September 9, 2020 5:42 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) – “Yes, we’re gonna talk about it.” That is the vow Ellen DeGeneres is making as she prepares to launch a new season of her talk show. The first show of the new season is Sept. 21 – and in a statement, DeGeneres says she will address the shakeup of her production staff. The show has been roiled by claims that it’s being done in a toxic environment – and some celebrities said they felt mistreated on the show. Three top members of the production staff were fired. And the talk of behind-the-scenes turmoil have sullied DeGeneres’ image as a kindly soul. (Photo: CNN)
September 9, 2020 2:54 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence and other top officials from President Donald Trump’s campaign are slated to attend a Montana fundraiser this month hosted by a couple who are adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory. That’s according to an event invitation obtained by The Associated Press and a review of social media postings. The QAnon conspiracy theory centers on the baseless belief that Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals. The social media accounts of event hosts Caryn and Michael Borland show they have repeatedly shared QAnon memes, or retweeted posts from QAnon accounts.
September 9, 2020 1:29 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) – After more than a decade, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” will be ending its run next year. Kim Kardashian West and other members of the extended Kardashian-Jenner family said in a statement Tuesday that they are saying goodbye to the reality show with “heavy hearts.” áIt was a family decision, they said. The show’s home, the E! network, said it’s a delayed farewell. The new season begins Sept. 17, with the final season to air in 2021. The series, which debuted in October 2007, áspawned 12 spinoffs, including “Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami” and “Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian.” (Photo: CNN)
September 9, 2020 9:54 am
The Washington County District Attorney’s office has been closed and some 30 staff members are now working remotely. District Attorney Gene Vittone says they were informed Tuesday that a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. Vittone tells WJPA that the individual is asymptomatic but did come in contact with numerous other workers in the office. The office is now being cleaned and sanitized. All of those workers are getting tested. Vittone says all protocols are being followed and he praised the county’s response to the situation. He says his staff will continue to work remotely until it is deemed safe to return.
September 9, 2020 9:26 am
Just days into the new school year, the Trinity School District has been forced to change its schedule, but it has nothing to do with COVID-19. The district has announced that high school, middle school and Trinity West Elementary students will have remote-learning only on Thursday. In a letter to parents, the district says it is the result of a political rally and planned protests. Eric Trump, the son of President Donald Trump, is to be at the American Legion Post 175 along Park Avenue Thursday afternoon. The district says they “learned that groups are planning to protest in front of our high school from South Main Street to Franklin Farms Road.” They say the “heightened level of security and road construction traffic will disrupt our transportation and safe access to three of our school buildings”. Students and staff will not report to those buildings on Thursday. Trinity North, South and East will have no change in their schedule.
September 9, 2020 8:56 am
O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) – Teachers in at least three states have died after bouts with the coronavirus since the dawn of the new school year. A teachers’ union leader worries that the return to in-person classes will have a deadly impact across the U.S. if proper precautions aren’t taken. AshLee DeMarinis was just 34 when she died Sunday. She taught social skills and special education in Potosi, Missouri. A third grade teacher died Monday in South Carolina. And two other educators died recently in Mississippi. It’s unclear how many teachers in the U.S. have become ill with the coronavirus since the new school year began.
September 9, 2020 8:54 am
Late-stage studies of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate are on temporary hold while the company investigates whether a recipient’s “potentially unexplained” illness is a side effect of the shot. In a statement issued Tuesday evening, the company said it was pausing vaccinations to look into “a potentially unexplained illness,” to see if the link is real or a coincidence. Temporary halts in medical studies aren’t uncommon. Two other vaccines are in huge, final-stage tests in the United States. One is made by Moderna and the other by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech.
September 9, 2020 8:53 am
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry says a bombing in Kabul targeting the convoy of the country’s first vice president killed 10 people and wounded more than a dozen others, including several of the vice president’s bodyguards. First Vice President Amrullah Saleh suffered minor burns in the attack on Wednesday morning. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but the Taliban denied they were involved. The Interior Ministry says the bomb went off as the vice president’s convoy was passing through a section of Kabul with shops that sell gas cylinders. The blast ignited a fire that set ablaze a number of shops.
September 9, 2020 8:52 am
NEW YORK (AP) – A magnitude 3.1 earthquake struck in East Freehold, New Jersey, early Wednesday morning. The U.S. Geological Survey says it hit at about 2 a.m. and was centered 3 miles deep. People are taking to social media to express their shock at the rare occurrence. Hundreds of reports are coming in from as far as Philadelphia and Long Island, New York on the USGS’ “Did You Feel It?” map. But USGS geophysicist Robert Sanders says it’s unlikely to have caused anything other than damaged shelves or falling picture frames. He says there have been just two other quakes over 3.0 magnitude in the area since 1970.
September 9, 2020 8:51 am
ESTACADA, Ore. (AP) – Firefighters in the Pacific Northwest are scrambling to keep up with dozens of wildfires that have burned houses, forced people to flee and trapped firefighters and civilians. Oregon’s governor said Wednesday that hundreds of homes have been destroyed. In neighboring Washington state, one fire leveled an entire farming town. Pacific Northwest firefighters say they are stunned by the intensity and speed of the blazes in areas that almost never experience such fire activity because of the zone’s normally cool and wet climate. Gusting winds with speeds of 30 to 50 mph that can easily fan flames were forecast Wednesday through Thursday.
