President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan proposes a third round of stimulus checks of $1,400 for most Americans. Yet while that could extend a helping hand to millions of households still suffering from the pandemic’s economic fallout, it could be months until the payments arrive, analysts say.
The price tag for the relief package, called the American Rescue Plan, is likely to face pushback from Republican lawmakers, who last year resisted Democratic efforts to pass a $2 trillion bill. Heights Securities analyst Hunter Hammond expects the ultimate package to be trimmed to $1 trillion or $1.5 trillion. But most analysts think lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will back the $1,400 direct payments, which economists view as a lifeline for many cash-strapped workers who lost their jobs or have seen their income plummet during the pandemic.
Support for another stimulus package may gain steam given several developments that point to widening economic distress as the pandemic worsens, according to Ed Mills, an analyst with investment bank Raymond James. A weaker outlook for the labor market, with a bigger-than-expected 1 million jobless claims during the first week of January, as well as record number of COVID-19 infections and deaths, could push lawmakers to support Mr. Biden’s plan for additional stimulus, analysts say.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A raccoon from Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Heights neighborhood has tested positive for rabies. This is the first animal to test positive for rabies in Allegheny County in 2021.
The Allegheny County Health Department says that earlier this month, an animal rescue organization was alerted of the animal and took it in to care for it.
The raccoon was being treated for mange by the organization until it began showing symptoms consist with rabies.
No human exposure was reported by the animal rescue organization or any residents.
The County health department is reminding residents to watch for unusual behavior in animals and to make sure pets have up-to-date rabies vaccinations.
If you see an animal acting strangely, you’re urged to call the Pennsylvania Game Commission or the police.
If you’re bitten, the county health department says you should clean the wound, get medical treatment and call the health department to report the incident.
he Luxor Volunteer Fire Department station near Twin Lakes Park in Hempfield will close as part of Luxor’s merger with nearby Bovard fire department.
With only three members on its force, Luxor Chief Mike Errett said the move is necessary to provide adequate fire protection for the community.
“Overall, it’s going to be better fire service for the community, that’s how I honestly feel,” Errett said. “That’s intentionally what we all want. That’s just hard to do with minimal people.”
When the Luxor station closes, equipment and funds will be split between Bovard and the Hannastown Volunteer Fire Department, Errett said. The property, which was split between two parcels, is owned by the Luxor Volunteer Fire Company and Relief Association.
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer on Friday made an unfortunate slip of the tongue as he slammed former President Donald Trump’s conduct related to the Jan 6 Capitol riot.
Schumer was informing senators about the plans for an impeachment trial of the ex-president. The House last week impeached the president for “incitement of insurrection” for his alleged role in encouraging protesters who went on to storm the Capitol.
It was at that point when Schumer made a somewhat phallic flub.
It soon became a trending topic on Twitter. Meanwhile, back home in the Empire State, the New York Post declared that Schumer’s gaffe would be “hard to live down.”
State police say they’re investigating a suspicious death after a man’s body was found Thursday in Indiana County. Troopers say a PennDOT worker found the man’s body around 2 p. m. near the 2000 block of Mulligan Hill Road in W. Wheatfield Township.
The PennDOT employee reported finding the man’s body in a grassy area off of the roadway while inspecting a nearby drain.
Indiana County Coroner Jerry Overman responded to the scene and pronounced the man dead.
Troopers say the man’s identity is being withheld until his family is notified.
They say they found evidence at the scene that leads them to believe the death is suspicious but are not releasing any additional information at this time so as not to compromise the investigation.
An autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death is being conducted at ForensicDX in Windber.
Anyone with information is asked to call State Police Troop A, Indiana Station at 724-357-1960.
The Biden administration wants to root out and eliminate what it believes to be an offensive word from every federal law.
The immigration bill President Joe Biden is sending Congress aims to appease progressives and illegal immigrants who want to be called something more pleasing to the ear than the current federal definition.
