The LuLac Edition #4,448, December 31st, 2020

 TOP TEN STORIES IN LULAC LAND 2020

1. COVID AFFECTS COUNTY HEALTH AND LIVES  he Pennsylvania Department of Health on Saturday reported 263 new cases of COVID-19 in Luzerne County and the death count is at 423. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Luzerne County to 16,285. Neighboring Lackawanna County has 8,189 cases and 261 deaths; Monroe County has 5,687 cases and 190 deaths. The Department of Health confirmed that there were 7,581 additional positive cases of COVID-19 on Friday, and on Saturday, there were 7,174 additional positive cases bringing the statewide total to 605,141. There are 5,925 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19, nearly double the peak in the spring. Of that number, 1,196 patients are in the intensive care unit with COVID-19. Most of the patients hospitalized are ages 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients 65 or older.he trend in the 14-day moving average of number of hospitalized patients per day has increased by nearly 5,600 since the end of September. Statewide percent positivity for the week of Dec. 11–Dec. 17, stood at 15.8%. As of 11:59 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 24, there were 139 new deaths reported and as of 11:59 p.m., Friday, Dec. 25, there were 26 new deaths reported for a total of 14,883 deaths attributed to COVID-19. (Times Leader, Bill O’Boyle 12/26/2020)

2. TRUMP CARRIES THE LU, LOSES THE LAC BUT PROTESTORS STORM THE LUZERNE COUNTY VOTING OFFICE Donald Trump once more carried Luzerne County but with about 6,000 votes less than he did in ‘6. In fact, the Biden strategy was to cut down the margin of victory in Trump strongholds because they just needed to make up 44,000 votes total statewide. Biden carried the state by much more than Trump did in ’16.

In neighboring Lackawanna County, hometown boy Joe Biden carried the Lac. But after the election when the counting was still going on, the people from the losing county decided to protest in front of the election building  of the county that Trump carried.

Inexplicable stupidity? Trumpanzees logic for sure.

 3. CARTWRIGHT WINS IN LUZERNE COUNTY….Congressman Matt Cartwright representing the 8^th, Dan Meuser representing the 9^th and Fred Keller of the 12 all win re-election. Cartwright actually passed 5 bills in his time in office and Meuser and Keller disgraced themselves by joining a bogus lawsuit that would have invalidated their own elections.   

4. MAYOR COGNETTI TAKES OFFICE: Scranton’s newly elected Chief Paige Cognetti took office this year. She won as an Independent and has been holding regional meetings with other city leaders in LuLac land.  

5. ROOF BLOWS OFF CITY HALL IN WILKES BARRE IN THE MIDST OF COVID  On Easter Monday, a horrific wind storm blew off the roof at Wilkes-Barre City Hall. It took 8 weeks to repair and get City Hall personnel back at 40 East Market.  

6. COLLEGES, SCHOOLS  ON LOCKDOWN DURE TO COVID Due to Covid 19, classes were altered in area schools, some educators were laid off and graduations of high school and college turned virtual.

7. SCRANTON DIOCESE CEASES IN PERSON MASSES On March 14^th the Scranton Diocese degreed that all Masses would stop at various churches in the Diocese. Many of the churches did You Tube Masses until  limited attendance was allowed in the summer.

 

8. COUNTY ELECTION BOARD VOTES NO TO CERTIFY ELECTION County officials in Pennsylvania on Monday voted 3-2 on party lines to certify the results of the 2020 election in Luzerne County—a county where President Donald Trump defeated President-elect Joe Biden by more than 20,000 votes. But in a partisan twist that may shed light on the Trump campaign’s larger legal strategy, the two members of the Luzerne County Board of Elections who voted against certification were Republicans, while the three who voted in favor were all Democrats, according to Politico’s Holly Otterbein. After remotely hearing comments from citizens about the county’s election procedures for more than an hour, Democratic board members Jeanette Tait, Peter Ouellette and Audrey Serniak voted to certify the election results while Republicans Keith Gould and Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt voted against it. (Dan Abrams Law Blog)

9. COMING AND GOINGS FROM THE LULAC POLICE BLOTTER:  Bill Courtwright former Mayor of Scranton was sentenced to prison and former County Commissioner Robert Codero was release from  his time. In Luzerne County former Judge Mark Civarella is asking for release due to CoVid.

10. MINOR LEAGUE SPORTS FALL VICTIM TO COVID: The minor league seasons all were a victim of Ovid. There was no RailRiders or Hockey action this year. Fourth of July celebrations were cancelled but many residents used their stimulus money to buy fireworks in an attempt to replicate the big bangs in both the Lu And The Lac.

The LuLac Edition #4,447, December 30th, 2020

 

TOP 5 PENNSYLVANIA STORIES

1.  THE COVID CRISIS: Pennsylvanians were briefed daily by Governor Wolf and Secretary Levine. A color code system was set up for counties who were in lockdown. Red indicated very little movement. By May Luzerne ws in green followed closely by Scranton in June.

 

2.  PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION The state became a beehive of activity for both national parties. Both major candidates, Biden and Trump as well as their surrogates were frequent visitors.

 

3.  MAIL IN VOTING This became the norm in the June primary but advocates for the President began to issue false news that there was widespread ballot fraud in the election. The Trump campaign petitioned state courts  but their ridiculous claims were  thrown out. There were only 3 cases of voter fraud in the state where men who supported the President tried to get their dead mothers to cast a vote for Diaper Don. THREE!

