PA COVID-19 stats for day after Christmas

Coronavirus pennsylvania
A man protecting himself from the elements and the coronavirus in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. (Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

By Janet Pickel |Patriot News

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 14,755 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, covering a two-day period because of the holiday.

Across Pennsylvania, 605,141 people have contracted COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic early this year.

Statewide, 14,883 deaths have been tied to the virus, including 139 reported by Thursday night and 26 reported on Christmas, the health department said.

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Pennsylvania has seen a December surge in cases, with daily numbers climbing above 10,000 – five times the worst seen in spring – and the number of deaths sometimes topping 200 per day.

The number of hospitalizations also has risen dramatically in recent weeks. According to the health department, 5,925 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized. Of those, 1,196 are in intensive care units.

A state shutdown on indoor dining, youth sports, indoor gyms and casinos is in effect until Jan. 4. Some restaurants violating the ban have been warned or even shut down.

Testing has increased from the spring, but so has the percentage of those tests proving to be positive. Of those who’ve had a test in the past seven days, 15.8% were positive. Anything over 5% shows significant community spread of COVID-19.

Most of the patients hospitalized, and most of those who’ve died, are ages 65 or older, the state said. Nursing homes have struggled with the spread of the virus.

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N.J. reports 5,095 new COVID-19 cases, 51 more deaths

Nicholas Costa, center, a first grade student at St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark reacts during a COVID-19 throat swab test as his mother, Analisa Branco,watches.Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

By Avalon Zoppo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

New Jersey reported another 5,095 cases of the coronavirus and 51 additional confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Christmas Day, while the statewide transmission rate fell further below the key benchmark of 1.

Gov. Phil Murphy has urged residents to keep gatherings small with only people in their immediate family bubble during Christmas and New Years celebrations to avoid a surge following the holidays.

“Stay safe as you we celebrate the holidays. Social distance. Mask up,” Murphy said in a tweet Friday.

The state had reported 80 additional deaths on Thursday.

The statewide rate of transmission dropped for the 12th straight day, from 0.96 to 0.95,the lowest it’s been since Sept. 2.

Any number over 1 means each person who gets COVID-19 is spreading the disease to more than one person, and getting the rate below 1 is considered key to suppressing the pandemic.

Statewide hospitalizations dropped to 3,669 patients being treated for confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases as of Thursday night. That’s much lower than the more than 8,000 patients at the peak of the first wave in April. Hospitalizations have hovered above 3,500 since Dec. 8.

The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care rose to 753 from 749, and the number on ventilators remained the same at 524.

The seven-day average for daily new cases increased Friday to 4,597. That’s down 4% from a week ago, but up 12% from a month ago.

Officials say the largest percentage of recent new cases — more than 60% — are a result of transmission in private settings and are coming from all over the state.

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Who is Charles Kushner? The disgraced N.J. developer was just pardoned by Trump

Charles Kushner
Charles Kushner arrives at the Kintock halfway house in Newark in 2006 photo. (NOAH K. MURRAY/THE STAR-LEDGER)

By Chris Sheldon and Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com 

Charles Kushner, the father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared, who is a senior advisor to Trump, was granted a full pardon Wednesday night by the president.

Kushner was one of 26 people granted a full pardon by Trump, who also commuted part or all of the sentences of an additional three people.

Kushner’s history in the Garden State is long and involves a nearly two-year prison sentence for a bizarre tax fraud case.

A son of Holocaust survivors, Kushner grew up in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Elizabeth, where his father Joseph worked as a carpenter and later as a builder who acquired and managed small properties.

A 1976 graduate of New York University, Kushner earned an MBA and law degree, and practiced law for four years before leaving to open a real estate business with his father and his wife’s brother.

Together, they built a sprawling real estate empire, with more than $3 billion in property in New Jersey and beyond. The business built itself mostly on acquisitions of existing properties, making money by renovating or improving the structures to generate higher rents.

But the structure of Kushner’s varied businesses and its Byzantine array of partnerships also turned out to be an efficient political fund-raising mechanism known as “bundling” that Kushner took to new levels, allowing him to use his real estate empire to fuel a political agenda on high octane.

He supported Gov. James McGreevey, Cory Booker in his first run against Newark Mayor Sharpe James, and the Bill Clinton campaign.