The word “alien” has peppered laws concerning those who are not American citizens since the 1798 Alien and Sedition Act.
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During his first day in office, Joe Biden killed around 52,000 American jobs and cut billions in wages as the country continues to struggle with staggering unemployment caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Republicans from Alaska to Washington have already called the Biden administration’s agenda into question after he pulled the brakes on major sources for American energy.
“He rejoined the Paris climate agreement, putting the United States back in a position to exercise global leadership,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. “And advancing the objectives of the ambitious agreement.”
On Thursday, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel slammed Biden’s decision to undo President Trump’s efforts to put American workers first. McDaniel took to Twitter to point out several moves Biden has already made that put Americans on the backburner. These include canceling the Keystone XL pipeline and rejoining the Paris climate agreement.
Wendy Bell, the radio host let go by KDKA last fall, is joining WJAS Pittsburgh. She announced her new position in a Facebook post Wednesday.
“America needs common-sense conservatism,” she wrote.
JD Turco, senior vice president at St. Barnabas Broadcasting, which bought WJAS in November, confirmed Thursday that Bell will be joining the station.
“She’s going to be a conservative talk show host, in keeping with the lineup we have right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of conservative talk there. We believe she fits well into that lineup.”
The station features conservative voices that include Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
Bell’s new radio show will air Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. till noon and Friday from 9 a.m. to noon on WJAS 1320AM and 99.1 FM and the iHeartRadio app, beginning Jan. 25.
About 20 people gathered outside Mayor Bill Peduto’s home in Point Breeze on Thursday night, protesting a tweet the mayor sent the night before.
After standing around for about 15 minutes beginning at 8 p.m., some began shouting such slogans as, “Come outside, Bill” and “Stop tweeting!”
Some also shined flashlights and strobe lights on the outside of his home. There were lights on inside Mr. Peduto’s house, but he did not come out as he had in August after people confronted him about police tactics at earlier social justice demonstrations.
Outrage grew on social media earlier Thursday after the mayor asserted on Twitter on Wednesday night that the “radical right and radical left” were joining in opposition to him.
Several police on motorcycles watched the protesters nearby.
Another protester then arrived at about 8:40 p.m. with a megaphone and began shouting insults and chants at the houses along the mayor’s street. She and one of the mayor’s neighbors exchanged words and insults for about five minutes before the neighbor went back inside his house.
The protesters left, peacefully, at about 9:15 p.m.
In his tweet, Mr. Peduto also said that in the 12 elections in which he had been a candidate, he had never received a donation from any police political action committee.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Administrative Judge Kim Eaton is under fire after posting a photo on social media with her husband dressed as a Capitol rioter.
Guardsmen said they were not given a clear reason why they were asked to vacate the buildings.
Thousands of National Guardsmen were forced to vacate congressional grounds on Thursday and are now taking their rest breaks outside and in nearby parking garages, after two weeks of sleepless nights protecting the nation’s capital in the wake of the violent Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
One unit, which had been resting in the Dirksen Senate Office building, was abruptly told to vacate the facility on Thursday, according to one Guardsman. The group was forced to rest in a nearby parking garage without internet reception, with just one electrical outlet, and one bathroom with two stalls for 5,000 troops, the person said.
Demonstrators in Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday vandalized the state Democratic Party headquarters and a federal US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, according to police.
(CNN)Demonstrators in Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday vandalized the state Democratic Party headquarters and a federal US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, according to police.
Two remained peaceful, but the others resulted in “property damage and arrests,” he said. CNN is attempting to learn more about who organized the demonstrations.
She has reportedly been in all the key meetings during the transition, helping to shape the Biden agenda, so would have had major input on the 15 executive orders he signed on Wednesday.
It wasn’t long after arriving at the White House that she was off to the Senate, over which she now presides in her new job.
There she swore in three new senators, and gave a chuckle as she read out her own resignation.
She has not yet moved into the vice-presidential residence, so spent the night in her current address.
