March 3, 2020 4:15 am
BEIJING (AP) – China is reporting another encouraging number in the virus epidemic, with a daily tally of 125 new cases. That’s even lower than the six-week low reported a day earlier. But elsewhere, the problem continues to grow, with mushrooming outbreaks in Iran, South Korea and Italy. In the United States, concern was increasing along with the number of infected people, which tops 100 in 11 states. President Donald Trump met with pharmaceutical executives to push the search for a vaccine while lawmakers on Capitol Hill neared an agreement on emergency funding for virus relief.
March 3, 2020 4:14 am
BEIJING (AP) – Washington state reported additional coronavirus deaths Tuesday, bringing the total to nine. All of the COVID-19 deaths in the United States so far have been in the Seattle area. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington on Sunday said they had evidence the COVID-19 virus may have been circulating in the state for up to six weeks undetected. If true, that could mean that there are hundreds of undiagnosed cases in the area. Symptoms of COVID-19 can include fever, runny nose, cough and breathing trouble. Most develop only mild disease. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal.
March 3, 2020 4:10 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court will review a lower court’s decision that lets some victims of childhood sexual abuse pursue lawsuits despite time limits. The justices announced Monday they will reconsider the decision allowing Renee Rice to sue. Rice alleges that Altoona-Johnstown Diocese officials’ silence regarding a Roman Catholic priest who she says molested her amounted to fraudulent concealment. A diocesan spokesman is declining to comment. Rice’s lawyer says her case has been cited by other litigants in the past eight months to support their own claims. Pennsylvania lawmakers eased time limits for future child sex abuse victims late last year, but that doesn’t apply to older claims, such as Rice’s.
March 3, 2020 4:08 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – President Donald Trump is making his first visit this year to the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania, in a town hall-style event hosted by Fox News. Thursday’s one-hour event will be at the Scranton Cultural Center. Trump’s unexpected win in Pennsylvania in 2016 helped pave his way to the White House. He did particularly well in northeastern Pennsylvania, where the cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre have long anchored a strong Democratic presence in the area. Trump made five visits to Pennsylvania last year. No Democrat since Harry S. Truman in 1948 has become president without winning the state.
March 3, 2020 4:02 am
Washington City Council works hard to make sure that they keep a close watch on how much money is spent on heating and powering all of the buildings the city owns. Council hired the ABM Group to help monitor and streamline the city’s energy use. Councilman Joe Manning says the group surveyed each of the city’s buildings and made recommendations on how to save on energy costs. LED lights, and additional insulation are just a couple of minor adjustments that ABM suggested to the city. Washington has been using the ABM Group for about 3 years. Because the recommendations made to the city fell short of the benchmark numbers, ABM issued a check for $8000 to offset the shortfalls. Manning states that in the 3 years that they have been working together, the city has saved approximately $42,000 on energy costs. ABM will be out in the city trying to find out just went wrong with their predictions and will offer suggestions on how to fix those problems.
March 2, 2020 1:47 pm
UNDATED (AP) – Amy Klobuchar is ending her Democratic presidential campaign and is set to endorse Joe Biden. The Minnesota senator announced the decision Monday, calling it quits after a bid that broke briefly into the top tier with a third-place finish in New Hampshire but failed to sustain that energy further into the Democratic nomination fight. The three-term senator launched her campaign in a Minnesota snowstorm last February, touting her “grit” and Midwestern sensibilities. But she couldn’t compete with her rivals in early fundraising, and her effort to own the primary’s moderate lane got tougher when Biden and another Midwesterner, Pete Buttigieg of Indiana, got in.
March 2, 2020 10:41 am
BOSTON (AP) – Jack Welch, who transformed General Electric into a highly profitable multinational conglomerate, has died. He was 84. Welch became one of the nation’s most well-known and highly regarded corporate leaders during his two decades as GE’s chairman and chief executive, from 1981 to 2001. He personified the so-called “cult of the CEO” during the late-1990s boom, when GE’s soaring stock price made it the most valuable company in the world. Welch’s results-driven management approach and hands-on style were credited with helping GE turn a financial corner, although some of the success came at the expense of thousands of employees who lost their jobs in Welch’s relentless efforts to cut costs and rid GE of unprofitable businesses.
March 2, 2020 10:38 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Judge Judy’ Sheindlin says she will stop making new episodes next year of the courtroom show that made her a star. But she’s hardly disappearing. The tough-talking, 77-year-old former Manhattan family court judge says she’s starting a new show called ‘Justice Judy,” but is revealing few details on what it will be about. CBS says it has made a two-year deal with stations that currently carry “Judge Judy” to air reruns of the program. The show’s success, driven primarily by Sheindlin’s no-nonsense demeanor, has made her the highest-paid personality on television.
March 2, 2020 10:37 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court has agreed to decide a lawsuit that threatens the Obama-era health care law, but the decision is not likely until after the 2020 election. The court said Monday it would hear an appeal by 20 mainly Democratic states of a lower-court ruling that declared part of the statute unconstitutional and cast a cloud over the rest. Defenders of the Affordable Care Act argued that the issues raised by the case are too important to let the litigation drag on for months or years in lower courts and that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans erred when it struck down the health law’s now toothless requirement that Americans have health insurance.
March 2, 2020 10:30 am
A new battle seems to be forming over Washington County’s Local Share Account grant process and a local State Representative. 49th Legislative representative, Republican Bud Cook says he is trying to ensure the process is ‘open and fair’. He announced Monday that the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records granted his appeal to obtain records of LSA project grant recipients. Cook submitted several requests to the Washington County Redevelopment Authority seeking records on the recipients. Cook says the Authority denied those requests and he appealed. In a release, Cook said “the continued denials for public information speaks volumes….what are they trying to hide?” The Redevelopment Authority has 30 days to appeal to Commonwealth Court and Executive Director Bill McGowen tells WJPA News they will appeal. According to McGowen, Cook “has been given full access” to the records. The Authority says the issue here is that Cook wants copies of this information. Janel Yamber, the Authority’s Open Records officer, says there are more than 400 projects and it would take thousands of man-hours to go through and make copies of all of those records. She says Cook has “never been denied access to those records” and the amount of work that staff would have to complete to respond back to him would be “voluminous”.
