April 26, 2021 4:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House says the U.S. will begin sharing its entire stock of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines with the world once it clears federal safety reviews. As many as 60 million doses are expected to be available for export in the coming months. The move greatly expands on the Biden administration’s action last month to share about 4 million doses of the vaccine with Mexico and Canada. The AstraZeneca drug is widely in use around the world but has not yet been authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The White House is increasingly assured about the supply of the three vaccines being administered in the U.S.
April 26, 2021 4:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department is opening a sweeping probe into policing in Louisville, Kentucky over the March 2020 death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death by police during a raid at her home. The 26-year-old Taylor, emergency medical technician had been studying to become a nurse, was roused from sleep by police who came through the door using a battering ram. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired once. A no-knock warrant was approved as part of a narcotics investigation. No drugs were found at her home. Monday’s announcement was made by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
April 26, 2021 4:24 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Kamala Harris is making the case before United Nations members that now is the time for global leaders to begin working on how they will respond to the next global pandemic. The virtual address Monday was Harris’ second to a U.N. body since her inauguration. It comes as the United States makes progress on vaccinating the public and much of the world struggles to acquire vaccines. Harris told the U.N. members, “At the same time that the world works to get through this pandemic, we also know that we must prepare for the next.”
April 26, 2021 4:21 am
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Monday that more than eight-million vaccination doses have been administered, with more than three-point-two-million residents fully vaccinated. According to the CDC, as of Monday morning, Pennsylvania has administered first doses of vaccine to more than forty-seven-percent of its eligible population, and the state ranks 10th among all 50 states for first doses administered by percentage of population. Pennsylvania ranks 5th among all 50 states for total doses administered, according to a news release. COVID cases are continuing to climb – but state health officials say they are still below what they were at the height of the spring peak on May 3, 2020. Statewide percent positivity for the week of April 16 – April 22 decreased to 8.6 percent. Statewide, there were more than five-thousand new COVID cases reported over a forty-eight-hour period, and just five new deaths. In Washington County, there were fifty new cases and no new deaths. Allegheny County reported 311 new cases and one new death and in Greene County, there was one new death and four new coronavirus infections.
April 26, 2021 4:19 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – A Pittsburgh woman is wanted after police stated that she hit a man with a vehicle on Tuesday, killing him, before driving off. Ausha Brown, 25, is wanted on homicide charges after the incident in the 7600 block of Kelly Street. Pittsburgh police officers were flagged down by two women who directed them to a man laying in the road around 11 p.m. Tuesday. They told police he had been struck by a vehicle which drove off. According to court documents, police found evidence on the scene including a purse with a Port Authority Card with the name of Ausha Brown. Additionally, witnesses ID’d Brown through Facebook pictures and security video placed Brown at the scene in her black expedition. The man, identified as Von Washington, 31, of Pittsburgh, was taken to the hospital in critical condition by paramedics where he later died. Police were able to determine through text messages that Washington accused Brown of seeing other people.
April 26, 2021 4:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – An expanding fight over gun laws in Pennsylvania is drawing in the Legislature, the state’s highest court and the state’s biggest cities, while also featuring prominently in the three-way Republican primary race for a state Supreme Court seat. Candidates are showing off of endorsements by gun-rights groups, attending the groups’ meetings or pointing to pro-gun decisions they made from the bench. Lawsuits are multiplying over the drive by cities including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg to write their own firearms laws to try to stem rising gun violence. A case from Harrisburg is before the state Supreme Court while another from Philadelphia is expected to head there.
April 26, 2021 4:09 am
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) – Attorneys for the family say a Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina was shot in the back of his head and had his hands on the car steering wheel when they opened fire. Their comments came Monday after body camera video was shown to Andrew Brown Jr.’s relatives. Attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter watched a 20-second portion of body camera video with the family and said Brown did not appear to be a threat to officers as he backed his vehicle out and tried to drive away. When asked whether Brown was shot in the back, attorney Harry Daniels said, “Yes, back of the head.” (Photo: CNN)
April 26, 2021 4:08 am
Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” won best picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the China-born Zhao also became just the second woman – and the first woman of color – to win best director. “Nomadland” also earned Frances McDormand an Oscar for her lead performance in the wistful portrait of itinerant lives on open roads across the American West. Anthony Hopkins took the best actor award for the dementia drama, “The Father.” Daniel Kaluuya won best supporting actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah, while best supporting actress went to Yuh-Jung Youn, who played the matriarch of Lee Isaac Chung’s tender Korean-American family drama, “Minari.””
April 25, 2021 7:56 am
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Democrat Troy Carter won Saturday’s special election for Louisiana’s vacant U.S. House seat, defeating his state Senate colleague and ending an acrimonious, intraparty clash that divided politicians across New Orleans. Carter easily defeated Karen Carter Peterson in the race for Louisiana’s only Democrat-held seat in Congress, in a race seen as handing a victory to the more moderate side of the party after Peterson planted herself firmly in the progressive camp. Carter dismissed those comparisons, noting he also had progressive support. The pair of state senators from New Orleans, who both made previous failed bids for the congressional seat, had only modest policy differences to distinguish them, and the race centered mainly on personality. Carter had the backing, however, of the seat’s predecessor, Cedric Richmond.
April 25, 2021 7:54 am
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that 82 people died and 110 were injured in a catastrophic fire that broke out in the intensive care unit of a Baghdad hospital tending to severe coronavirus patients. Negligence on the part of hospital authorities has been blamed for the Saturday night fire, which initial reports suggest was caused when an oxygen cylinder exploded in the ward of Ibn al-Khatib hospital. Iraq’s prime minister fired key hospital officials hours after the catastrophic incident. Among the dead were at least 28 patients on ventilators battling severe symptoms of the virus, tweeted Ali al-Bayati, a spokesman of the country’s independent Human Rights Commission. The commission is a semi-official body. Firefighters rushed to battle the flames that raged across the second floor of the hospital. Civil defense teams put out flames until the early hours of the morning. Ambulances transported dozens of wounded. The Health Ministry said at least 200 people were rescued from the scene.
