U.S. signs contract with Pfizer for covid-19 vaccine doses
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will pay Pfizer nearly $2 billion for a December delivery of 100 million doses of a covid-19 vaccine the pharmaceutical company is developing, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced Wednesday. The United States could buy another 500 million doses under the agreement, Azar...
Westmoreland County sees 21 new coronavirus cases, 1 new death
Westmoreland County saw 21 new coronavirus cases and one new death, according to data released Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The death toll attributed to covid-19 in Westmoreland County grew to 41. The county has seen 1,214 cases overall, with 1,180 confirmed and 34 probable. It’s the 22nd...
Pennsylvania adds 25 coronavirus deaths, 631 new cases
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 25 coronavirus deaths and 631 new cases on Wednesday. The 25 deaths raise the state’s total to 7,063 attributed to covid-19, while the 631 cases bring the statewide total to 103,396. Wednesday’s report doesn’t include Philadelphia County, whose data wasn’t received. Allegheny County had...
U.S. wildlife agency rejects protections for rare fish species
BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. wildlife officials on Wednesday rejected special protections for a rare, freshwater fish related to salmon that’s been at the center of a long-running legal dispute, citing conservation efforts that helped increase Arctic grayling numbers in a Montana river. The Associated Press obtained details of the decision...
Police in riot gear clear NYC’s ‘Occupy City Hall’ campVideo
NEW YORK — Police in riot gear moved in early Wednesday to clear a month-long encampment of protesters and homeless people from a park near New York’s City Hall. A line of officers with helmets and shields entered City Hall Park shortly before 4 a.m. and forced the remaining people...
California surpasses New York state in confirmed virus casesVideo
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s confirmed coronavirus cases have topped 409,000, surpassing New York for most in the nation, according to data from John’s Hopkins University showing Wednesday that California now has about 1,200 more cases than New York. However, New York’s 32,520 deaths are by far the highest total in...
Allegheny County reports 96 new coronavirus cases, 8 deaths
Allegheny County dropped below 100 new covid-19 cases for the first time in nine days but saw a rise in both deaths and hospitalizations. The county reported 96 new cases, eight deaths and 16 hospitalizations on Wednesday, with the eight deaths the highest recorded since mid-May. The new cases bring...
Pennsylvania hopes to encourage 10,000 landowners to create stream-side buffersVideo
The riparian buffer at the headwaters of Steele’s Run in Murrysville mostly offers aesthetic benefits. But, each year, its physical value will continue to grow as it protects the cold-water fishery stream from erosion, provides shade, cools the stream and offers a habitat for native wildlife. Officials with the state’s...
Greensburg chiropractor had passion for cooking, outdoors, serving others
Dr. Thomas Hower’s nearly 60-year career as a Greensburg chiropractor was a natural fit. He spent his childhood years upstairs from the Main Street office where his similarly named father, a second-generation chiropractor, worked — and where he also would see patients as an adult. “A gentlemen came into the...
U.S. orders China to close its consulate in HoustonVideo
BEIJING — The United States said Wednesday that it has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston “to protect American intellectual property” and the private information of Americans. China strongly condemned the move, the latest in a series of steps by the Trump administration as it ratchets up pressure...
Trump has been on both sides of the states’ rights argument
WASHINGTON — When it comes to states’ rights, President Donald Trump is all over the map. To battle the coronavirus, he’s told states they’re largely on their own. But when it comes to stamping out protests in cities led by Democrats, Trump is sending in federal troops and agents —...
‘Very frightening’: Opposition grows to U.S. agents in cities
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Trump administration is facing growing pushback — in the courts and on the streets — to sending federal agents to Portland, Oregon, where protests have spiraled into violence, and vowing to do the same in other Democratic-led cities. Far from tamping down the unrest that followed...