On Thursday morning she watched the virtual inaugural prayer service and received a daily intelligence briefing.
Joe Biden was hit by a ticklish cough as he began his first ever press briefing as President of the United States. Biden, 78, suffered a frog in his throat as Thursday’s briefing on coronavirus began, which saw him warn the US death toll would hit 500,000 in February. The president – who has had both doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine – coughed twice, and cleared his throat multiple times as he thanked servicemen and women for guarding his inauguration on Wednesday. Biden, who was flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris, said ‘Excuse me,’ while trying regain his voice, and managed to do shortly afterwards. The oldest president ever to take office then unveiled his ambitious Covid battle plan.
A large fire broke out Thursday inside the sprawling complex of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer.
Images from Reuters partner ANI showed smoke billowing out of a building in SII’s massive complex in the western city of Pune, in southern Maharashtra state.
“Thank you everyone for your concern and prayers,” SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said on Twitter. “So far the most important thing is that there have been no lives lost or major injuries due to the fire, despite a few floors being destroyed.”
He added in a later tweet: “I would like to reassure all governments & the public that there would be no loss of #COVISHIELD production due to multiple production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies at @SerumInstIndia.”
Officials said at least five fire trucks had been sent to fight the blaze at the building, which a source described to Reuters as an “under-construction vaccine plant.”
As Obama used to say, presidents are part of a long-running story. Trump’s paragraph was nasty, brutish and short
In so many ways it was all so gloriously, spectacularly, crushingly normal. The ceremonial rituals, the military band, the procession of dignitaries, the sprinkling of stars, and the entirely forgettable inaugural speech.
But for the pandemic masks, the death toll of more than 400,000 Americans, and the small army to deter another white supremacist insurrection, the scenes on the west side of the Capitol were the first signs of a restoration of democracy that came perilously close to collapse.
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr swore to protect and defend the constitution on a giant family Bible that was bigger than his home state of Delaware. It appeared helpful for crushing large insects and small insurrectionists.
If anything survives in our collective memories of Biden’s speech, it will be the 46th president’s commitment to what used to be boilerplate language about the vital struggle to preserve democracy and rebuild something close to national unity.
“Today we celebrate the triumph, not of a candidate, but of a cause. The cause of democracy,” Biden began. “The people, the will of the people, has been heard, and the will of the people has been heeded. We’ve learned that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.”
It almost didn’t, of course. With a few more Republicans in the House, the will of the people would have been overturned. With a few fewer Republican state officials willing to stand up for free and fair elections, Biden’s autocratic predecessor would have been standing on that same spot. With a few more insurrectionists, several of those members of Congress seated on the Capitol steps might not have borne witness to history on Wednesday.Beyond defeating the pandemic, Biden called out three priorities that could never have emerged from the mouth of the man who promised, four years ago, to put America First.“A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer,” Biden promised. “A cry for survival comes from the planet itself. A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear. And now a rise of political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism, that we must confront and we will defeat.”Inaugural speeches typically try and fail to reach for historic stature. The Biden administration does not need to reach for history when history has dumped one of its greatest piles of destruction on its doorstep.The man now at the center of it all is a true believer in the notion that all politics is personal. He is a tactile politician who touches everyone literally, figuratively and most often hyperbolically. Citing Abraham Lincoln at the signing of the emancipation proclamation, Biden said he was typically, characteristically, literally, all in.“Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this: bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation,” he said. “And I ask every American to join me in this cause. Uniting to fight the foes we face: anger, resentment and hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness and hopelessness. With unity, we can do great things, important things.”At that point, the progressive wing of the Democratic party rolled its collective eyes towards the heavens. Meanwhile, the fascist wing of the Republican party prepared to use that unity line in every speech defending its attempts to divide the nation and destroy democracy.Still, that’s Joe Biden, and as the man likes to say: God love ya.