GOP Senate primary too close to call; Pa. bus driver charged for 'upskirt' recordings; COVID cases spike

THE RUNDOWN: 

Check 2022 Pennsylvania Primary Election Results 

1. Pennsylvania Senate GOP primary too close to call, recount likely

HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for an open U.S. Senate seat is too close to call and is likely headed for a statewide recount to decide the winner of the contest between heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick.

A recount would mean that the outcome of the race might not be known until June 8, the deadline for counties to report their results to the state.

Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by 1,079 votes, or 0.08 percentage points, out of 1,340,248 ballots counted as of 5 p.m. Friday. The race is close enough to trigger Pennsylvania’s automatic recount law, with the separation between the candidates inside the law’s 0.5% margin. The Associated Press will not declare a winner in the race until the likely recount is complete.

Both campaigns have hired Washington-based lawyers to lead their recount efforts, and both have hired Philadelphia-based campaign strategists who helped lead the operation to observe vote-counting on Election Day for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2020.

The two campaigns already had dozens of lawyers and volunteers fanned out around the presidential battleground state as election workers and election boards toiled through the remaining ballots.

2. Pennsylvania bus driver charged for allegedly taking 'upskirt' recordings of young girls

MEDIA, Pa. – A Pennsylvania school bus driver is facing charges for allegedly recording ‘upskirt’ videos of young girls who were passengers on his route. 

Bruce Stanley Garner, a 70-year-old from Delaware County, was charged with over 130 counts of child sexual abuse and other offenses. 

Investigators said Garner, a bus driver for Marple Newtown School District, was busted after a "suspicious" 14-year-old girl used her phone to record him recording underneath the skirts of young girls on his bus.

Police say they found 139 videos on Garner’s cell phone. They allege he would often speak with 8 victims, ages 9 to 14, to slow them down while recorded as they entered or left his bus. 

All of Garner's victims attend St. Mary Magdalen School in Media and were likely targeted due to their school uniform, according to police. 

Court documents indicate that Garner named two of his victims, admitted to some of the recordings, and even told police how he did it.

Police say there is no evidence to suggest that Garner touched his victims. He is being held on $200k bond. 

3. Most of Delaware Valley in CDC's high COVID transmission category

PHILADELPHIA – As COVID-19 cases surge in the northeast, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has elevated nearly all the Delaware Valley to its high transmission category. 

Southeastern Pennsylvania counties, except Philadelphia and Berks, are currently shaded orange on the CDC's transmission map. Meanwhile, Delaware Valley counties in New Jersey, except Cumberland and Mercer, are listed as high transmission areas. 

The CDC's map, which can be found here, listed all three Delaware counties in the high transmission level.

When a county enters the ‘high’ category, the CDC recommends wearing a mask in public. This caused many local school districts to immediately reimpose their indoor mask mandate for students and faculty. 

The Lower Merion and Cheltenham school districts told students and staff to re-mask on Friday. Both districts cited Montgomery County's recommendation to follow the CDC's masking guidelines. 

The sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and the return of indoor mandates comes shortly after the CDC signed off on booster shots for kids as young as 5. 

4. Title 42: Federal judge rules COVID-19 asylum restrictions must continue on southern US border

WASHINGTON – Pandemic-related restrictions on migrants seeking asylum on the southern border must continue, a judge ruled Friday in an order blocking the Biden administration’s plan to lift them early next week.

The ruling is just the latest instance of a court derailing the president’s proposed immigration policies along the U.S. border with Mexico.

While the administration can appeal, the ruling sharply increases the odds that restrictions will not end as planned on Monday. A delay would be a blow to advocates who say rights to seek asylum are being trampled, and a relief to some Democrats who fear that a widely anticipated increase in illegal crossings would put them on the defensive in an already difficult midterm election year.

Migrants have been expelled more than 1.9 million times since March 2020 under Title 42, a public health provision that denies them a chance to request asylum under U.S. law and international treaty on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays in Lafayette, Louisiana, ordered that the restrictions stay in place while a lawsuit led by Arizona and Louisiana — and now joined by 22 other states — plays out in court.

The states argued that the administration failed to adequately consider the effects that lifting the restrictions would have on public health and law enforcement. Drew Ensign, an attorney for the state of Arizona, argued at a hearing that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed to follow administrative procedures requiring public notice and time to gather public comment.

5. Poll: 1 in 3 Americans say COVID-19 is over amid rising cases

As cases continue to rise again across the United States, a new poll finds that one in three Americans say that COVID-19 is over.

According to the poll conducted by Ipsos, 31% of Americans said the COVID-19 pandemic was over, though perceptions varied drastically across party lines and by vaccination status.

The findings showed that 59% of Republicans, 27% of independents and just 10% of Democrats said the pandemic was over. In addition, those who were unvaccinated were more likely to say the pandemic was over (55%) versus those that were vaccinated (22%). 

The poll was conducted between May 13 and May 16 and was based on a nationally representative sample of 982 participants.

Despite these findings, a larger portion of Americans (71%) described the pandemic as a problem, but a manageable one, versus 14% who said it was a serious crisis.

This poll comes as nearly every state experiences an increase in COVID-19 cases, according to data by Johns Hopkins University, climbing more than 60% in the past two weeks to an average of about 86,000 a day. Yet, this is still well below the all-time high of over 800,000 reached when the omicron variant was raging during the winter.