May 24, 2020 6:15 am
AMBRIDGE, Pa. — A body was located in the Ohio River near a bridge in Ambridge Saturday night. Police confirmed the body was located in the water near the Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge around 8 p.m. The victim has not yet been identified by the Beaver County coroner’s office. Investigators said an autopsy will provide more details, such as the victim’s name and cause of death. Ambridge, Ohio Township and Beaver County police will be conducting a joint investigation.
May 24, 2020 6:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – State health officials say civil penalties totaling more than $93,000 have been assessed against nursing care facilities in Pennsylvania amid hundreds of complaint investigations during the coronavirus pandemic. The Pennsylvania Department of Health said Saturday that nursing home surveyors have conducted more than 1,470 inspections of nursing homes since the beginning of February. Officials said more than 5,000 deaths in the commonwealth are now associated with the coronavirus. State health officials also reported that more than 700 more people testing positive for the coronavirus, bringing the state total to just under 67,000.
May 24, 2020 2:00 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf is easing some pandemic restrictions in Philadelphia and the heavily populated suburbs on June 5, while lifting them almost entirely in 17 rural counties next week. Pennsylvania is continuing to emerge from a shutdown imposed nearly two months ago to help slow the spread of the new virus. Wolf is accelerating his reopening plan even though more than 20 Pennsylvania counties remain above the state’s target for new infections that were supposed to qualify them for an easing of pandemic restrictions. Eight counties are more than three times over. Local elected officials, Republican and Democrats alike, have been pressing for shutdown relief amid skyrocketing unemployment.
May 23, 2020 9:50 am
Hertz has filed for bankruptcy protection, unable to withstand the coronavirus pandemic that has crippled global travel and with it, the heavily indebted 102-year-old car rental company’s business. The Florida-based company’s lenders were unwilling to grant it another extension on its auto lease debt payments past a Friday deadline, triggering the filing. By the end of March, Hertz had more than $24 billion in debt with only $1 billion of available cash. Starting in mid-March, the company lost all revenue when travel nearly shut down due to the novel coronavirus. Hertz also has been plagued by management upheaval, naming its fourth CEO in six years on May 18.
May 23, 2020 9:24 am
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – Health officials are worried that Alabama’s coronavirus caseload is increasing and residents aren’t guarding against COVID-19 as it opens its casinos, church and more. Parking lots are filling up again outside many businesses, and in many places it’s rare to see people wearing face masks. University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban has released a video encouraging people to cover their faces and practice social distancing. But it’s unclear whether that will help, and health officials are concerned. Hospitalizations have increased since April, as have the overall number of cases in the state. Officials say it’s unclear whether the increase is linked to more testing or more disease.
May 23, 2020 9:21 am
HOUSTON (AP) – A judge has criticized the Trump administration’s handling of detained immigrant children and families, ordering it to give the court detailed information about efforts to quickly release them in the wake of the coronavirus. On Friday, the judge ordered the U.S. government to better explain why it hasn’t released some of the approximately 350 parents and children in three family detention centers – one in Pennsylvania and two in Texas. Advocates allege that parents in those centers were asked to sign forms that would have allowed their children to be released to sponsors while the parents remained in custody. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says the forms are part of a “routine parole review consistent with the law.”
May 23, 2020 9:19 am
(AP)-A large new study suggests that malaria drugs pushed by President Donald Trump as treatments for the coronavirus not only do not help but also are tied to a greater risk of death and heart rhythm problems. Friday’s report involved nearly 100,000 patients around the world. It was not a rigorous test of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, but is by far the largest look at their use in real world settings. Separately on Friday, preliminary results were published for a study of the experimental drug remdesivir. As previously announced, the Gilead Sciences drug shortened the time to recovery – 11 days on average versus 15 days for those just given usual care for COVID-19.
May 23, 2020 9:16 am
BANGKOK (AP) – South Korea has reported 23 new cases of the coronavirus, mostly from the densely populated Seoul area where authorities shut down thousands of nightclubs, bars and karaoke rooms in a desperate attempt to stem transmissions. Meanwhile, China reported no new confirmed cases for the first time since it started announcing infections in January. South Korea was reporting around 500 new cases a day in early March before using aggressive tracing and testing to stabilize its outbreak. But there’s growing concern over the steady rise of infections in the greater capital area, where about half of South Korea’s 51 million people live. It came after health authorities relaxed social distancing guidelines and allowed a phased reopening of schools, starting with high school seniors.
May 23, 2020 7:30 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate skyrocketed in April at the height of the state’s pandemic-driven shutdown to its highest rate in over four decades of record-keeping, the state Department of Labor and Industry said Friday. Meanwhile, payrolls fell by more than 1 million to the lowest level in at least three decades. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate more than doubled to 15.1% in April, up from 5.8% in March, the department said. The national rate was 14.7% in April. Pennsylvania’s highest unemployment rate was 12.7% in 1983, according to federal data back to 1976 under the same methodology. Meanwhile, 2.2 million Pennsylvanians have sought unemployment benefits since mid-March, or one-third of the labor force.
May 23, 2020 3:57 am
The Department of Community and Economic Development announced $3 million in grant monies to help fund water and sewage improvements in five Pennsylvania counties. Department Secretary Dennis Davin announced the grants on Friday. Locally, Greene County will receive $660,212 to improve the Brave Water System in Wayne Township. The monies will go to the replacement of 95 meters and allow them to be read remotely, the replacement of 2250 feet of 6 inch PVC pipe, add fire hydrants where necessary and replace the roof on the water treatment building.
