August 16, 2020 7:28 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf’s top election official says the administration had to take action after receiving a blunt warning from the U.S. Postal Service that it may be unable to deliver some mail-in ballots in the November presidential election by the deadline in state law. Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, Kathy Boockvar, said Friday that this was the first time the postal service had said the state couldn’t rely on a one-to-three day turnaround time. That warning precipitated Thursday night’s filing in the state Supreme Court asking to extend the deadline for mail-in ballots to be received in the Nov. 3 election when Pennsylvania will be a premier presidential battleground.
August 15, 2020 10:16 am
WARSAW (AP) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has sealed a defense cooperation deal with Polish officials that will pave the way for the redeployment of American troops from Germany to Poland. In Warsaw on Saturday at the end of a four-nation tour of central and eastern Europe, Pompeo and Poland’s defense minister signed an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement that sets out the legal framework for the additional troop presence. The signing came just a day after the Trump administration suffered an embarrassing diplomatic loss at the United Nations when its proposal to indefinitely extend an arms embargo on Iran was soundly defeated in a UN Security Council vote that saw only one country side with the U.S.
August 15, 2020 9:43 am
CHICAGO (AP) – Former Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson has died. He was 84. Thompson was known as “Big Jim” during a long career that eventually made him the state’s longest-serving chief executive. His wife, Jayne, told the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times that he died shortly after 8 p.m. Friday at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago. The Tribune, citing a police report, reported Thompson had been recovering there for several weeks after suffering heart problems. Thompson was a Republican from Chicago who was first elected in 1976. He served four terms. A moderate, he managed the state through recession years in the 1980s.
August 15, 2020 9:40 am
LONDON (AP) – Thousands of British tourists beat a hasty retreat from France, packing out planes, trains and ferries to return to the U.K. by the early hours of Saturday morning to avoid a mandatory 14-day quarantine at home. On Friday, many British travelers in the country opted to cut short their vacations to meet the 4 a.m. Saturday deadline. Anyone arriving back from France from Saturday must stay at home for two weeks to make sure they cannot spread the coronavirus if they have become infected. The exodus was prompted late Thursday when the British government took France off a list of nations exempt from traveler quarantine requirements.
August 15, 2020 9:36 am
BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. – A man from Bethel Park has died after crashing his motorcycle Friday night in Bridgeville. According to authorities, 19-year-old Seth Misak was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:54 p.m. near the Collier exit along Interstate 79.
August 15, 2020 5:39 am
CENTERVILLE, Pa. – A woman from Vestaburg has been indicted in federal court for social security fraud. The two-count indictment announced Friday against 51-year-old Leona Biser comes as she is accused of spending social security funds on herself when they were in fact intended for her sister. According to US Attorney, Scott Brady, Biser is charged with the neglect of her mentally-disabled sister who was allegedly kept in a wooden cage in the living room with dirty accommodations and little to no medical care. Committing social security fraud comes with a maximum of 10 years in prison or a fine of $250,000 – or both.
August 15, 2020 5:10 am
UNDATED (AP) – South Korea has announced stronger social distancing restrictions for its greater capital area where a surge in COVID-19 cases threatens to erase the hard-won gains against the coronavirus. The two-week measures starting Sunday will allow authorities in Seoul and towns in neighboring Gyeonggi Province to shut down high-risk facilities such as nightclubs, karaoke rooms, movie theaters and buffet restaurants if they fail to properly enforce preventive measures, including distancing, temperatures checks, keeping customer lists and requiring masks. Fans will once again be banned from professional baseball and soccer, just weeks after authorities allowed teams to let in spectators for a portion of their seats in each game. South Korea reported 166 new cases, the highest in five months.
August 15, 2020 5:01 am
CB Financial Services, the holding company of Community Bank, announced its new President and CEO. At a news conference at Southpointe Country Club that included live and Zoom virtual participation, John H. Montgomery was named President and CEO of CB Financial Services. Montgomery brings more than 3 decades of experience in banking from Pennsylvania through his most recent stop in St. Louis, Missouri. The Bryn Mawr, PA native finds the job attractive because of the role community banks play and because it gets he and his wife closer to family. Montgomery acknowledges the current strains on banks due to the current pandemic, but he is looking to the future to make sure he is able to position Community Bank for its customers and how they will choose to relate to the bank while conducting transactions. Whether that is in person or electronically, Montgomery wants to meet those demands quickly. Because Community Bank is so very tightly tied to the area it serves, one of Montgomery’s first orders of business is to meet the people. Montgomery will take over from Interim President and CEO Barron P. McCune, Jr. on August 31,2020.
August 15, 2020 5:00 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Postal Service has sent letters to 46 states, warning it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted. That’s according to a report published Friday by The Washington Post. The revelation that some voters could be disenfranchised if they try to vote by mail comes amid a campaign by President Donald Trump to sow doubts about the election. Though Trump casts his own ballot by mail, he’s railed against efforts to allow more people to do so, which he argues without evidence will lead to increased voter fraud. The Postal Service is bracing for an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
August 15, 2020 5:00 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A major union representing U.S. postal workers endorsed Democrat Joe Biden, a move that comes after President Donald Trump acknowledged he was starving the postal service of money in order to make it more difficult to vote by mail in November’s election. The National Association of Letter Carriers, which represents 300,000 current and retired workers, said Thursday that Trump’s longstanding hostility to the mail-delivering agency has heightened during the pandemic. They say his administration has taken “steps outside of the public eye to undermine the Postal Service and letter carriers.” Union president Fredric Rolando said Biden is a “fierce ally and defender of the United States Postal Service.”