 

4.  ROW OFFICE UPSETS: With little money Stacey Garrision beat incumbent State Treasurer Joe Torsella. He was seen as possibly running for Senate or Governor. For Auditor General Nina Ahmed was beaten by Dauphin County Controller Tim DeFoor who had little name recognition and money. Josh Shapiro staved off a challenge and remained as Attorney General.

 

5.   THE KEYSTONE STATE GOES BACK TO BLUE Pennsylvania did in deed go for Biden and helped secure the Scranton native his win for the Presidency.  

The LuLac Edition #4,466, December 30th, 2020

 

7.     

TOP 10 NATIONAL STORIES

1  1. COVID VIRUS The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). More than 19,500,000 confirmed cases have been reported since January 2020, resulting in more than 337,000 deaths, the most of any country and the fourteenth-highest on a per capita basis. COVID-19 became the third leading cause of death in the US in 2020, behind only heart disease and cancer. Other killings of black men and women gunned down by police soawned a reinvigoration of the Black Lives movement.

.  2.     GEORGE FLOYD KILLING AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS            On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while being arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. During the arrest Derek Chauvin, a white police officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, knelt on Floyd's neck for about nine and a half minutes[a] after he was handcuffed and lying face down. Two police officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd, while another officer, Tou Thao, prevented bystanders from interfering with the arrest and intervening as events unfolded.

3.      PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.[a] The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and incumbent U.S. senator from California Kamala Harris defeated the Republican ticket of incumbent president Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence.[Trump became the first U.S. president since George H. W. Bush in 1992 and the eleventh incumbent in the country's history to lose a bid for a second term, and Biden won the largest share of the popular vote against an incumbent since 1932. The election saw the highest voter turnout since 1900, with each of the two main tickets receiving more than 74 million votes, surpassing Barack Obama's record of 69.5 million votes from 2008. Biden received more than 81 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a candidate in a U.S. presidential election.

 4.      AFTERMATH OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION after Election Day, Trump and numerous Republicans attempted to subvert the election and overturn the results, falsely alleging widespread voter fraud and trying to influence the vote counting process in swing states. Attorney General William Barr and officials in each of the 50 states found no evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities in the election. Federal agencies overseeing election security said it was the most secure in American history. The Trump campaign and its allies, including Republican members of Congress, still continued to engage in numerous attempts to overturn the results of the election by filing dozens of legal challenges in several states, most of which were dropped or dismissed by various courts, spreading conspiracy theories falsely alleging fraud, pressuring Republican state electors and legislators, and refusing to cooperate with the presidential transition in what was described by some as an attempted coup. On multiple occasions, Trump refused to concede and falsely declared himself the winner.

    5. THE BIDEN CAMPAIGN RESURRECTION Joe Biden was left for dead after the first few primaries. He lost in Iowa and had a terrible defeat in New Hampshire. His campaign was out of money. But North Carolina saved his candidacy. {Primarily black women voters came to his rescue.) He then went on, with very little money to win a string of primaries putting him over the top by early spring. Democratic voters decided the best candidate to blunt Trump’s inexperience and inability to learn was someone seasoned and sensible.  Other events overshadowed this astounding political accomplishment but we are noting it here.

6.      THE DEATH OF RUTH BADER GINSBURG AND ITS AFTERMATH   Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, died from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer on September 18, 2020, at the age of 87. Her death received immediate and significant public attention; a vigil at the Supreme Court plaza in Washington, D.C., was held that same evening. Memorials and vigils were held in several U.S. cities, including Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco. Ginsburg became the first woman to lie in repose at the Supreme Court Building, between September 23 and 24, a longer-than-usual period. On September 25, she lay in state at the Capitol, becoming the first woman and first Jewish person to do so. A private interment service was held at Arlington National Cemetery on September 29.President Trump's decision to quickly proceed with the nomination of a replacement for Ginsburg on the Supreme Court appeared to bring back together and energize the anti-abortion Evangelicals and conservatives, some of whom had begun to drift away from Trump. As a White House official told The Washington Post shortly after Ginsburg's death: "This is an animating issue for the entire right. It unifies everybody from Mitt Romney to the most hardcore MAGA Trump person out there at a time when Trump needed that. President Trump indicated that he specifically wanted Ginsburg's replacement on the Supreme Court to be confirmed by the November 3 election date because he expected the court to resolve the disputes about the election outcome.On September 26, Trump officially announced his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett.

      7.  THE IMPEACHMENT OF DONALD TRUMP The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is acquitted by the Senate on both Article I (48 yea 52 nay) and Article II (47 yea 53 nay) of Impeachment.

.    8.   THE MARKET 2020 stock market crash: The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) plunges by 1,190.95 points, or 4.4%, to close at 25,766.64, its largest one-day point decline at the time. This follows several days of large falls, marking the worst week for the index since 2008, triggered by fears of the spreading COVID-19

    9.  VACCINE:  The first successful phase III trial of a COVID-19 vaccine is announced by drug companies Pfizer and  BioNTech, which is 90% effective according to interim results

10.  STIMULUS BILL: Democrats in the U.S. Congress on Monday will try to push through expanded $2,000 pandemic relief payments for Americans after President Donald Trump backed down from a fight with lawmakers that could have shut down the federal government. In a sudden reversal late on Sunday, Trump signed into law a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package, restoring unemployment benefits to millions of Americans and providing funds to keep government agencies running.

(AP, wikipedia, LuLac)