January 17, 2020 3:20 pm
The Washington County Chamber of Commerce opened their 2020 business year with a breakfast briefing. Washington Health System CEO Brook Ward spoke to a crowd of 100 members and told them of the challenges and successes WHS has had over the last year. Ward addressed cost escalation of care pointing out that medical care rose 1.8% last year and costs for prescriptions and insurance both rose more than 4%. Ward spoke of the success WHS has had in addiction treatment in their Long Term Residential program based in Waynesburg. The 90 day in patient program currently has 26 beds and Ward expects to add 16 more. Ward spoke of WHS commitment to obstetrics pointing out their newly remodeled obstetrics unit. Economics is always a concern and Ward pointed out the system’s recent inclusion in the experimental payment program operated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This is a 5 year experimental program designed to keep medical care available in rural areas of the nation and help keep hospitals financially afloat so rural area do not see hospital closures and loss of jobs. After the meeting Ward addressed competition from West Virginia University by stating that WHS is not interested in being taken over by WVU.
January 17, 2020 9:50 am
UNDATED (AP) – Authorities say one person has died and one person is seriously injured after an avalanche at a Northern California ski resort. The Placer County Sheriff’s Office says the avalanche happened Friday at Squaw Valley-Alpine Meadows, a ski resort in the Squaw Valley area of Lake Tahoe. An avalanche at Alpine Meadows in 1982 killed seven people, including several employees of the ski resort.
January 17, 2020 9:49 am
The Allegheny County Health Department has announced fines of more than $743,000 against U.S. Steel in connection with air pollution control violations and permit violations at its Clairton Coke Works. According to the health department, ninety-percent or nearly $670,000 will go to the Community Benefit Trust for impacted communities. The remaining ten-percent will be paid to the Clean Air Fund.
January 17, 2020 9:38 am
The Fayette County Coroner has released the identities of the two people killed in an early morning crash Wednesday in Redstone Township. 22 year old Jamal Ryan and 25 year old Julie Olsen died of blunt force trauma. Two other victims were also ejected when the vehicle went over an embankment around 4:30 a.m. along Route 40. They have not been identified. Both were transported to Uniontown Hospital and then transferred to Ruby Memorial in Morgantown, West Virginia. Officials say it appears that none of the occupants were wearing seat belts. Uniontown State Police continue to investigate.
January 17, 2020 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – How involved was President Donald Trump in an alleged plan to push Ukraine for an investigation of a political rival? A close associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is claiming Trump was directly involved in the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden. Lev Parnas says he delivered an ultimatum in May to the incoming president of Ukraine that no senior U.S. officials would attend his inauguration and vital American security aid would be withheld if an investigation into Biden wasn’t announced. If true, Parnas’ account undercuts a key Republican defense of Trump during the impeachment investigation.
January 17, 2020 4:17 am
MEXICO CITY (AP) – A 5.3 magnitude earthquake has shaken southern Mexico, causing some damage in part of the southern state of Oaxaca. The U.S. Geological Survey says the temblor occurred at 8:07 p.m. Thursday and was centered 3.6 miles (5.9 km) southwest of Santiago Ixtaltepec in Oaxaca. It struck at a depth of 16 miles (27 km). The Oaxaca state civil defense agency says there was damage in the isthmus region, but has not offered any specifics.
January 17, 2020 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump has opened in the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says new evidence reinforces the need for senators to call additional witnesses. Pelosi warned senators not to become “all the president’s henchmen.” Trump derided the proceedings anew as a “hoax.” All the senators stood on Thursday and swore an oath of “impartial justice” as jurors for the historic proceeding. Chief Justice John Roberts presided in his black Supreme Court robe. The full trial will begin next week.
January 17, 2020 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court will decide ahead of the 2020 election whether presidential electors are bound to support the popular vote winner in their states or can opt for someone else. Advocates for the court’s intervention say the issue needs urgent resolution in an era of intense political polarization and the prospect of a razor-thin margin in a presidential election, although so-called faithless electors have been a footnote so far in American history. The justices probably will hear arguments in April and should issue a decision by late June.
January 17, 2020 4:13 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Texas-based pipeline giant that is heavily penalized in Pennsylvania has agreed to pay another $2 million in fines for spilling drilling fluids into a reservoir during construction on a 350-mile multibillion-dollar pipeline carrying highly volatile natural gas liquids. The consent agreement was made public Thursday after it was signed Jan. 3. The state Department of Environmental Protection says 208,000 gallons of drilling fluids spilled into Raystown Lake in Huntingdon County in 2017 during construction on Energy Transfer’s Mariner East pipelines. Construction on the Mariner East pipelines has drawn more than $15 million in fines and several temporary shutdown orders.
January 17, 2020 4:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s commercial casinos reached a new high in revenue last year, a record boosted by an aggressive new expansion of gambling authorized in 2017. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said Thursday that revenue at the state’s 12 casinos, as well as through fantasy sports contests and video gambling terminals at truck stops, rose in 2019 by $146 million, or 4.5%, to above $3.4 billion. It was the fifth straight calendar year that casino revenue grew in Pennsylvania. The 2019 figures had the first results from online gambling and sports betting. Pennsylvania’s commercial casinos are No. 2 in the nation in gross revenue, after Nevada’s. The news wasn’t so good at The Meadows. Total revenue was down 13%. Revenue generated by slot and table games were also down.
