July 25, 2020 4:27 am
HOUSTON (AP) – Legal groups sued the U.S. government Friday in an attempt to prevent the rapid expulsion of children that the Trump administration detained in hotel rooms under an emergency declaration citing the coronavirus. The groups sought a temporary restraining order on behalf of “unnamed children” held at the Hampton Inn & Suites in the Texas border city of McAllen. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the McAllen hotel is one of three Hampton Inns that the government has used nearly 200 times to detain children so it can rapidly deport them to their countries of origin.
July 25, 2020 4:26 am
NEW DELHI (AP) – India has begun its first human trials of a coronavirus vaccine candidate as the world’s second-most populous country recorded nearly 49,000 new cases. The additional infections take India’s total to more than 1.3 million on Saturday, with surges seen in a quarter of the country’s 36 states and union territories. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences says it administered the first dose of a trial COVID-19 vaccine on Friday. The drug Covaxin is among nearly two dozen that are in human trials around the world. South Korea reported 113 new cases, its first daily jump over 100 in nearly four months. Health authorities had forecast a temporary spike driven by imported infections including workers airlifted out of Iraq.
July 25, 2020 4:24 am
Federal immigration officials say new foreign students will be barred from entering the United States if they plan to take their classes entirely online this fall. In a memo to college officials, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says new students who were not already enrolled as of March 9 will “likely not be able to obtain” visas if they take all their courses online. Students already in the U.S. or those returning from abroad will still be allowed to take classes entirely online. Education groups say they’re disappointed by the decision.
July 25, 2020 4:23 am
PHOENIX (AP) – A government lawyer says all new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals applications are being put in a pending bucket while officials decide whether to end the program. That means no new applicants have been accepted into the program for young immigrants even though the Supreme Court ruled it was improperly ended last month. Immigrant rights attorneys say the Supreme Court ruling and two others should revert the program that gives work permits to younger immigrants and shields them from deportation to its original form. About 650,000 are enrolled in DACA, but it’s estimated that another 66,000 now meet age requirements to join, if the government allows them to.
July 25, 2020 4:22 am
QUAKERTOWN, Pa. (AP) – President Donald Trump is trying to win over suburbanites by promising to protect their “beautiful” neighborhoods from the racial unrest that has gripped some U.S. cities this summer. He’s sent federal agents to stem violence in cities, warned of a way of life being “obliterated,” and raised the prospect of falling property values. It’s a strategy with deep roots in presidential politics and some record of success. But even some GOP strategists and Republican voters note it doesn’t account for the rapid demographic changes in the suburbs and may be misreading the top concerns of voters he’s trying to retain.
July 25, 2020 4:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has been unable to land the big deal he sought with Congress to curb drug costs. But now he’s moving on his own to allow imports of cheaper prescription medicines, along with other limited steps that could still have election-year appeal. Friday at a White House ceremony, Trump signed four executive orders. In addition to importation, they are about paying lower international prices for some Medicare drugs, passing rebates directly to consumers, and making discounted insulin available to low-income people. Democrats, including Joe Biden, are pushing a much more ambitious plan to empower Medicare to negotiate lower prices.
July 25, 2020 4:17 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — PNC Financial Services Group Inc. put another 52 branches on the chopping block, including eight in the Pittsburgh metro, in its biggest mass cut so far this year. Pittsburgh’s largest bank filed the applications with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on July 17, according to just posted data by the regulator. That was two days after PNC released second-quarter earnings and Bill Demchak, chairman, president and CEO, told financial analysts that it had “additional thoughts” about keeping some branches closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic permanently shuttered as consumer preferences for digital transactions has accelerated.
July 25, 2020 4:09 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Many of Pennsylvania’s school districts are about to decide on their local regulations for resuming in-person teaching in the coming academic year. The plans that have already been produced have a lot of variation, which education officials say is by design. Districts must have a board-approved plan posted online before they can resume in-person instruction for the first time since schools closed for the year in March. Administrators who have been planning for months now face the hard decisions as the state’s infection numbers are experiencing a sharp increase.
July 25, 2020 3:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) announced Friday that expiration dates for driver licenses, identification cards, and learner’s permits, will be extended for Pennsylvania residents in response to statewide COVID-19 mitigation efforts. Effective July 23, expiration dates for driver licenses, photo ID cards and learner’s permits scheduled to expire from March 16, 2020 through August 31, 2020, have been extended until August 31, 2020. These extensions are in addition to those announced on June 25. A camera card is considered a driver’s license, so it is covered by the same terms and conditions extending other driver’s license products. Camera cards with expiration dates within this timeframe are also extended through August 31, 2020. Additionally, limited services are available at some Driver License and Photo License Centers. For a list of open driver license and photo license centers and the services provided, as well as their hours of operation, please visit www.dmv.pa.gov. Driver and vehicle online services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and include driver’s license, photo ID and vehicle registration renewals; driver-history services; changes of address; driver license and vehicle registration restoration letters; ability to pay driver license or vehicle insurance restoration fee; driver license and photo ID duplicates; and schedule a driver’s exam. There are no additional fees for using online services.
July 24, 2020 2:51 pm
MT. LEBANON, Pa. (WPXI) – Mt. Lebanon police are asking for help finding a missing 18-year-old woman. Police said Mariela Lopez Escalante was last seen July 19 at a foster care home. Escalante came to the United States at age 17, was placed in foster care and is a ward of the state. If you have any information on her whereabouts, you’re asked to call 911 immediately.
