Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1350
U.S. covid-19 deaths top 300,000 just as vaccinations beginVideo
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 300,000 on Monday just as the country began dispensing covid-19 shots in a monumental campaign to conquer the outbreak. The number of dead rivals the population of St. Louis or Pittsburgh. It is equivalent to repeating a tragedy on the scale of...
Pa. corrections department tells officer with covid symptoms to return to work early
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — The state Department of Corrections defied federal guidelines and a doctor’s order last week, demanding that an officer who...
Excela plans to begin vaccine distribution to staff on Friday
Excela Health officials plan to administer their first doses of Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine to staff in Westmoreland County on Friday, officials said. “We have requested 6,000 doses,” Excela spokesperson Robin Jennings said. Excela officials have conducted an internal survey among staff about the vaccine. Employees will not be required to...
Dr. Rachel Levine: ‘Today is a great day,’ but vaccine’s arrival doesn’t end pandemic
As Pennsylvania officials on Monday celebrated the first vaccinations of health care workers against covid-19 , Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine reiterated warnings this is the first step in a long road to the end of the pandemic. “Today is just a great day, when we start immunizing people,”...
Westmoreland County adds 666 new covid cases over 2 days
Officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Health said there were 666 new cases of covid-19 in Westmoreland County over the past two days. Monday’s report from the department said 371 new cases were added Sunday, 285 confirmed through PCR tests. Of Monday’s 295 new cases, all were confirmed. Westmoreland County’s...
With over 18,000 new covid cases, Pennsylvania nears 500K mark
Health officials reported Monday there were 18,646 new cases of covid-19 in Pennsylvania over the past two days. The Department of Health reported 10,684 of those cases Sunday and 7,962 on Monday. The new cases bring the state’s seven-day average of daily cases to 10,474, while its seven-day case total...
Allegheny County’s latest covid cases up from previous weekend
Allegheny County added 1,647 new cases of coronavirus over the past two days, the Health Department announced Monday. While the new cases — 897 from Sunday and 750 from Monday — were slightly down from recent days, they were up 12% from the same time last week. The county’s seven-day...
Pennsylvania electors cast their votes for BidenVideo
In a ceremony often considered as little more than a formality, Pennsylvania’s College of Electors on Monday certified their 20 votes for president-elect Joe Biden. The event mirrored similar ceremonies in states across the nation, as state electors cast ballots in a constitutionally mandated event to formalize Biden’s 306-232 Electoral...
Crack’d Egg flouts shutdown as deputies quarantined for dining, taking photos with owner
Two Allegheny County sheriff’s deputies who ate and posed for a picture at a Brentwood diner defying state shutdown orders by remaining open have been reassigned and placed on quarantine. The Crack’d Egg, on Brownsville Road, has continuously flouted the orders from Gov. Tom Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel...
Wolf: Federal covid relief package needed ‘right now’
As coronavirus relief negotiations languish in Congress, Gov. Tom Wolf and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday there is a dire need to pass a package sooner rather than later to ensure an economic recovery from the pandemic. “It’s disgraceful, disgraceful that right now in the midst of the...
UPMC administers 1st covid-19 vaccines in PittsburghVideo
Five UPMC employees received Pittsburgh’s first doses of the covid-19 vaccine Monday, making tangible the long-awaited light at the end of the tunnel for a pandemic that has spared no state in its deadly waves. The employees — a doctor, two nurses, a transporter and an environmental services supervisor —...
Biden aides hope Electoral College vote is GOP turning point
WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden’s aides have a message for President Donald Trump and his supporters: It’s long past time to move on. With the Electoral College set to formally elect Biden as president on Monday, his aides say they hope Republicans will consider their own long-term interests (and the...
U.S. set for first covid-19 shots as shipments begin arriving
Hospital workers begin unloading precious frozen vials of covid-19 vaccine Monday, with the first vaccinations against a scourge that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans expected later in the day. “It feels like the cavalry is arriving,” Robert C. Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, said as New Jersey’s largest health...
Gmail, YouTube down briefly as Google suffers brief outage
Google users in the U.S., Europe, India and other parts of the world were briefly unable to access their Gmail accounts, watch YouTube videos or get to their online documents during an outage Monday. Thousands of complaints popped up around 7 a.m. along the East Coast of the U.S. “We’re...
Watch live as Pa. electors formally choose Biden as presidentVideo
WASHINGTON — Presidential electors are meeting across the United States on Monday to formally choose Joe Biden as the nation’s next president. Monday is the day set by law for the meeting of the Electoral College. In reality, electors meet in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to...
Gov. Wolf, health officials want Pennsylvanians to stay home for the holidays
Dr. Carol Fox is worried about the holidays. She watches the rising coronavirus caseload in Westmoreland County and keeps daily tabs on the numbers that are impacting Excela Health, where she is chief medical officer. As the toll from family visits over Thanksgiving becomes more clear, she said she is...
CDC: Stay home for the holidays
This holiday season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants Americans to stay safe and protect themselves from contracting or spreading the coronavirus —namely by staying home for the holidays. The agency urges people to modify their plans in an effort to reduce the virus’ spread. The safest way...
Agent: Master spy writer John le Carre dies at 89
LONDON — John le Carre, the spy-turned-novelist whose elegant and intricate narratives defined the Cold War espionage thriller and brought acclaim to a genre critics had once ignored, has died. He was 89, Le Carre’s literary agency, Curtis Brown, said Sunday that he died in Cornwall, southwest England on Saturday...
Some in White House getting early access to covid-19 vaccine
WASHINGTON — Some White House officials who work in close proximity to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will be offered coronavirus vaccines as soon as this week, while its public distribution is limited to front-line health workers and people in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Two...
Vandals hit Black churches during weekend pro-Trump ralliesVideo
WASHINGTON — Vandals tore down a Black Lives Matter banner and sign from two historic Black churches in downtown Washington and set the banner ablaze as nighttime clashes Saturday between pro-Donald Trump supporters and counterdemonstrators erupted into violence and arrests. Police on Sunday said they were investigating the incidents at...
Meet Boone the disabled beagle: Therapy dog, fundraiser, class project, fashion plate, media starVideo
He’s a little beagle on a big mission. Meet Boone, a 3-year-old dog that was maimed and is now turning tragedy into triumph. Boone’s hind legs were intentionally cut off by his former owner when he was 6 weeks old. Tanya and Charlie Diable of Butler Township adopted Boone from...
Trump raises China concerns as reason to veto defense bill
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump offered a new rationale Sunday for threatening to veto the annual defense policy bill that covers the military’s budget for equipment and pay raises for service members: China. He did not specific his concerns. Republican lawmakers have said the wide-ranging defense policy bill, which the...
Thousands of Pa. families face potential eviction come the new year
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. Hundreds of thousands of families across Pennsylvania could lose their homes in January, after emergency unemployment benefits and federal eviction protections...
Vandals hit Black churches during weekend pro-Trump rallies
WASHINGTON — Groups of people tore down a Black Lives Matter banner and sign from historic Black churches in downtown Washington and set one ablaze as nighttime clashes Saturday between pro-Donald Trump supporters and counterdemonstrators erupted into violence and arrests. Police on Sunday said they were investigating the incidents at...
‘Monticello Lights’ display backs up traffic in Delmont, second night set for SundayVideo
When residents of Monticello Drive in Delmont replaced their annual holiday party with a neighborhood drive-thru Christmas-light competition, they were hoping for an enjoyable weekend and a chance to raise a little money for charity. What they didn’t expect was a four-and-a-half-hour parade of cars that backed up traffic along...
