Macron during the 2017 election. The indictment does not charge the defendants in connection with interference in American elections.
