Trump’s latest travel ban highlights gaps in containment net
NEW YORK — In the weeks before President Donald Trump spoke from the Oval Office to announce restrictions on travelers from more than two dozen countries in Europe, thousands of people from the region already had stepped off planes at U.S. airports, and an untold number of them carried the...
Spain to follow Italy into lockdown, U.S. expands travel banVideo
BARCELONA, Spain — Spain drew up plans to lock down its 46 million citizens, France closed the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, and more borders snapped shut around the world as governments took increasingly sweeping measures Saturday to reduce contact among people and contain the spread of the coronavirus. President...
Iran death toll from virus passes 600, Syria shuts schoolsVideo
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said Saturday the coronavirus outbreak has killed another 97 people, pushing the death toll in the country to 611, as war-ravaged Syria announced a number of strict measures despite the government saying it has no confirmed cases. Iran is suffering from the worst outbreak in the...
Amid coronavirus, Comcast makes Wi-Fi network free, expands unlimited data to all
With businesses and schools closed and thousands of residents now working and studying from home during the coronavirus outbreak, Comcast announced Saturday it will make its Xfinity Wi-Fi services free for everyone for the next 60 days. “During this extraordinary time, it is vital that as many Americans as possible...
Giant Eagle changes shopping hours over coronavirus pandemic
Giant Eagle temporarily is changing its store hours because of the coronavirus pandemic. Beginning Sunday, all Giant Eagle and Market District supermarkets will open at 7 a.m. and close at 10 p.m., seven days a week, the company announced Saturday. GetGo stores adjacent to supermarkets will operate on the same...
Q&A: An explanation of ‘community spread’
The spread of the novel coronavirus is reaching communities across the country and experts say the cases of covid-19 will spike exponentially. What does community spread mean, and how do you stop it? Here’s what you need to know: Q: What is community spread? A: Community spread means that someone...
RSVP ‘maybe’? Coronavirus puts wedding industry on edge
NEW YORK — Guests are jittery, travel is tangled, and soon-to-be brides and grooms are facing tough choices because of the coronavirus outbreak: postpone, cancel or forge ahead with their weddings? Uncertainty as virus cases grow in the U.S. and elsewhere has sent ripples through the wedding industry, from photographers...
Coronavirus-related shutdowns bringing U.S. economy to grinding halt
AUSTIN, Texas — It took 15 minutes for the coronavirus to wreck Shelley Hutchings’ carefully calculated financial plans. Hutchings, a bartender and performer, had lined up gigs in advance of the South by Southwest film, music and technology festival, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to Austin each year....
U.S. Hispanic Catholics are future, but priest numbers dismal
PHOENIX — Maria Chavira, a senior administrator in the Diocese of Phoenix, says Spanish-speaking Catholic parishes in her area are “bursting at the seams” and celebrates the emergence of Hispanics as the largest ethnic component of the church nationwide. Throughout the Southwest, where the surge has been dramatic, Roman Catholic...
Officials: 2 coronavirus cases reported in PittsburghVideo
Two Pittsburgh residents from the same household are the first in Allegheny County to test positive for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which still does not appear to be widespread in Western Pennsylvania, health officials said Saturday. Neither affected person required treatment at a hospital, Allegheny County Health...
Medical marijuana bills challenge Bible Belt politics
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Facing a potentially historic vote on whether to legalize medical marijuana in Kentucky, Republican lawmaker John Schickel is conflicted. A retired law enforcement officer, Schickel once steadfastly opposed medical cannabis, but his stance has softened. Now he says he’s approaching the question with an open mind. “One...
Pa. attorney general reports hundreds of price-gouging complaints as coronavirus spreads
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro says his email tip line has received more than 200 complaints of price gouging by stores around the state as consumers scramble to buy supplies while coronavirus continues to spread. More than 100 complaints of suspect gouging reached Shapiro’s office in the first two days...
