September 16, 2020 5:35 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The federal government is outlining a sweeping plan to make COVID-19 vaccines available for free to all Americans. But a top health official cautioned that widespread vaccination is unlikely until well into 2021. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Senate lawmakers that any vaccine available this year will be reserved for the most critical populations. The Trump administration has continued to push its own timeline that a vaccine could be broadly available within weeks. Public skepticism of the vaccine effort continues after recent revelations that a Trump official tried to gain control over a key CDC publication.
September 16, 2020 1:51 pm
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation says it has resumed issuing REAL IDs. PennDOT paused REAL ID issuance throughout the state in March because of COVID-19, but it is now happening again at reopened Driver License Centers that offer driver license services. Enforcement of REAL ID will start Oct. 1, 2021 after being pushed back a year by the federal Department of Homeland Security in response to the pandemic. REAL ID is optional, but, starting Oct. 1, 2021, a Pennsylvania REAL ID driver’s license or ID card, a valid U.S. Passport/Passport Card or a military ID will be required to board a commercial flight or enter a federal building.
September 16, 2020 12:25 pm
MACOMB, Ill. (AP) – Classes at Western Illinois University in Macomb have been canceled and all the buildings on campus have been locked as police search for a student who fled after allegedly shooting his roommate. School officials say the shooting happened Tuesday night in the dormitory room where the suspect and victim lived. They have identified the suspect as 18-year-old Kavion Poplous. They say an arrest warrant has been issued for Poplous. Officials have not released the name of the student who was shot. They say he is out of surgery, but they do not know his condition.
September 16, 2020 11:56 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A man paralyzed in a 2016 shooting at cookout in western Pennsylvania that killed five people and an unborn baby has died. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office says 51-year-old John Ellis died Tuesday. The medical examiner says Ellis was taken to a hospital Friday. Ellis lived next to the Wilkinsburg home when gunfire rang out at the cookout on March 9, 2016. Three siblings, including one who was eight months pregnant, and two cousins were killed. A jury in February found one of the men charged not guilty, and charges against another man were dismissed. (Photo: WPXI)
September 16, 2020 11:54 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The third man sought in the death of an infant who was struck by a stray bullet that went into his family’s apartment during a shootout on a Pittsburgh street has turned himself in to authorities. Devon Thompson (pictured left), surrendered Tuesday. The 37-year-old McKees Rocks man faces charges of criminal homicide, criminal attempted homicide, aggravated assault and a weapons count, and it wasn’t known Wednesday if he’s retained an attorney. Authorities have said Thompson and two other men were at the Three Rivers Manor apartment complex when they opened fire on Aug. 24. Zykier Young was sleeping in his family’s apartment when he was struck in the head by a bullet.
September 16, 2020 11:08 am
UNDATED (AP) – The Big Ten is going to give fall football a shot after all. Less than five weeks after pushing football and other fall sports to the spring in the name of player safety during the pandemic, the conference changed course today and said it plans to begin its season the Oct. 23-24 weekend. Each team will have an eight-game schedule. The Big Ten said its Council of Presidents and Chancellors voted unanimously yesterday to restart sports. The vote last month was 11-3 to postpone, with Ohio State, Iowa and Nebraska voting against.
September 16, 2020 4:20 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The magazine Scientific American chose Democrat Joe Biden over President Donald Trump in the first presidential endorsement in the publication’s 175-year history. The magazine’s top editor said there really wasn’t much debate over the choice. Laura Helmuth says the magazine’s editors were worried about Trumps’ commitment to science four years ago, but the reality has turned out worse than expected, particularly with the response to the coronavirus pandemic. Not everyone agrees. The magazine has taken some criticism from some who feel that it has overstepped its bounds. Helmuth said it was a coincidence that Scientific American’s endorsement appeared a day after Trump questioned science at a meeting involving the California wildfires.
September 16, 2020 4:19 am
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – As coronavirus deaths push past 1,200 and cases continue to rise Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds stands firm in her opposition to requiring masks or authorizing local cities and counties to enforce face covering mandates widely viewed by medical professionals and scientists as an effective way to slow COVID-19 spread. Reynolds encourages Iowans to wear masks but says orders are not enforceable. She’s been photographed recently at GOP events hugging and talking closely with others without a mask but claims she does wear one and says photo snapshots aren’t reflective of her practice. Community virus spread continues to be high in some counties which lead to a government recommendation of a statewide mask mandate, but Reynolds has declined to enact one.
September 16, 2020 4:18 am
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) – Joe Biden has made his first trip to Florida as the Democratic presidential nominee with an urgent mission to boost support among Latinos who could decide the election in one of the nation’s fiercest battleground states. Biden said during a Hispanic Heritage Month kickoff event that “the Latino community holds in the palm of their hand the destiny of this country.” He also went after President Donald Trump, charging he’s “failed the Hispanic community time and time again.” A win for Biden in Florida would dramatically narrow Trump’s path to reelection. But there are mounting concerns that Biden may be slipping in the state, particularly with influential Latino voters.
September 16, 2020 4:16 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – President Donald Trump is denying he played down the threat of the coronavirus earlier this year, although there is an audio recording of him stating he did just that. Trump is also continuing to cast doubt on the widely accepted scientific conclusions of his own administration strongly urging the use of face coverings. He says, “There are people that don’t think masks are good.” The president participated in a televised town hall Tuesday with uncommitted voters, hosted by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. In an exchange with one voter, Trump said he actually “up-played” the virus threat.
