Western PA News

• TIMELINE: Pennsylvania coronavirus updates April 30
• PA CORONAVIRUS MAP: See the number of cases in each county, zip code
• LIVE UPDATES: Latest national, world coronavirus news
• Here are positive things happening within our community

Source: LIVE UPDATES: Population density given as reason for keeping most of western Pa. in the ‘red’

Since the coronavirus struck our shores, my focus has been on keeping Americans safe and ensuring working people don’t get left behind. Their struggles today are greater than ever. Too many have suffered job losses, shrinking income, isolation, and health issues — all while caring for children and other loved ones.

The one-time $1,200 stimulus check that many Americans are now receiving under the CARES Act was a good start, but it does not go far enough as this quarantine enters its second month. Rent is still due, credit card bills keep coming in, utilities still need to be paid, our phone plans haven’t gotten cheaper, we still need to buy groceries to feed our families. How far do politicians think one $1,200 check can stretch?

Every American age 16 and older who earns less $130,000 per year will receive this money.

That is why Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) and I introduced the Emergency Money for the People Act, which will provide almost every American $2,000 per month until employment levels reach pre-coronavirus levels. Every American age 16 and older who earns less $130,000 per year will receive this money tax-free.

Congress recently passed three different bills in response to the coronavirus. They included trillions of dollars of assistance for individuals and businesses, and while I supported all three, we immediately started noticing that many of Rep. Khanna’s constituents in Silicon Valley and my constituents in Youngstown, Ohio were still falling through the cracks.

I spoke to a woman who is low-income and receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI); she takes care of five other people in her home, yet was not eligible for the $1,200 check. I heard from a constituent on disability who has custody of her children, but the $1,200 check went to her former spouse. I talked to a college freshman living by himself, independent of his parents, but he did not qualify for any assistance.

This is just a small snapshot of the what real Americans are going through every day. They deserve a fair shake. They deserve to be cut in on the deal.

Source: One $1,200 stimulus check won’t cut it. Give Americans $2,000 a month tax-free to fire up the economy – MarketWatch

• An Appropriations subcommittee wanted to hear from Fauci 
• It sought him as a witness for hearing about the coronavirus response
• White House said ‘it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in [coronavirus] efforts appearing at Congressional hearings
• Agency heads and military chiefs routinely testify about matters they are overseeing in Congress 
• Fauci has urged states and citizens to maintain strict social distancing
• His remarks have sometimes contradicted President Trump’s statements like claim hydroxychloroquine is a ‘game-changer’ 
• Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19

Source: White House BLOCKS Dr. Tony Fauci from testifying before House committee | Daily Mail Online

New York (CNN Business)Sandra Kunz wanted to keep working as a Walmart (WMT) cashier even as the coronavirus spread.

Despite a lung condition, the 72-year-old in Aurora, Colorado, needed to get her paycheck, according to her sister, Paula Spellman. Her husband, Gus, was injured and out of work, and the couple had bills due.

Kunz died on April 20 from complications related to the coronavirus, her sister said. Gus, who was also sick from the virus, died two days before his wife.

While it is unclear how the couple contracted the virus, Spellman said her sister had expressed concerns about customers at Walmart coughing on her at the cash register.

“I wish she didn’t work there. I wish she had taken leave,” Spellman said. “I get angry because she should have been more protected.”

Walmart says it has instituted several safety measures in its stores, including providing masks and erecting sneeze guards, or plexiglass barriers, to protect its workers from the coronavirus.

The cash register has emerged as the most dangerous place in the store, according to public health and worker safety experts. Every item cashiers touch, scan and bag has been handled by customers and other workers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is possible that a person can get coronavirus by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it.

Source: This is the most dangerous place in the grocery store – CNN

The EVO and Santikos theater chains, in the San Antonio and Austin area, will be among the first theaters in the nation to reopen.

A handful of movie theaters in San Antonio and Austin, Texas, are set to reopen in the coming days, providing an early test case for coronavirus protection measures.

