AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST
Sanders wins top prize, California; Biden surges nationwide
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders seized Super Tuesday’s biggest prize with a victory in California, while a resurgent Joe Biden scored wins across the country with the backing of a diverse coalition as the Democratic Party’s once-crowded presidential field transformed into a two-man contest.
The two Democrats, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for America’s future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the party’s 2020 presidential nomination fight.
The clash between Biden and Sanders, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, peaked on a day that could determine whether the Democratic battle will stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner.
The former vice president and the three-term senator took aim at each other from dueling victory speeches separated by 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) Tuesday night.
“People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement," Biden charged in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders' signature lines.
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Takeaways from Super Tuesday: Biden's big bounce
DENVER (AP) — Super Tuesday is the biggest day on the primary calendar, and the results seem very likely to reshape the Democratic presidential race in ways few could have predicted a couple weeks ago.
Here are some takeaways from the results.
BIDEN BOUNCES BACK BIG
It is hard to overstate the speed and depth of the comeback of former Vice President Joe Biden. He was embarrassed in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and left many Democrats looking for an alternative.
A decisive victory in South Carolina left him buoyant but also highly vulnerable heading into Super Tuesday, with 14 primaries spread from Maine to California. He had little money and only limited organization in place.
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The Latest: How the AP called California for Sanders
WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest on the Democratic presidential primary and Super Tuesday (all times local):
11:40 p.m.
As soon as polls closed in California at 8 p.m. Pacific Time, The Associated Press called Bernie Sanders the winner of the biggest prize on Super Tuesday.
The AP called the state's Democratic presidential primary for the Vermont senator even though no votes from Tuesday had yet been counted. The news agency did so based on results from AP VoteCast, its wide-ranging survey of the American electorate. That election research captures the views of voters on whom they vote for, and why.
The VoteCast survey found Sanders with a convincing lead in California, with no path for Mike Bloomberg and Joe Biden to catch up. In part, that’s because VoteCast found Sanders with a big lead in early votes mailed in before Tuesday’s election.
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Virus crisis ebbs in China, spreads fear across the West
PARIS (AP) — The coronavirus epidemic shifted increasingly westward toward the Middle East, Europe and the United States on Tuesday, with governments taking emergency steps to ease shortages of masks and other supplies for front-line doctors and nurses.
“We are concerned that countries' abilities to respond are being compromised by the severe and increasing disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment, caused by rising demand, hoarding and misuse,” said World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We can't stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers.”
Deaths in Italy surged to 79, making it the deadliest reported outbreak outside China. Twenty-three members of Iran's Parliament and the head of the country's emergency services were reported infected. South Korea expanded drive-thru testing and confirmed hundreds of new cases. And in Spain's Basque region, at least five doctors and nurses were infected and nearly 100 health care workers were being held in isolation.
The mushrooming outbreaks contrasted with optimism in China, where thousands of recovered patients were going home and the number of new infections has been dropping.
Worldwide, more than 93,000 people have been infected and over 3,100 have died, the vast majority of them in China. The number of countries hit by the virus exceeded 70, with Ukraine and Morocco reporting their first cases.
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Asian stocks higher after Wall Street sinks despite rate cut
BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets were mostly higher Wednesday after Wall Street sank despite an emergency U.S. interest cut aimed at defusing fears a virus outbreak might depress global economic activity.
Benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul gained while Hong Kong and Sydney declined.
On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index tumbled 2.8% on Tuesday despite the Federal Reserve's surprise 0.5% rate cut. It was the index's eighth daily decline in nine days.
China, Australia and other central banks also have cut rates to shore up economic growth in the face of anti-virus controls that are disrupting trade and manufacturing. But economists warn that while cheaper credit might encourage consumers, rate cuts cannot reopen factories that have closed due to quarantines or lack of raw materials.
“Despite the Fed cutting rates in support of the U.S. market, fear had clearly returned to reign in the markets,” said Jingyi Pan of IG in a report.
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Death toll from Tennessee tornadoes climbs to at least 24
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Rescuers searched through shattered Tennessee neighborhoods for bodies Tuesday, less than a day after tornadoes ripped across Nashville and other parts of the state as families slept. At least 24 people were killed, some in their beds, authorities said.
The twisters that struck in the hours after midnight shredded more than 140 buildings and buried people in piles of rubble and wrecked basements. The storms moved so quickly that many people in their path could not flee to safer areas.
"It hit so fast, a lot of folks didn't have time to take shelter," Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said. “Many of these folks were sleeping.”
The governor declared an emergency and sent the National Guard to help with search-and-rescue efforts. State emergency officials, who initially reported at least 25 dead, revised the toll to 24 fatalities on Tuesday evening after determining one death counted earlier was not storm-related.
