May 5, 2020 6:16 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – A government scientist says he was ousted from his job after raising concerns that the Trump administration wanted to “flood” coronavirus hot spots like New York and New Jersey with a malaria drug, despite little scientific evidence it helped. Rick Bright filed a complaint Tuesday with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency responsible for whistleblower complaints. 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 Trump.
May 5, 2020 9:52 am
Cecil Township Supervisors intended to live stream their regular meeting Monday night but ran into technical difficulties. Township officials state that the internet was down and the meeting was unable to be viewed as a live event. During the meeting supervisors approved a township Facebook page. The Facebook page will be constructed so as to not allow public comment. Supervisor Eric Sivavec has been calling for the page for several months. Supervisor Cindy Fisher is still reluctant saying that a new township website is in the works and a Facebook page should wait to be simultaneously released. The measure passed 4-1 with Supervisor Ron Fleeher voting no. Supervisors approved an emergency declaration as it relates to the Covid-19 pandemic. Supervisors also passed a measure to allow Township Manager Don Gennuso to order appraisals for land parcels that the township is interested in for the development of a public works building. Gennuso identified the two properties as that the Cowden Property and a property on Angerer Road where a radio station facility is located.
May 5, 2020 9:30 am
BOSTON (AP) – Public transit systems typically marked by jammed buses and subway trains are now grappling with the exact opposite: disappearing riders. Some systems are reporting subway ridership of less than 10% of usual demand as fears of the coronavirus and stay-at-home orders have riders abandoning time-worn methods of navigating cities. While agencies say public transit is still critical to help doctors, nurses and medical workers get to their jobs, no one is exactly sure when riders will begin returning in larger numbers – and how. A $25 billion federal aid package is helping some systems maintain service in the meantime.
May 5, 2020 8:58 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — (WPXI) – Surveillance video inside Forty Bar and Grille in Washington County shows a man breaking into the restaurant Saturday evening. The owner said he has to clean up blood and glass after a man busted through this garage door with a hammer. The owner said he was already having difficult time making ends meet due to the pandemic and tonight he wants this suspect caught. “He obviously didn’t see the cameras, broke in stole bottles of beer, liquor, grabbed our bank bag, only had a dollar in it,” said the owner Robert Merashoff. “He couldn’t get in through basement door, he was carrying a hammer with him. He busted one of the glass doors and broke in through that, cutting himself, leaving a bloody palm print on top facing the camera for the world to see,” Merashoff said. Merashoff said they’re struggling here trying to remain open for takeout orders, but not making enough money. And fixing this damage is not something he can afford. If you recognize the man in the picture, contact state police. (Photo: WPXI)
May 5, 2020 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The economic paralysis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic is forcing the U.S. Treasury to borrow far more than it ever has before – $2.99 trillion in the current quarter alone. The amount is more than five times the government’s previous record borrowing for a quarter, $569 billion, set in the depths of the 2008 financial crisis. It also dwarfs the $1.28 trillion the government borrowed in the bond market for all of 2019. The Treasury Department said the huge sum is needed to pay for nearly $3 trillion in rescue aid that the government has unleashed in programs to support tens of millions of jobless workers and shuttered businesses with direct payments and loans.
May 5, 2020 4:08 am
FLINT, Mich. (AP) – A woman, her husband and adult son have been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a security guard who refused to let her daughter enter a Family Dollar store in Michigan without a face mask. Calvin Munerlyn was killed Friday at the store in Flint. Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said Monday that Munerlyn told Sharmel Teague’s daughter that she had to leave unless she put on a mask. Teague argued with Munerlyn before leaving. Two men later came to the store. One of the men shot Munerlyn. Teague has been arrested. Police are seeking her husband and son.
May 5, 2020 4:06 am
China and South Korea, which had early, intense outbreaks of the coronavirus, together reported only four new infections Tuesday and were slowly resuming public events after months of containment efforts. Meanwhile, the U.S. was taking halting steps to lift some restrictions even as thousands of new cases continue to be reported each day. In Washington, the Supreme Court heard arguments by telephone and allowed the world to listen in live for the first time. And the Senate convened for the first time since March, though prospects for quick action on a new aid package are uncertain.
May 5, 2020 4:04 am
UNDATED (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence says the White House coronavirus task force could wind down its work by early June. Pence tells reporters at a White House briefing that the U.S. could be “in a very different place” by late May and early June. Pence says the administration is beginning to eye the Memorial Day to early June window as the appropriate time to have federal agencies manage the pandemic response in a more traditional way. Pence’s comments came as an Associated Press analysis found infection rates rising even as states start to lift their lockdowns.
May 5, 2020 4:03 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court’s second day of arguments by phone is devoted to a new version of a case it decided seven years ago involving federal money to fight AIDS around the world. The justices are taking up the Trump administration’s appeal to force the foreign affiliates of U.S.-based health organizations to denounce prostitution as a condition of receiving taxpayer money. As they did Monday, the justices and two lawyers representing the administration and the organizations will meet by telephone, with live audio available to the public. The court scheduled the arguments by phone because of the coronavirus pandemic.
May 5, 2020 4:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s nominee to be director of national intelligence pledged at his confirmation hearing Tuesday to deliver intelligence free of bias, prejudice or political influence and said he believed that Russia had interfered in the most recent presidential election and could try to do so again. The comments from Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican, were aimed at quelling Democratic concerns that the Trump loyalist could be swayed by political pressure from a president who has been openly dismissive of the government’s spy agencies and once derided them as being “run amok.”
