West Virginia governor’s coal companies to pay $5M in fines
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Billionaire West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s coal companies have agreed to pay more than $5 million for thousands of mine safety violations, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The civil case brought by prosecutors in Virginia last year on behalf of the U.S. Department of Labor and the Mine...
Trump resists national shutdown, leaving it up to states
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is resisting calls to issue a national stay-at-home order to stem the spread of the new coronavirus despite his administration’s projections that tens of thousands of Americans are likely to be killed by the disease. One by one, though, states are increasingly pushing shutdown orders...
Residents snitch on businesses, neighbors amid shutdowns
OAK PARK, Illinois — One Tulsa bar owner said more than a dozen motorcyclists showed up unannounced, but he served them a round of shots anyway to celebrate a birthday. Another live-streamed a drag queen show on Facebook while up to 20 people drank inside the locked bar, ignoring police...
Israel’s health minister has virus, top officials to isolateVideo
JERUSALEM — The new coronavirus is forcing more top Israeli officials into isolation after the country’s health minister, who has had frequent contact with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, tested positive, the Health Ministry said Thursday. The Middle East has over 81,000 confirmed cases of the virus, most of those in...
Pandemic closes Grand Canyon National Park
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The Grand Canyon closed indefinitely to visitors Wednesday, joining other national parks seeking to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Staff at the Grand Canyon had been shutting down visitors services piecemeal as the federal government initially rebuffed its request to shutter completely. On Tuesday, visitors had...
U.S. military in Caribbean targets drugs, Maduro regime
The U.S. is expanding its military presence in the Caribbean to fight drug cartels wanting to take advantage of the coronavirus crisis and to deny funds going to the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela, the Trump administration announced late Wednesday. “Today the U.S. is launching an enhanced counternarcotics operation in...
Pa. announces extension for firearms permits
The Pennsylvania State Police announced today that Governor Tom Wolf has granted an extension to license to carry firearms permits. Permits that expired on March 19, 2020, or later have been extended to May 30, 2020. The extension is necessary due to the closure of some county courthouses and sheriff’s...
‘Like a battlefield behind your home’: Deaths mount in New York
NEW YORK — New York authorities rushed to bring in an army of medical volunteers Wednesday as the statewide death toll from the coronavirus doubled in 72 hours to more than 1,900 and the wail of ambulances in the otherwise eerily quiet streets of the city became the heartbreaking soundtrack...
Man suspected of killing 3, taking child, stopped in Florida
TAMPA, Fla. — Florida state troopers were in a standoff Wednesday afternoon with a Georgia man accused of fatally shooting three people in his child’s mother’s family, and then leaving with the child, authorities said. Caesar Zamien Lamar Crockett Jr., 29, is wanted on three counts of murder and one...
California virus cases grow to at least 8,200; 180 deaths
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California nursing home has more than 50 residents infected with coronavirus — a troubling development amid cautious optimism that cases in the state might peak more slowly than expected. Cedar Mountain Post Acute Rehabilitation in Yucaipa has been told to assume that all of...
Healthy-looking people spread coronavirus, more studies say
More evidence is emerging that coronavirus infections are being spread by people who have no clear symptoms, complicating efforts to gain control of the pandemic. A study conducted by researchers in Singapore and published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wednesday is the latest to estimate that...
State police no longer sending troopers to some calls because of coronavirus pandemic
Pennsylvania State Police will no longer respond in person to some types of calls as the agency tries to limit troopers’ contact with the public and slow the spread of the coronavirus, officials announced Wednesday. Calls for lost and found, littering, identity theft and general requests to speak to a...
Pennsylvania prisons ratcheting up efforts to combat covid-19 outbreaks
A second inmate tested positive for covid-19 at a state prison located just outside of Philadelphia Tuesday night, Pennsylvania Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel announced Wednesday. Four prison staffers also have tested positive for the virus, he said. Citing Department of Health privacy concerns, Wetzel declined to say where those...
Gov. Wolf orders all of Pennsylvania to stay at home
An expanded stay-at-home order now means that all Pennsylvanians must stay home unless they absolutely must go out, a move that state officials made in an effort to stanch the spread of the coronavirus. Gov. Tom Wolf’s order — which he doubled to include all 67 counties — came the...
Pa. addiction hot line getting fewer calls after liquor stores shut down
State drug and alcohol officials braced for a deluge of alcohol-related phone calls when Pennsylvania two weeks ago closed all state-run wine and liquor stores. “We were concerned that it could be a very big deal,” said Jennifer Smith, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. So...
Why health experts aren’t warning about coronavirus in food
NEW YORK — Chicken with salmonella can make you sick. So can romaine lettuce with E. coli and buffets with lurking norovirus. So why aren’t health officials warning people about eating food contaminated with the new coronavirus? The answer has to do with the varying paths organisms take to make...
British man runs marathon in backyard during lockdownVideo
CHELTENHAM, England — Being stuck at home didn’t stop a British man from running an outdoor marathon. James Campbell, a former professional javelin thrower, spent his 32nd birthday on Wednesday doing 20-foot shuttles from one end of his small backyard to the other after promising to run a marathon if...
Truck hauling toilet paper catches fire on Texas interstateVideo
HUTCHINS, Texas — A tractor-trailer hauling toilet paper crashed and caught fire near Dallas early Wednesday, spilling the hot commodity all over an interstate. The fire shut down westbound lanes of Interstate 20 near Interstate 45 in Hutchins, the Texas Department of Transportation said. The driver of the truck is...
Virus deaths in NYC top 1,000 as city prepares for worse
NEW YORK — Deaths from the coronavirus topped 1,000 in New York City as officials warned that the worst of the virus’ toll is yet to come. The city’s Health Department reported late Tuesday that nearly 1,100 people have died of the virus in the city. More than 1,500 deaths...
Coast Guard: Cruise ships must stay at sea with sick onboard
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The U.S. Coast Guard has directed all cruise ships to remain at sea where they may be sequestered “indefinitely” during the coronavirus pandemic and be prepared to send any severely ill passengers to the countries where the vessels are registered. For most of the South Florida’s...
Keep your car clean to reduce risk from coronavirus
The spread of the novel coronavirus, and its associated covid-19 disease, is made worse because it is highly contagious. Since vehicle interiors are essentially small contained spaces, it is important to take steps to reduce the risk of contracting the virus while driving or riding inside. When it comes to...
Census Day arrives with U.S. almost paralyzed by coronavirus
ORLANDO, Fla. — Census Day — the date used to reference where a person lives for the once-a-decade count — arrived Wednesday with a nation almost paralyzed by the spread of the novel coronavirus. But census officials vowed the job would be completed by its year-end deadline. The virus’s spread...
Mass testing, empty ICUs: Germany scores early against coronavirus
BERLIN — Late last year — long before most people had heard of the new coronavirus now sweeping the globe — scientists in Germany sprang into action to develop a test for the virus that was causing an unusual respiratory disease in central China. They had one by mid-January —...
Olympic flame to stay a month in Fukushima; next stop Tokyo?Video
TOKYO — The Olympic flame will be on display until the end of April in Japan’s northeastern prefecture of Fukushima. Tokyo Olympic and prefecture officials held an official “handover ceremony”on Wednesday at the J-Village National Training Center in Fukushima. The public will have limited access to view the flame, and...
Ohio officer, armed suspect both wounded in confrontation
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A confrontation between police and an armed suspect in Ohio’s capital city ended early Wednesday with the suspect and an officer both shot and wounded, though both were expected to survive. The shooting in Columbus occurred shortly after 3 a.m. on South Ohio Avenue, when officers responded...
