July 9, 2020 2:51 am
The Washington County Chamber of Commerce continued their Thursday Morning Briefing series by hosting Officials from Frazier Simplex and Vigilant Technologies. The Covid-19 crisis reunited two college classmates at two vastly different aged companies to coordinate efforts in screening employees for symptoms of Covid-19. John Frazier III from Frazier Simplex in Washington was looking for a method to keep his employees safe from the coronavirus at his 103 year old company. He saw a press release from Andy Chen of 4 year old Vigilant Technologies and reunited with his classmate to implement Vigilant Technologies’ symptom screening, tracking and contact tracing system at Frazier’s specialty glass factory. Frazier was looking for a method to keep his employees safe in his factory but he also is using the system at his company’s construction sites. Chan described his application as totally touch free as employees fill out screening questions on their phone or computer before work. At the workplace temperatures are scanned by computer and officials at Frazier Simplex are alerted to any concerns. Frazier likes the system because it allows him to be able to immediately deal with an employee who has symptoms and he can send that employee home or to a hospital to get tested. Frazier is extremely pleased with the ease of the system and the elimination of exposure by an employee. Chan works with companies of all sizes and indicates that this system could be important in having screening done by school districts as they try to reopen.
July 9, 2020 2:04 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf is extending a statewide moratorium on foreclosures and evictions until Aug. 31, saying renters need more breathing room in the midst of the pandemic. The moratorium had been set to lapse Friday. The Wolf administration has been facing growing calls to extend it, with housing advocates and others predicting a rush to the courthouse and a wave of evictions and homelessness. Landlords say they are hard-pressed to keep up with taxes, insurance, mortgage payments and other expenses without the ability to enforce leases. Pennsylvania is using $175 million of its federal coronavirus relief money to provide rental assistance to eligible tenants and mortgage relief to homeowners, but the money has not started flowing yet.
July 8, 2020 4:40 pm
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The head of the Tulsa-County Health Department says President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in late June “likely contributed” to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases there. Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart says the city has recorded nearly 500 confirmed new cases in the last two days. Statewide, Oklahoma is reporting 673 confirmed new cases of the coronavirus, the state’s second-highest daily total since the start of the pandemic. The new cases reported Wednesday by the Oklahoma State Department of Health follow a record high of 858 cases that were reported on Tuesday.
July 8, 2020 10:43 am
UNDATED (AP) – President Donald Trump is threatening to withhold federal money if schools don’t reopen in the fall. He says the guidelines his own federal health officials have created for schools to reopen are impractical and expensive. Shortly after Trump tweeted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines were “very tough & expensive,” Vice President Mike Pence announced that the agency plans to release additional school guidance next week. Even as Trump continues to put pressure on state and local officials to fully reopen, New York City officials have announced that most of their students would only attend in-person classes two or three days in the fall. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says bringing back students for only a few days a week fails them.
July 8, 2020 9:45 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The storied New York clothier Brooks Brothers is filing for bankruptcy protection. The company that says it’s put 40 U.S. presidents in its suits survived two world wars and navigated through casual Fridays and a loosening of dress standards even on Wall Street, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed the 200-year-old company into seek Chapter 11 protection Wednesday. Another famed men’s clothier, Barneys of New York, sought bankruptcy protection last year, and it was followed by a slew of others toppled by the pandemic, including Neiman Marcus, J.Crew and J.C. Penney. More bankruptcies are anticipated in the retail sector which as been rattled by the spread of COVID-19.
July 8, 2020 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Chief Justice John Roberts spent a night in a hospital last month after he fell and injured his forehead. A Supreme Court spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday night that Roberts was treated at a hospital on June 21 for an injury sustained in a fall while walking for exercise near his home. The spokeswoman, Kathleen L. Arberg, said in a statement that Roberts’ injury required sutures, and out of an abundance of caution, he stayed in the hospital overnight. The statement followed reporting on the incident by The Washington Post.
July 8, 2020 4:06 am
HOUSTON (AP) – Houston officials have canceled the Texas GOP’s in-person convention. They say the spread of the coronavirus made it impossible to hold the event as scheduled. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Wednesday that the city’s lawyers exercised provisions in the contract that the Texas Republican Party signed to rent the downtown convention center for a three-day event to have started July 16. Virus cases have surged in Texas, particularly in the state’s largest cities. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had publicly deferred to state party leaders who last week voted to go forward with an in-person event.
July 8, 2020 4:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Newly released government data show at least a dozen lawmakers have ties to organizations that received federal coronavirus aid. Among businesses that received money was a California hotel partially owned by the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as a shipping business started by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao’s family. Chao is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Car dealerships owned by Republican Reps. Roger Williams of Texas and Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, and fast-food franchises owned by Republican Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, also received money through the Paycheck Protection Program.
July 8, 2020 4:03 am
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says he is confident that he will swiftly recover from the new coronavirus thanks to treatment with hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that has not been proven effective against COVID-19. Bolsonaro said he tested positive for the new coronavirus on Tuesday after months of downplaying its severity while deaths mounted rapidly inside the country. The president told reporters he underwent a lung X-ray on Monday after experiencing fever, muscle aches and malaise. As of Tuesday, his fever had subsided, he said, and he attributed the improvement to hydroxychloroquine.
July 8, 2020 4:01 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – President Donald Trump’s point man to North Korea says the U.S. administration is ready to resume stalled nuclear negotiations despite the North’s repeated claims that it has no immediate intent for dialogue with Washington. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun spoke to reporters following meetings with South Korean officials, where they reaffirmed their commitment toward a diplomatic approach in resolving the nuclear standoff with the North but avoided specific answers on what was discussed. Biegun says the U.S. did not request any meetings with North Korea during his trip. Just days earlier, North Korea’s first vice foreign minister said the North won’t resume negotiations unless Washington discards what it describes as hostile policies.
