January 30, 2021 4:06 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A political fight is brewing over who’s to blame for the frustrations of so many eligible Pennsylvania residents trying to get inoculated against COVID-19. Republicans are faulting the administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf for Pennsylvania’s slow vaccine rollout. Pennsylvania ranks second-to-last among the states in vaccine administration, with the state managing to get less than half of its federal allocation of doses into people’s arms. Wolf says insufficient supply is the real culprit. The state expects to get 160,000 doses next week. That’s an increase from prior weeks, but still far short of the 705,000 doses that vaccine providers requested.
January 30, 2021 4:04 am
Family and friends gathered for a vigil service on Friday night to honor the memory of Darnell “Cuddy” Brown. The vigil was held at the Family Dollar parking lot where Brown was gunned down on Tuesday afternoon. Pastor Lance Whitlock of the Legacy Church in Washington led the group in prayer before a release of balloons. The shooter remains on the loose. Police suspect Zackory James Sadler, 36 of Donora to be the gunman. Brown leaves behind a fiancée, Leeann Group, five sons and one daughter.
January 29, 2021 8:48 am
MCKEES ROCKS, Pa. (WPXI) – We’re continuing to learn new information about what led to a deadly shooting outside a club in McKees Rocks at about 2:30 a.m. Friday. Law enforcement tells our news partners at Channel 11 that two women started getting into a fight inside Club Erotica on Island Avenue. The fight spilled out the doors and that’s when the gunfire started. Five people were shot, and two men died. The two men who were killed were identified as Christopher Butler, 22, and Seth McDermitt, 31. The other three shooting victims were rushed to area hospitals for treatment. Homicide detectives are still investigating, but they know who fired in the situation and two people may be facing charges soon.
January 29, 2021 8:21 am
Johnson & Johnson says its vaccine appears to protect against COVID-19 with just one shot. It’s not as strong as some two-shot rivals but still potentially helpful for a world in dire need of more doses. Results released Friday show the single-shot vaccine was 66% effective overall at preventing moderate to severe illness, and much more protective against the most serious symptoms. The vaccine worked better in the U.S. compared to South Africa, where it was up against a tougher, mutated virus.. The company says it will file an application for emergency use soon in the U.S., and then abroad.
January 29, 2021 4:19 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Cicely Tyson, the pioneering Black actor who gained an Oscar nomination for her role as the sharecropper’s wife in “Sounder,” won a Tony Award in 2013 at age 88 and touched TV viewers’ hearts in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” has died. She was 96. A onetime model, Tyson began her screen career with bit parts but gained fame in the early 1970s when Black women were finally starting to get starring roles. Besides her Oscar nomination, she won two Emmys for playing the 110-year-old former slave in the 1974 television drama “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.”
January 29, 2021 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – With the COVID-19 pandemic raging, uninsured, low-income Americans are getting a new chance to sign up for subsidized health care benefits. President Joe Biden is ordering government health insurance markets to reopen for a special sign-up window. Biden signed an executive order Thursday directing the “Obamacare” HealthCare.gov insurance markets to take new applications for subsidized benefits, something the Trump administration had refused to do. He also instructed his administration to consider reversing other Trump administration health care policies, including curbs on abortion counseling and the imposition of work requirements for low-income people getting Medicaid. The new health care sign-up period will run from Feb. 15 to May 15.
January 29, 2021 4:15 am
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Donald Trump has added two more former federal prosecutors from South Carolina to his impeachment legal team. Attorney Greg Harris tells The Associated Press that he and former acting U.S. Attorney Johnny Gasser have been added to the team that will craft a defense for Trump’s unprecedented second impeachment trial, set for the week of Feb. 8. Harris is a former county and federal prosecutor with expertise in white-collar cases. He’s currently in private practice with Gasser, who has also been a prosecutor at the local and federal levels They join a team that includes Butch Bowers, a noted South Carolina ethics and elections lawyer.
January 29, 2021 4:13 am
WUHAN, China (AP) – A World Health Organization team is visiting a hospital where China says the first COVID-19 patients were treated more than a year ago. The visit is part of the experts’ long-awaited fact-finding mission on the origins of the coronavirus. The WHO team members and Chinese officials earlier had their first in-person meetings at a hotel. WHO has said they plan to speak to first responders and patients and visit markets and laboratories in Wuhan. The team’s mission has become politically charged, as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak.
January 29, 2021 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democrats are rejecting a Republican pitch to split President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue plan into smaller chunks. Democrats and the White House appear ready to leave their GOP opponents behind and push the sweeping economic and virus aid forward on their own. Despite Biden’s calls for unity, Democrats say the stubbornly high unemployment numbers and battered economy leave them unwilling to waste time courting Republican support or curbing the size of the package. The bill would offer money for vaccines, help reopen schools and give $1,400 direct payments to most Americans. Biden has been appealing directly to Republican and Democratic lawmakers while signaling his priority to press ahead.
January 29, 2021 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says lawmakers face threats of violence from an “enemy” within Congress and more money is needed to protect them. The California Democrat’s remarks are a startling acknowledgement of how internal tensions over safety have escalated since the Jan. 6 Capitol attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Pelosi told reporters on Thursday that Congress should provide more money to protect lawmakers “when the enemy is within the House of Representatives.” Pelosi said she was referring to members of Congress who want to bring guns on the House floor and “have threatened violence on other members of Congress.” She didn’t offer names.
