February 25, 2020 4:11 am
(AP) – Stocks slumped and bond prices soared for the second day in a row as fears spread that the widening virus outbreak will put the brakes on the global economy. The losses came a day after the market’s biggest drop in two years. Investors plowed money into bonds, sending the yield on the 10-year Treasury to a record low. Mastercard joined a growing list of companies warning that the outbreak would hurt its finances. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 878 points, or 3.1%, to 27,081. The S&P 500 fell 97 points, or 3%, to 3,128. The Nasdaq lost 255 points, or 2.8%, to 8,965.
February 25, 2020 4:06 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A top Pennsylvania lawmaker says the Legislature may change Pennsylvania’s sweeping 4-month-old election law in an effort to avoid a logjam of mail-in ballots that could extend vote-counting in the presidential race for days afterward. Republican House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler says the law may be changed to let county election officials open envelopes that contain mail-in ballots before the polls close at 8 p.m. The new voting law lets any voter mail in a ballot for any reason, where the state had previously restricted mail-in ballots to “absentee” voters who met a narrow set of reasons.
February 25, 2020 4:03 am
Peters Township Council continues to move along with the development of Rolling Hills Park. Township Manager Paul Lauer delivered to council good news on bids for a portion of the paving project set to take place later this year. Council and the Peters Township School District budgeted $4,000,000 dollars to build Rolling Hills Drive. A. Liberoni, Inc. bid the project at $2,379,000, saving 1.6 million on the project. Council also approved change orders to HRG Engineering to cover costs of unforeseen design issues during the initial phases of road construction. Those figures totaled $42,900 dollars shared equally with the school district. Council was also updated on recycling efforts in the township. Ninety tons of hazardous and electronic waste was collected by Waste Management as part of the residential trash contract. Additional recycling in the township for cardboard yielded 35 tons of cardboard recycled with the compactor being emptied 8 times. The newest recycling effort is that of glass. A 30 yard container was placed on January 13 of 2020 and it has yielded 13 tons of glass and has been emptied 4 times this year.
February 24, 2020 4:56 pm
CHICAGO (AP) – Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has plead not guilty to restored charges that accuse him of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself and falsely reporting it to police. The 37-year-old entered a Chicago courthouse Monday wearing sunglasses and sporting a beard. He faces six counts of felony disorderly conduct. Smollett was initially charged shortly after he said he was attacked in downtown Chicago last year. But the county prosecutor’s office dropped the charges weeks later, angering police and city officials. A special prosecutor tasked with looking into the decision recently announced that Smollett had been indicted for a second time.
February 24, 2020 4:41 pm
(AP) – NASA says pioneering black mathematician Katherine Johnson has died. She worked on NASA’s early space missions and was portrayed in the film “Hidden Figures,” about black female aerospace workers. In a Monday morning tweet, the space agency said it celebrates her 101 years of life and her legacy of excellence and breaking down racial and social barriers. Johnson was one of the so-called “computers” who calculated rocket trajectories and earth orbits by hand during NASA’s early years. Until 1958, Johnson and other black women worked in a racially segregated computing unit at what is now called Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Their work was the focus of the Oscar-nominated 2016 film.
February 24, 2020 1:44 pm
(WPXI) – A multimillion-dollar settlement over U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works was approved by a judge Monday. Clairton residents have complained for years about air quality issues near the plant. During a fairness hearing Monday morning, a judge approved having U.S. Steel pay out a $2 million settlement to residents and complete $6.5 million in upgrades to the Clairton Coke Works. U.S. Steel released the following statement: “U. S. Steel thanks the Court for approving this settlement that allows the parties to move forward. Environmental stewardship and safety remain core values at U. S. Steel, and we are committed to investing in our operations and processes to continue to improve air quality at both Clairton and throughout the Mon Valley.” In December, the tentative settlement was reached following a 2017 class action lawsuit claiming U.S. Steel’s negligence, odors and pollution from the Clairton Coke Works interfered with residents’ quality of life.
February 24, 2020 12:35 pm
West Penn Power spokesman Todd Myers says approximately seventeen-hundred customers were affected by a power outage Monday morning. Myers say the cause of the outage is still under investigation but it appears the cause may have been some downed wires near Washington Park in an area where trees had been cut. The outage, which occurred around ten-thirty, affected mainly East Washington and South Strabane Township, along with a few spots in Washington and Amwell Township. The outage affected traffic lights and business in the Trinity Point Shopping Center. Myers says most of the power was restored shortly before noon.
February 24, 2020 12:16 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Harvey Weinstein has been convicted at his New York City sexual assault trial. He was found guilty of criminal sex act for assaulting production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006 and third-degree rape of a woman in 2013. The jury found him not guilty on the most serious charge, predatory sexual assault, that could result in a life sentence. The landmark reckoning for the former movie producer comes after years of whispers exploded into a torrent of sexual misconduct allegations that ended his reign in Hollywood and gave rise to the (hash)MeToo movement. The jury’s verdict followed three weeks of testimony that included harrowing accounts of rapes, forced oral sex, groping, masturbation, lewd propositions and casting-couch excuses from Weinstein.
February 24, 2020 6:45 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Barbara “B.” Smith, one of the nation’s top black models who went on to open restaurants, launch a successful home products line and write cookbooks, has died at her Long Island home at age 70. Smith had been battling early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Smith’s family announced on social media that she died Saturday evening. Smith’s eponymous Manhattan restaurant, one of several, opened in 1986 and attracted a following among affluent black New Yorkers. She wrote three cookbooks, founded three successful restaurants and launched a nationally syndicated television show, a magazine and home products line. Smith was a native of Everson and a 1967 graduate of Southmoreland High School.
February 24, 2020 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Mike Bloomberg’s campaign has delayed a scheduled CNN town hall so that he can spend more time preparing for Tuesday’s debate. Bloomberg was scheduled to appear on CNN on Monday. But he’ll now join the network for the live question-and-answer program on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for Bloomberg called the debate “crucial” and said “the country can’t afford to let Bernie Sanders skate by another debate without a focus on his extreme record.” Bloomberg had his debate debut last week – widely deemed rocky and underwhelming for a candidate who has sought to give off the air of a front-runner. Bloomberg is forgoing the state’s upcoming Saturday primary.
