Is it safe to open mail and packages during the pandemic?
By The Associated Press undefined
Is it safe to open mail and packages during the pandemic? Health officials say you should be fine opening up letters from your mailbox or packages on your doorstep. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there’s no evidence COVID-19 is spreading through mail or parcels. It’s still a good idea to wash your hands afterward. Like many businesses, the U.S. Postal Service is practicing social distancing at its offices including limiting the number of visitors.

NEW YORK (AP) — Brian Dennehy, the burly actor who started in films as a macho heavy and later in his career won plaudits for his stage work in plays by William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, has died. He was 81.
Dennehy died Wednesday night of natural causes in New Haven, Connecticut, according to Kate Cafaro of ICM Partners, the actor’s representatives.
Known for his broad frame, booming voice and ability to play good guys and bad guys with equal aplomb, Dennehy won two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe and was nominated for six Emmys. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010.
Tributes came from Hollywood and Broadway, including from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who said he saw Dennehy twice onstage and called the actor “a colossus.” Actor Michael McKean said Dennehy was “brilliant and versatile, a powerhouse actor and a very nice man as well.” Dana Delany, who appeared in a movie with Dennehy, said: “They don’t make his kind anymore.”
Among his 40-odd films, he played a sheriff who jailed Rambo in “First Blood,” a serial killer in “To Catch a Killer,” and a corrupt sheriff gunned down by Kevin Kline in “Silverado.” He also had some benign roles: the bartender who consoles Dudley Moore in “10” and the levelheaded leader of aliens in “Cocoon” and its sequel.
Eventually Dennehy wearied of the studio life. “Movies used to be fun,” he observed in an interview. “They took care of you, first-class. Those days are gone.”
Dennehy had a long connection with Chicago’s Goodman Theater, which had a reputation for heavy drama. He appeared in Bertolt Brecht’s “Galileo” in 1986 and later Chekhov’s “Cherry Orchard” at far lower salaries than he earned in Hollywood. In 1990 he played the role of Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh,” a play he reprised at the Goodman with Nathan Lane in 2012 and in Brooklyn in 2013.
In 1998, Dennehy appeared on Broadway in the classic role of Willy Loman, the worn-out hustler in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and won the Tony for his performance.
“What this actor goes for is close to an everyman quality, with a grand emotional expansiveness that matches his monumental physique,” wrote Ben Brantley in his review of the play for The New York Times. “Yet these emotions ring so unerringly true that Mr. Dennehy seems to kidnap you by force, trapping you inside Willy’s psyche.”
He was awarded another Tony in 2003 for his role in O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night.” At the podium, after thanking his family, co-stars and producers and complementing his competitors, he said: “The words of Eugene O’Neill — they’ve got to be heard. They’ve got to be heard, and heard and heard. And thank you so much for giving us the chance to enunciate them.”
Dennehy was born July 9, 1938, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the first of three sons. His venture into acting began when he was 14 in New York City and a student at a Brooklyn high school. He acted the title role in “Macbeth.” He played football on a scholarship at Columbia University, and he served five years in the U.S. Marines.
Back in New York City in 1965, he pursued acting while working at side jobs. “I learned first-hand how a truck driver lives, what a bartender does, how a salesman thinks,” he told The New York Times in 1989. “I had to make a life inside those jobs, not just pretend.”
His parents — Ed Dennehy, an editor for The Associated Press in New York, and Hannah Dennehy, a nurse — could never understand why his son chose to act. “Anyone raised in a first or second generation immigrant family knows that you are expected to advance the ball down the field,” Dennehy told Columbia College Today in 1999. “Acting didn’t qualify in any way.”
The 6-foot-3-inch Dennehy went to Hollywood for his first movie, “Semi-Tough” starring Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson. Dennehy was paid $10,000 a week for 10 week’s work, which he thought “looked like it was all the money in the world.”
Among his films: “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” “Foul Play,” “Little Miss Marker,” “Split Image,” “Gorky Park,” “Legal Eagles,” “Miles from Home,” “Return to Snowy River,” “Presumed Innocent,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Assault on Precinct 13.” He played the father of Chris Farley’s titular character in the 1995 comedy “Tommy Boy.”
He played serial murderer John Wayne Gacy in the 1991 TV movie “To Catch a Killer” and union leader Jackie Presser in the HBO special “Teamster Boss” a year later. “I try to play villains as if they’re good guys and good guys as if they’re villains,” he said in 1992
He worked deep into his 70s, in such projects as SundanceTV’s “Hap and Leonard,” the film “The Seagull” with Elisabeth Moss and Annette Bening and the play “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett at the Long Wharf Theatre. His last foray on Broadway was in “Love Letters” opposite Mia Farrow in 2014.
He is survived by his second wife, costume designer Jennifer Arnott and their two children, Cormac and Sarah. He also is survived by three daughters — Elizabeth, Kathleen and Deirdre — from a previous marriage to Judith Scheff.
___
Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Trump readies roadmap for economic recovery from virus
By ZEKE MILLER, AAMER MADHANI, and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is preparing to unveil national guidelines on when and how the country starts to recover from the sharp economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic. As he does so, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers is urging him to heed the advice of public health experts. The new guidelines are aimed at clearing the way for an easing of restrictions in areas with low transmission of the coronavirus, while keeping them in place in harder-hit places. Ultimately, decisions on when to ease up will rest with governors. The recommendations also will make clear that the return to normalcy will be a far longer process than Trump initially envisioned. He says he’ll explain the guidelines on Thursday evening.

