May 5, 2020 4:04 am
UNDATED (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence says the White House coronavirus task force could wind down its work by early June. Pence tells reporters at a White House briefing that the U.S. could be “in a very different place” by late May and early June. Pence says the administration is beginning to eye the Memorial Day to early June window as the appropriate time to have federal agencies manage the pandemic response in a more traditional way. Pence’s comments came as an Associated Press analysis found infection rates rising even as states start to lift their lockdowns.
May 5, 2020 4:03 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court’s second day of arguments by phone is devoted to a new version of a case it decided seven years ago involving federal money to fight AIDS around the world. The justices are taking up the Trump administration’s appeal to force the foreign affiliates of U.S.-based health organizations to denounce prostitution as a condition of receiving taxpayer money. As they did Monday, the justices and two lawyers representing the administration and the organizations will meet by telephone, with live audio available to the public. The court scheduled the arguments by phone because of the coronavirus pandemic.
May 5, 2020 4:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s nominee to be director of national intelligence pledged at his confirmation hearing Tuesday to deliver intelligence free of bias, prejudice or political influence and said he believed that Russia had interfered in the most recent presidential election and could try to do so again. The comments from Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican, were aimed at quelling Democratic concerns that the Trump loyalist could be swayed by political pressure from a president who has been openly dismissive of the government’s spy agencies and once derided them as being “run amok.”
May 5, 2020 3:56 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Attorneys for the city of Pittsburgh are asking a state court to overturn a judge’s order striking down firearm restrictions approved after a mass shooting at a synagogue. The three ordinances were approved in April 2019 following the October 2018 shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue that killed 11 worshippers. A judge struck down the ordinances in October, saying Pennsylvania law forbids municipalities from regulating firearms. City lawyers argue in briefs filed last week that local governments’ authority to regulate firearms to protect citizens “may be limited, but it is not extinguished.”
May 5, 2020 2:35 am
MCKEES ROCKS, Pa. (AP) – A body found in an unplugged refrigerator at a western Pennsylvania apartment building has been identified as a woman who went missing last week. Authorities say 41-year-old Daryl Jones, of McKees Rocks, was charged Monday with abusing a corpse. He was ordered held without bail because he may be a danger to the community and himself, according to court records. McKees Rocks police went to the apartment building Monday morning after residents who had smelled a foul odor discovered the decomposed body of 38-year-old Kristy Jefferson. Authorities haven’t said how Jefferson’s body ended up in the refrigerator, which was in a common area of the building. (Photo: WPXI)
May 4, 2020 3:45 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The secretary of the Senate has declined Joe Biden’s request to release any potential documents pertaining to an allegation of sexual assault against him from a former Senate staffer, citing confidentiality requirements under the law. Biden made the request Friday after delivering his public comments responding to the allegation from former staffer Tara Reade that he sexually assaulted her in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in the spring of 1993. Biden has denied the allegation. The secretary of the Senate says the Senate legal counsel advised that the secretary “has no discretion to disclose any such information.”
May 4, 2020 3:39 pm
MIAMI (AP) – Carnival Cruise Line is announcing it will start cruising again, from Florida and Texas, beginning August. The coronavirus pandemic forced a near total pause in the global cruise industry, and these journeys will be limited to domestic ports, with Miami, Cape Canaveral and Galveston, Texas selected because most guests can reach them by car. The company says ships will not be cruising from Alaska, Hawaii and Australia through Aug. 31. The State Department began warning against cruise travel on March 8, and the CDC issued a no-sail order on March 14. The order prompted several countries to reject cruise ships altogether.
May 4, 2020 10:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – It’s been a morning of firsts for the Supreme Court: the first time audio of the court’s arguments was heard live by the world and the first arguments by telephone. The changes are a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has made holding courtroom sessions unsafe. The experiment that began Monday could propel the court to routinely livestream its arguments. The phone arguments ran smoothly. The justices asked roughly two questions apiece. The chief justice occasionally interjected to keep things moving. And there was one mild surprise: Justice Clarence Thomas asked questions for the first time in more than a year. (Photo: CNN)
May 4, 2020 9:32 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The owner of J.Crew is filing for bankruptcy protection, the first major retailer to do so since the pandemic forced the closing of most stores in the United States. More retail bankruptcies are expected in coming weeks with the doors of thousands of stores still locked. March sales at stores and restaurants had their most severe plunge on records dating back to 1992. Clothing sales fell more than 50% that month and it has grown worse. The abrupt closure of stores threatens the overall health of the U.S. with consumers driving 70% of all economic activity in the country. The company said Monday that it anticipates its stores will reopen when it’s safe to do so.
May 4, 2020 4:09 am
ROME (AP) – From the United States to Asia, people are emerging from their homes as virus-related restrictions are being eased. But the pandemic is climbing to worrisome peaks in some of the world’s most populous countries. India reported more than 2,600 new cases, its biggest single-day jump, and new cases in Russia exceeded 10,000 for the first time. Britain’s death toll climbed near Italy’s, even though the U.K. population is younger and Britain had more time to prepare. The coronavirus has killed more than 247,000 people. Experts warn a second wave of infections could hit unless testing is expanded dramatically.