“Hear one another. See one another. Show respect to one another,” he beseeched the nation and the members of Congress beside him.“Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war. And we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated, and even manufactured.”Earlier on a cold January morning in the nation’s capital, a beleaguered world said good riddance to the raging fire of Trump’s presidency. It ended in a spasm of garbled thoughts, lies and language that represent the core character of the loser of last year’s election.Trump was always a caricature of the 1980s, trapped in an amber world where greed is still good, conspicuous consumption is always plated in gold, and the mix tape only plays totally inappropriate hits like YMCA.And so it came to pass that the colossal buffoon who pretended to be president for four years spoke to a miserably small crowd of blood relatives and paid help on the concrete at Joint Base Andrews. The TV pundits bravely suggested the scene resembled some campaign-like event, which would be true if the campaign was a jumble sale to repair a leaking roof.Trump shuffled off the presidential stage, showing off his rather large personal collection of lies, big and small.He pretended that his family had toiled in the White House rather than serve itself and watch TV (“People have no idea how hard this family worked”). He pretended that he respected his wife Melania, and that she was not in fact the least popular first lady on record. He fabricated once again his record of war veterans support.And he flat-out invented a performance on job creation that was the very worst since Herbert Hoover. “The job numbers have been absolutely incredible,” he declared, in ways that are indeed barely credible.
Rashaad Ricardo Shepard, 41, is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison without bond.
City police and agents from the state Attorney General’s office said they used a confidential informant this week to make a controlled buy from Shepard at his Columbia Court home. Officers were watching Shepard’s home at 5 p.m. Wednesday while a search warrant was being prepared when they saw him get into a pickup truck and travel a couple blocks to a store, according to court papers.
When police converged on the truck, they said Shepard fled on foot, attempting to hide in some brush behind a South Seventh Street home and running onto Bullitt Avenue. Officers used a Taser on the front stoop of his home and took Shepard into custody, according to court papers.
In a wallet he was holding, investigators reported finding the money used during the controlled buy. Officers retraced his route from the store and found 31 stamp bags of suspected heroin and almost 4 grams of crack cocaine, both of which appeared to have been recently dropped on the ground. Police said they seized two scales and plastic bags from his home.
(CNN)Twin suicide bombs rocked a busy market in central Baghdad on Thursday morning, killing at least 28 people and injuring 73 others, a security official told CNN.
Security forces say they pursued the two attackers before they blew themselves up. It was the first suicide attack to strike Baghdad in nearly two years.
The first bomber entered the marketplace and, pretending to be sick, asked for help, causing people to gather around him before he blew himself up, according to officials and state media. The second bomber then drove to the scene on a motorbike before detonating his explosive vest.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though it bears the hallmarks of Sunni jihadi groups who have carried out numerous similar attacks in Iraq.Double bombings were common in the country during the height of its sectarian war between 2005 and 2007.
“The twin terrorist bombings against the safe citizens of Baghdad at this time confirm the attempts and endeavors by dark groups to target the national needs and aspirations of the Iraqi people for a peaceful future,” Iraqi President Barham Salih said in a tweet. “We stand firmly against these rogue attempts to destabilize our country,” he added.
CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR DAVID CHALIAN: Those lights that are just shooting out of the Lincoln memorial along the reflecting pool, it’s like almost extensions of Joe Biden‘s arms embracing America. It was a moment where the new president came to town and sort of convened the country in this moment of remembrance, outstretching his arms…
Meanwhile, as the corporate press drools for Joe, they frantically spit on President Trump, the outgoing guy, trying to outdo each other on who’s more relieved that our national nightmare is over.
NBC ANCHOR WILLIE GEIST: A welcome sight for many Americans, President Trump is leaving Washington.
CNN ANCHOR WOLF BLITZER: It’s gonna be a little pathetic, a tiny little crowd at Joint Base Andrews.
CNN’S JIM ACOSTA: He’s almost leaving town like an autocrat.
CNN’S DANA BASH: He just looks like a small man.
NBC ANCHOR CHUCK TODD: He knows he is leaving [as] a pariah and nobody wants to be seen with him.
