October 9, 2021 5:08 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A federal appeals court is temporarily allowing the nation’s toughest abortion law to resume in Texas. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down the order Friday night. It comes just one day after a lower court in Austin sided with the Biden administration and suspended the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8. The law prohibits abortions in Texas once cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks. That is before some women even know they’re pregnant. The New Orleans-based appeals court granted an emergency order that puts the law back in place for now, pending a review of the state’s appeal.
October 9, 2021 5:05 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – The death toll continues to surge from the coronavirus pandemic in West Virginia. According to state health data, there were at least 115 new virus deaths reported during the first seven days of October. It follows a September toll of about 600 deaths – more than the four previous months combined. The state is on pace to surpass 4,000 total deaths from the pandemic next week. There are signs in other areas that the surge is slowing down. According to health data, the number of people hospitalized from the virus is at its lowest total in a month.
October 9, 2021 5:04 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The number of vaccinated state prison system employees has nearly doubled in the two months since Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf mandated vaccines or weekly testing to help contain the coronavirus. It’s a policy prison guards challenged in court, but a state judge last week threw out the case. The Corrections Department said Friday more than 6,700 workers have now been vaccinated. That’s nearly 43% of the total and an increase from about 3,600 in early August. The prison agency says thousands of tests have been performed since the vax-or-test mandate went into effect Sept.
October 8, 2021 3:45 pm
The number of vaccinated state prison system employees has nearly doubled in the two months since Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf mandated vaccines or weekly testing to help contain the coronavirus. It’s a policy prison guards challenged in court, but a state judge last week threw out the case. The Corrections Department said Friday more than 6,700 workers have now been vaccinated. That’s nearly 43% of the total and an increase from about 3,600 in early August. The prison agency says thousands of tests have been performed since the vax-or-test mandate went into effect Sept. 7.
October 8, 2021 3:12 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) –
President Joe Biden is not asserting executive privilege over a series of documents sought by a House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. This sets up a showdown with former President Donald Trump, who has pledged to try to block records from his time in the White House from being turned over to investigators. In a letter to the Archivist of the United States, White House counsel Dana Remus writes that Biden has determined that invoking executive privilege “is not in the best interests of the United States.” The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter Friday, which was first reported by NBC News.
October 8, 2021 2:21 pm
CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md. (AP) –
Authorities in Maryland say two staff members have been fatally shot at a senior living facility and one suspect is in custody. Police say it happened Friday morning at the National Church Residences Gateway Village in Capitol Heights. Police said both victims were women, one found in a hallway and another in an office. A resident of the complex says the shooter is his friend, a man who said he was fed up with how senior citizens were being treated there. The company running the facility says they’re heartbroken that two staff members were killed.
October 8, 2021 2:11 pm
KITTANNING, Pa. (AP) – A former Pennsylvania police chief has pleaded guilty to failing to properly register as a sex offender. Ex-Leechburg Police Chief Michael Diebold entered the plea Wednesday. The 44-year-old was charged with failing to provide accurate information when he registered as a sex offender. Diebold was previously arrested in a child predator sting for soliciting sex online from a state trooper who posed as a 14-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty in December 2018. Diebold was sentenced to nine to 23 months in jail and three years probation. The former police chief also was required to register as a sex offender and refrain from using the internet for anything other than work.
October 8, 2021 1:14 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf joined governors of three other northeastern states, agreeing to share information about firearms purchases to help detect and investigate straw buyers and other gun crimes. Governors in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania signed an agreement Thursday to exchange gun crime data for use only by law enforcement. The agreement includes provisions governing security and mandated notice if the information is misused. The four Democratic governors say the initiative will help target gun networks that cross state lines. The states plan to share details they get from federal government reports that show who first bought and sold guns recovered during criminal investigations.
October 8, 2021 9:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. employers added just 194,000 jobs in September, a second straight tepid gain and evidence that the pandemic still has a grip on the economy with many companies struggling to fill millions of open jobs. Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate fell sharply to 4.8% from 5.2% in August.
October 8, 2021 4:15 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Abortions have resumed in at least six Texas clinics after a federal judge halted the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S. Amy Hagstrom Miller is the president of Whole Woman’s Health, which has four clinics in Texas. She said Thursday that her clinics are performing abortions again and scheduling more for the coming days. But it was not a rush to resume normal operations in clinics across Texas. Some providers worry that an appeals court could soon reinstate the law known as Senate Bill 8. The law bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks when many women don’t even know they are pregnant. Texas officials have already said they will appeal.