EVO Entertainment plans to open two theaters on Monday using “airport security-style check-in,” says CEO Mitchell Roberts. Guests will enter a cordoned area near the front door, where they will be asked if they are anyone in their household have had flu symptoms in the last 14 days. They will also be subjected to an infrared temperature screening, with anyone over 100.4 degrees turned away.

“I feel like it’s really important for our guests to come in and see what we’re doing to protect them,” Roberts says. “The focus is on earning that customer confidence back.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott allowed theaters to reopen beginning on Friday at 25% capacity, as several states around the country have loosened their coronavirus restrictions. Despite that, the vast majority of theaters in Texas and elsewhere — including all the major chains — have remained closed, citing the lack of new movies to show and the challenges of providing a safe experience.

Source: Texas Theaters Reopen After Coronavirus Shutdowns – Variety

Does “TGIF” mean anything anymore while we’re all sheltering in place because of the novel coronavirus pandemic? If you work from home or take classes from home it certainly does. Even if you don’t, it means you’ve got one last roundup of the best daily deals of the week to enjoy before the weekend arrives. And today, the stars of the show are clear. 50-count boxes of Jointown 3-Ply Face Masks are in stock right now and the masks are just $0.78 each. You’ll also find similar LeadPro 3-Layer Face Masks in stock at $0.80 each, and they might be delivered a day or two sooner. On top of that, three different types of hand sanitizer are somehow in stock right now at Amazon: 6-packs of 8-ounce Natural Concepts hand sanitizer for $25.99, 16.9-ounce bottles of PreVasive 75% isopropyl alcohol sanitizer for $24.95, and 2-packs of Zatural 8-ounce spray bottles for $19.99.

Other top deals on Friday include Apple’s AirPods Pro at Amazon’s all-time low price, a new all-time low of $7.99 on Anker’s best-selling PowerWave Pad wireless charger with the coupon code AKA25332, wildly popular Wi-Fi smart plugs that work with Alexa and Google Assistant for $4.95 each with coupon code 40ULRNRJ, a 1080p webcam that’s actually in stock for just $32.99, $50 off Powerbeats Pro in all four colors, the $60 Roku Streaming Stick+ for $49, the Nintendo Switch Lite that’s somehow back in stock, a special sale that cuts the Fire TV Stick 4K down to $24.99 with coupon code 4KFIRETV (code only works for some people so you’ll have to try it to find out), the awesome MyQ smart garage door opener for under $40, an Echo Dot bundle that gets you a $25 Amazon Smart Plug for just $10, and more. See all of today’s best deals below.

Source: Today’s best deals: 80¢ face masks, hand sanitizer in stock, $5 smart plugs, $8 wireless charger, AirPods Pro, more – BGR

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) —

Gov. Tom Wolf announced Friday that 24 counties in rural northern Pennsylvania will see some relief from his strictest orders for residents to stay at home and businesses to close as part of a strategy to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

All of the counties that are moving from “red” to “yellow” in Wolf’s color-coded reopening plan are in the northwest and north-central regions of Pennsylvania, which have seen far fewer virus infections and deaths than most of the rest of the state

.

The changes are to take effect next Friday, May 8, and impact about 1.5 million of Pennsylvania’s 12.8 million residents. Stay-at-home orders will be lifted and retail shops can start to reopen, though gyms, barber shops, nail salons, casinos, theaters and other such venues will remain closed and other restrictions will remain in place.The counties where pandemic restrictions will be eased are: Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Union, Venango and Warren.The only county in that group to be left off the list was Columbia, which is still struggling with a relatively high number of infections.“Over the past two months, Pennsylvanians in every corner of our commonwealth have acted collectively to stop the spread of COVID-19,” Wolf said in a written statement. “We have seen our new case numbers stabilize statewide and while we still have areas where outbreaks are occurring, we also have many areas that have few or no new cases.”