Department of Health Provides Update on COVID-19, 1,245 Positives Bring Statewide Total to 27,735

Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Health today confirmed as of 12:00 a.m., April 16, that there are 1,245 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 27,735. All 67 counties in Pennsylvania have cases of COVID-19. The department also reported 60 new deaths among positive cases, bringing the statewide total to 707. County-specific information and a statewide map are available here. All people are either in isolation at home or being treated at the hospital.

Locally we are up to 168 cases an increase of ten from yesterday. Deaths in the county remain at 14.

“COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise in Pennsylvania, and even though the daily increases are not exponential, now is not the time to become complacent,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. “We must continue to stay home to protect ourselves, our families, our community. If you must go out, please make as few trips as possible and wear a mask to protect not only yourself, but other people as well. We need all Pennsylvanians to continue to heed these efforts to protect our vulnerable Pennsylvanians, our health care workers and frontline responders.”

There are 113,735 patients who have tested negative to date. Of the patients who have tested positive to date the age breakdown is as follows:

• Less than 1% are aged 0-4;
• Nearly 1% are aged 5-12;
• 1% are aged 13-18;
• 6% are aged 19-24;
• Nearly 40% are aged 25-49;
• Nearly 29% are aged 50-64; and
• Nearly 23% are aged 65 or older.

Most of the patients hospitalized are aged 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients 65 or older. There have been no pediatric deaths to date. More data is available here.

In nursing and personal care homes, there are 3,290 resident cases of COVID-19, and 394 cases among employees, for a total of 3,684 at 306 distinct facilities in 34 counties. Out of our total deaths, 365 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities. A county breakdown can be found here.

All non-life-sustaining businesses are ordered to be closed and schools are closed statewide through the remainder of the academic year. Currently the entire state is under a stay-at-home order.

County Case Counts to Date

Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board Continues to Increase
E-Commerce Sales, Deliveries Through FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com

Harrisburg – Now fulfilling e-commerce orders from 49 facilities across Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has significantly increased the number of orders it is accepting on a daily basis at FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com.

“After ramping up 46 additional Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores and licensee service centers in the last few days and aiming to have 121 fulfillment centers picking and packing e-commerce orders this weekend, we’ve made significant progress in improving service to Pennsylvania consumers seeking access to wines and spirits,” said Board Chairman Tim Holden. “Today, we’re accepting 6,500 orders through our website, an 850 percent increase since April 1, when limited e-commerce sales resumed, and a 261 percent increase over the 1,800 orders we had been consistently accepting each day for a number of days.”

As order fulfillment capacity increases, the PLCB will continue increasing the number of orders it takes each day, expecting to be able to accept 10,000 or more orders daily in coming days.

Daily sales since FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com resumed limited operations April 1 through Wednesday, April 15, are detailed below. For context, e-commerce sales in all of fiscal year 2018-19 totaled about 39,000 orders and $5 million dollars. The PLCB expects e-comm sales to exceed those annual records as early as next week, just considering sales since April 1.

