Ohio joins Pennsylvania in statewide mask mandate
Effective Thursday, it will take more than a trip across the Ohio state line for Pennsylvanians seeking to escape orders requiring face masks in public places. Ohio will join Pennsylvania in having a statewide mask mandate. One day after President Trump took to the airwaves endorsing masks and conceding that...
Protesters in Harrisburg rally against mask mandates, Gov. Wolf’s coronavirus restrictions
HARRISBURG — No more masks. No more restrictions. And, they said, no more tyranny. That was the rally cry of several hundred people who gathered Wednesday on the Capitol steps, calling for Gov. Tom Wolf to lift all coronavirus-related restrictions. Organizers called the “Pennsylvania Assemble for Freedom” event a gathering...
Florida sheriff: 2 brothers, girlfriend arrested in triple homicide
FROSTPROOF, Fla. — Two brothers and a woman have been arrested in connection with the “massacre” of three best friends who set out on a fishing trip at a central Florida lake last week, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Wednesday. One of the suspects, Tony “TJ” Wiggins, 26, had...
Trump deploys more federal agents under ‘law-and-order’ pushVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will send federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration’s intervention into local enforcement as he runs for reelection under a “law-and-order” mantle. Using the same alarmist language he has employed to describe...
Reports: Woody Johnson accused of corruption, racism, sexism as U.S. ambassador to U.K.
NEW YORK — Jets owner Woody Johnson has been absent from the team since late 2017, serving as President Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. From the sound of several reports published Tuesday and Wednesday, he’s exported the Jets’ signature leadership abroad. A New York Times story is mostly focused...
Report: Veterans home failed to protect residents from coronavirus
HARRISBURG — A state-run veterans nursing home in Pennsylvania where 42 residents have died of covid-19 failed to take steps to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, state Health Department inspectors concluded. Health inspectors said in a report that Southeastern Veterans’ Center, a 292-bed facility outside Philadelphia, ignored state and...
Winner of $10M lottery prize in 2017 charged with murder
SHALLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina man who won a $10 million lottery prize in 2017 has been arrested on a murder charge in the death of a woman whose body was found at a hotel. The Shallotte Police Department charged Michael Todd Hill, 52, of Leland, with murder after...
AP-NORC poll: Very few Americans back full school reopeningVideo
BOSTON — Virtual instruction. Mandated masks. Physical distancing. The start of school will look very different this year because of the coronavirus — and that’s OK with the vast majority of Americans. Only about 1 in 10 Americans think daycare centers, preschools or K-12 schools should open this fall without...
World virus cases top 15M; U.S. labs buckle amid testing surge
WASHINGTON — Laboratories across the country are buckling under a surge of coronavirus tests, creating long processing delays that experts say are actually undercutting the pandemic response. With the U.S. tally of infections at 3.9 million Wednesday and new cases surging, the bottlenecks are creating problems for workers kept off...
Lebanon County sues Gov. Wolf, seeking $13M in virus funding he withheld
A Pennsylvania county sued Wednesday to compel Gov. Tom Wolf to release $12.8 million in federal coronavirus relief funding that he withheld after county leaders defied his shutdown orders and sought to reopen on their own. Wolf yanked the funding from Lebanon County, where local Republican leaders voted in mid-May...
Lebanon County sues Gov. Wolf for withholding $13M in virus funding
A Pennsylvania county sued Wednesday to compel Gov. Tom Wolf to release $12.8 million in federal coronavirus relief funding that he withheld after county leaders defied his shutdown orders and sought to reopen on their own. Wolf yanked the funding from Lebanon County, where local Republican leaders voted in mid-May...
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...
