‘Off the charts’: Virus hotspots grow in middle America
DETROIT — As the United States led the world with confirmed coronavirus cases, cities such as Detroit, Chicago and New Orleans grew as hotspots Saturday, while the virus continued to pummel New York City and made its way into rural America. Elsewhere, Russia said its borders would be fully closed...
Trump considering quarantine for N.Y., N.J. and Connecticut
NORFOLK, Va. — President Donald Trump said he was considering a quarantine as early as Saturday for coronavirus hotspots in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, though it wasn’t clear whether he had the power to order state residents to stay put. Trump told reporters that he had spoken with...
Coronavirus is roiling every part of child welfare system
NEW YORK — Child welfare agencies across the U.S., often beleaguered in the best of times, are scrambling to confront new challenges that the coronavirus is posing for caseworkers, kids and parents. For caseworkers, the potential toll is physical and emotional. Child welfare workers in several states, including Michigan, Massachusetts,...
Whales face more fatal ship collisions as waters warm
PORTLAND, Maine — Climate change is imperiling the world’s largest animals by increasing the likelihood of fatal collisions between whales and big ships that ply the same waters. Warming ocean temperatures are causing some species of whales in pursuit of food to stray more frequently into shipping lanes, scientists say....
Ex-Sen. Tom Coburn, conservative political maverick, dies
OKLAHOMA CITY — Former U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma family doctor who earned a reputation as a conservative political maverick as he railed against federal earmarks and subsidies for the rich, has died. He was 72. Coburn, who also delivered more than 4,000 babies while an obstetrician in Muskogee,...
NY delays presidential primary; nurses plead for masks
NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo postponed New York’s presidential primary from April to June to keep people from gathering — even to vote — amid of the state’s coronavirus outbreak. With cases expected to mushroom toward a mid-to-late-April peak, nurses made anguished pleas Saturday for more protective equipment and...
For Pennsylvania’s Amish, the coronavirus and the call for social distancing are a challenge
The Amish do their best to keep outside troubles from entering their daily lives. That’s not so easy when the trouble is an invisible virus spreading across the globe. People familiar with the Amish community in Pennsylvania say many are taking the coronavirus and subsequent business closures and calls for...
Shop sells ‘hundreds’ of doughnuts starring Dr. Fauci’s face
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — An upstate New York doughnut shop is featuring the likeness of the doctor leading the country’s battle with coronavirus on its sweet treats. Donuts Delite in Rochester began selling hundreds of doughnuts with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s face, surrounded by white frosting and topped off with patriotic sprinkles....
Internet Archive website creates ‘national emergency library’
Already a repository for billions of archived website pages and thousands of hours of free music, the Internet Archive has suspended the wait list for 1.4 million books in its online lending library, creating a National Emergency Library to help displaced students and researchers. “The library system, because of our...
Indonesian students provide sanitizers to daily workers to fight virus
JAKARTA — They toil on the fringes, without any job security or set hours or decent wages. And the coronavirus has made their already difficult lives harder, and more hazardous. And so a group of university students in Yogyakarta, on the Indonesian island of Java, set out to help these...
Mt. Pleasant native leads UCLA battle against coronavirusVideo
When the novel coronavirus came ashore on the West Coast two months ago, Johnese Spisso was confident UCLA Health was up for the challenge. The Mt. Pleasant native is president of UCLA Health and CEO of UCLA Hospital System — one of the nation’s largest medical academic research centers and...
UK’s Johnson virus positive as new outbreaks appear in US
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the first leader of a major country to test positive for the coronavirus while disturbing new outbreaks appeared in the United States, deaths surged in Italy and Spain and the world warily trudged through the pandemic that has sickened more than a half-million people....
Civil rights leader, MLK aide Joseph Lowery dies at 98
ATLANTA — The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a veteran civil rights leader who helped the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and fought against racial discrimination, died Friday, a family statement said. He was 98. A charismatic and fiery preacher, Lowery led the SCLC for...
Living outside lockdown: Some barber, beauty shops still open
ELGIN, S.C. (AP) — With South Carolina’s first coronavirus hot spot just a short jaunt up the highway, Johellen Lee hadn’t been out for anything but groceries for nearly a month. “I looked like a hag,” she said. So she headed to see her best friend and hair stylist Erica...
‘The day the music died’: Coronavirus tests New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — There were the great fires of 1788 and 1794 and the multiple yellow fever outbreaks of the 1800s. Hurricane Betsy hit in 1965, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the memories linger in New Orleans like remnants of a bad dream. Now the city is one of the...
What you need to know today about the virus outbreak
America’s coronavirus infections have surged to the most in the world, reaching 100,000 cases Friday with New York still the worst hit in the country. Troubling new outbreaks are bubbling in other cities including Chicago, Detroit and New Orleans, which is rushing to build a makeshift hospital in its convention...
Handling mail amid coronavirus: Low risk but wash your hands
Kathy Payne has a routine: She wipes down the trays holding the mail she’s about to deliver. She puts on gloves to sort the letters and packages, then a new pair when she climbs into her vehicle. As she fills people’s mailboxes throughout the day, she constantly cleans her steering...
California has surge of virus cases that threatens hospitals
LOS ANGELES — The surge of coronavirus cases in California that health officials have warned was coming has arrived and will worsen, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday, while the mayor of Los Angeles warned that by early next week his city could see the kind of crush that has crippled...
Trump seeks to force General Motors to produce ventilators
DETROIT — President Donald Trump issued an order Friday that seeks to force General Motors to produce ventilators for coronavirus patients under the Defense Production Act. Trump said negotiations with General Motors had been productive, “but our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the...
4 dead on cruise ship heading to Fort Lauderdale
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Four people have died aboard a Holland America cruise ship that is making its way to Port Everglades, the liner announced Friday. The news comes three days after the company confirmed 77 crew and passengers aboard the Zaandam were sick with coronavirus symptoms. A Miramar couple...
GOP’s Massie outrages House, Trump by seeking to stall vote
WASHINGTON — Rep. Thomas Massie has always gone his own way in Congress, ever since he first ran for office inspired by a fellow libertarian-leaning Kentuckian, Rand Paul. Now in his fourth term, the Republican from northern Kentucky has frequently voted no on issues large and small, even against the...
Ohio sets all-mail primary April 28; in-person voting off
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio has set a new, almost exclusively mail-in primary election for April 28 due to the coronavirus, ignoring the timing recommendations of the state elections chief and some voting-rights groups. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed a sweeping relief bill containing the change Friday, though he also had...
Diocese of Greensburg plans virtual Holy Week, Easter services
The Diocese of Greensburg has announced Virtual Holy Week Services to help Catholics in Westmoreland, Armstrong, Indiana and Fayette counties celebrate Easter in their homes. In a statement, Bishop Edward C. Malesic said parishioners should “use the Easter season to stay connected to our faith and be ready to help...
Gov. Wolf vetoes petrochemical plant tax break bill
Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday followed through on his threat to veto a bill to provide potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for petrochemical plants that use natural gas extracted in Pennsylvania. In his veto message, Wolf said he could support awarding an incentive like the one...
As virus toll mounts in New York, more hospitals sought
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump and elected leaders in New York are clashing again over the depth of the state’s coronavirus crisis. Meanwhile, the outbreak is taking its toll on the state’s civil servants, with the virus claiming the lives of bus and train workers and a civilian employee...