Source: Gov. Wolf to ease coronavirus restrictions in 24 counties

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended the opening of a fertilizer factory on May Day, according to state media, in his first public appearance since a flurry of media reports prompted questions about his health.

Kim cut the ribbon to denote the completion of the Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory, the official Korean Central News Agency reported early Saturday.

The report didn’t offer any photos or footage of the event, nor did it make any reference to Kim’s recent absence. When asked specifically about the report, U.S. President Donald Trump declined to comment.

Among those reportedly present at the ceremony were premier Kim Jae Ryong, former premier Pak Pong Ju, and Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong, who’s recently been the focus of commentary that she would take over from her brother in the event of his death.

Speculation about Kim’s whereabouts has mounted since his unprecedented absence from annual events to celebrate the April 15 birthday of his grandfather, state founder Kim Il Sung. While U.S. officials said they were told Kim, 36, was in critical condition after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure, a top South Korean foreign policy adviser later said he was “alive and well.”

Source: Kim Jong Un Makes Public Appearance, State News Reports – Bloomberg

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Friday denied an allegation of sexual assault by a former Senate aide, Tara Reade, breaking a monthlong silence that had frustrated some Democratic activists as his presidential campaign grapples with issues of accountability and gender that are vitally important to many members of his party.

Sounding emphatic and at times agitated in an interview on MSNBC, Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, tried to address concerns about Ms. Reade’s claim by saying that she had a right to be heard while also insisting that he had not assaulted her. “No, it is not true,” Mr. Biden said. “I’m saying unequivocally it never, never happened.”

Mr. Biden also called on the National Archives to release any existing complaint related to the allegation, even as he continued to oppose requests to release his Senate papers, which, he said, do not contain personnel records.

The interview, as well as a statement posted on Medium, amounted to the Biden campaign’s most concerted effort yet to contain any possible danger for his candidacy just as the Democrat had turned his attention to unifying the party against President Trump. But Mr. Biden’s lack of response for so long was the latest example of caution in the Biden camp that worries some Democrats about the campaign’s agility in a general election sure to be heated and highly personal.

Source: Biden Denies Tara Reade’s Assault Allegation: ‘This Never Happened’ – The New York Times

Pittsburgh Bureau of Police detectives seek the public’s help locating two missing siblings.

Taesean Gibson, 12, is described as 5 feet 4 inches tall, 145 pounds with brown eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing blue and white shoes, black pants and a blue jean jacket.

Keisean Gibson, 14, is described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, 160 pounds with brown eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing blue shoes, black pants and a black/white/gray hooded sweatshirt.

They were last seen at 8:30 p.m. April 30, 2020 on the North Side.

Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call Special Victims Unit detectives at (412) 323-7141.

Source: Pittsburgh police asking for the public’s help locating two missing siblings

U.S. Steel will lay off workers and idle a blast furnace at the Mon Valley Works after the Pittsburgh-based company reported a first-quarter loss of $391 million Thursday.

Source: US Steel confirms layoffs, will temporarily idle Mon Valley Works blast furnace

Former Vice President Joe Biden released a statement on Friday about an allegation of sexual assault a former staffer says happened 27 years ago.

April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Every year, at this time, we talk about awareness, prevention, and the importance of women feeling they can step forward, say something, and be heard. That belief — that women should be heard — was the underpinning of a law I wrote over 25 years ago. To this day, I am most proud of the Violence Against Women Act. So, each April we are reminded not only of how far we have come in dealing with sexual assault in this country — but how far we still have to go.

When I wrote the bill, few wanted to talk about the issue. It was considered a private matter, a personal matter, a family matter. I didn’t see it that way. To me, freedom from fear, harm, and violence for women was a legal right, a civil right, and a human right. And I knew we had to change not only the law, but the culture.

So, we held hours of hearings and heard from the most incredibly brave women — and we opened the eyes of the Senate and the nation — and passed the law.

