May 2, 2020 4:09 am
DETROIT (AP) – Farmers, growers and operators of open-air markets are heading into a busy time of the year as many states still are under stay-at-home orders for residents and non-essential businesses to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Shoppers venturing out this year are just as likely to come across tables of hand sanitizer and face mask-wearing produce peddlers as they are to see bushels of corn, quarts of blueberries or flats of petunias. Many markets have moved to drive-thru shopping, reduced days or hours, and fencing to control crowds. At Detroit’s Eastern Market, fencing is being considered and grids will be painted on floors as a reminder to social distance.
May 2, 2020 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democrats are standing behind presidential nominee Joe Biden, but the sexual assault allegations against him are putting them on the defensive. And that’s causing discomfort among the former vice president’s supporters who insisted during Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings that female accusers should be believed. Biden was among those backing Christine Blasey Ford. But now, Biden is in the #MeToo hot seat. His former Senate aide Tara Reade is accusing him of having sexually assaulted her in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in the spring of 1993. He denies that. But Republicans are accusing Democrats of a double standard.
May 2, 2020 4:07 am
LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says Michigan’s stay-at-home order remains in effect despite Republicans’ refusal to extend her underlying coronavirus emergency declaration, as she amended it to allow construction, real estate and outdoor work to resume next week. The Democratic governor, who may be sued by the GOP-led Legislature, addressed reporters Friday hours after President Donald Trump said she should “make a deal” with conservatives who protested her restrictions at the Capitol. She denounced the protest as “disturbing,” noting there were swastikas, Confederate flags, nooses and some people with assault weapons. She says she’ll gradually reopen the economy using science and data.
May 2, 2020 4:06 am
BEIJING (AP) – Russia has reported its highest one-day jump in new coronavirus infections as some other countries and U.S. states where numbers of cases are stabilizing allowed businesses and public activities to reopen. China, where the pandemic began in December, reported one new infection, extending a decline in confirmed cases. The country has allowed factories and some other businesses to resume work, along with some tourist spots for this weekend’s May Day holiday. South Korea reported six new cases, none in the hard-hit city of Daegu. In the United States, more than a dozen states including Texas allowed restaurants and some other businesses to reopen. The first drug shown to help fight the disease received emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
May 2, 2020 4:03 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A court ruling Friday says the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board must let special orders be shipped directly to retailers instead of sending them to state stores for pickup. The Commonwealth Court says the PLCB can’t ignore a 2016 state law that permits the direct shipping of wines and spirits not sold in state stores. Retailers and restaurants have instead had to get their orders at state stores that have been closed or operating on a limited basis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Judge Kevin Brobson says the agency must comply in a reasonable timeframe.
May 2, 2020 4:02 am
FINLEYVILLE, Pa. (WPXI) — A local dog grooming business is back open across two counties in western Pennsylvania despite the continued stay-at-home orders in our region. Candelore’s Barking Beauties reopened its doors Wednesday in Finleyville even though Gov. Tom Wolf hasn’t specified if this is an essential business. Owner Norm Candelore said he made the decision to reopen his doors after he got requests from over 750 people. Candelore told said among the three locations in Finleyville, White Oak and Elizabeth, his business serves 16,000 customers. When Wolf initially ordered mandatory shutdowns of all non-life sustaining businesses on March 19, Candelore said he complied. However, week after week of the business reopening being pushed back – combined with customers begging for help with nail clippings and removing painful dog matting – Candelore decided he’d had enough and opened his Finleyville location only. Safety measures such as wearing masks, limiting the lobby to one customer and curbside pickup are a few of the adjustments made. Candelore said he plans to reopen the other two locations in Allegheny County on May 8.
May 2, 2020 4:00 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – One of the nation’s biggest steelmakers expects to lay off roughly 2,700 employees as the demand for iron and steel drops during the coronavirus pandemic. Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel announced its plans yesterday, the same day it reported a first-quarter loss of $391 million. The company had about 27,500 employees as of last year. It did not say where the layoffs would be but said it will also temporarily idle two blast facilities. They are in Gary, Indiana, and outside Pittsburgh. The firm has now idled seven out of its 10 blast furnaces in the U.S. (Photo: WPXI)
May 1, 2020 4:39 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. regulators will allow emergency use of an experimental drug that appears to help some coronavirus patients recover faster. It is the first drug shown to help fight COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration acted Friday after preliminary results from a government-sponsored study showed that the drug remdesivir shortened the time to recovery for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The drug also might be reducing deaths, although that’s not certain from the partial results revealed so far. Drugmaker Gilead Sciences has said it would donate its currently available stock of the drug and is ramping up production to make more.
May 1, 2020 8:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden is denying a former staffer’s allegation of sexual assault, saying the accusation is not true. “This never happened,” Biden says in a statement Friday. It’s Biden’s first public comment on an accusation of sexual assault by his former Senate staffer, Tara Reade. He appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to discuss the allegation for the first time on television. A number of former Biden staffers have defended him. The accusation had taken on fresh attention this week after two of Reade’s associates said she previously told them about elements of her allegations.
May 1, 2020 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence has donned a face covering while touring a General Motors/Ventec ventilator production facility in Indiana. He had come under fire Tuesday for failing to wear one at the Mayo Clinic. Pence on Thursday toured the General Motors facility in Kokomo, which has already manufactured hundreds of the units. The visit came hours after Pence’s wife, second lady Karen Pence, defended her husband’s decision to not wear a mask at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She told Fox News Channel that he had been unaware of Mayo’s coronavirus mask policy until after he left, although the Mayo Clinic said differently in a since-deleted tweet.
