November 10, 2020 4:11 am
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Gov. Gavin Newsom says California is seeing a sobering increase in coronavirus cases that may be partially linked to Halloween. Eleven San Francisco Bay Area health officers are meanwhile urging residents there to quarantine for two weeks if they venture outside the region. Newsom warned Monday that coronavirus case numbers, the positivity rate, hospitalizations and intensive care cases all have reached their highest level in months. The state updates counties’ progress on the state’s four-tier, color-coded system each week and as a result several are expected to move Tuesday to more restrictions on how businesses can operate.
November 10, 2020 4:11 am
Pfizer’s surprising news that its COVID-19 vaccine might offer more protection than anticipated is raising questions about exactly how the different shots will make it to market. Pfizer and the maker of the other leading U.S. vaccine candidate have been cautioning for weeks that the earliest they could seek regulatory approval for wider use of their shots would be late November. Science moves at its own pace. COVID-19 vaccines worldwide are being developed at record speeds in hope of ending the pandemic. And when they’re ready for prime time depends on a long list of research steps including how many study volunteers wind up getting the coronavirus.
November 10, 2020 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. health officials have allowed emergency use of the first antibody drug to help the immune system fight COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday cleared the experimental drug from Eli Lilly for people 12 and older with mild or moderate COVID-19 not requiring hospitalization. Tests of it are continuing, but the drug does not seem to help patients with more serious illness. It is similar to a treatment President Donald Trump received after contracting the virus last month. The government previously reached an agreement to buy and supply much of the early production of the drug.
November 10, 2020 4:06 am
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – Cities in South Florida mopped up after Tropical Storm Eta flooded some urban areas with a deluge that swamped entire neighborhoods and filled some homes with water that didn’t drain for hours. After striking Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane and killing nearly 70 people from Mexico to Panama, the storm swept over South Florida. Then it moved Monday into the Gulf of Mexico. Florida officials say the heavy rain damaged one of the state’s largest COVID-19 testing sites. Eta is the 28th named storm in a busy hurricane season and the first to make landfall in Florida.
November 10, 2020 4:05 am
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – Joe Biden is championing the Obama administration’s signature health law as it goes before the Supreme Court in a case that could overturn it. The president-elect is delivering an Affordable Care Act speech on Tuesday, the same day the high court will hear arguments on its merits. The Supreme Court ruled eight years ago to leave intact the essential components of the law known as Obamacare, but is now controlled 6-3 by a conservative majority. The speech reflects the importance Biden is putting on health care as he prepares to take office in January amid the worst pandemic in more than a century.
November 10, 2020 4:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is brushing aside results of last week’s presidential election showing that President Donald Trump lost his bid for a second term. He’s also dismissing as “ridiculous” questions about whether Trump’s evidence-free claims of fraud could hurt America’s credibility when weighing in on foreign elections. One of Trump’s most loyal Cabinet members, Pompeo told reporters Tuesday with a grin that the “transition” to a second Trump term would be “smooth.” But he later said the State Department was prepared for any eventuality. Trump has refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden.
November 10, 2020 4:02 am
Pennsylvania’s top health official says the state is at a “critical point” in the pandemic. Dr. Rachel Levine, the state health secretary, is begging residents to wear masks, avoid congregating and take other simple preventative measures to slow the spread. Pennsylvania has reported more than 6,300 new virus cases over the past 48 hours. Cases are up more than 70% in the past two weeks, and Pennsylvania now has an average of nearly 3,000 new cases per day, according to The COVID Tracking Project. Levine said Monday the virus is spreading more rapidly than at any point since the beginning of the pandemic.
November 10, 2020 4:00 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – President Donald Trump’s campaign is launching a lawsuit to stop the certification of the election results in Pennsylvania. It sued Monday as counties continued to sort through provisional ballots and mail-in ballots nearly a week after the election. The Associated Press on Saturday called the presidential contest for former Vice President Joe Biden, after determining that the remaining ballots left to be counted in Pennsylvania would not allow Trump to catch up. But Trump’s campaign filed litigation in federal court over Pennsylvania’s presidential election, saying registered Democratic voters were treated more favorably than Republicans. Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Democrat Josh Shapiro, called the lawsuit meritless.
November 10, 2020 3:57 am
Peters Township Council took on the next phase of the development of Rolling Hills Park. Council awarded a bid of nearly $7 million dollars to create as Township Manager Paul Lauer describes, “the spine of which everything in Rolling Hills Park will be developed.” A loop road will be developed to access three picnic pavilions, restrooms, a walking trail that will connect to Arrowhead Trail and a maintenance garage. The loop road will be the method to access these and any other future developments that will take place in the coming years. Council also updated their ordinance governing placement of wireless communication facilities. The amendments were to make sure that any restrictions placed on the deployment of 5G technology towers are in compliance with FCC regulations. The issue for the future will be how township developments that have underground utilities will access 5G technology. Fifty foot towers need to be placed several hundred feet apart to allow the technology to work. Neighborhoods that prohibit above ground utilities will find it difficult to obtain 5G technology because of the technology’s reliance on those towers. Council also adopted design standards for any towers that can be installed.
November 10, 2020 2:13 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A man has pleaded guilty to an aggravated assault charge in connection with a fight and shots fired at a western Pennsylvania mall last year. Twenty-three-year-old Brandon Noel of McKeesport entered the plea Tuesday in Allegheny County Court as part of a plea deal in which prosecutors agreed to withdraw other charges including attempted murder. Prosecutors said the plea deal doesn’t include any agreement on sentencing, which is scheduled Jan. 28. Authorities said two groups began fighting at the Monroeville Mall in April 2019, and the brawl spilled outside, where they allege Noel pulled a gun and about 14 shots were fired. No injuries were reported.
