March 10, 2020 4:05 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania is confirming more cases of the new coronavirus, as more schools canceled classes, travel or events. The state Department of Health reported another positive test for COVID-19 on Tuesday in a resident of Montgomery County. That brings the statewide total to 11, while a Germantown Academy is reporting that a student has been sickened after their parent tested positive. All 11 people who tested positive live in eastern Pennsylvania, and the first 10 cases are people believed to have contracted it by traveling outside the state. Meanwhile, the 2020 Northeast Regional Science Olympiad at Penn State Wilkes-Barre has been canceled.
March 10, 2020 2:03 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia residents are being warned about a telephone scam involving food stamps. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey says some residents are receiving calls claiming to be someone from the Department of Health and Human Resources. The caller informs them that their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are being stopped. The callers says that in order to continue receiving benefits, they must press a number, which then connects them with someone trying to steal their personal information. Morrisey says the DHHR actually sends official notices by U.S. mail and does not call SNAP recipients about ending their benefits.
March 9, 2020 4:36 pm
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A judge in western Pennsylvania has thrown out the conviction of a retired Roman Catholic priest accused of having assaulted a boy almost two decades ago. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony Mariani said Monday he believed the Rev. Hugh Lang hadn’t received a fair trial. A spokesman for the county district attorney’s office vowed an appeal, saying officials believed the decision was “contrary to the law.” The 89-year-old defendant was convicted of indecent assault and other charges involving a preteen boy in 2001 when he was pastor of St. Therese of Lisieux Parish in Munhall. He denied any abuse.
March 9, 2020 10:26 am
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Max von Sydow, the self-described “shy boy”-turned-actor who played the priest in the horror classic “The Exorcist,”áhas died. He was 90. He was known to art house audiences through his work with Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. But it was his role as the devil-evicting priest in William Friedkin’s controversial 1973 film “The Exorcist” that brought him to international attention. His agent said the actor, who was born in Sweden but became a French citizen in 2002, died Sunday. From his 1949 screen debut, von Sydow starred in close to 200 film and TV productions, remaining active well into his 80s.
March 9, 2020 4:26 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks plunged 7% on Wall Street Monday, triggering a trading halt for 15 minutes. The steep drop followed similar falls in Europe after a fight among major crude-producing countries jolted investors already on edge about the widening fallout from the outbreak of the new coronavirus. Indexes in London and Frankfurt dropped by more than 7%. The benchmark for Italy, where the industrial and financial heartland was put in lockdown, fell 11%. Oil prices are down about 20%, deepening a rout that began when Saudi Arabia, Russia and other producers failed to agree on cutting output. Bond yields sank to new lows.
March 9, 2020 4:24 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea fired three short-range projectiles after it threatened to take “momentous” action to protest condemnation of earlier live-fire exercises. Seoul’s military said the projectiles landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Japan said the firings were of suspected ballistic missiles and North Korea’s actions were a “serious threat to the peace and safety of Japan.” The recent military exercises were North Korea’s first weapons tests since late November. Leader Kim Jong Un had entered the new year with a vow to bolster his nuclear deterrent and not to be bound by a weapons test moratorium amid a deadlock in a U.S.-led diplomacy.
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.