He was a player in state and national politics and would host fundraising events for President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who all paid calls to his offices in Florham Park, or his home in Livingston.

Kushner was the single largest campaign contributor to McGreevey when he ran in 2001 and was later named by the governor to become the powerful chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Charles Kushner
Charles Kushner in a 2002 photo. (WILLIAM PERLMAN | THE STAR-LEDGER)Star-Ledger file photo

What was Charles Kushner’s scandal?

Kushner came under federal investigation after a bitter family dispute with former partner and brother, Murray, over the accounting for campaign contributions in a case was pursued by then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.

Kushner later admitted to defrauding the IRS of between $200,000 and $325,000 by filing 16 tax returns that claimed those political contributions as “office expenses” and acknowledged that he lied to the Federal Election Commission when he reported $385,000 in political contributions from his business partners. The partners claimed they were unaware of the donations.

Authorities also charged that Kushner had paid $25,000 to arrange for a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, and then had the videotape of the motel tryst sent to his sister.

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NJ teachers PAC again the main funder of Murphy-linked non-profit

Garden State Forward gave New Direction New Jersey $6 million since last September

New Jersey Education Association President Marie Blistan. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for the New Jersey Globe)

By Nikita Biryukov, NJ Globe

The state’s largest teacher’s union again provided a non-profit run by allies of Gov. Phil Murphy with the bulk of its funding in 2020.

A donor list released by New Direction New Jersey, a 501(c)(4) non-profit created to advocate for Murphy’s policy and political agendas, the group received $6 million in contributions from Garden State Forward, a super PAC formed and funded solely by the New Jersey Education Association, in 2020 and the last three months of 2019.

That $6 million accounted for the vast majority of the more than $6.5 million New Direction received in 2020. Most of the money left over also came from labor groups.

Spending groups backed by the carpenters union gave a combined $250,000, and the Communications Workers of America contributed $127,000.

GP Management LLC, a firm specializing in corporate getaways and with ties to Formula One, gave the group $100,000. HNTB, an architectural company, gave $50,000, and Lyft donated $5,000.

The remaining money was given in small-dollar donations by individuals.

Though New Direction caused a frenzy among legislative Democrats in 2018 with ads Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Woodbridge) said were an attempt to exert pressure on their members, those tensions have largely cooled.

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UPDATE: Nashville explosion called ‘an intentional act’

A building is damaged near the area where an explosion was reported on Friday, Dec. 25, 2020 in Nashville, Tenn. Buildings shook in the immediate area and beyond after a loud boom was heard early Christmas morning. (Andrew Nelles/The Tennessean via AP)

By The Associated Press

An explosion linked to a vehicle rocked downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, sending shattered glass and debris over a wide area and rocking nearby buildings.

Police called the explosion “an intentional act” after earlier saying it was not suspicious.

The Metro Nashville Police Department said via Twitter that the explosion occurred at 6:30 a.m. Friday and that state and federal authorities were on the scene, as were emergency crews including the fire department.

RV that exploded in Nashville broadcast a message warning of imminent blast

‘Announcements coming’ from RV in Nashville before it exploded
Massive downtown Nashville explosion

Black smoke and flames were seen early Friday billowing from the area, which is packed with bars, restaurants and other retail establishments and is known as the heart of downtown Nashville’s tourist scene.

Emergency personnel work near the scene of an explosion in downtown Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 25, 2020.

Buildings shook in the immediate area and beyond after a loud boom was heard.

The Metro Nashville Office of Emergency Management told Nashville television station WKRN that a parked recreational vehicle exploded and damaged several buildings. No injuries were immediately reported. The fire department sent out a tweet asking residents and others to avoid the area.

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Buck McCoy, who lives near the area, posted videos on Facebook that show water pouring down the ceiling of his home. Alarms blare in the background and cries of people in great distress ring in the background. A fire is visible in the street outside. McCoy said the windows of his home were entirely blown out.

“All my windows, every single one of them got blown into the next room. If I had been standing there it would have been horrible,” he said.

“It felt like a bomb. It was that big,” he told The Associated Press.

“There were about four cars on fire. I don’t know if it was so hot they just caught on fire, and the trees were all blown apart,” he said.

Related news stories:
Explosion in Downtown Nashville Draws Emergency Response (NY Times)
Explosion in Nashville that damaged dozens of buildings is believed to be an intentional act (CNN)

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