Pandemic will alter Communion rituals for many U.S. ChristiansVideo
NEW YORK — Holy Communion will have a different look when in-person worship services resume at the end of May in the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, Tenn: The wafers signifying the body of Christ will be placed in the hands of parishioners by priests and deacons wearing face masks and...
Company’s bumper tables help social distancing at restaurantsVideo
OCEAN CITY, Md. — A company in Baltimore has created bumper tables designed to allow people to practice social distancing while eating and talking in outdoor settings amid the coronavirus pandemic. The inflated tube tables created by Revolution Event Design & Production were debuted at Fish Tales, a restaurant in...
Trump points to good news as restaurant owners tell of fearsVideo
WASHINGTON — Restaurant owners gave President Donald Trump a sobering accounting of the widespread damage the coronavirus pandemic has dealt their industry and asked him to adjust a loan program for small businesses to address their concerns. The president put a hopeful spin on the situation, saying encouraging news on...
Sen. Lindsey Graham plans vote to subpoena Russia probe officials
WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is scheduling a vote that would allow him to subpoena more than 50 current and former officials who were involved in the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, as President Donald Trump and his allies have...
Florida’s 2 biggest counties hesitantly start to reopenVideo
MIAMI — Florida’s two biggest counties joined the rest of the state on Monday in reopening nonessential businesses and restaurants after widespread coronavirus closures, but areas popular among visitors maintained restrictions as a precaution. Miami Beach and the city of Miami were delaying opening retail, hair salons and barbershops until...
Who got what? Details scant on small-business relief effortVideo
WASHINGTON — A small, overlooked federal agency is shouldering a massive relief effort for the nation’s small businesses and their workers left reeling by the pandemic. The Small Business Administration has committed to auditing every sizable emergency loan it approves. But six weeks after the $600 billion-plus program was launched,...
Deputies: Man kills 3 family members, then himself in South Carolina
ST. MATTHEWS, S.C. — A man shot and killed three members of his family and then killed himself after an argument in their South Carolina home, authorities said. Two children escaped from the home in St. Matthews during the shooting around 7 p.m. Sunday, Calhoun County Sheriff Thomas Summers said....
California relaxes some county criteria for reopeningVideo
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a dramatic relaxation Monday of health standards to reopen the state, a move that could allow nearly every county to proceed more quickly, and he offered the possibility of pro sports returning — without fans — by early June. The announcement marked a significant...
Chuck E. Cheese selling its pizza under different name on food delivery sites
Have you ever ordered from Pasqually’s Pizza and Wings from a food delivery service? Well, it’s not actually a new pizza shop. It’s — wait for it — Chuck E. Cheese. If you search for Pasqually’s Pittsburgh on GrubHub, it pulls up a location with an address of 20 McIntyre Square...
Texas continues swift reopening, including return of sportsVideo
AUSTIN — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott gave permission Monday to reopen practically every facet of daily life in Texas, including bars and child daycare centers, lifting most full lockdown orders as the state continues one of the nation’s swiftest reboots from coronavirus restrictions. Abbott’s sweeping new orders, which he described...
Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine: ‘Have fun, but keep that distance’ at bars
COLUMBUS — Ohio will begin cracking down on social distancing at bars after photos showed plenty of customers standing and drinking on crowded patios during the first weekend restaurants and taverns were allowed to reopen, Gov. Mike DeWine said Monday. Police officers and health investigators will be making safety checks...
Feds urge ‘extreme caution’ for reopening nursing homes
NEW YORK — Federal authorities are urging governors to use “extreme caution” in deciding when to resume visits at nursing homes, saying it shouldn’t come before all residents and staff have tested negative for the coronavirus for at least 28 days. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ criteria for...
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio named acting chair of intelligence panel
WASHINGTON — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will temporarily become chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican leaders announced Monday, taking charge of the panel at a time of turnover and tension in the nation’s intelligence community. Rubio will replace North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, who said last week that he...
Trump says he’s taking hydroxychloroquine in case he gets coronavirusVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he is taking a malaria drug to protect against the coronavirus, despite warnings from his own government that it should only be administered for covid-19 in a hospital or research setting due to potentially fatal side effects. Trump told reporters Monday he has been...
Over 180 people exposed to coronavirus at California church
SAN FRANCISCO — More than 180 people in a rural Northern California county were asked to self-quarantine when they were exposed to the coronavirus during a Mother’s Day church service attended by an infected person, health officials said. The infected person received their positive covid-19 diagnosis the day after they...
Louisville mayor increasing body cams after police shooting of Breonna Taylor
LOUISVILLE — Louisville police will be required to wear body cameras and will change a search warrant policy after their fatal shooting of a black emergency medical worker in her home, the city’s mayor said Monday. Breonna Taylor, 26, was killed when police executed a no-knock search warrant for illegal...
New Pennsylvania program extends unemployment benefits
The state’s new Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program will allow some Pennsylvanians to continue receiving benefits after traditional unemployment expires. The program is funded through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Unemployment benefits usually expire after 13 weeks. Unemployed Pennsylvanians whose benefits have run out, who...
FBI: Shooter at Pensacola military base linked to al-QaidaVideo
The gunman who killed three U.S. sailors at a military base in Florida last year repeatedly communicated with al-Qaida operatives about planning in the months leading up to the attack, U.S. officials said Monday. They lashed out at Apple for refusing to help them open the shooter’s phones so they...
Boy, 4 adults killed when SUV, construction vehicle collide in New JerseyVideo
RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Five people — including a child —were killed when an SUV crashed into the rear of a construction vehicle on a major highway in northern New Jersey, authorities said. The crash on westbound Route 3 in Rutherford occurred shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday. Four adults and a...
AG William Barr says he doesn’t expect criminal probe into Obama or BidenVideo
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr said he doesn’t expect the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into former President Barack Obama or former Vice President Joe Biden, despite prodding to do so by President Donald Trump. Barr told reporters at a news conference on Monday that he won’t...
Democrats: Fired State Dept. watchdog was looking into Saudi arms saleVideo
WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats say the State Department watchdog fired by President Donald Trump last week was investigating possible impropriety in a massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia last year, adding new questions to the watchdog’s abrupt dismissal. Democrats said Monday that ousted Inspector General Steve Linick was probing how...
J.C. Penney plans to close more than 240 stores
NEW YORK — J.C. Penney will close almost 30% of its 846 stores as part of a restructuring under bankruptcy protection. The Plano, Texas, retailer said Monday that it plans to close about 192 stores by February 2021, and then 50 additional stores in the year after that. That would...
Pa. revamps coronavirus reporting system as some counties see wide swings; in all, 822 new cases reported
State health officials reported dozens of new coronavirus deaths on Monday as they announced an overhaul in how deaths are reported to the Department of Health and then to the public. The 87 new deaths reported bring the state’s death toll to 4,505. Additionally, 822 new covid-19 cases were reported...
Police: Duo with watermelons on their heads robbed Sheetz in Virginia
Just a couple of melon heads out for a robbery, say the police. On Saturday, the Louisa Police Department in Virginia posted on their Facebook page asking whether anyone had seen two people wearing hollowed out watermelons on their heads who were suspected of stealing from a Sheetz. Yep, that...
Police: 2nd woman dies in car crash into Butler County convenience store
Police say a second woman has died of injuries stemming from the crash of a car into a convenience store in Butler County over the weekend. Officer Conrad Pfeifer of the Middlesex Township police department says 36-year-old Patricia Collins, who was a back seat passenger, was pronounced dead shortly before...
