March 2020 File Photo provided by Gov. Wolf
AP PA Headlines 5/14/20
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — By many accounts, Gov. Tom Wolf has helped mitigate Pennsylvania’s coronavirus outbreak and avoided the full-blown disasters seen elsewhere. His success in the next challenge — containing the growing resistance to his efforts — is to be determined. The Democrat at the helm in one of the premier battlegrounds in November’s presidential election is struggling to fight a Republican revolt over his stay-at-home orders and business shutdowns. Egged on by state GOP lawmakers, counties have threatened to defy his orders while at least a few business owners have reopened despite his warnings.
The mild-mannered Wolf has had to decide how far to go in enforcing the orders, mindful of criticism that he is nothing short of a tyrant. The chief instigator behind the Republican strategy, President Donald Trump, is set to visit the state Thursday. Ahead of the trip, Trump stoked the conflict, tweeting that Pennsylvanians “want their freedom now.”
Behind the rhetoric is a political fight as much over people’s well-being and public health — federal health officials are aligned with Wolf’s cautious approach — as it is over who will be blamed for the state’s economic devastation if it is not repaired by Election Day. Around 2 million Pennsylvania residents have lost their jobs since mid-March, with food and milk giveaways drawing mileslong lines. Meanwhile, some have gone two months without money because of the state’s problem-plagued online unemployment benefits portal.
Republicans in the state, like their counterparts in swing states Michigan and Wisconsin, say they are sticking up for desperate people. But they are also jockeying to ensure that Democratic governors, rather than Trump, take the blame. “Tom Wolf is going to be as much on the ballot as much as the president, the Legislature and Congress for his handling of this, but he’s going to be judged not just by Republicans but by Democrats and independents,” said Lawrence Tabas, chairman of Pennsylvania’s Republican Party.
For Democrats who have stood by Wolf, that’s just fine right now. Polls show that the public has generally embraced how Wolf — who easily won reelection in 2018 — has managed the crisis. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll released Tuesday found that more than 2 in 3 people surveyed from April 27 to May 4 approve of how Wolf has handled the outbreak. Trump’s approval nationally in the same poll was much lower, at 43%.
When Trump visits Thursday, he’ll head to the politically moderate Allentown area to tour a medical products distribution center. He did particularly well in the area in the 2016 election, when his narrow win in Pennsylvania helped vault him to the White House.
Since then, Republicans lost the area’s congressional seat for the first time in two decades, and Allentown, with highways connecting it to New Jersey and New York City, has become one of Pennsylvania’s coronavirus hot spots. “Here in the Lehigh Valley, people know we’re in the middle of the pandemic, and they also aren’t taking Trump as seriously as they once did,” said Democratic state Rep. Peter Schweyer of Allentown. The visit will be Trump’s 18th to the state as president, a marker of Pennsylvania’s importance to his reelection hopes.
While Trump’s advisers have started to doubt whether they can hold Michigan, another Rust Belt state Trump won, they believe Pennsylvania and Wisconsin remain in play if the economy rebounds. That may mean pressuring the states’ Democratic governors to ease restrictions on business, travel and public spaces — even if it risks a resurgence of the virus.
Pennsylvania is 10th among states in overall infection rate — with some 59,000 confirmed cases, or roughly 450 per 100,000 residents, and nearly 4,000 deaths, according to federal statistics. It is bordered on three sides by states with higher infection rates. New infections have been trending down, and Wolf has been easing restrictions in lightly affected counties — but not fast enough for some.
“I know my constitutional rights, and I’ve got to pay my bills,” Brad Shepler, a barber who resumed cutting hair — something that is prohibited everywhere in the state right now — told police in a video he posted online when they visited his home studio this week a few miles from Pennsylvania’s Capitol. “The governor’s not paying my bills, so I’ve got to pay my bills.”
Trump weighed in Monday on the intensifying political fight, tweeting: “The great people of Pennsylvania want their freedom now, and they are fully aware of what that entails.” Hours later, Wolf threatened in an extraordinary news conference to punish a growing number of counties that vowed to let businesses reopen against his orders.
He pledged to withhold coronavirus aid from them and branded them “cowards,” saying they are “choosing to desert in the face of the enemy, in the middle of a war that we Pennsylvanians are winning and that we must win.” Wolf — who hasn’t spoken one cross word about Trump or the White House’s handling of the outbreak — also warned that business owners could lose certificates and licenses to operate, and face insurance sanctions.
The Republican National Committee accused Wolf of being on a “power trip.” Wolf, who said he is just trying to keep people safe, already had vetoed legislation Republicans passed in April to limit his powers during the disaster emergency. Meanwhile, he has won legal challenges to his shutdown orders in both the state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, let construction work restart and lifted the most severe restrictions in many areas.