In the years that followed, I fought to continually strengthen the law. So, when we took office and President Obama asked me what I wanted, I told him I wanted oversight of the critical appointments in the Office on Violence Against Women at the Department of Justice and I wanted a senior White House Advisor appointing directly to me on the issue. Both of those things happened.

READ: Biden denies sexual assault allegation: ‘This never happened’

Source: READ: Joe Biden’s statement on sexual assault allegation – CNNPolitics

On March 27, Governor Wolf signed Senate Bill 422, which reschedules Pennsylvania’s primary election from April 28 to June 2 due to the COVID-19 emergency. Voters have the option to vote by mail-in ballot rather than going to their polling place on election day. Mail-in ballot applications will be accepted through Tuesday, May 26, 2020. If a voter has already applied for an absentee or mail-in ballot, they do NOT need to reapply.

Source: Mail-in and Absentee Ballot

Charley Family Shop’n Save officials presented $50,000 in food vouchers to the Westmoreland County Food Bank earlier this month, in the form of 2,500 vouchers valued at $20 each.

“It’s a paper coupon that’s good at any of our three stores,” Vice President Tom Charley said. “We knew that we wanted to help out the food bank. People need food right now, and we’re in the public’s eye when it comes to that, so if we can help out, we wanted to do that.”

The Charley family has one store in Murrysville and two in Greensburg.

Food bank executive director Jennifer Miller said the vouchers will be distributed to its partner agencies in the Murrysville and Greensburg areas.

“They won’t necessarily be packed into the food boxes, but the volunteers there will have them to give out,” Miller said.

Source: Charley Family Shop’n Save donates $50,000 in food vouchers to Westmoreland food bank | TribLIVE.com

President Trump said Thursday that his former White House aide Mike Flynn is “essentially exonerated” of lying to the FBI after a new document release.Trump told reporters in the Oval

Source: Trump says Michael Flynn is ‘essentially exonerated’ of lying to FBI

Seventy veterans living in a care home in the US state of Massachusetts have died after contracting coronavirus, officials said.

The outbreak is the deadliest reported in a long-term care home in the US.

A nurse at the facility claimed understaffing had contributed to the spread as employees moved from one unit to another.

The US has more than one million confirmed cases of coronavirus – more than any other country.

Nursing homes across the US and in other parts of the world have been particularly badly hit by the pandemic.

Source: Coronavirus kills 70 veterans at Massachusetts care home – BBC News

BETHEL PARK (KDKA) — Bethel Park Police have charged three people with breaking into vending machines all over the Pittsburgh area.

Police say Larry Randolph, Jeffrey Ledonne and Angalique Visconti admitted to working together to steal from machines for several weeks.

(Photo Credit: Bethel Park Police/Facebook)

Bethel Park officers arrested them in the early morning hours of Wednesday, saying they had a change box from one of the machines, coins, drugs and tools for burglaries.

They are facing charges of theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, criminal conspiracy, criminal mischief, loitering and prowling at nighttime and other drug violations.

Source: Police Charge 3 Suspects With Breaking Into Vending Machines Across Pittsburgh Area – CBS Pittsburgh

Macy’s, one of the biggest department store chains in the United States, announced an ambitious plan on Thursday to reopen all of its 775 locations, including Bloomingdales and Bluemercury, in the next six to eight weeks, the latest sign of how eager the nation’s largest retailers are to return to business.

The reopening plan will start on Monday with 68 stores in Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Macy’s will reopen another 50 locations on May 11. Macy’s temporarily closed its stores on March 18 because of the coronavirus pandemic, causing the majority of its sales to disappear.

Macy’s expects that its reopened stores will only bring in about 15 to 20 percent of their typical business at first and “slowly build” from there, the company’s chief executive, Jeff Gennette, said during a presentation. He acknowledged that it was an open question as to whether shoppers would return.

Source: Macy’s Plans to Reopen All of Its 775 Stores in 6 to 8 Weeks – The New York Times

The transit system that never sleeps is taking a snooze.

