March 9, 2020 4:23 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Federal and state officials in California are preparing to receive thousands of people from a cruise ship that has been idling off the coast of San Francisco with at least 21 people aboard infected with the coronavirus. Personnel covered head to toe in protective gear Monday woke up passengers on the Grand Princess to check whether they were sick. Fences were installed at an 11-acre site at the port as authorities readied flights and buses to whisk the more than 2,400 passengers to military bases or their home countries for a 14-day quarantine. The U.S. death toll from the virus reached at least 21 and the number of cases worldwide soared above 110,000.
March 9, 2020 4:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Two members of Congress, Sen. Ted Cruz and congressman Paul Gosar, say they are isolating themselves after determining they had contact at a political conference with a man who has tested positive for coronavirus. Cruz says he had brief contact with the man at the Conservative Political Action Conference nearly two weeks ago and would spend the next few days at his home in Texas until a full 14 days had passed since their interaction. Gosar says he had sustained contact with the man at CPAC and that he and three members of his senior staff are under self-quarantine. The office of the Arizona Republican will be closed for the week.
March 9, 2020 4:21 am
Nearly 200 people turned out Sunday for the Centennial Celebration of Women’s Suffrage at the George Washington Hotel. The Suffragists’ Tea is hosted by the Washington County Democratic Party. The program featured speakers from the County Historical Society, as well as Pittsburgh actress, writer and singer, Yvonne Hudson, who portrayed Jennie Bradley Roessing, a Pittsburgh Suffragist who battled with other women to pass the 19th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens on the basis of sex.
March 9, 2020 4:12 am
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – (WPXI) – Starting Monday, if you are caught on camera speeding through active work zones in Pennsylvania, you could receive a fine. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission announced that enforcement of the statewide Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement program will begin on March 9 after a 60-day pre-enforcement period. “Through the Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement program, we are urging motorists to slow down and pay attention while driving, especially through work zones where roadway conditions can change on a daily basis,” said acting PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian. “In 2018, 23 motorists were killed in a Pennsylvania work zone. Ultimately, this program is not about issuing violations, it’s about saving lives.” The program uses vehicle-mounted systems to detect and record drivers exceeding posted work zone speed limits by 11 miles per hour. The first time a car is caught speeding through a work zone, the driver will receive a warning letter. After that, it’ll cost the driver. A first offense is $75 and every offense after that will be a $150 fine.
March 9, 2020 4:09 am
CLINTONVILLE, Pa. — Two people were killed in a crash Sunday involving an Amish buggy and a logging truck in Venango County, according to state police. The crash happened around 3 p.m. in the 2400 block of Clintonville Road in Irwin Township. State police said the buggy was hit from behind by the logging truck while it was traveling eastbound. A family of five was riding in the buggy. Police said a woman and a boy were pronounced dead at the scene. A man was flown to a hospital in Youngstown, Ohio, and a girl was flown to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. Another boy was treated and released from the hospital. Police said the driver of the logging truck is cooperating with investigators. The road was closed for several hours while police investigated.
March 9, 2020 4:06 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – State officials say four more people tested positive for the new coronavirus in Pennsylvania, including three people who were hospitalized. State officials said Monday that brings the total number to 10, all adults. One hospitalized person, a Montgomery County resident, is said to be in critical condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The department didn’t say which hospitals are caring for the other two patients. The state has a lab in Exton that can make use of new equipment to boost its capacity to test up to 150 people a day instead of 25 people a day.
March 8, 2020 8:06 am
NEW YORK (AP) — McCoy Tyner, the groundbreaking and influential jazz pianist and the last surviving member of the John Coltrane Quartet, has died. He was 81. Tyner’s family confirmed the death in a statement released on social media Friday. No more details were provided. Tyner was born in Philadelphia on Dec. 11, 1938. He eventually met Coltrane and joined him for the 1961 album “My Favorite Things,” a major commercial success that highlighted the remarkable chemistry of the John Coltrane Quartet. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. The quartet would go on to release more revered projects, becoming an internationally renowned group and one of the seminal acts in jazz history.
March 8, 2020 8:04 am
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — The Democratic presidential primary is down to two major candidates, and it shows. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are spending their first weekend as their party’s last top White House contenders increasingly taking aim at one another. Each wants to show he’s the best choice before six more states — Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington — vote on Tuesday. It reflects the new contours of a race that once featured 20-plus Democrats. An increasingly bitter matchup could endure for months as Biden and Sanders compete for the right to face President Donald Trump in November. Campaigning in St. Louis, Biden took a number of veiled swipes at Sanders, even as he called on Democrats to rise above Trump’s division.
March 8, 2020 8:02 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A cruise ship hit by the new coronavirus is headed to the port of Oakland, California, the captain told passengers, though they were destined to stay aboard the ship for at least another day. Grand Princess Capt. John Smith, in a recording provided by passenger Laurie Miller of San Jose, told guests the ship will dock in Oakland. Princess Cruises says it’s expected to arrive on Monday. The ship is carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries. Smith said passengers who need medical treatment or hospitalization will go to health care facilities in California, while state residents who don’t require acute medical care “will go to a federally operated isolation facility within California for testing and isolation.” U.S. guests from other states will be transported by the federal government to facilities in other states. Crew members will be quarantined and treated aboard the ship. Smith said the information he was given did not include any details about what would happen to passengers from other countries.
March 8, 2020 7:57 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Party stalwarts in Pennsylvania heaved a collective sigh of relief as Joe Biden, the choice of many party leaders in the battleground state, emerged from the presidential primary pack as the consensus pick to lead the party’s moderate wing. After all, the former vice president and Delaware senator is viewed as a hometown boy in the Democratic bastion of Scranton, where he grew up. Most members of Pennsylvania’s Democratic congressional delegation, including U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, endorsed Biden early in the primary. And his longstanding relationships with party leaders in Pennsylvania have made him their favorite candidate to beat President Donald Trump in a state Democrats can’t afford to lose. Party insiders in Pennsylvania who support Biden, however, had worried that his campaign wouldn’t survive the crowded primary fray before Super Tuesday voters flocked to Biden, who won the most delegates on the presidential primary calendar’s biggest night.
