May 6, 2020 7:54 am
MOSCOW (AP) – Two Russian doctors died and one remains in the intensive care unit in serious condition after falling out of windows in hospitals under mysterious circumstances last week. The gruesome incidents have made national headlines, with media reports saying all three have come under pressure from superiors over working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic. In recent weeks, medical workers all over Russia have decried shortages of protective equipment and questionable infection control procedures that turned dozens of hospitals into virus hotbeds, with hundreds of doctors and nurses contracting the virus. Many Russian doctors say they have been threatened with dismissal or even prosecution for going public with their grievances.
May 6, 2020 4:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A senior government scientist alleges the Trump administration failed to prepare for the onslaught of the coronavirus, then sought a fix by rushing an unproven drug to patients. Rick Bright filed a whistleblower complaint Tuesday with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that investigates retaliation against federal employees who report problems. He’s the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Bright alleges he was removed from his job and reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug favored by President Donald Trump.
May 6, 2020 4:05 am
An Associated Press analysis finds that taking the New York metropolitan area’s progress against the coronavirus out of the equation shows the rest of the U.S. moving in the wrong direction, with the infection rate rising even as states move to lift their lockdowns. Scientists warn those numbers will only increase as states from Texas to Florida start to ease their own lockdowns. Meanwhile, Britain’s official coronavirus death total surpassed that of Italy to become the highest in Europe and second-highest in the world behind the United States.
May 6, 2020 4:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s pick to be the nation’s top intelligence official, congressman John Ratcliffe, is adamant that if confirmed he will not allow politics to color information he takes to the president. The director of the Office of National Intelligence oversees the nation’s 16 spy agencies. During a Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, the Texas Republican consistently told lawmakers he would communicate intelligence to Trump even if he knew the president strongly disagreed with it. Fueling skepticism from some senators is Trump’s firing or forcing out of at least seven top U.S. intelligence officials since last summer.
May 6, 2020 4:02 am
NEW YORK (AP) – It was the sounds of silence in New York City’s subway system, as the normally round-the-clock system shut down for train cleaning. The trains, which had been running on a reduced schedule since late March, were scheduled to stop from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday. That’s going to be the new daily routine, to allow for daily cleanings and for city workers to move homeless people who have been more visible in subway cars during the coronavirus. The New York Police Department has assigned more than 1,000 officers to secure many of the system’s 472 stations, as fewer than 200 can be physically locked up.
May 6, 2020 4:01 am
PHOENIX (AP) – President Donald Trump has put personal action into his call to reopen the country, visiting an Arizona face mask factory on Tuesday. Yet Trump didn’t wear a mask himself while touring a Honeywell factory in Phoenix. The president acknowledged that easing restrictions will result in some people being, in his words, “affected badly.” But he said it is imperative to get the country going again. An Associated Press analysis finds infection rates rising even as states start lifting their lockdowns. The White House says it hopes to wind down its coronavirus task force while shifting from battling an “invisible enemy” to rebooting the economy.
May 6, 2020 3:57 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Pennsylvania Game Commission says the number of hunting-related shooting fatalities in Pennsylvania went up in the past year. There were 26 hunting-related shooting injuries in Pennsylvania in 2019, four of which were fatal. The number of fatalities is up from the previous year when only one of the 27 hunting-related shootings were fatal. According to the commission, a little over half of the injuries in 2019 were inflicted by others. The primary cause was a person being in the line of fire and the second most common cause was the unintended discharge of a firearm.
May 6, 2020 3:56 am
MCKEES ROCKS, Pa. (AP) – A body found in an unplugged refrigerator at a western Pennsylvania apartment building has been identified as a woman who went missing last week. Authorities say 41-year-old Daryl Jones, of McKees Rocks, was charged Monday with abusing a corpse. He was ordered held without bail because he may be a danger to the community and himself, according to court records. McKees Rocks police went to the apartment building Monday morning after residents who had smelled a foul odor discovered the decomposed body of 38-year-old Kristy Jefferson. Authorities haven’t said how Jefferson’s body ended up in the refrigerator, which was in a common area of the building.
May 6, 2020 2:40 am
Gov. Tom Wolf said at a Tuesday press briefing that the southwest region can expect an announcement on moving from the red to yellow phase “soon.” “As I said last week, southwestern Pennsylvania is doing a really good job. We’re doing the best we can to keep people safe within the constraints of this deadly virus.” “The southwest is doing a great job, and the hope is that they can move into the yellow phase like the 24 counties I announced last Friday fairly quickly,” Gov. Wolf added. On Friday, the governor announced that 24 counties in the rural northern part of the state would reopen on May 8th. Wolf, at the time, said the southwest region would remain in the “red” phase, meaning the stay-at-home order would stay in place until the area is moved into the “yellow” phase.
May 6, 2020 2:11 am
UNDATED (AP) – U.S. meat supplies are dwindling due to coronavirus-related production shutdowns. As a result, some stores like Costco and restaurants like Wendy’s are limiting sales. U.S. beef and pork processing capacity is down 40% from last year. On Monday night, nearly 20% of U.S. Wendy’s didn’t have beef available on their online menus, according to an analysis by Stephens, an investment bank. Wendy’s confirms it’s seeing temporary shortages. Meat production plants are gradually reopening. In the meantime, some alternative meat companies like Impossible Foods are hoping to fill the void. Impossible says its soy-based burger will go on sale at 1,700 Kroger stores this week.
