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.
March 8, 2020 7:54 am
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. (WPXI) — The 10-year-old girl who went missing in West Mifflin Saturday was found by a neighbor hours later. According to investigators, Brianna Lopata hadn’t been seen since about 6:30 p.m. Saturday near her home on Lebanon School Road. Police confirmed she was found as of 10:15 p.m. Officials told our news partners at Channel 11 it started when the girl’s parents had a “mild dispute, and they thought they’d let her cool down.” Lopata then wandered from the home. Police had a command post set up at the pavilion at Mifflin Estates on A Drive. Search crews were all over the neighborhood using flashlights, drones and cars to find the missing girl. Eventually, police said a neighbor found Lopata in their backyard. The child is now safe at her home.
March 8, 2020 7:51 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI) — Gov. Tom Wolf announced Saturday there are two new presumptive positive coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania. In a release, state officials said both new cases are individuals from Montgomery County, have mild symptoms, are in isolation at home and were exposed to an area of the United States where COVID-19 is present. Montgomery County is just outside Philadelphia in eastern Pennsylvania. The state now has four total presumed positive coronavirus cases – all in the eastern part of the state. The first two cases of the coronavirus, one in Wayne County and one in Delaware County, were announced Friday morning. All four people who tested positive for the virus are quarantined in their homes. The person from Wayne County recently traveled to a country where coronavirus is present, Wolf said. The person from Delaware County recently traveled to an area of the United States where coronavirus is present. Officials said there are more than 105,000 cases of the coronavirus worldwide, including more than 3,500 deaths. Of those numbers, the United States has 401 cases and 17 deaths. Wolf assured Pennsylvanians that the state is prepared to respond to the spread of the coronavirus.
March 7, 2020 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is honoring a pair of retired pro golfers with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It’s the highest honor the president can give to a civilian. The White House says Annika Sörenstam and Gary Player will receive the honors during a White House ceremony on March 23. Both are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Both also joined Trump for a round of golf on his private club in northern Virginia last fall. Trump awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tiger Woods last year after Woods claimed his fifth Masters title.
March 7, 2020 4:13 am
NEW DELHI (AP) – For weeks India has watched as the new virus spread in neighboring China and elsewhere while its own caseload remained static. But with the disease now spreading inside the country of 1.4 billion, authorities are scrambling to ready the understaffed medical system for a potential surge in patients. Schools have been closed, exports of key pharmaceutical ingredients have been halted, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced he will not join public celebrations of Holi, the Hindu springtime holiday in which crowds of people douse one another with colored water and paint.
March 7, 2020 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is shaking up White House leadership, replacing his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney with Republican Rep. Mark Meadows. Trump announced the staff reshuffle in Friday night tweets. The long-rumored move comes as Trump has been surrounding himself with loyalists as he prepares for a tough reelection bid. But the timing – as the Trump administration was already facing criticism over its handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak – threatened to exacerbate concerns about the government’s ability to protect the nation. Meadows will be fourth chief of staff in as many years.
March 7, 2020 4:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Two people who attended the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington earlier this week have tested positive for the coronavirus. The group made the disclosure Friday on Twitter. The cases are the first linked to the nation’s capital. Thousands of people attended the AIPAC policy conference, including some members of Congress, and Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were among the speakers. AIPAC says it has been in touch with health officials in New York and Washington. It is urging attendees to get in touch with their medical providers if they feel ill.
