May 3, 2020 8:22 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North and South Korean troops exchanged fire along their tense border on Sunday, the South’s military said, the first such incident since the rivals took unprecedented steps to lower front-line animosities in late 2018. Violent confrontations have occasionally occurred along the border, the world’s most heavily fortified. While Sunday’s incident is a reminder of persistent tensions, it didn’t cause any known casualties on either side and is unlikely to escalate, observers said. The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said in a statement that North Korean troops fired several bullets at a South Korean guard post inside the border zone. South Korea responded with a total of 20 rounds of warning shots on two occasions before issuing a warning broadcast, it said. South Korea suffered no casualties, the military said. Defense officials said it’s also unlikely that North Korea had any casualties, since the South Korean warning shots were fired at uninhibited North Korean territory. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, did not immediately report about the incident.
May 3, 2020 8:20 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Six months from Election Day, President Donald Trump’s prospects for winning a second term have been jolted by a historic pandemic and a cratering economy, rattling some of his Republican allies and upending the playbook his campaign had hoped to be using by now against Democrat Joe Biden. Trump’s standing has slumped as the nation’s focus on him has intensified during the coronavirus outbreak, revealing an erratic and often self-absorbed approach to the crisis. The result: He’s losing ground in some battleground states with key constituencies, including senior citizens and college-educated men — all without his Democratic challenger having devoted much energy or money to denting the president. For some Republicans, the prospect of an election that is almost wholly a referendum on Trump is unnerving. Though the president’s base remains loyal, a significant portion of GOP voters view him skeptically on a range of personal qualities. He pulled many of those voters to his side in the 2016 election by drawing an aggressive contrast with Democrat Hillary Clinton. He planned to do the same in 2020 with Biden, with the added tailwind of a surging American economy. Now, that economy is crumbling around Trump. A staggering 30 million Americans have lost their jobs in the past six weeks as businesses have shuttered due to stay-at-home restrictions aimed at containing the pandemic. One of the president’s own economic advisers predicted nationwide unemployment could reach 20% by June.
May 3, 2020 8:17 am
ATLANTA (AP) — As more states begin to relax their coronavirus lockdowns, most are falling short of the minimum levels of testing suggested by the federal government and recommended by a variety of public health researchers, an Associated Press analysis has found. Three months into an unprecedented public health emergency, the White House has largely resisted calls for a coordinated plan to conduct the millions of tests experts say are needed to contain the virus. What federal officials outlined recently isn’t even an official benchmark, and AP’s analysis found that a majority of states are not yet meeting it. With no specific guidelines, states are left to figure out what a successful testing program should be while they simultaneously try to reopen their shattered economies. If states don’t have robust testing, public health experts say they will be unable to detect outbreaks quickly enough to contain them, which could lead to more shutdowns.
May 3, 2020 8:15 am
PITTSBURGH (WPXI)— A man crashed his vehicle into a Pittsburgh auto body shop and then jumped about 30 feet off a nearby bridge Saturday afternoon, according to police. Investigators said the incident happened around 2 p.m. The driver’s vehicle was seen going at a high rate of speed before it crashed completely through the outside of Ron Flora Automotive on West Warrington Avenue. At that point, police said the man ran up to the South Busway bridge above Boggs Avenue and jumped about 30 feet down. He was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition. Meanwhile, a female passenger in that vehicle stayed at the scene until officers got there. Police said the woman told officers that she and the driver were having an argument before the collision happened. She was also taken to the hospital but was listed in serious condition. No one else was hurt in the crash. The investigation is ongoing.
May 3, 2020 3:59 am
Balancing economic benefits and public health risks, Governor Tom Wolf today announced the reopening of 24 counties in the northwest and north-central regions of the state, moving them from red to yellow beginning at 12:01 a.m., Friday, May 8th. “Over the past two months, Pennsylvanians in every corner of our commonwealth have acted collectively to stop the spread of COVID-19,” Gov. Wolf said. “We have seen our new case numbers stabilize statewide and while we still have areas where outbreaks are occurring, we also have many areas that have few or no new cases.”
