Pennsylvania reports 5,100 more coronavirus cases, 140 deaths
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story contained incorrect information about the Federal Pharmacy Partnership. Pennsylvania on Saturday reported 5,191 new coronavirus cases, as hospitalizations and case counts continue to trend downward in the Keystone State. The new data bring the total cases to 839,239. That’s a jump of...
Hundreds of Pa. senior-living facilities haven’t received vaccine as widened eligibility, low supply slow rollout
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — After a sluggish start, the vast majority of nursing homes in Pennsylvania have hosted at least one covid-19 vaccine...
Merriam-Webster adds more than 520 new words to dictionary, including ‘COVID-19,’ ‘second gentleman’ and ‘sapiosexual’
Merriam-Webster, the United States’ leading language provider announced it was adding over 520 new words and definitions to the publisher’s website. These new words include “covid-19,” “second gentleman,” “long-hauler,” “flex,” “ASMR” and “sapiosexual.” Before the pandemic, “long-hauler” was defined as a person or vehicle that travels long distances, but it...
Warden out after new allegations at embattled federal jail in New York
NEW YORK — The warden brought in to clean up the federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself has abruptly stepped down after a yearlong tenure marred by the rampant spread of the coronavirus, inmates’ complaints about squalid conditions, a smuggled gun and an inmate’s death. Marti Licon-Vitale, 54, quit...
Pistol-packing congresswoman Boebert mocks former Parkland student as not ‘tough’
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the Colorado Republican who is so pro-gun she carries a Glock handgun everywhere and owns a firearms-themed restaurant, mocked gun control activist David Hogg on Twitter. In a Thursday evening post, Boebert responded with disdain to a tweet from Hogg, who survived...
Blame game begins over Pennsylvania’s slow vaccine rollout
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Republicans are faulting the administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf for Pennsylvania’s slow covid-19 vaccine rollout even as Wolf himself says insufficient supply is the real culprit, setting up a fresh political fight over who’s to blame for the frustrations of eligible residents trying to get inoculated....
Biden warns of growing cost of delay on $1.9T econ aid plan
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden warned Friday of a steep and growing “cost of inaction” on his $1.9 trillion covid relief plan as the White House searched for “creative” ways to win public support for a package that is getting a cold shoulder from Senate Republicans. In the age of...
Workers escaped deadly leak by going through nitrogen fog
GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Workers at a northeast Georgia poultry plant said they escaped through a fog of vaporizing liquid nitrogen that killed six of their coworkers, as an investigation continued Friday into the cause of the leak at Foundation Food Group. The Hall County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims on...
Philadelphia’s problematic vaccine rollout raises larger questions
PHILADELPHIA — When Philadelphia began getting its first batches of covid-19 vaccines, it looked to partner with someone who could get a mass vaccination site up and running quickly. City Hall officials might have looked across the skyline to the world-renowned health providers at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University...
Judge blocks Trump rule to limit health studies in EPA regs
A federal judge has blocked a last-minute rule issued by the Trump administration to limit what evidence the Environmental Protection Agency may consider as it regulates pollutants to protect public health. Former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the Jan. 6 rule was aimed at ending what he and other Republicans...
Army: Sick soldiers drank compound found in antifreeze
FORT BLISS, Texas — An investigation into what sickened 11 soldiers who ingested an unauthorized substance shows they drank an industrial compound found in antifreeze believing it was alcohol following a 10-day field training exercise at Fort Bliss in Texas, U.S. Army officials said Friday. Lt. Col. Allie Payne, public...
Moscow court puts opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s allies under house arrest
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe. Navalny’s supporters called for rallies on Sunday to demand his release. Tens...
Police: Newly found blood sample solves 1988 homicide in Michigan
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Police said they solved the murder of a Battle Creek woman more than 30 years later, after a newly discovered blood sample connected a man to the fatal stabbing. But no charges will be filed because Roger Plato was killed in 1988, three days before Gayle...
Checked by reality, some QAnon supporters seek a way out
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Ceally Smith spent a year down the rabbit hole of QAnon, devoting more and more time to researching and discussing the conspiracy theory online. Eventually it consumed her, and she wanted out. She broke up with the boyfriend who recruited her into the movement, took six months...
Fauci sees covid vaccination for kids by late spring or the summer
WASHINGTON — The government’s top infectious disease expert said Friday he hopes to see children being vaccinated starting in the next few months. It’s a needed step to securing widespread immunity to the coronavirus. “Hopefully by the time we get to the late spring and early summer we will have...
Covid cases in Pennsylvania surge with 9,643 newly reported, the most in 3 weeks
Pennsylvania on Friday reported 9,643 additional cases of coronavirus, the most in nearly three weeks. Many of the newly reported cases were attributed to Berks, Lancaster and Montgomery counties, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The state notes that today’s cases include backlogged antigen testing data from urgent care...
Constitutional ban on medical and recreational pot advances in Idaho
BOISE, Idaho — A proposed constitutional amendment that would prevent the legalization of marijuana in Idaho moved forward Friday as lawmakers in the conservative state try to halt the increasing acceptance of the drug nationwide. The Senate State Affairs Committee voted to send the joint resolution that bans all psychoactive...
Putin signs extension of last Russia-U.S. nuclear arms treaty
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a bill extending the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States a week before the pact was due to expire. Both houses of the Russian parliament voted unanimously Wednesday to extend the New START treaty for five years....
Canada to quarantine travelers, suspend flights south
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced stricter restrictions on travelers in response to new, likely more contagious variants of the novel coronavirus — including making it mandatory for travelers to quarantine in a hotel at their own expense when they arrive in Canada and suspending airline service to Mexico...
U.S. extends temporary residency for thousands from Syria
WASHINGTON — The United States extended the temporary legal residency status Friday for nearly 7,000 people from Syria because of the country’s civil war. Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske said Friday that temporary protected status would be extended for 18 months. It was set to expire on...
Hungary 1st in EU to approve Chinese covid-19 vaccine
Hungary’s medicine and food safety regulator on Friday approved China’s Sinopharm covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, making it the first country in the European Union to do so. The decision followed a government decree Thursday that streamlined Hungary’s vaccine approval procedure. Any vaccine that has been administered to at least...
Biden moves quickly to show union workers that Democrats care
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, the most avowedly pro-labor chief executive in decades, has wasted no time in courting unions, a critical Democratic Party constituency that has often felt neglected and taken advantage of in recent years. Just hours after his inauguration, Biden took the unprecedented step of firing the...
AstraZeneca covid vaccine authorized for all adults by European Union
BERLIN — Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population. The European Medicines Agency licensed the vaccine to be used in people 18 and over, though concerns had been raised...
Remdesivir, given to half of hospitalized covid-19 patients in U.S., is big win for Gilead — boosted by taxpayers
It was the end of April — just as the U.S. confirmed its millionth covid-19 case and 50,000 deaths — when White House adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci announced “highly significant” news about a drug called remdesivir. That was surprising because the antiviral drug, owned by Gilead Sciences and developed with...
South Africa OKs limited use of parasite drug as covid treatment
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa is allowing the limited use of a medicine to treat covid-19 even though regulators acknowledge there’s not enough evidence that it works or is safe for this purpose. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority this week announced the drug ivermectin could be used in exceptional...
