BACKYARD BROADCASTING LOCAL NEWS NOVEMBER 11, 2020

LOCAL JUDGE ASKED TO BE INVOLVED IN EMERGENCY ORDER REQUEST
A Williamsport Judge has been asked to issue an emergency order to stop election boards in seven counties and to keep Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar from certifying the results from the general election.  According to the Sun Gazette, US Middle District Judge Matthew W. Brann  will review the suit, filed by Donald J Trump for President incorporated and two electors from Lancaster and Fayette County.  The plaintiffs allege in 85 pages that Democratic voters were treated more favorably than republican voters – but no instances of voter fraud were included.  The seven counties where this applies are Allegheny, Centre, Chester, Delaware Montgomery, Northampton and Philadelphia.  Officials in Philadelphia say there is n o evidence to support any of the allegations.  Judge Brann ordered a conference call with all the attorneys to be initiated by the plaintiff.

POWER OUTAGE CAUSE BY BLOWN TRANSFORMER
A brief electrical outage  Tuesday afternoon was caused by an exploding transformer in the Newberry neighborhood of Williamsport.  According to the Sun Gazette, there was an explosion at the mini-substation behind JPW Industries, around the 3600 block of West Fourth Street about 4:45 pm.  Witnesses said flames went into the air, and the fire quickly went out, but not before sparks from the explosion set some nearby brush on fire.  PPL said that some customers experienced an outage in Old Lycoming Township, near Wahoo Drive and that power was restored by 5pm

COVID-19 FUNDING FOR 15 SMALL BUSINESSES
Several small businesses in Lycoming County benefited from county COVID-19 relief funding with the recent approval by the Lycoming County Commissioners.  According to the Sun Gazette, the over 137 thousand dollars in grant funding is part of over 10 million dollars in monies that need to be spent by the end of the year.    The commissioners noted in yesterday’s meeting that the money does have requirements for its use.  Fifteen small businesses were on the list of recipients, including a few restaurants and fitness companies as well as the Central PA Tennis Center.

BRIEF HISTORY OF VETERAN’S DAY
It’s Veterans Day – a day set aside to thank and honor living veterans who served honorably in the military – in wartime or peacetime.  The day was formerly known as Armistice Day, a legal US holiday honoring the end of World War I, which officially took place on November 11, 1918.  But in 1954, the 83rd U.S. Congress passed legislation changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day instead and became a day to honor American veterans of all wars. Gerald Ford led the legislation to make it a federal holiday celebrated on November 11th in 1975.

GARRITY UPSETS TORSELLA FOR STATE TREASURER
Bradford County’s Stacy Garrity of Athens has created a stunning upset of incumbent Joe Torsella after being declared the winner in the Pennsylvania state treasurer race yesterday , the first Republican to win the office since 2000 and the first time an incumbent Democrat has lost statewide office since 1994. According to media outlets, Joe Torsella, conceded the race yesterday afternoon.  Stacy Garrity was the underdog, only spending  $260,000 compared to Torsella’s over $2 million campaign.

LYCOMING COUNTY COVID UPDATE
Lycoming County has 10 new cases of the Coronavirus and there are 29 new cases confirmed in Northumberland County. Lycoming County has 20 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 2 are on ventilators; Montour County reported 4 new cases with 33 patients  hospitalized there and  7 on ventilators. Tioga County has also reported 19 new cases.  According to the  Pennsylvania Department of Health, statewide yesterday,  there were 4,361 additional positive cases of COVID-19.  As of Monday there were 62 new deaths reported.

ROLLING ROADBLOCK TOMORROW
Drivers are reminded of a rolling roadblock to pull utility cable across the interstate starting tomorrow at 9am.  Thursday morning Interstate 80 westbound and eastbound in Liberty Township, Montour County, will see the activity west of the Route 54 interchange – Danville exit 224. For westbound traffic, the roadblock will begin at mile marker 223 and will continue to mile marker 220. For eastbound traffic, the roadblock will begin at mile marker 220 and continue to mile marker 223. Mile marker 220 is approximately 5 miles east of the Route 254 interchange.

WAYS TO DESTROY SPOTTED LANTERNFLY EGGS
The spotted lantern fly is heading this way and Penn State extension has issued suggestions on identifying and destroying egg masses of the Spotted Lanternfly.  The invasive species of insect has caused “quarantining” of the egg masses found in several counties of Pennsylvania, one of which now includes Northumberland County.  Experts say spotted Lanternfly egg masses are yellow or brown and are about 1.5 inch rows of small eggs, the size of a pencil point. They can be scraped up and destroyed with rubbing alcohol then disposed of in the trash, smashed or burned. A video on removing egg masses can be found at extension.psu.edu.

SPORTS

NFL
Four Steelers players were put on the reserve/COVID-19 list yesterday, including QB Ben Roethlisburger, offensive lineman Jerald Hawkins, running back Jaylen Samuels and linebacker Vince Williams.  Tight end Vance McDonald was placed on the list Monday.  Each will be isolated for 5 days.  The only way players can be eligible to play against the Bengals Sunday will be to pass COVID tests throughout the week

NFL owners began planning for the possibility that their 2020 regular season will be cut short by COVID-19 cancellations, after  a two-hour video meeting yesterday. Commissioner Roger Goodell said he wants to complete its full regular season as scheduled, But after the league saw a sharp rise in confirmed cases, Goodell has planned a potential alternative including  expanding its postseason from 14 to 16 teams, split equally between the AFC and NFC. A total of 56 NFL employees, including 15 players and 41 staff members, returned confirmed positive tests between Nov. 1-7.

Upcoming High School games
PIAA Class AAAA playoffs
Friday
HS Football
Jersey Shore vs. Crestwood @ Danville 7pm
Saturday
Boys Soccer
Williamsport vs. District 3 Champ TBD
Girls Soccer
Williamsport vs. District 11 Champ TBD

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