April 16, 2020 4:07 am
No injuries after a tractor trailer crashed Wednesday night. Washington County 9-1-1 dispatchers tell WJPA is happened just after 9:30 p.m. along Interstate 70 Eastbound near mile-marker 24 in South Strabane Township. The tractor trailer went off the side of the roadway and ended up on its side. It was hauling dry goods. Emergency responders had to help the unidentified driver from the vehicle but he was not injured. No other vehicles were involved. Traffic is again flowing normally along the Interstate in that area.
April 16, 2020 2:28 am
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Wednesday announced that he has issued an order requiring employees and customers of businesses that are currently operating in the state to wear masks inside the establishments. The order goes into effect Sunday night at eight o’clock. Wolf says anyone who does not have a mask on will be denied entry. He says the only exceptions will be those who have medical conditions that prohibits them from wearing a mask and children under the age of two. “Our essential employees stepped up to the plate and are keeping us safe, healthy, fed and sheltered during this time,” Wolf said during a virtual press conference. “We all need to thank them by doing everything we can to prevent ourselves from spreading the virus to them.”
April 15, 2020 12:54 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has endorsed Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential race. She’s the latest of the former vice president’s onetime White House rivals to back him. Her endorsement comes as the Democratic Party moves to project unity against President Donald Trump going into the November election. Warren suspended her campaign last month after a disappointing “Super Tuesday.” She left the race without endorsing Biden or her fellow progressive Bernie Sanders. But the dynamics changed in subsequent weeks as the race has gone on hiatus amid the coronavirus outbreak. Sanders dropped out last week and endorsed Biden days later,. Former President Barack Obama followed suit on Tuesday.
April 15, 2020 9:28 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. retail sales plummeted 8.7% in March, a record drop as the viral outbreak closed down thousands of stores and shoppers stayed home. Sales fell sharply across many categories: Auto sales fell 25.6%, while clothing store sales collapsed, dropping 50.5%. U.S. consumer confidence has plunged and the vast majority of Americans are hunkered down at home under shelter in place orders. Grocery store sales did jump by nearly 26% as Americans hoarded food and consumer items. A category that mostly includes online sales rose 3.1%.
April 15, 2020 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. governors are starting to map out plans for reopening their economies as world leaders battling the coronavirus pin hopes on tests, technology and a coordinated approach to ease restrictions on movement that have slowed the outbreak but strangled the global marketplace. States from coast to coast are coordinating in regional coalitions, as President Donald Trump appears to back off his claim of absolute authority on when and how to loosen restrictions across the country. The International Monetary Fund predicts the world economy will suffer its worst year since the Great Depression in the 1930s and shrink by an estimated 3% this year.
April 15, 2020 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has issued a stark warning for Americans to “ignore the lies” and “insist on the truth” as the U.S. assesses next steps in the coronavirus crisis. Pelosi released a letter with a scathing outline of President Donald Trump’s handling of the outbreak as Trump spoke during a Tuesday briefing and signaled his eagerness to re-open the economy. In the letter to House Democrats, Pelosi says, “If we are not working from the truth, more lives will be lost, economic hardship and suffering will be extended.” Congress isn’t expected to reconvene until at least May 4 to protect lawmakers from the virus.
April 15, 2020 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is walking back previous assertions that he has the absolute authority to decide when it’s time to reopen the economy ravaged by the coronavirus. Trump now says he will leave it to governors to determine the right time and manner to revive activity in their states. In remarks Tuesday, the president said he would be speaking with governors, probably on Thursday, to discuss his plans. Democratic and Republican governors had sounded the alarm after Trump asserted Monday that he and he alone would determine when and how to reopen the economy, despite clear constitutional limitations on federal powers.
April 15, 2020 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The secretary-general of the United Nations says now isn’t the time for the U.S. to withhold financial support from the U.N. health agency, the World Health Organization. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he is cutting off payments to the WHO because, in his view, the organization failed to do enough to stop the coronavirus virus from spreading after it first surfaced in China. In response, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the WHO “absolutely critical” to the global effort to combat the disease caused by the coronavirus. Trump said the U.S. would review the WHO’s actions before deciding whether to resume the aid.
April 15, 2020 4:09 am
Top Chinese officials secretly determined they were likely facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus in mid-January, ordering preparations even as they downplayed it in public. Internal documents obtained by the AP show that because warnings were muffled inside China, it took a confirmed case in Thailand to jolt Beijing into recognizing the possible pandemic before them. Still, it was nearly a week before officials warned the public. In that week, tens of thousands dined at a mass banquet and millions traveled through Wuhan, at the center of the outbreak. Experts say an earlier warning could have saved lives.
April 15, 2020 4:06 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania counties have processed about 283,000 applications for mail-in and absentee ballots, and nearly three times more applicants are from Democrats compared to Republicans. The state’s primary has been moved back to June 2, so the numbers are likely to continue to climb. Four years ago, before mail-in balloting was allowed in the state, about 84,000 Pennsylvanians cast primary votes by absentee ballot. Officials say concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak are driving interest in remote voting. The Health Department said Tuesday that 60 new deaths from the coronavirus were reported over the past day, raising the total to 584.
