May 9, 2021 7:54 am
PITTSBURGH — Across the country, a controversial topic is being discussed in many communities, no-knock warrants. In less than two weeks, Pittsburgh voters will choose if they should be banned within city limits. Some believe from the early morning hours to late at night, police officers should not have to break down doors unannounced. In Pennsylvania, according to the Attorney General’s office they do not execute no-knock warrants. The law governing execution of search warrants provides only a limited exception for exigent circumstances including where occupants remain silent after repeated knocking and announcing, where police are virtually certain that occupants of premises already know their purpose, where police have reason to believe that an announcement prior to entry would imperil their safety and where police have reason to believe that evidence is about to be destroyed.
May 9, 2021 4:57 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania is doing away with its own map of vaccine providers and says people looking for a COVID-19 shot should go to the federal government’s provider map. The state Health Department said Friday it will use vaccines.gov as its mapping source effective immediately. That map allows people to search for COVID-19 vaccine by brand name and see which providers have vaccine in stock. Information from the site also shows up in Apple Maps and Google Maps. The map was developed by Boston Children’s Hospital, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
May 9, 2021 4:37 am
PITTSBURGH-(WPXI) — A Pittsburgh-area doctor is facing federal charges, accused of unlawfully distributing opioids and performing unnecessary injections for profit. According to the indictment, Dr. John Keun Sang Lee, 78, of Peters Township, spent years prescribing oxycodone, fentanyl and other painkillers “not for a legitimate medical purpose.” He is also accused of performing “repetitive and medically unnecessary injections on patients, in many cases for several years and, at times, directly against the patient’s express wishes, in order to increase revenue.” The federal documents further allege he defrauded Medicare and Medicaid. Dr. Lee is the owner of Jefferson Pain and Rehabilitation Center, which has a main office on Clairton Boulevard in Whitehall. A biography on his website states he is also a staff member at Jefferson Hospital and UPMC McKeesport. A UPMC spokesperson stated that Dr. Lee is not employed by UPMC and does not work at any of its sites. Dr. Lee has entered a “not guilty” plea and was released on a $20,000 unsecured bond. Despite the objection from federal prosecutors, a judge is reportedly allowing Dr. Lee to continue practicing and prescribing until May 28, providing time for his patients to transition to another practice, officials said. During that time, Dr. Lee is required to report to the U.S. Attorney’s Office on a weekly basis, before surrendering his DEA license on May 28.
May 9, 2021 3:28 am
Pennsylvania officials are encouraging hundreds of thousands of college students to get their shots before they go home for summer. Gov. Tom Wolf appeared in State College on Wednesday with the president and head football coach at Penn State University to pitch younger people on the benefits of getting inoculated against the coronavirus. Penn State President Eric Barron calls it “the most important effort of our lifetime.” He says he calls on “all Penn Staters to lead now.” Statewide, vaccine demand is starting to wane. The Health Department says that vaccine supply exceeded demand for the first time last week.
May 8, 2021 9:28 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump Justice Department secretly seized the phone records of three Washington Post reporters who covered the federal investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. That’s according to a report from the newspaper on Friday. The disclosure sets up a new clash between the federal government and news organizations and advocates for press freedom. The secret subpoena was presumably aimed at identifying the reporters’ sources in national security stories published in the early months of President Trump’s administration, as federal investigators scrutinized whether his 2016 campaign had coordinated with the Kremlin to sway the election.
May 8, 2021 9:27 am
PHOENIX (AP) – The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate is telling the U.S. Justice Department that ballots it is recounting from November’s presidential election are secure and the department’s worries about voter intimidation are unfounded. Senate President Karen Fann’s letter on Friday comes two days after the department’s Civil Rights Division sought assurances that 2.1 million ballots from the state’s most populous county were secured as federal law requires. The department also said contacting voters during the unprecedented election audit could amount to illegal voter intimidation. Former President Donald Trump and his supporters allege without evidence that he lost Arizona and other battleground states because of fraud.
May 8, 2021 9:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller is scheduled to testify next week about the Pentagon’s role in responding to the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. It’s the latest in a series of high-profile congressional hearings centered on the insurrection. Miller is expected to appear Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee alongside former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen in one of several Jan. 6-related hearings scheduled for next week. Miller will almost certainly be asked to respond to complaints raised at previous hearings that the Defense Department took too long to dispatch the National Guard to the Capitol. Defense leaders have denied that there was a delayed response.
May 8, 2021 9:21 am
PORTO, Portugal (AP) – European Union leaders have cranked up their criticism of the U.S. call to waive COVID-19 vaccine patents, arguing the move would bring no short or midterm relief. They instead urged Washington to lift export restrictions if it wants to have a global impact on the pandemic. The U.S. has kept a tight lid on exports of American-made vaccines so it can inoculate its own population first. Meanwhile, the EU has become the world’s leading provider, allowing about as many doses to go outside the 27-nation bloc as are kept for its 446 million inhabitants. The EU says the U.S. position on patent waivers is not a “magic bullet.”
May 8, 2021 9:19 am
JERUSALEM (AP) – The Palestinian emergency service says more than 200 people were wounded in a night of heavy clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and elsewhere in Jerusalem, where tensions have soared in recent weeks. Nightly protests broke out at the start of the holy month of Ramadan over police restrictions in a popular gathering place and have reignited in recent days over threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinians from their homes in east Jerusalem, which is claimed by both sides in the decades-old conflict. Israelis and Palestinians are bracing for more unrest in the coming days.
May 8, 2021 9:17 am
BAGHDAD (AP) – The U.S. coalition and Iraq’s military say a drone strike targeted a military base in Iraq that hosts U.S. troops. There were no casualties. The attack on the Ain al-Assad base early on Saturday morning caused only minor damage. Coalition spokesman Col. Wayne Marotto says a hangar was damaged. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. The U.S. has blamed Iran-backed militia groups for previous attacks, most of them rocket attacks that have targeted the American presence in Baghdad and military bases across Iraq. Drone strikes are less common.
