August 24, 2020 2:01 am
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WPXI) — Days ahead of the start of the fall semester at Penn State University, 148 students have already tested positive for COVID-19 and school officials are awaiting results from over 5,000 more tests. And an additional 7,000 tests haven’t even been submitted yet. According to a news release, 17,042 students from “areas with a high prevalence of coronavirus” were required to be tested before classes started. Students who have tested positive were told to stay at home to isolate for 10 days and until they could be cleared by a medical professional before returning to the main campus in State College. University officials said at least 1% of students, faculty and staff would be randomly tested each day as part of the plan to monitor the spread of coronavirus.
August 23, 2020 8:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — With heated debate over mail delays, the House approved legislation in a rare Saturday session that would reverse recent changes in U.S. Postal Service operations and send $25 billion to shore up the agency ahead of the November election. Speaker Nancy Pelosi recalled lawmakers to Washington over objections from Republicans dismissing the action as a stunt. President Donald Trump urged a no vote, including in a Saturday tweet, railing against mail-in ballots expected to surge in the COVID-19 crisis. He has said he wants to block extra funds to the Postal Service. The daylong session came as an uproar over mail disruptions puts the Postal Service at the center of the nation’s tumultuous election year, with Americans rallying around one of the nation’s oldest and more popular institutions. Millions of people are expected to opt for mail-in ballots to avoid polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.
August 23, 2020 8:13 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Schools across the United States are facing shortages and long delays, of up to several months, in getting this year’s most crucial back-to-school supplies: the laptops and other equipment needed for online learning, an Associated Press investigation has found. The world’s three biggest computer companies, Lenovo, HP and Dell, have told school districts they have a shortage of nearly 5 million laptops, in some cases exacerbated by Trump administration sanctions on Chinese suppliers, according to interviews with over two dozen U.S. schools, districts in 15 states, suppliers, computer companies and industry analysts. As the school year begins virtually in many places because of the coronavirus, educators nationwide worry that computer shortfalls will compound the inequities — and the headaches for students, families and teachers.
August 23, 2020 8:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s older sister, a former federal judge, is heard sharply criticizing her brother in a series of recordings released Saturday, at one point saying of the president, “He has no principles.” Maryanne Trump Barry was secretly recorded by her niece, Mary Trump, who recently released a book denouncing the president, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.” Mary Trump said Saturday she made the recordings in 2018 and 2019. In one recording, Barry, 83, says she had heard a 2018 interview with her brother on Fox News in which he suggested that he would put her on the border to oversee cases of immigrant children separated from their parents.
August 23, 2020 8:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans will aim to recast the story of Donald Trump’s presidency when they hold their national convention, featuring speakers drawn from everyday life as well as cable news and the White House while drawing a stark contrast with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Trump is looking to shift his campaign away from being a referendum on a presidency ravaged by a pandemic and economic collapse and toward a choice between vastly different visions of America’s future. The four-day event is themed “Honoring the Great American Story,” according to four Trump campaign officials involved with the planning process but not authorized to discuss it by name. The convention will feature prominently a number of well-known Trump supporters, including members of the Trump family, but also those whom the GOP say are members of the “silent majority” of Americans who have been aided by Trump’s policies. Some have been “silenced” by a “cancel culture” pushed by Democrats, the campaign officials said.
August 23, 2020 8:04 am
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — The mother of a man fatally shot by Louisiana police said her son was intelligent, shy and had sought therapy for social anxiety. Her lawyers said they plan to sue over the death of Trayford Pellerin, who police said had a knife and was trying to enter a convenience store. The shooting Friday night was captured on video, and the state ACLU condemned what it described as a “horrific and deadly incident of police violence against a Black person.” Both the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center quickly called for an investigation. Pellerin’s death prompted a crowd of protesters to gather Saturday and demonstrate against the latest fatal police shooting. Officers in riot gear fired smoke canisters on Saturday night to get the crowd to disperse, Trooper Derek Senegal said. No tear gas was deployed, he said. At a news conference late Saturday, local officials said the protest began peacefully, but violence later erupted with fireworks shot at buildings and fires set in the median of the road.
August 23, 2020 7:56 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A western Pennsylvania woman convicted in the shooting death of an FBI agent during pre-dawn drug raid at her home a dozen years ago is seeking release from prison, citing the coronavirus. The Tribune-Review reports that Christina Korbe, who is serving a 15-year, 10-month sentence in a federal prison in Connecticut, is currently scheduled for release in May 2022. Korbe pleaded guilty in 2011 to voluntary manslaughter and a firearms charge in the death of Special Agent Samuel Hicks, who was the first agent through the front door of the Indiana Township home in November 2008. Prosecutors dropped charges of murder of a federal officer, drug-trafficking conspiracy and weapons counts. Hicks and other law enforcement officers were trying to arrest Korbe’s husband on drug charges. A shot fired from the second floor down the dark stairwell struck the agent and entered his chest despite his bulletproof vest. Korbe said she thought someone was breaking into their home, and she fired in self-protection. Attorneys for Korbe, who has sought a reduced sentence several times, filed a release request Thursday saying she contracted COVID-19 in March. Defense attorney W. Theodore Koch III is seeking compassionate release, saying she is still recovering and there is “no guarantee that a person develops full immunity after recovery.”
August 23, 2020 4:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. – The governing body for Pennsylvania interscholastic sports decided Friday to move forward with the fall season, rejecting the governor’s recommendation that all youth sports be postponed until 2021 to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. The board of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association had delayed the start of fall sports by two weeks after Gov. Tom Wolf on Aug. 6 urged that scholastic and recreational youth sports be put off until January, citing the pandemic. The PIAA had said it was blindsided and “tremendously disappointed” by Wolf’s recommendation – which was not binding – and insisted that fall sports could be held safely. For his part, Wolf has pointed out that major collegiate leagues have independently canceled fall sports. The board voted 25-5 on Friday to allow high school football, soccer, tennis, field hockey and other fall sports to go on as planned, starting Monday. Among those voting no: board members representing professional associations of school boards, superintendents and principals.
August 22, 2020 4:23 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea is banning large gatherings, shutting nightspots and churches and removing fans from professional sports in unprecedented restrictions as it battles the spread of the coronavirus. The health minister announced the steps Saturday shortly after the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 332 new cases in the ninth straight day of triple-digit increases. While most of the new cases came from the densely populated Seoul area, infections were also reported in practically every major city and town, raising concerns that transmissions are slipping out of control. The government has already imposed elevated social distancing measures in Seoul this week after resisted them for months out of economic concerns.
August 22, 2020 4:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House is convening for a rare Saturday session to address mail delivery disruptions. Democrats are poised to pass legislation to reverse recent changes in postal operations and send emergency funds to help the agency before the November election. Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the Postal Service will be “election central” as millions of Americans opt for mail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans are unlikely to support the bill. They say the postal problems are overblown. President Donald Trump has railed against the idea of wide-scale mail-in voting. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told senators Friday that election mail will arrive on time, but he could not provide a plan.