CNN ANCHOR DON LEMON: Four years ending with true ‘American carnage:’ A riot. A pandemic. Carnage.
It’s amazing, the emotional intensity of their conformity.
The media is so predictable you could set your watch to their lockstep.
The press are like children. Overjoyed that mommy’s deadbeat boyfriend finally moved out of the house.
Except they still can’t quit America’s bad boy.
Nope.
Trump has actually left a Trump-sized hole in their lives. And they’re trying to figure out how to fill it.
And with what?
Well, the media coverage will bounce between, softcore fluff masquerading as hard news, For example: “Hey, did you hear Joe has a Peloton, I got two sources to go on record!” to pieces remembering the awful past under the Fonzie/Godzilla hybrid that is Trump.
Dont worry, there will be no anonymous sources feeding CNN’S Blitzer false stories of Biden’s meltdowns.
What will they do after all their bitter, emotional farewells? When they realize their primary engine of profit — creating conflict and hate based on their own loathing for Trump — is finally gone.
Let’s ask Mara.
NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER MARA GAY: A lot of Americans of goodwill saw the true face of white supremacy and Trumpism at its core. … What is preventing us from coming together to fight our real enemies, like COVID, is racism. It is at the heart of what allowed Donald Trump free rein to terrorize the American people for four years.
Greg Gutfeld currently serves as host of FOX News Channel’s (FNC) The Greg Gutfeld Show (Saturdays 10-11PM/ET) and co-host of The Five (weekdays 5-6PM/ET). He joined the network in 2007 as a contributor. He is author of the new book, “The Plus: Self-Help for People Who Hate Self-Help.” Click here for more information on Greg Gutfeld.
In an exclusive interview with KDKA political editor Jon Delano, state Rep. Ed Gainey said that if Peduto couldn’t get the job done in eight years, he doesn’t deserve another four years.
In four months, Pittsburgh Democrats will choose their nominee for mayor of Pittsburgh. Last week, Peduto announced his candidacy. This Saturday, he will get a major challenger in Gainey.
“There’s no question when you look at the economic disparity, there’s a problem – the racial disparity, it’s a problem. The housing disparity, it’s a problem,” Gainey told KDKA political editor Jon Delano.“
And if you haven’t done it in eight years, you’re not going to do it in the next four. So at the end of the day, that’s why I’m running for mayor,” Gainey added.
Gainey, who says he’s more liberal than Mayor Peduto but not a Democratic socialist, implies the mayor talks a good game but hasn’t delivered.
“It’s more than just talking about what we need to do. It’s about how we execute to get it done. We can talk about it all day, but I don’t want to talk about it. I want to do it,” Gainey said.
Now in his fifth term in the state Legislature, Gainey is a life-long Pittsburgher.
Echo Realty has suffered a big setback in its controversial bid to redevelop the Shady Hill Center in Shadyside.
In a ruling issued Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment rejected the developer’s requests for a variance and special exception needed to build a six-story complex that would feature 230 apartments and a new Giant Eagle.
The proposed development would replace the current shopping center, which includes a larger Giant Eagle, at Penn and Shady avenues. The center would be demolished to make way for the new venture, which would include a two-level, 423-space parking garage.
As part of the project, Echo wanted to build a six-story structure up to 83 ½ feet high to hold the apartments, the new grocery and other retail. That’s much taller than the 60 feet and four stories allowed in the Urban Neighborhood Commercial zoning district where the project would be built. The special exception, if granted, would have given Echo the ability to build to 85 feet.
(CNN)The Bidens moved quickly on Wednesday to fire White House chief usher Timothy Harleth, who was installed by the Trumps, two sources with knowledge have confirmed to CNN.
Harleth was hired by Melania Trump in 2017 to fill the important role of chief usher. Harleth came to the White House from Trump International Hotel DC, where he was rooms manager.
First lady Jill Biden’s office did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.