Still, two-thirds of the state’s 12.8 million people are expected to remain under stay-at-home orders past this week. After Wolf’s bare-knuckled message on Monday, some counties did not back down. In others, Wolf’s threat gave them pause. Republican state Rep. Dan Moul from conservative Adams County said he didn’t want to be responsible for someone losing a valuable business license. “We’re trying to get things moving in a safe and responsible manner,” Moul said. “Because this thing is turning into a pressure cooker. This thing is going to blow up if he doesn’t make a move soon.”
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Two days after Gov. Tom Wolf lambasted them as “cowardly” and vowed to withhold funding, several Pennsylvania counties signaled Wednesday they are moving ahead with plans to defy him by lifting some pandemic restrictions. Others backed down under the governor’s threat. Commissioners in many GOP-controlled counties where the Democratic governor has yet to ease any restrictions say they can manage the public health impacts of COVID-19 and reopen safely. They say the shutdown threatens to destroy local economies — especially small businesses — the longer it goes.
“Come this Friday, we plan on opening because we’ve been getting hundreds of emails, text messages and phone calls that these business owners are on the brink of closing down,” Daniel Camp III, the Republican chairman of the Beaver County Board of Commissioners, told a state Senate hearing Wednesday. Beaver County, home to a severe nursing home outbreak, said it plans to operate as if Wolf had already eased restrictions there, meaning residents can freely leave their homes and retailers, offices and other kinds of businesses can reopen. Because of the outbreak, Beaver is the lone western Pennsylvania county that remains locked down.
Columbia County, meanwhile, voted Wednesday to join Beaver and other counties that plan to lift Wolf’s stay-at-home orders and allow nonessential businesses to reopen Friday without his blessing. Columbia said its coronavirus numbers have been inflated by reporting irregularities, and accused the governor’s office of failing to communicate why it hasn’t been allowed to emerge from some pandemic restrictions.
But Columbia’s resolution also warned businesses reopening in defiance of the state shutdown that they do so at their own peril, noting the county “cannot protect county businesses and individuals” from state retaliation. Wolf has said that businesses that open without his permission jeopardize professional and business licenses, certificates of occupancy and insurance policies.
“We didn’t want to do what we did today,” said Columbia County Commissioner David Kovach, a Democrat who joined the board’s Republican majority. “But we felt we needed to make a statement.” Counties that still plan to lift restrictions despite Wolf’s threat to withhold billions in COVID-19 funding also include Lebanon and Lancaster, the state’s seventh-most populous.
But county officials elsewhere — including Schuylkill County and Dauphin County, home of the state capital — took heed and backed down, even as they continued to press Wolf for a more ambitious reopening timetable. “For us to threaten and then execute a ‘Hey everyone go back to green in Berks County,’ we will suffer the consequences,” said Berks County Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt, a Democrat, referring to Wolf’s color-coded reopening plan. “And I don’t want to be the one saying that, gee, I held up the money, or we were denied money … because of a foolish decision.”
George F. Halcovage Jr., Republican chair of the Schuylkill County board, said the governor took a more conciliatory tone in a conference call with county commissioners. “That phone call, hearing the governor say, ‘We need to collaborate and cooperate with county commissioners,’ that was extremely important,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve heard that said.”
The governor’s earlier warning to counties came amid increasing pressure from Republican lawmakers who want him to lift his pandemic restrictions more quickly in additional areas of Pennsylvania. Wolf has said that moving too fast risks jeopardizing the progress Pennsylvania has made against a virus that has sickened some 59,000 and killed nearly 4,000 statewide.
In Berks County, commissioners on Wednesday said they couldn’t in good conscience advise businesses to reopen in defiance of Wolf, given the risk. But at a video news conference at which they invited several struggling small business owners to speak, the board called on Wolf to take action immediately to allow Berks to reopen, saying it can do so safely.
Big-box retailers that have been deemed essential and allowed to operate during the pandemic are steadily putting locally owned competitors out of business, they said. “Governor Wolf, we are are begging you to reconsider what you are doing to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and to Berks County,” said Christian Leinbach, GOP chair of the Berks County board. “Do you really believe a small flower shop is less safe than thousands of people flocking Walmart and Lowe’s for their Mother’s Day flowers?”
HARRISBURG (AP) – The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Wednesday reported 137 additional coronavirus deaths, raising the statewide total to 3,943. The deaths occurred over the past several weeks. The Health Department has been reconciling its records with data provided by hospitals, health systems, municipal health departments and nursing homes. Over two-thirds of the state’s virus deaths have occurred among residents of nursing homes and similar institutions.