All PLCB locations remain closed to the public and are using limited staff, a combination of PLCB employees and contractors, to process e-commerce orders. Beginning April 1, three fulfillment centers supported e-commerce operations, and 46 additional facilities have been brought into operation in recent days. On Friday, 26 more fulfillment facilities will be added, with the balance of the 121 total locations expected to be operational this weekend.

The 121 fulfillment facilities anticipated to be operational by this weekend are located in the following counties: 1 in Adams, 18 in Allegheny, 2 in Berks, 1 in Blair, 9 in Bucks, 1 in Butler, 2 in Centre, 10 in Chester, 1 in Clearfield, 1 in Crawford, 4 in Cumberland, 4 in Dauphin, 10 in Delaware, 1 in Erie, 1 in Franklin, 1 in Indiana, 1 in Lackawanna, 4 in Lancaster, 4 in Lehigh, 1 in Luzerne, 1 in Lycoming, 2 in Monroe, 17 in Montgomery, 3 in Northampton, 11 in Philadelphia, 1 in Union, 1 in Washington, 1 in Wayne, 3 in Westmoreland, and 4 in York.

Access to www.FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com continues to be randomized to avoid overwhelming the site with high traffic, prevent order abuse, and prolong access throughout the day so that order availability isn’t exhausted in seconds or minutes each day.

“While consumer interest and site traffic continue to outpace our ability to process orders, we ask consumers’ patience as we explore options to serve our customers while honoring public health guidance during this unprecedented disruption,” said Holden. “We believe that continuing to expand access to FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com in a controlled manner will allow us to provide access to consumers while also protecting our employees and consumers from unnecessary risk, but we acknowledge our website can’t handle the daily volume our network of nearly 600 stores supported.”

Orders at FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com are limited to up to six bottles per transaction from a reduced catalogue of top-selling wines and spirits. All orders must be shipped to home or non-store addresses, and only one order per address will be fulfilled per day.

All fulfillment facilities are implementing public health best practices to protect employees, including enhanced facility sanitation, social distancing protocols, and limiting the numbers of employees working in any facility at a time.

The PLCB is not considering reopening stores at this time, although the agency continues to monitor the situation in consultation with the Wolf Administration and public health officials.

Pennsylvanians are also reminded of the following places and means for obtaining beverage alcohol during the current public health crisis.

• Nearly 1,000 licensed producers in Pennsylvania – including breweries, wineries, and distilleries – may still sell their own products for off-premises consumption.
• Restaurant and eating place licensees (bars, taverns, bottle shops, pizza/sub shops, supermarkets, convenience stores, etc.) can sell beer to go, up to 192 ounces (generally two six packs) per transaction.
• Restaurant licensees that also have wine expanded permits – including grocery stores and convenience stores – may also sell up to three liters of wine to go, per transaction.
• Beer distributors in Pennsylvania may continue sales for off-premises consumption.
• Residents remain able to purchase wine from more than 1,200 licensed direct wine shippers.

Consumers are reminded that the sale of alcoholic beverages without a license is strictly prohibited under Pennsylvania law.

The PLCB regulates the distribution of beverage alcohol in Pennsylvania, operates nearly 600 wine and spirits stores statewide, and licenses 20,000 alcohol producers, retailers, and handlers. The PLCB also works to reduce and prevent dangerous and underage drinking through partnerships with schools, community groups, and licensees. Taxes and store profits – totaling nearly $18.5 billion since the agency’s inception – are returned to Pennsylvania’s General Fund, which finances Pennsylvania’s schools, health and human services programs, law enforcement, and public safety initiatives, among other important public services. The PLCB also provides financial support for the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, other state agencies, and local municipalities across the state. For more information about the PLCB, visit lcb.pa.gov.

Gov. Wolf: Corrections Announces First Group of Inmates Under Temporary Reprieve Program

Harrisburg, PA – Gov. Tom Wolf issued reprieves yesterday for the first group of Department of Corrections inmates who met criteria for the Temporary Program to Reprieve Sentences of Incarceration, which the governor established through order on April 10.

After providing information to county prosecutors and judges earlier this week, submissions were received by the DOC for additional consideration by DOC Secretary John Wetzel. Sec. Wetzel then submitted a list of inmates to Gov. Wolf for his consideration.

Inmates approved in this first round of reprieves are:

All inmates will undergo COVID-19 screening prior to release. Some individuals may be released to community corrections centers, while others may be released to home confinement. In either case, all will be confined to their location and will be supervised by parole agents.