Harleth took the place of Angella Reid, who was hired during the Obama administration. Reid made history when she took the job in 2011 as the first woman to serve in the position. She was previously the general manager at the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City, just outside Washington.
WASHINGTON — On his second day in office, President Joe Biden will sign 10 executive orders to ramp up Covid-19 vaccinations, expand testing and reopen schools as he outlines a detailed plan to tackle the pandemic.
The new administration will increase the number of vaccination sites by creating federal community vaccination centers in stadiums, gymnasiums and conference centers staffed with thousands of additional workers, some of them from federal agencies and the military, as well as first responders.
As if the ground-shaking events of Wednesday morning were not enough, Los Angeles got a different kind of jolt as many tuned in to the historic inauguration in Washington, D.C.
A magnitude 3.5 earthquake hit at 8:31 a.m. in Willowbrook. It was felt across the region but was too small to cause any damage. It occurred just before Kamala Harris, the former California senator, was sworn in as the first female vice president.
The earthquake’s epicenter, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, was just west of Magic Johnson Park, less than a mile from Compton and a mile from West Athens. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 11.7 miles.
Several members of the Pittsburgh Public Schools board proposed a plan to keep students in virtual learning until after Spring Break, April 6, during a board meeting on Wednesday.
The board said this would postpone the phased-in approach until after the anticipated rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine to employees.
The board will vote on the resolution at its legislative meeting next week, Jan. 27.“No one wants students back in school more than I do,” Board President Sylvia, who brought forward the resolution, said in a news release. “With COVID-19 numbers lingering in the substantial range and the genuine concerns raised by our teachers and staff of returning before the vaccine is available to them, I have to support the tough decision to postpone the return of students for in-person learning.”
Right after leaving the White House, former Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller fired off his first tweet, attacking President Joe Biden’s slew of proposed immigration policies.
Miller’s tweet came after Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States Wednesday, calling for unity in his inaugural speech amid a litany of national crises. The Biden administration released details of a broad immigration bill Wednesday, and Biden is expected to shortly issue immigration executive orders that sharply buck the Trump administration’s tough-on-immigration approach.
An FBI affidavit described preparations by the Proud Boys to storm the Capitol, including using earpieces and walkie-talkies to direct movements through the building.
SHANGHAI, Jan 20 (Reuters) – China has deployed 16 professional rescue teams and dozens of medical personnel to try to save 12 miners trapped underground for 10 days after an explosion in a gold mine in northern China’s Shandong province, state media reported.
A total of 22 miners were left trapped after an explosion on Jan. 10 at the Hushan gold mine on the outskirts of the city of Yantai on China’s eastern coast.
At least 12 were found to be still alive after a note was retrieved a week later expressing hope that the rescue work would continue.
Beijing has imposed a lockdown of 1.7 million people in part of the Chinese capital as officials race to prevent a Covid-19 resurgence in the country’s northern region from seeping into its most important city.
Daxing district in southern Beijing, where its new airport is located, has been sealed off from the rest of the country after six infections were found there. The total number of cases in Beijing stands at 15, while over a thousand infections have been found nationwide since early January, mostly in China’s vast rural northern provinces.
Borrowers will not have to make payments until October 1 at the earliest, extending the already unprecedented pause on payments by eight months.
When the economy began to shut down in response to the pandemic in March, Congress passed a sweeping relief bill that automatically suspended student loan payments and waived interest. The benefit was originally set to expire in September, but was extended by the Trump administration until January 31.
Both the pause on payments and interest waiver is automatic, but only applies to federally held loans.
That covers roughly 85% of all federal student loans, including those known as direct federal loans and PLUS loans that parents have taken out on behalf of their children. It excludes some federal loans that are guaranteed by the government but not technically held by it. Generally, those were disbursed prior to 2010.
Balances were frozen in March 2020, though borrowers are allowed to continue making payments. Those enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness payment plan will still receive credit as if they had continued paying, as long as they are still working full time for qualifying employers.