May 20, 2020 1:02 pm
The coronavirus has taken down another event. The Big Butler Fair, which has taken place every year since the Civil War, has been canceled. According to a report from the Butler Eagle, the fair’s board of directors announced late Tuesday night that it was canceled. “Due to the COVID-19 social gathering restrictions imposed by the state of Pennsylvania, the Board of Directors of the Big Butler Fair announce with heavy hearts the cancellation of the 165th Big Butler Fair,” fair board secretary Harold Dunn said in a statement. “Not since the Civil War has the fair been canceled.”
May 20, 2020 12:42 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Los Angeles Police Department says a body found on Venice Beach days is that of former World Wrestling Entertainment pro Shad Gaspard. He went missing while swimming with his son last weekend. The department says officers were flagged down early Wednesday by a person reporting a body had washed ashore. Gaspard’s family was notified. He was last seen about 50 yards offshore after he was caught in a rip current. Gaspard’s 10-year-old son was rescued and several other swimmers made it out of the water. Gaspard was best known as part of the tag-team Cryme Time. He retired in 2010.
May 20, 2020 10:24 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he wants to hold up coronavirus funding for Michigan, saying erroneously that the state had mailed absentee ballots to millions of voters. Michigan used federal coronavirus relief funding to mail applications for absentee ballots, not the ballots themselves. Trump has been vocal in his opposition to voting by mail. The president claims the practice is ripe for fraud even though there is scant evidence of wrongdoing with mail-in votes. Trump later lodged a similar threat against Nevada, which has mailed actual ballots. Trump’s authority to hold up funding for either state is unclear.
May 20, 2020 4:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump attacked the validity of a study of veterans that raised alarms about the malaria drug he actively promotes as a treatment for the coronavirus. Trump’s remarks came Tuesday as he defended his decision to take hydroxychloroquine himself to protect against COVID-19. The president asserted without evidence that the study of veterans was “false” and an “enemy statement.” Yet the drug has not been shown to combat the virus in a multitude of other studies as well. Trump’s own government warns that the drug should be administered for COVID-19 only in a hospital or research setting.
May 20, 2020 4:09 am
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey has launched a website to debunk rumors and hoaxes associated with the spread of the coronavirus, following a false text message of impending national lockdown that circulated widely across the United States. The effort comes amid a torrent of misinformation about the outbreak and is part of similar actions underway in other states to knock down potentially harmful misinformation. The lack of consistent, accurate information from the White House has put further pressure on state leaders to confront what misinformation experts have termed “an infodemic” surrounding the outbreak.
May 20, 2020 4:08 am
NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. births continued to fall last year, leading to the fewest number of newborns in 35 years. The decline is the latest sign of a prolonged national “baby bust” that’s been going on for more than a decade. Some experts believe the decline will get even worse because of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the economy. The latest numbers were released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Aside from a one-year uptick in 2014, U.S. births have been falling every year since 2007. Experts say there are a number of causes, but chief among them are shifting attitudes about motherhood.
May 20, 2020 4:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican political operatives are recruiting what are described as “extremely pro-Trump” doctors to go on television to prescribe reviving the U.S. economy as quickly as possible, without waiting to meet safety benchmarks proposed by public health experts to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. The plan was discussed in a May 11 conference call that included GOP-aligned groups and a Trump campaign staffer. A leaked recording of the hour-long call was provided to The Associated Press. A Trump campaign spokesman confirmed an effort to recruit doctors to publicly support the president is underway, but declined to say when the initiative would be rolled out.
May 20, 2020 4:06 am
EDENVILLE, Mich. (AP) – Rapidly rising water has overtaken dams and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people in central Michigan. Michigan Gov. Gretchen says among the threatened areas is downtown Midland, which could be “under approximately 9 feet of water” by Wednesday. The city of 42,000 is home to Dow Chemical Co.’s main plant, which sits on the riverbank. The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for locations along the Tittabawassee River after the breach at the Edenville Dam in northern Midland County and the Sanford Dam located about 8 miles downriver. It urged residents along the river to immediately seek higher ground. (Photo: CNN)
May 20, 2020 4:06 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A federal judge has ordered Texas to allow any of the state’s 16 million voters to cast a ballot by mail over fears of the coronavirus. The ruling Tuesday paves the way for what would be one of the most dramatic expansions of mail-in voting in the country. Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who says fear of catching the virus doesn’t meet the standard to vote by mail, says he’ll appeal. Texas will hold primary runoff elections in July.
May 20, 2020 4:04 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Nearly 50 Pennsylvania nursing homes have reported 20 or more deaths related to COVID-19. That’s according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the state Department of Health. Nursing homes and personal care homes have struggled for months to contain the virus, with residents of the facilities accounting for more than two-thirds of the state’s overall death toll of 4,624. The state’s worst nursing home outbreak is at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Beaver County, near the Ohio border, where 358 residents and 25 workers have contracted the virus. Brighton has reported 76 deaths.
