May 7, 2020 2:57 am
Washington County Commissioners voted 2-1 on Wednesday to join in a lawsuit against Democratic Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine. Republican commissioners, Chairperson Diana Irey-Vaughan and Nick Sherman voted in favor of proceeding, saying they believe that Wolf and Levine, through their mandates and restrictions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, have been violating citizens constitutional rights. Democrat Larry Maggi cast the lone no vote, saying that if he thought a lawsuit would get the county’s businesses open and residents back to work and the economy going, then he would vote to sue the state and federal government in a minute. Maggi, however, said that this lawsuit, according to most lawyers, will not be successful and could/would take months or even years to be resolved. Maggi says, to date, they don’t know how much the suit will cost taxpayers, but according to Commissioner Sherman, the suit will not cost taxpayers “one dime.” The suit will be filed in U.S. District Court and will proceed, according to Irey-Vaughan, even if Governor Wolf moves Southwestern Pennsylvania into the yellow phase of reopening quickly. Irey-Vaughan says it’s no longer just about reopening business, it’s about violating the fundamental rights of Pennsylvania residents.
May 7, 2020 2:15 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf has extended a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions by another two months. He said Thursday that residents should not have to worry about losing their homes during the pandemic. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court first suspended evictions in March, but its order is set to expire Monday. Wolf signed an executive order extending the moratorium through July 10. The move was blasted by a board member of one of the state’s largest landlord groups. Meanwhile, the state has reported 310 more virus deaths, bringing the statewide toll to over 4,300.
May 6, 2020 10:55 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – One day after saying that the COVID-19 task force would be winding down, President Donald Trump says it would continue on indefinitely, but focus on rebooting the economy. Trump’s reversal in a tweet Wednesday comes as deaths in New York, the epicenter of the virus, are declining, but rising in the rest of the United States. A White House official acknowledged Wednesday morning that signaling that the task force was preparing to shut down sent the wrong message and created a media maelstrom. The official said the membership in the group would change as the nature of the crisis evolves.
May 6, 2020 7:54 am
MOSCOW (AP) – Two Russian doctors died and one remains in the intensive care unit in serious condition after falling out of windows in hospitals under mysterious circumstances last week. The gruesome incidents have made national headlines, with media reports saying all three have come under pressure from superiors over working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic. In recent weeks, medical workers all over Russia have decried shortages of protective equipment and questionable infection control procedures that turned dozens of hospitals into virus hotbeds, with hundreds of doctors and nurses contracting the virus. Many Russian doctors say they have been threatened with dismissal or even prosecution for going public with their grievances.
May 6, 2020 4:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A senior government scientist alleges the Trump administration failed to prepare for the onslaught of the coronavirus, then sought a fix by rushing an unproven drug to patients. Rick Bright filed a whistleblower complaint Tuesday with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that investigates retaliation against federal employees who report problems. He’s the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Bright alleges he was removed from his job and reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug favored by President Donald Trump.
May 6, 2020 4:05 am
An Associated Press analysis finds that taking the New York metropolitan area’s progress against the coronavirus out of the equation shows the rest of the U.S. moving in the wrong direction, with the infection rate rising even as states move to lift their lockdowns. Scientists warn those numbers will only increase as states from Texas to Florida start to ease their own lockdowns. Meanwhile, Britain’s official coronavirus death total surpassed that of Italy to become the highest in Europe and second-highest in the world behind the United States.
May 6, 2020 4:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s pick to be the nation’s top intelligence official, congressman John Ratcliffe, is adamant that if confirmed he will not allow politics to color information he takes to the president. The director of the Office of National Intelligence oversees the nation’s 16 spy agencies. During a Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, the Texas Republican consistently told lawmakers he would communicate intelligence to Trump even if he knew the president strongly disagreed with it. Fueling skepticism from some senators is Trump’s firing or forcing out of at least seven top U.S. intelligence officials since last summer.
May 6, 2020 4:02 am
NEW YORK (AP) – It was the sounds of silence in New York City’s subway system, as the normally round-the-clock system shut down for train cleaning. The trains, which had been running on a reduced schedule since late March, were scheduled to stop from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday. That’s going to be the new daily routine, to allow for daily cleanings and for city workers to move homeless people who have been more visible in subway cars during the coronavirus. The New York Police Department has assigned more than 1,000 officers to secure many of the system’s 472 stations, as fewer than 200 can be physically locked up.
May 6, 2020 4:01 am
PHOENIX (AP) – President Donald Trump has put personal action into his call to reopen the country, visiting an Arizona face mask factory on Tuesday. Yet Trump didn’t wear a mask himself while touring a Honeywell factory in Phoenix. The president acknowledged that easing restrictions will result in some people being, in his words, “affected badly.” But he said it is imperative to get the country going again. An Associated Press analysis finds infection rates rising even as states start lifting their lockdowns. The White House says it hopes to wind down its coronavirus task force while shifting from battling an “invisible enemy” to rebooting the economy.
May 6, 2020 3:57 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Pennsylvania Game Commission says the number of hunting-related shooting fatalities in Pennsylvania went up in the past year. There were 26 hunting-related shooting injuries in Pennsylvania in 2019, four of which were fatal. The number of fatalities is up from the previous year when only one of the 27 hunting-related shootings were fatal. According to the commission, a little over half of the injuries in 2019 were inflicted by others. The primary cause was a person being in the line of fire and the second most common cause was the unintended discharge of a firearm.