New York’s 24/7 subway system will shutter nightly from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. to facilitate coronavirus cleaning, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday in a historic move.

“You never had a challenge of disinfecting every train every 24 hours,” said Cuomo in an Albany press briefing, a problem he earlier this week directed the MTA to solve. “It can best be done by stopping train service from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. every night.”

The nightly closures — the likes of which have never been imposed for an extended period of time on the system — will take effect in the early hours of May 6 and don’t yet have an established end date.

Cuomo announced the bombshell news in consultation with Mayor Bill de Blasio, and amid a crisis of exploding homelessness and deteriorating conditions in the subway system.

Long Island Railroad and Metro-North trains will also receive daily cleanings going forward, but without any planned service changes.

The “massive undertaking” is expected to impact an estimated 11,000 riders nightly, according to Cuomo and the MTA, who said buses, vans and for-hire vehicles will be provided to pick up the slack.

Source: NYC subways will close overnight for coronavirus cleanings: Cuomo

“What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said.

Source: FDA reportedly will approve COVID-19 treatment remdesivir

In 2017, the state Labor and Industry Department agreed to pay Geographic Solutions of Florida $35 million for a new unemployment system.

It appears that the new system has yet to go online.

Source: Investigation finds Pennsylvania unemployment system was scheduled to be replaced two years ago

The United States passed 60,000 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, more than three months earlier than had been predicted by a model the White House has frequently used.

Until recently, the 60,000 mark was touted by President Trump as a measure of success.

Just 10 days ago, Trump said that as many as 60,000 Americans were expected to die from the coronavirus. That was far below earlier estimates of 100,000 to 200,000 from the White House coronavirus task force, and the high range of over 2 million predicted by British researchers on the assumption that no social distancing measures would be implemented.

“Now we’re going toward 50 — I’m hearing, or 60,000 people. One is too many. I always say it,” Trump said during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House. “But we would have had millions of deaths instead of — it looks like we’ll be at about a 60,000 mark, which is 40,000 less than the lowest number thought of.”

Source: U.S. death toll passes 60,000 mark Trump said would mark success in coronavirus fight – AOL News

Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home in Brooklyn was cited Wednesday with failing to control the smell after they stored dozens of bodies in the back of unrefrigerated U-Haul trucks.

• Around 100 bodies were found stacked in two rental trucks outside the Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home in Brooklyn on Wednesday
• Police investigated after neighbors reported a foul smell and of seeing stacks of bodies being loaded into the back of unrefrigerated U-Haul trucks
• There were 50 bodies being stored in each of the trucks 
• Neighbors described gruesome scenes at the home as it struggled to cope with the surge of bodies caused by the coronavirus outbreak in New York City
• The facility said it was forced to store bodies in the trucks when its freezer broke
• No criminal charges were brought but the funeral home has been cited for failure to control the smell 
• Funeral homes across the have been overwhelmed in recent weeks as the daily death toll reached dramatic heights during the coronavirus pandemic
• Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19

Source: Dozens of bodies found stored in U-Haul trucks outside Brooklyn funeral home | Daily Mail Online

New information has emerged in recent days about a sexual assault allegation against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, made by Tara Reade, a former staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office. For the first time, someone has gone on the record to say that Reade detailed the allegation to her decades ago in the same way Reade is describing it now.

A former neighbor of Reade’s named Lynda LaCasse told NPR on Wednesday about a conversation the two had approximately 25 years ago regarding the alleged assault. The revelation, first reported by Business Insider, comes with increasing pressure on Democrats to respond, as well as calls from Republicans for the accusation to be examined more openly.

LaCasse said she remembers stepping outside her home in California to sneak a cigarette away from her kids sometime in 1995 or early 1996, when she was joined by Reade on her front stoop. They were emotional, discussing custody issues and violence, and she recalls Reade then mentioning Joe Biden, a man she was not particularly familiar with at the time.

Source: New Information Emerges Around Biden Sexual Assault Allegation : NPR