May 27, 2020 4:01 am
Only about half of Americans say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine if the scientists working furiously to create one succeed. Another 31% simply aren’t sure, while 1 in 5 say they’d refuse. That’s according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Worldwide, about a dozen vaccine candidates are in early stages of testing in people or poised to begin. The findings released Wednesday show the public has a lot of questions. U.S. health officials insist safety is the top priority as the leading vaccine candidates move into larger studies.
May 27, 2020 4:00 am
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Tropical Storm Bertha surprised the South Carolina coast, forming and making landfall within two hours, bringing a poor beach day of rain and gusty winds, but no major problems. Forecasters expected the bad weather Wednesday, but didn’t predict it to organize so quickly and become the second named storm before the official start of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season. Bertha was named around 8 a.m. Wednesday, was onshore east of Charleston by 9:30 a.m. and downgraded to a tropical depression by 2 p.m. Like almost all storms with heavy rain, several streets flooded in Charleston, leaving ankle to calf high brown water mixed with trash from knocked over cans Wednesday.
May 27, 2020 3:57 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Police and state regulators are cracking down on a handful of Pennsylvania businesses that are supposed to remain shut down but have instead thrown open their doors. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has suspended the operating licenses of two York County diners that resumed dine-in service earlier this month. Two gyms in eastern Pennsylvania have also reopened, with state police already citing one and local police threatening to cite the other. áThe Pennsylvania Department of Health, meanwhile, is reporting 13 additional deaths linked to COVID-19, raising the statewide total to 5,152. State health officials also reported that 451 more people have tested positive for the new coronavirus.
May 27, 2020 3:55 am
WILLINGTON, Conn. (AP) – The wife of a man killed in a machete attack said Tuesday that the college student suspected in that and another killing was looking for a young woman he knew when he began his rampage. University of Connecticut senior Peter Manfredonia is a fugitive in the killing of that young woman’s 62-year-old neighbor in Willington, Connecticut. Police say he also is believed to have also killed a high school friend who was found dead Sunday about 70 miles away. Manfredonia was last reported seen in Pennsylvania on Sunday and is the target of a search involving police and the FBI.
May 26, 2020 1:49 pm
If you are a Comcast customer, you may have experienced problems with your cable, internet and/or telephone service on Tuesday. According to a recording released by the company, there was an outage in some parts of Washington County, including parts of the city for several hours. Comcast said technicians resolved the problem by mid-afternoon, however there was no word on exactly what caused the outage.
May 26, 2020 10:05 am
49th Legislative District Republican State Representative Bud Cook wants Republican Washington County Commissioners Diana Irey-Vaughn and Nick Sherman to voluntarily recuse themselves from election oversight during the primary election next week. Cook sent a certified letter making the request. He claims Vaughn and Sherman; Endorsed his primary challenger Tony Bottino, Both are involved in his current ‘Right to Know’ request and ongoing court case involving the Local Share Account and its financial records, and Vaughn’s previous involvement in overseeing the election office operations during the 2018 general election when several absentee ballots were misplaced. Irey-Vaughn tells WJPA news that she turned the matter over to the County Solicitor and neither she nor Sherman will recuse themselves. The Washington County Commissioners are all election board members and provide assistance during elections. Irey-Vaughn, however, says commissioner’s never handle ballots. Cook says he will consider pursuing court action to remove the pair and/or have attorneys present in the election office on primary election day. Sherman says Cook is ‘using this to get his name in the newspaper’ and on the radio. Irey-Vaughn calls it “more politics at its worst”.
May 26, 2020 9:32 am
BANGKOK (AP) – As Brazil and India struggle with surging coronavirus cases, a top health expert is warning that the world is still smack in the middle of the pandemic. Those comments from Dr. Mike Ryan of the World Health Organization are dampening hopes for a speedy global economic rebound. A U.S. travel ban takes effect Tuesday for foreigners coming from Brazil. On top of that, the South American country got a warning from the U.N. health agency not to reopen its economy before it can perform enough tests to control the spread of the coronavirus. India reported a record single-day jump in new infections for the seventh straight day and Russia had a record number of daily coronavirus deaths.
May 26, 2020 4:21 am
O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) – Missouri’s health director has issued a dire warning after photos and video showed Memorial Day weekend revelers partying close together: The coronavirus is still here, and the spreading of illnesses could have “long-lasting and tragic” results. One video on social media shows a crammed pool at Lake of the Ozarks, with people lounging and playing close together, without masks. The lake draws people from as far away as Arkansas and Iowa. It’s especially popular with travelers from St. Louis city and county, which combined account for more than half of Missouri’s confirmed cases and more than two-thirds of the state’s 685 deaths.
May 26, 2020 4:17 am
NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) – Joe Biden has marked Memorial Day by laying a wreath at a park near his Delaware home. It was the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s first public appearance in more than two months. Biden and his wife, Jill, placed a wreath of white flowers tied with a white bow, and bowed their heads in silence at the park. It was a low-key, unannounced appearance, and there was no crowd waiting for him. Yet the appearance was a milestone in a presidential campaign that has largely been frozen by the coronavirus outbreak. Biden wore a mask, unlike Trump at his public events.
May 26, 2020 4:14 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Four Minneapolis police officers who were involved in the arrest of a black man who died in police custody were fired Tuesday. The firings come a day after a bystander’s video showed the man pleading that he could not breathe as a white officer knelt on his neck and kept his knee there for several minutes after the man stopped moving. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced the terminations on Twitter, and said the firings were the “right call.” Monday’s death of George Floyd was under investigation by the FBI and state law enforcement authorities. It drew comparisons to the case of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died in 2014 in New York after being placed in a police chokehold. (Photo: CNN)