Each reprieve signed by Gov. Wolf reads, “If at any time the subject of this reprieve violates the supervision requirements imposed by the Department, this reprieve is revoked and the individual shall be returned immediately to the physical custody of the Department of Corrections.”

 PITTSBURGH, PA (April 16, 2020) — Allegheny Health Network (AHN) today announced another significant step in the organization’s efforts to assure that frontline caregivers in its hospitals have the personal protective equipment they need to help prevent exposure to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) during the current pandemic.  AHN has partnered with MSA Safety (NYSE: MSA) to secure a shipment of P100 industrial grade respirators that can be disinfected and reused repeatedly.

The Advantage® 200 LS Respirator from MSA – which filters out nearly 100 percent of airborne particulates – is a mask not typically used in health care settings.  However, because of the scarcity of disposable respirator masks caused by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, AHN has been working to identify options to mitigate the effects of the disposable mask shortage.  This effort comes after the FDA and CDC recently issued guidance that NIOSH-approved elastomeric respirators can complement a hospital’s PPE stockpile and serve as a viable alternative to N95 disposable masks.

Designed for reuse, the Advantage 200 Respirator is a half-mask, tight-fitting face piece that covers a person’s nose and mouth, and comes equipped with twin removable filter cartridges.  The masks will be disinfected between uses by AHN’s sterilization technicians.

AHN caregivers began using the Advantage 200 masks this week.  Last week, AHN also launched a unique mask sterilization and re-use program that will allow N95 masks to be used up to three times. The new P100 respirators, combined with AHN’s ability to sterilize and reuse disposable N95 masks, significantly expands the network’s supply of PPE as it prepares for a potential surge of COVID-19 patients across the western Pennsylvania region.

“When it comes to the personal protective equipment that keeps caregivers safe, our goal is for AHN to be as self-sustaining as possible while not compromising the safety of our caregivers and patients,” said Sri Chalikonda, MD, AHN’s Chief Medical Operations Officer. “We want our clinical teams to be 100-percent focused on the care of our patients with full confidence that they have the PPE they need to do their jobs at this critical time.

The Advantage® 200 LS Respirator masks will be used by the same frontline AHN staff that are now wearing N95 masks – including ICU and emergency department clinicians, or any caregiver working with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 positive patients.

“MSA recognizes that fighting the spread of COVID-19 requires an all-hands-on-deck approach,” said Steve Blanco, President of MSA’s Americas business segment.  “We are pleased to be working alongside AHN and other leading health care providers to explore and deliver PPE solutions that are helping communities better respond to this unprecedented challenge.”

PITTSBURGH, April 16, 2020 – Domino’s and its nationwide system of franchisees are banding together during this unprecedented crisis to do something they already do well every day: feed people pizza. Domino’s locally-owned stores throughout Greater Pittsburgh will donate 7,600 pizzas within their local communities, starting this week.

“We realize that there is a great deal of hardship and uncertainty at this time,” said Sheldon Port, a Pittsburgh-area Domino’s franchisee. “Domino’s wants to do whatever it can to help, and that means spreading a little bit of joy through pizza.”

Nearly 40 Domino’s stores throughout the Greater Pittsburgh area will each donate 200 pizzas as part of this national effort, so that hospitals and medical centers, schoolkids and their families, health departments, grocery store workers, and others in need can enjoy a hot, delicious pizza.

“We want to show how much we appreciate and support those who are in need of a hot meal, and those who are on the frontline, working to save lives,” said Port. “We hope that this simple act will bring a small sense of normalcy and a smile to their faces.”

Together, Domino’s stores nationwide will donate more than 1.2 million pizzas, or about 10 million slices, across their communities. To read about how Domino’s franchisees and team members are giving back in their local neighborhoods, visit biz.dominos.com/web/media/stories.

Wolf backs states’ call for $500B in additional federal aid
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf has written to President Donald Trump to back calls from other leading governors for another $500 billion in federal aid for states fighting the spread of the coronavirus. Wolf says he’s projecting a budget deficit of up to $5 billion. The letter, dated Wednesday, was issued with two other Democratic governors, Tony Evers of Wisconsin and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. In the letter, they acknowledge that the federal government is making an initial $71 billion available to meet some immediate cash flow needs of state and local governments. But, they write, “the magnitude of the crushing economic impact this virus has had on our states and residents cannot be overstated.”