Health officials reported 707 new infections, bringing the statewide total to nearly 59,000. The number of infections is thought to be far higher than the state’s confirmed case count because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected without feeling sick. There is no data on how many people have fully recovered. For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in a couple of weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.
Pennsylvania schools will get $524 million in federal funding to help them respond to the virus, the governor’s office said Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Education approved Pennsylvania’s application for the one-time emergency allocation, which was part of the federal coronavirus relief law signed by President Donald Trump in late March.
Schools may use the funding for a wide range of purposes, including food service, professional training, technology purchases, sanitization and cleaning supplies, summer and after-school programs and mental health supports, the governor’s office said.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia’s election commissioners have voted to reduce polling places by nearly 80% in the state’s June 2 primary election as local officials try to adapt to problems finding polling locations and recruiting poll workers amid fears of the coronavirus. The plan approved Wednesday still requires state approval. A state law that passed in March delayed the primary election from April 28 to June 2 and allowed counties to consolidate polling places in the primary election by up to 60%, without court approval. Several counties, including Allegheny County, the state’s second-most populous after Philadelphia, have contacted the state about reducing their polling locations.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge is giving most claimants until mid-November to seek compensation over child sexual abuse from the Harrisburg Roman Catholic Diocese, which sought bankruptcy protection earlier this year. The order signed last week by a bankruptcy judge also gave governmental entities until Dec. 11 to file proofs of claims. The diocese issued a statement on Wednesday encouraging anyone with a claim involving “any actual or alleged sexual offense” by its clergy, teachers, employees or volunteers to file. It’s said it paid more than $12 million to at least 111 people over child sexual abuse by its clerics, deacons and seminarians.
PLEASANT UNITY, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a man angry with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s decision to close businesses during the coronavirus pandemic will face charges after he threatened the governor. Twenty-eight-year-old Rocco Anthony Naples, of Pleasant Unity in Westmoreland County, has been charged with a felony count of threats and other improper influence in official and political matters and related misdemeanor counts of making terroristic threats and harassment. York County authorities announced the charges Tuesday. They say the threat was made Friday when Naples called Wolf’s former business, Wolf Home Products. Naples has not been arraigned or had his bail set, and it wasn’t known Wednesday if he’s retained an attorney.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Features
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump called on governors across the nation to work to reopen schools closed because of the coronavirus, pointedly taking issue with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s caution against moving too quickly in sending students back to class. The president accused Fauci of wanting “to play all sides of the equation,” a comment that suggested he is tiring of the nation’s top infectious disease expert. “I think they should open the schools, absolutely. I think they should,” Trump told reporters at the White House, echoing comments he had made in a television interview.
“Our country’s got to get back and it’s got to get back as soon as possible. And I don’t consider our country coming back if the schools are closed.” Fauci had urged caution in testimony before a Senate committee Tuesday, although he made clear that he believes reopening decisions will likely differ from one region to the next. “To me, it’s not an acceptable answer,” Trump said of Fauci yesterday, adding that the coronavirus has “had very little impact on young people.”
CYBERSPACE (AP) — A white Indiana state lawmaker accused of a racist post on Facebook last year is defending himself again. This time, he’s under fire for posting a meme that shows black babies in diapers dancing with the caption, “We gon’ get free money!” GOP representative Jim Lucas says he got the stock photo from a meme generator — and says the caption reflects how he and other people talk. He has since posted two other memes with the same caption: one with white kids missing teeth and one of himself wearing a big cowboy hat.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has struck down Gov. Tony Evers’ stay-at-home restrictions. The high court ruled for Republicans in a challenge to an extension issued by the governor’s health secretary, arguing she exceeded her authority. The 4-3 ruling means the state is essentially reopened ahead of the May 26 expiration date of Evers’ order. It lifts caps on the size of gatherings, allowing people to travel as they please and allowing shuttered businesses to reopen, including bars and restaurants. The ruling marks another defeat for Evers as Republicans continue to chip away at the Democratic governor’s authority.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WHBQ-TV) — Xavier University’s cancellation of its graduation ceremony because of the coronavirus pandemic didn’t stop one Tennessee senior from walking across the stage. That’s because Torrence Burson decided to throw his daughter her own personal graduation ceremony in the front yard of their Memphis home. Burson says his wife told him he’s crazy, but he built a stage for Gabrielle Pierce to walk across, complete with a podium and banner showing the university’s seal. A loudspeaker blared “The Graduation March” and neighbors lined the street to cheer Pierce on. She said it ended up being better than an actual graduation because it was more personal.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
