August 3, 2020 4:21 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Microsoft is confirming that it is in talks with Chinese company ByteDance to acquire the U.S. arm of its popular video app TikTok and has discussed with President Donald Trump his concerns about security and censorship. The deal it seeks would result in Microsoft owning and operating the TikTok service in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The company says in a statement Sunday that it expects those acquisition talks to conclude by Sept. 15. The Trump administration has raised a broad array of national security risks it says are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party.
August 3, 2020 4:20 am
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) – Coastal Carolina residents are being warned to stay out of the ocean, secure loose outside furniture and prepare for possible serious flooding as Isaias marches northward. The U.S. National Hurricane Center expected the storm to hit land later Monday as a minimal hurricane. Officials in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, handed out sandbags and offered car space in elevated garages for residents of the low-lying city. In North Carolina, officials wrapped up evacuations of Ocracoke Island, which took a beating last year from Hurricane Dorian. As of Monday afternoon, Isaias remained a tropical storm with winds of 80 mph. It was centered about 180 miles south-southwest of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
August 3, 2020 4:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – As state and local governments brace for November’s election, federal authorities are sounding the alarm about the potential for a well-timed ransomware attack that could block access to voter registration data and paralyze critical election operations. Such attacks lock data until a payment is made. They have long targeted local governments and companies, but officials view election systems as attractive targets themselves – or potentially collateral damage in an attack aimed at another part of a network. Even if a ransomware attack fails to disrupt elections, it could nonetheless rattle confidence in the vote.
August 3, 2020 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Slow, grinding negotiations on a huge COVID-19 relief bill are set to resume, but the path forward promises to be challenging. Both the Trump administration negotiating team and top Capitol Hill Democrats reported progress over the weekend even as they highlighted their differences. Ahead of Monday’s talks, all sides predict a long slog ahead despite the lapse of a $600-per-week supplemental COVID jobless benefit, the beginning of school season, and the call of lawmakers’ cherished August recess. Several more days of talks are expected, if not more.
August 3, 2020 4:14 am
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has again extended an order closing all bars in Monongalia County for an additional 10 days due to the coronavirus pandemic. The latest order is effective until Aug. 13. The county includes West Virginia University’s Morgantown campus. Monongalia County has reported at least 900 confirmed virus cases, by far the most in the state. More than half of the county’s active cases are in the 20 to 29 age group. Statewide, there have been at least 6,850 confirmed virus cases and 117 deaths.
August 3, 2020 4:13 am
HARLEIGH, Pa. (AP) – State police are searching for a vehicle that fled the scene after striking and killing a construction workers on Interstate 81 in northeastern Pennsylvania over the weekend. Police in Luzerne County say the sedan was heading north on the interstate in the right lane, which was closed due to active nighttime construction. Police said the vehicle struck 30-year-old Kevin Dendulk shortly before 1:30 a.m. Saturday in Hazle Township and didn’t stop, continuing to travel in the closed right lane of I-81 north. Police said a deputy county coroner pronounced the Royersford resident dead at the scene less than an hour later.
August 3, 2020 4:10 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – Officials believe contaminated onions are the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people in recent weeks in the U.S. and Canada. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a Salmonella outbreak linked to onions from Thomson International in Bakersfield, California. They were sold at Pittsburgh-area Giant Eagle and Market District locations. Shoppers who bought the onions between early June and now have been notified through a phone call. Giant Eagle said the recall includes both bulk and bagged Spanish, white and red onions. Prepared foods and deli products that were made with onions are also recalled. So far, 400 people have become sick across the country and 60 of them have been hospitalized.
August 2, 2020 8:08 am
NEW DELHI (AP) — India reported nearly 55,000 new coronavirus cases Sunday and the Philippines recorded another daily high to surpass 100,000 total infections. A curfew was imposed on Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, following a spike in infections. Countries including the United States, India and South Africa are struggling to rein in their first wave of infections while South Korea and others where the disease abated try to avert a second wave as curbs on travel and trade ease.
August 2, 2020 8:06 am
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Early bands of heavy rain from Isaias lashed Florida’s east coast before dawn Sunday as authorities warily eyed the approaching storm, which threatened to snarl efforts to quell surging cases of the coronavirus across the region. Isaias weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm late Saturday afternoon, but was still expected to bring heavy rain and flooding as it barrels toward Florida. Authorities closed beaches, parks and virus testing sites, lashing signs to palm trees so they wouldn’t blow away. The governor said the state is anticipating power outages and asked residents to have a week’s supply of water, food and medicine on hand. Officials wrestled with how to prepare shelters where people can seek refuge from the storm if necessary, while safely social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus.
August 2, 2020 8:05 am
The Portland Police Bureau declared an unlawful assembly Saturday night when people gathered outside a police precinct in Oregon’s largest city and threw bottles towards officers, police said. Until that point, federal, state and local law enforcement had been seemingly absent from the protests Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The demonstrations — that for weeks ended with tear gas, fireworks shot towards buildings, federal agents on the street and injuries to protesters and officers — have recently ended with chanting and conversations. Activists and Oregon officials urged people at Saturday night’s protest in Portland to re-center the focus on Black Lives Matter, three days after the Trump administration agreed to reduce the presence of federal agents.
