October 30, 2021 4:20 am
VATICAN CITY (AP) – President Joe Biden and Pope Francis have wrapped up their meeting at the Vatican. The world’s two most notable Roman Catholics were set to discuss issues of common interest, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and poverty during their session Friday. Biden’s one-on-one meeting with the pope lasted about 75 minutes, an unusually long time for an audience with the pontiff. The president takes pride in his Catholic faith, and uses it as moral guidepost to shape many of his policies. But his support for abortion rights and same-sex marriage has put him at odds with many U.S. bishops.
October 30, 2021 4:17 am
ROME – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the U.K. will donate 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to developing countries as part of efforts to share vaccines with countries that sorely lack them. Johnson made the announcement as he arrived in Rome for a summit of Group of 20 leaders, which starts Saturday. The U.K. says 10 million doses have been sent to the United Nations-backed COVAX vaccine-sharing program, and 10 million more will follow in the coming weeks. They join 10 million doses that have already been delivered, and form part of Britain’s commitment to share 100 million doses with needier nations by mid-2022. Johnson urged the club of economic powers to push to vaccinate the world by the end of 2022, saying that “our first priority as the G-20 must be to press ahead with the rapid, equitable and global distribution of vaccines.” Britain and other wealthy nations have been accused of hoarding more vaccines than they need, while some countries, especially in Africa, have few or none. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a World Health Organization health envoy, has urged G-20 nations to speed things up and airlift unused doses to the developing world. The British leader also is hoping to focus the G-20’s minds on climate commitments as he prepares to host a U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, starting Sunday.
October 30, 2021 4:16 am
CLEVELAND (AP) – One of the four retail pharmacy companies on trial for their alleged roles in fostering an opioid crisis in two Ohio counties announced Friday it had settled a lawsuit with 10 government entities in the state. The settlement announced Friday by Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle includes Ohio’s Lake and Trumbull counties. The counties’ federal lawsuits against CVS, Walgreens and Walmart continue in a bellwether trial in Cleveland. The agreement was announced in a joint statement by Giant Eagle and the plaintiffs committee for the nearly 3,000 government agencies and tribal entities nationwide that have filed opioid-related lawsuits supervised by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster. No settlement terms were announced.
October 30, 2021 3:44 am
(WPXI) – A Uniontown woman is facing criminal homicide charges for her 11-year-old son’s death in August. According to an affidavit, Ashleigh Lee called 911 to her Collins Avenue home where she reported her son was “unresponsive and cold to the touch.” She told officers she had last talked to her son at 4 a.m. on Aug. 12 and checked on him again at 2 p.m., when she thought he was still sleeping. When she went to wake him up at 10:30 p.m., 19 hours after she’d last spoken with him, that’s when she found him unresponsive, according to the affidavit. Lee allowed officers to search her home and, according to the affidavit, they found drug paraphernalia with suspected residue throughout the residence and other “controlled substances.” The affidavit goes on to say that all that was found in places where the 11-year-old would’ve had access to them. Toxicology reports came back on Oct. 13 and showed the 11-year-old had “an acute, combined lethal drug toxicity of fentanyl, heroin, and morphine, free with the use of amphetamines.” His cause of death was ruled Acute Combined Drug Toxicity of Fentanyl-Heroin and Morphine free with the use of Amphetamines.” Lee was charged Thursday with criminal homicide, endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person, possession of controlled substances and paraphernalia.
October 29, 2021 3:50 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Food and Drug Administration has paved the way for children ages 5 to 11 to get Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. The agency authorized the kid-size doses on Friday. But there’s one more regulatory hurdle. Next week, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will discuss which youngsters should get vaccinated. In the meantime, Pfizer plans to begin shipping millions of vials of the pediatric vaccine to doctor’s offices, pharmacies and other vaccination sites. The kid-size doses are just a third of the amount given to teens and adults. (Photo: ABC News)
October 29, 2021 4:22 am
A woman escaped a fire overnight in Charleroi but was still flown by medical helicopter to UPMC Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh for smoke inhalation. The fire broke out just before midnight at a home in the 12-hundred block of Shady Avenue. There is no word on the identity or condition of the woman. Fire officials say the blaze was knocked down quickly but there is no word on what may have sparked the fire.
October 29, 2021 4:12 am
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – A sheriff’s officer has accused former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of groping a woman in an investigation stemming from the scandal that drove him from office earlier this year. But prosecutors said Thursday they didn’t know the document had been filed. And the woman’s attorney said she hadn’t been consulted. The brief complaint accused Cuomo of putting his hand under a woman’s shirt last December. The document didn’t name the woman but Cuomo had been publicly accused of groping aide Brittany Commisso at the executive mansion in Albany around then. Cuomo’s lawyer accused the sheriff’s office of acting improperly.
October 29, 2021 4:11 am
NEW YORK (AP) – New York City is bracing for a worker shortage as its COVID-19 vaccine mandate looms and tens of thousands of municipal employees remain unvaccinated. Police officers, firefighters, garbage collectors and most other city workers face a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to show proof they’ve gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Workers who don’t comply will be put on unpaid leave starting Monday. Mayor Bill de Blasio held firm on the mandate as firefighters rallied Thursday outside his official residence, sanitation workers appeared to be skipping garbage pick ups in protest and the city’s largest police union went to an appeals court seeking a halt to the vaccine requirement.
October 29, 2021 4:10 am
SAN DIEGO (AP) – The U.S. Justice Department is in talks to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to each child and parent who was separated under a Trump-era practice of splitting families at the border. The Wall Street Journal first reported that the government was considering payments around $450,000 to each person affected. A person familiar with the talks tells The Associated Press that figure was under consideration but changed, though not dramatically. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private. About 5,500 children were split from their parents under the practice.
October 29, 2021 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden says he has reached a “historic” framework with Democrats in Congress on his sweeping, though scaled-back domestic policy plan. But he still must nail down votes from a few skeptical fellow Democrats. Biden announced the framework at the White House after he traveled early Thursday to Capitol Hill to pitch House Democrats. The proposal is now $1.75 trillion and without a paid family leave program and other priorities. But it’s still robust with new health care, free-prekindergarten and climate change programs. He wanted a deal before he departed in the afternoon for global summits in Europe. But votes are still a ways off, as lawmakers push for more.
