April 22, 2020 9:55 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he’s ordered the Navy to “shoot down and destroy” any Iranian gunboats found to be harassing U.S. ships. Trump made the announcement in a tweet but provided no details. The Pentagon is referring questions to the White House, which has no immediate comment. Nor does the Pentagon. The president’s tweet comes after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced the launch of Iran’s first military satellite. Some experts believe the technology can be used to help Iran develop intercontinental ballistic missiles. Last week, a U.S. Navy video showed small Iranian boats coming close to American warships in the northern Persian Gulf near Kuwait, with U.S. Army Apache helicopters.
April 22, 2020 8:37 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The government says the financial condition of the government’s two biggest benefit programs remains shaky. It indicates that Medicare is expected to become insolvent in just six years while Social Security will be unable to pay full benefits starting in 2035. And that’s before factoring what officials acknowledge will be a substantial hit to both programs from the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down large parts of the U.S. economy and put millions of people out of work. The depletion dates, which remained unchanged from last year’s estimates, were revealed Wednesday with release of the annual trustees reports of both programs.
April 22, 2020 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has announced what he describes as a “temporary suspension of immigration into the United States.” But the executive order would bar only those seeking permanent residency, not temporary workers. Trump said Tuesday he would be placing a 60-day pause on the issuance of green cards in an effort to limit competition for jobs in a U.S. economy wrecked by the coronavirus. But he said there would be “certain exemptions,” which staff members were still crafting Tuesday. It’s a return to a divisive issue at a time of national crisis.
April 22, 2020 4:21 am
China again reports no new deaths from the coronavirus, but the country has registered 30 new cases – 23 of them brought from abroad. Of the domestic cases, all seven were reported in Heilongjiang province near the Russian border where a field hospital has been set up to deal with a new flare-up related to people coming home from abroad. China has reported a total of 4,632 deaths among 82,788 cases, the bulk of them in Wuhan where officials recently raised the death toll by 50% after a review of records.
April 22, 2020 4:20 am
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Tyson Foods is suspending operations indefinitely at a large Iowa pork processing plant that was blamed for fueling a coronavirus outbreak in the community. The company warned today that its closing of the plant in Waterloo would be a blow to hog farmers and potentially disrupt the nation’s pork supply. Tyson kept the plant open in recent days over the objections of the mayor and other local officials. The plant employs 2,800 workers and can process about 19,500 hogs per day, almost 4% of the nation’s pork processing capacity. Several other meatpacking plants have temporarily closed due to coronavirus outbreaks.
April 22, 2020 4:18 am
(AP) – Coyotes, pumas and goats are wandering around cities, while air across the world is becoming less polluted. Scientists are noticing changes to Earth’s environment as millions of people stay home because of the new coronavirus. The planet is becoming wilder and cleaner. Air pollution is down 30% in the northeastern U.S. and 49% in Rome. Sea turtles are nesting better without human interference. Scientists think of this as a grand but unintended experiment that shows how much of a footprint humanity has on the planet.
April 22, 2020 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Congress is sprinting to approve a $483 billion coronavirus aid package. The deal backed by the White House would replenish a small-business payroll fund and pump more money into hospitals and testing programs. President Donald Trump is urging swift passage this week. The bill is Washington’s fourth in response to the crisis, but it’s not expected to be the last. Lawmakers are taking unprecedented steps to confront the virus and prop up communities nationwide during the health crisis. The Senate approved the package Tuesday. The House is asking lawmakers to return for a Thursday vote.
April 22, 2020 4:14 am
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard says it has launched a military satellite into orbit amid wider tensions with the U.S. The Guard made the announcement on Wednesday morning on its official website. It said the two-stage satellite launch took off from Iran’s Central Desert, without elaborating. It called the launch “a great achievement.” The launch comes amid tensions between Tehran and Washington over its collapsing nuclear deal and after a U.S. drone strike killed Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January. Iran has suffered several failed satellite launches in recent months.
April 22, 2020 4:12 am
PITTSBURGH — UPMC officials say they will begin testing all patients who enter for elective procedures and will test all employees who are showing coronavirus symptoms. The system has the capacity to test 600 patients a day and often has results back in less than six hours. Officials said there is enough PPE to keep employees and patients safe. UPMC doctors said during the event that their data is showing a slowed rate of infection and that the area is on the opposite side of what was supposed to be the worst period of the pandemic. Officials said coronavirus patients are currently using eight percent of ICU beds and about seven percent of their available ventilators. There are no pediatric coronavirus patients in the UPMC system. UPMC officials said the hospital system includes 5,500 beds among 40 different hospitals and COVID-19 patients make up just 2 percent of their capacity.
April 22, 2020 4:01 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – A woman is suing the federal government over the 2018 death of her husband from a wrongful insulin injection at a West Virginia veterans hospital. Norma Shaw’s lawsuit is the second one filed against Veteran Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie in the past month involving the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg. Both suits allege a widespread system of failures at the hospital. Shaw filed the federal lawsuit Monday in the death of her husband, George Nelson Shaw Sr., an 81-year-old retired member of the Air Force. Federal prosecutors have said they’re probing the deaths of up to 11 patients at the hospital.