Westmoreland County declares state of emergency to prepare for coronavirusVideo
Westmoreland County Commissioners declared a state of emergency Saturday morning, a move officials said will enhance government efforts to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The emergency declaration gives county officials the ability to quickly activate emergency personnel and pay for needed responses, county officials said during a courthouse news conference....
Latest on coronavirus: Gov. Wolf urges closure of some ‘non-essential’ spaces; St. Patrick’s party continues in Pittsburgh
In an effort to speed up the testing for people with symptoms of the coronavirus that causes covid-19, the region’s largest health system announced Saturday it has created its own in-house test. UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh laid out the details at a news conference. Later Saturday, health officials...
Tampons, pads and politics mesh in new push for access to menstrual supplies
DENVER — Geoff Davis’ gray Kia sedan is chock-full of tampons and maxi pads. Davis, 50, volunteers as executive director of Period Kits, a Colorado nonprofit that provides a three-month bag of tampons and pads to people in need. On lunch breaks from his full-time job in community relations or...
Trump promised to bring back manufacturing in Pennsylvania. He didn’t. Will it cost him?
ERIE, Pa. — When Donald Trump came here in 2016, he blasted Democrats for decimating the region’s once-vaunted manufacturing sector and pledged to reverse the decay. “We’re going to put people back to work,” he said at a rally that summer. “We’re not playing games, and it’s going to go...
On eve of Disneyland closure, fun trumps virus fear
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Thousands flocked to Disneyland on Friday for glimpses of Mickey and Minnie, a ride on “It’s a Small World” and a last trip to the Galaxy’s Edge before a historically long closure because of the new coronavirus. It was a rare rainy day in Southern California, and...
Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show canceled due to coronavirus concerns
The Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show has been canceled as a result of coronavirus concerns. Officials said the event, which started March 6 and was scheduled to run through Sunday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, was halted in response to guidelines issued by the Allegheny County Health Department....
EU urges border health checks as virus case count mounts
BRUSSELS — The European Union urged member countries Friday to put health screening procedures in place at their borders to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus but said they must coordinate so people can still quickly get the medical care they need. With Italy reporting the most virus cases...
Lawyer: Man asleep when police fired on house, killing him
SILVER SPRING, Md. — A Maryland man was asleep in his bedroom when police opened fire from outside his house, killing him and wounding his girlfriend, an attorney for the 21-year-old man’s family said Friday. The Montgomery County Police Department said in a news release Friday that Duncan Socrates Lemp...
Death toll at least 21 as Egypt storms, flooding enter 2nd day
CAIRO — Thunderstorms and flooding around Egypt entered a second day Friday, interrupting daily life in much of the country, including the capital Cairo, as the death toll rose to 21, authorities said. Most of the victims were in rural areas and slums. At least six children died either from...
‘Not a wave, a tsunami’: Italy hospitals at coronavirus limit
ROME — Talk of a 400-bed field hospital in Milan’s fairgrounds. A team of Chinese experts and surplus ventilators arriving on a cargo plane. Doctors Without Borders, usually dispatched to the third world when disasters strike, working triage in Italy’s prosperous north. The coronavirus outbreak tearing through Italy has turned...
Police: Florida governor candidate in room where crystal meth found
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Former Florida Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Gillum is named in a police report Friday saying he was “inebriated” and initially unresponsive in a hotel room where authorities found baggies of suspected crystal methamphetamine. Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor who ran for governor in 2018, is...
Bernie Sanders says lack of rallies ‘hurting’ his campaign
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Bernie Sanders acknowledged Friday that fears about the spread of coronavirus have damaged his ability to leverage large rallies into support at the polls, and suggested that future Democratic presidential primary voting should be delayed if health officials deem doing so appropriate. “We do more rallies than...
Biden virtual town hall marks new normal for campaigning
CHICAGO — Joe Biden is holding a town hall in Illinois from 800 miles away in Delaware. Bernie Sanders is staging daily news conferences from Vermont, instead of his usual rallies around the country with thousands of supporters. The global coronavirus pandemic has sent the 2020 presidential campaign into a...