Counties Moving to Yellow Reopening
The 24 counties that will move from red to yellow on May 8 are: Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Union, Venango, and Warren. These counties were deemed ready to move to a reopening – or yellow phase – because of low per-capita case counts, the ability to conduct contact tracing and testing, and appropriate population density to contain community spread. Wolf says his administration partnered with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to create a Risk-Based Decision Support Tool that enables decision makers to strike a balance between maximizing the results of our economy while minimizing public health risks. The CMU tool looked at the impacts of risk factors such as reported number of COVID cases per population of an area; ICU and medical/surgical bed capacity; population density; population over age 60; re-opening contact risk, such as the number of workers employed in a currently closed industry sector. The Department of Health developed testing and contact-tracing plans that informed today’s decisions and will be used in making decisions moving forward. Counties that will remain under the stay-at-home order (Washington County) will be considered for reopening in the next several weeks as the state continues to closely monitor metrics and collaborate with CMU, health experts and counties.
May 2, 2020 4:13 am
NEW YORK (AP) – A New York City nursing home says nearly 100 of its residents have died from confirmed or suspected cases of the novel coronavirus. The Isabella Geriatric Center in Manhattan is among the hardest hit nursing homes in the state, with 46 confirmed fatalities and an additional 52 deaths of people suspected to have the virus. The nursing home said it had to order a refrigerator truck because funeral homes have been taking days to pick up the deceased. The nursing home said it struggled to secure testing during the early part of the pandemic. Mayor Bill de Blasio called the death toll “horrifying.”
May 2, 2020 4:13 am
ALTURAS, Calif. (AP) – The lights are back on at restaurants, bars and other businesses in California’s Modoc County after nearly six weeks. The county of 9,000 in the far northeast of the state became the first to reopen Friday, in defiance of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-home order. They’re relying on guidance from local officials, like the sheriff, and say they’re following mandates to stay at least 6 feet apart. Amber McCandles was at the Brass Rail restaurant. She says Sheriff Tex Dowdy would never allow residents back out if it wasn’t safe. Newsom has declined to address the reopening, saying that the anxiety in rural areas “is not lost on me.”
May 2, 2020 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A spokesman for a key House panel says the White House has blocked Dr. Anthony Fauci from testifying next week at a hearing on the coronavirus outbreak. House Appropriations Committee spokesman Evan Hollander says the panel sought Fauci as a witness for a subcommittee hearing on the government’s response to the pandemic, but was denied. The White House says Fauci is busy dealing with the pandemic and will appear before Congress later. A spokesperson for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee says Fauci is set to appear before that panel the week after next.
May 2, 2020 4:11 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Oprah Winfrey says she wants people to digest coronavirus news wisely during the a 24-hour livestream event. The media mogul along with 200 star-studded participants including President Bill Clinton and Julia Roberts took part in the Call to Unite event on Friday evening. The event was initiated to help inspire people to endure and overcome the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. In one video, Josh Groban sang a song and played his keyboard piano. Charlamagne Tha God gave inspiring words for people dealing with mental illness while inside their homes, and “Hawaii Five-o” actor Daniel Dae Kim said he donated his plasma after recovering from the virus. Clinton and President George W. Bush also offered encouraging words.
May 2, 2020 4:09 am
DETROIT (AP) – Farmers, growers and operators of open-air markets are heading into a busy time of the year as many states still are under stay-at-home orders for residents and non-essential businesses to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Shoppers venturing out this year are just as likely to come across tables of hand sanitizer and face mask-wearing produce peddlers as they are to see bushels of corn, quarts of blueberries or flats of petunias. Many markets have moved to drive-thru shopping, reduced days or hours, and fencing to control crowds. At Detroit’s Eastern Market, fencing is being considered and grids will be painted on floors as a reminder to social distance.