An unspecified number of people were missing.
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AP VoteCast: Late deciders aid Biden, young loyal to Sanders
WASHINGTON (AP) — Many Democratic voters in Super Tuesday's presidential primaries made up their minds just before casting a ballot — and Joe Biden appears to be benefiting from their indecision.
Late deciders across several states voting Tuesday broke for Biden, helping the former vice president capitalize on new momentum in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sen. Bernie Sanders secured his home state of Vermont and Colorado, where voters were more likely to be liberal.
The pool of late deciders ranged from about a quarter of voters in Texas to roughly half in Minnesota, according to AP VoteCast surveys of voters in several Super Tuesday contests. In Minnesota, roughly half of those votes went to Biden.
The surveys show the power of momentum in a race that has long been crowded with candidates and often left voters confused. Biden's big win in South Carolina on Saturday revived his struggling campaign and pushed three of his rivals toward the exit.
Still, Biden must also block Sanders with his constituency of young liberals, box out Sen. Elizabeth Warren and overcome the hundreds of millions spent by billionaire Mike Bloomberg — who is on the ballot for the first time Tuesday. Further complicating the possible outcomes on Tuesday was that many people voted early, likely to be a major factor in California, the night's biggest delegate prize.
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What's Happening: Mask hoarders rebuked, Olympics delay eyed
BERLIN (AP) — As the new coronavirus continues spreading, people are being asked to stop hoarding masks and athletes are being advised to refrain from high-fives.
These are some of the latest developments Tuesday:
MASK HOARDERS REBUKED
Mask hoarders, take note. The head of the World Health Organization says hoarding is disrupting the global supply of such personal protective equipment, which doctors and nurses need to care for patients infected with the new coronavirus. Panic buying of masks has been a problem in several countries. In France, the government is requisitioning supplies. In the U.S., officials moved to ease the shortage by giving health care workers the OK to use an industrial mask designed to protect construction workers from dust and debris. And as people wiped store shelves clean of hand sanitizers, Purell said it's pumping up production.
US CUTS BENCHMARK RATE AS DEATHS CLIMB
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Looking for hand sanitizer? Good luck finding it
NEW YORK (AP) — The hand sanitizers on Amazon were overpriced. A Walmart this weekend was completely sold out. Only on his third try was Ken Smith able to find the clear gel — at a Walgreens, where three bottles of Purell were left. He bought two.
“I didn’t want to hoard,” says Smith, a retired biomedical technician in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Fear of the coronavirus has led people to stock up on the germ-killing gel, leaving store shelves empty and online retailers with sky-high prices set by those trying to profit on the rush. More is on the way, although it's not clear how long it will take retailers to restock.
Sales of hand sanitizers in the U.S. were up 73% in the four weeks ending Feb. 22 compared to the same period a year ago, according to market research firm Nielsen.
The alcohol-based gunk is convenient, but hand sanitizer isn't the best way to clean your hands. For that, soap and water still reigns supreme, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency recommends first washing hands with warm or cold water and then lathering soap for 20 seconds to get it on the backs of hands, between fingers and under finger nails before rinsing off.
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Imprisoned for life as a teen, Myon Burrell finds his voice
BAYPORT, Minn. (AP) — When he was just a teenager, Myon Burrell lost his identity, his voice and even his name.
For much of the past 17 years, he has been trying to understand how it all happened. He walked into a police interrogation room, not knowing why he was there. By the time he left, the state of Minnesota had turned him into a number -- inmate 211839.
Sentenced to life after a young black girl was killed by a stray bullet, Burrell’s story has been told -- and told again -- by Sen. Amy Klobuchar while trumpeting her tough-on-crime record as a top Minneapolis prosecutor. But a yearlong Associated Press investigation discovered major flaws and inconsistencies in the case, raising questions about whether the 16-year-old shooting suspect may have been wrongly convicted.
On Sunday, Klobuchar cancelled a presidential rally in her home state two days before the Democratic primary election there after dozens of protesters waved signs and shouted “Free Myon!” Less than 24 hours later, she dropped out of the presidential race, saying she was throwing her support behind former Vice President Joe Biden.
Klobuchar, who has brought up the little girl as an example of her commitment to racial justice, has faced regular grilling by the African American community and the national media since the AP in January published its story about Burrell, who also is black. During the Democratic debate in New Hampshire, she repeated a well-worn statement that she has called for a review of Burrell’s case, which weighed heavily on a single eyewitness, who gave conflicting accounts about the shooter. But her successor at the county attorney’s office, Mike Freeman, doubled down last week, releasing a statement expressing confidence they got the right guy.