Powerful 7.8 quake hits Alaska isles; tsunami threat over
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A powerful 7.8 earthquake struck the Alaska Peninsula late Tuesday, triggering a tsunami warning that sent residents fleeing to higher ground before it was called off without any damaging waves. Hundreds wore masks against the spread of the coronavirus as they gathered in shelters. According to the...
Pennsylvania announces new grant recipients to fight opioid epidemic
Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration announced new grant recipients to fight the opioid addiction epidemic. Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine announced that the latest Pennsylvania Coordinated Medication Assisted Treatment (PacMAT) grant recipients would build medication-assisted treatment programs for uninsured, underinsured or privately insured residents who suffer from addiction. These grants...
Apology demanded from GOP lawmaker Ted Yoho for Ocasio-Cortez remark
WASHINGTON — New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused a Republican colleague on Tuesday of angrily harassing her outside the Capitol over her progressive views in an encounter that a reporter said ended with the congressman using a sexist slur as he walked away. The No. 2 House Democrat demanded that...
Police: 14 people injured after South Side Chicago shooting
CHICAGO — Fourteen people were injured in connection with a shooting late Tuesday outside a funeral home on Chicago’s South Side, police officials said Tuesday. First Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter said mourners outside a funeral home were fired upon from a passing SUV. Carter says several targets of the shooting...
Trump excluding those in U.S. illegally from reapportionment
WASHINGTON — President Trump signed a memorandum Tuesday that seeks to bar people in the United States illegally from being counted in congressional reapportionment, a move that drew immediate criticism and promises of court challenges. Trump said “respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process...
California surpasses 400,000 covid-19 cases as state sets record for infections, death tollVideo
LOS ANGELES — One day after a record-breaking number of new coronavirus infections, California has surpassed 400,000 overall cases, data from the Los Angeles Times tracker show. By comparison, the New York Health Department has reported more than 408,000 infections. But that state has reported more than 25,000 deaths, while...
Trump’s show of federal force sparking alarm in citiesVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is using the Department of Homeland Security in unprecedented ways as he tries to bolster his law and order credentials by making a heavy-handed show of force in cities around the nation in the lead-up to the November elections. His plan to deploy federal agents...
Trump says virus in U.S. will get worse before it gets betterVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that the “nasty horrible’” coronavirus will get worse in the U.S. before it gets better, but he also tried to paint a rosy picture of efforts with governors to conquer the disease that has claimed more than 140,000 American lives in just...
Conservatives lash out at Liz Cheney over Trump criticismVideo
WASHINGTON — House Republicans facing electoral uncertainty in November turned on one another in a private meeting on Tuesday, as a small group of conservative lawmakers confronted House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney over what they said was disloyalty to President Donald Trump. The lawmakers called out Cheney for her...
Man charged with raping 4 Penn State students over 2010-17
STATE COLLEGE — A 36-year-old man was charged Tuesday with raping four young women in State College over several years, and police said DNA was used to identify him as a suspect. Police said genealogical tools also helped lead them to Jeffrey P. Fields of Port Matilda, who worked in...
Ex-DHS Secretary Tom Ridge: ‘It would be a cold day in hell’ before ‘personal militia’ would be welcomed uninvited in Pa.
Former Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge ripped his former agency’s current actions in Portland, saying it is not the office’s mission to act as domestic law enforcement. Ridge, a two-term Republican governor from Pennsylvania and President George W. Bush’s first head of DHS, said Tuesday the Trump administration’s decision...
Report: Kanye West campaign rally part of ‘terrible’ bipolar episodeVideo
Reports from a celebrity gossip site claim Kanye West’s recent behavior — including at a presidential campaign rally in which he cried, said he had wanted to have one of his children aborted and criticized abolitionist Harriet Tubman — is part of a “terrible” bipolar episode that has sent shockwaves...
Pa. attorney general vows to back schools threatened with loss of funding over distance learning
As schools across the region continue to finalize arrangements for a return to class next month, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has added his voice to the debate. In a letter this week to district superintendents, Shapiro threatened to intervene on behalf of schools should the federal government withhold money...
