April 18, 2022 2:46 pm
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – A federal judge in Florida has voided the national mask mandate covering airplanes and other public transportation as exceeding the authority of U.S. health officials. The decision Monday by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa also said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention improperly failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rulemaking. The CDC recently extended the mask mandate until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant. The Justice Department declined to comment Monday when asked if the government planned to appeal the ruling.
April 18, 2022 2:43 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court has rejected a challenge from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland to the 2017 tax law that capped federal tax deductions for state and local taxes. The lawsuit had previously been dismissed by lower courts. The suit argued that the Republican-led tax law, signed by then-President Donald Trump, unfairly singled out high-tax states in which Democrats predominate. The law caps a deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT, at $10,000. The lawsuit claimed lawmakers crafted the provision to target Democratic states, interfering with the states’ constitutionally granted taxing authority. Legislation to raise the cap has passed the House but not the Senate.
April 18, 2022 2:41 pm
The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear a St. Louis-based natural gas company’s appeal of a lower court’s decision that could close a pipeline that runs through parts of Illinois and Missouri. The court rejected Spire Inc.’s appeal Monday without comment. Spire President Scott Smith pledged to fight to keep the pipeline operational. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted approval for the pipeline in 2018 and it became fully operational in 2019. The pipeline connects with another pipeline in western Illinois and carries natural gas to the St. Louis region. A 2020 lawsuit filed by the Environmental Defense Fund called the pipeline unnecessary and harmful to land in its path.
April 18, 2022 2:39 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration is taking a key step to ensure federal dollars will support U.S. manufacturing. New guidance issued Monday will require material for projects like bridges, highways and broadband internet funded by last year’s infrastructure package be produced in the U.S. Waivers can be granted if the material costs too much or cannot be sufficiently provided by domestic factories. Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, President Joe Biden hopes to create more jobs, ease supply chain strains and reduce the reliance on China. He’s betting that more domestic production will ultimately reduce price pressures to blunt Republican attacks that his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package triggered higher prices.
April 18, 2022 2:15 pm
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa-(WPXI)-West Mifflin police said that five people, including three juveniles, were arrested and charged after they allegedly caused “extensive damage” inside Century III Mall on April 15. Aaron Anthony, of Beaver Falls; Angel-Mariah Schulz, of Pittsburgh; and all three juveniles were charged with burglary, criminal trespass and criminal mischief. Police state that several storefront glass windows and center display signs were shattered. Police said they also found several fire extinguishers and other pieces of debris near the broken windows. Anthony and Schulz were taken to the Allegheny County jail for arraignment. The three juveniles were released to their parents. West Mifflin police said that although the mall is not open anymore, it is privately owned and operated and has security measures in place. Police said anyone who is found trespassing will be prosecuted.
April 18, 2022 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Millions of Americans wait until the last minute to file their taxes, and this year is no exception. Monday is Tax Day – the federal deadline for individual tax filing and payments. The IRS will receive tens of millions of last-minute filings electronically and through paper forms. Nina Tross at the National Society of Tax Professionals says if people haven’t filed their taxes by now, “they’re better off filing an extension.” But she says many people don’t realize that filing an extension “has zero effect,” so long as people are paid up on their income taxes by Tax Day. She adds that people are “better off extending than amending.”
April 18, 2022 4:17 am
HAMPTON, S.C. (AP) – The lawyer for a man arrested in connection with a mass shooting at a South Carolina mall tells news outlets his client fired in self-defense. Attorney Todd Rutherford represents Jewayne Price, who currently faces a charge of illegally carrying a pistol. A judge said Sunday that Price could be released on house arrest with a $25,000 surety bond. Saturday’s shooting in Columbia was one of two Easter weekend shootings in South Carolina with multiple victims, and one of three in the nation. Nine people were hurt early Sunday in a Hampton County, South Carolina, nightclub shooting. Gunfire at a Pittsburgh party caused multiple injuries and killed two minors.
April 18, 2022 4:16 am
BEIRUT (AP) – The next chapter of the war in Ukraine could see Russia bringing in greater numbers of battle-hardened fighters from Syria, observers say. The general newly appointed to command Russia’s fight in Ukraine knows the Syrian fighters well. He previously commanded the Russian military in Syria, overseeing a ruthless strategy of besieging cities in submission. Syrian activists say hundreds of fighters in Russian-trained units in Syria are signing up to fight in Ukraine. Among them are hundreds from the so-called “Tiger Force,” a Syrian military division that was involved in many of the key battles in Syria’s 11-year civil war.
April 18, 2022 4:15 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Multiple explosions believed to be caused by missiles have struck the western city of Lviv as Ukraine braces for an all-out Russian assault in the east. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to “fight absolutely to the end” in strategically vital Mariupol, where resisters and civilians are holed up in a sprawling steel plant laced with tunnels. AP staff witnessed the explosions in Lviv, which has been a relative haven from the fighting elsewhere in the country. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said five missiles struck the city and that emergency services were responding. Capturing the port city of Mariupol would free Russian troops for a new offensive in the east and fully secure them a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula.
April 18, 2022 4:12 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s Labor and Industry secretary says the state “continues to rebound strongly” from the COVID-19 pandemic with unemployment dropping by two-tenths of a point in March. The latest figure of 4.9% released Friday is another indication the state’s jobs picture continues to strengthen. The decrease mirrored the national picture, as U.S. joblessness fell by the same fraction, to 3.6%. Increases were seen widely across employment categories. Pennsylvania unemployment is now 2.2 percentage points below where it was one year ago.
