July 9, 2022 4:37 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has vetoed bills passed by the Legislature regarding transgender athletes in school sports, out-of-county poll watchers and how human services are provided. The vetoes made Friday complicate the state budget package. The Democratic governor had said he would strike down the effort to ban transgender athletes from competing in sports that align with their gender identity. He’s also striking down a bill sponsored by Franklin County Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor, that would have permitted all registered voters of Pennsylvania to be poll watchers in any precinct in the state.
July 9, 2022 1:47 am
The annual Whiskey Rebellion Festival is underway at the Community pavilion on South Main Street in downtown Washington. Festival goers will enjoy music, food and re-enactments. Saturday is the big day with plenty of food, music and live theater. The action Saturday kicks off with a parade along South Main Street starting at 10:30 a.m. There will also be activities at the Bradford House on South Main Street and the LeMoyne House on Maiden Street. Tours of the Washington County Courthouse will also be available. The main musical act this year is Jakob Ferry Stragglers. Music at the Main Stage starts at 12:30 p.m.
July 9, 2022 1:17 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – State lawmakers are overwhelmingly approving the main Pennsylvania state budget bill more than a week after it was due. The plan sent to Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday was fattened by federal stimulus cash and unusually robust state tax collections. Big winners include public schools, environmental programs and long-term care facilities. But the budget is also leaving some $5 billion in the state’s rainy day fund and is projected to create a multibillion-dollar cushion for next year. There’s also a cut in the tax on corporate net income. A spokesperson for the Democratic governor says he’ll sign it.
July 8, 2022 2:57 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) – An actor best known for the 1960s TV Western spoof “F Troop” has died. Larry Storch, who played Corporal Agarn, died early Friday. His manager says the actor died of natural causes. “F Troop” lasted only two seasons on ABC, from 1965 to 1967, but it became a cult favorite in reruns. While “F Troop” brought him lasting fame, Storch appeared in scores of films and TV shows before and after the series. He also enjoyed a long career in theater and as a comic at resorts in New York State’s Catskill Mountains area. Larry Storch was 99.
July 8, 2022 8:41 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – America’s employers shrugged off high inflation and weakening growth to add 372,000 jobs in June, a surprisingly strong gain that will likely spur the Federal Reserve to keep sharply raising interest rates to cool the economy and slow price increases. The past year’s streak of robust hiring has been good for job seekers and has led to higher pay for many employees. But it has also helped fuel the highest inflation in four decades and heightened pressure on the Fed to further slow borrowing and spending. The unemployment rate remained at 3.6% for a fourth straight month, matching a near-50-year low that was reached before the pandemic struck in early 2020.
July 8, 2022 4:25 am
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (AP) – Mourners plan to remember three of the seven people killed when a gunman opened fire on a July 4 parade at services. Friday’s scheduled events are the first formal opportunity to grieve the deaths of two beloved grandfathers and a former synagogue preschool teacher shot Monday during the annual event in the northern Chicago suburb of Highland Park. Services are scheduled for 63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim, 88-year-old Stephen Straus and 78-year-old Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza through Friday. Robert E. Crimo III, the accused 21-year-old gunman, was charged Wednesday with murdering seven people. Prosecutors have said they expect to bring attempted murder charges for each of the more than 30 people wounded in the attack on parade-goers.
July 8, 2022 4:24 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows an upheaval in priorities just months before critical midterm elections. Concerns about inflation and personal finances have surged while COVID has evaporated as a top issue for Americans. Many U.S. adults also prioritize other issues, including abortion, women’s rights and gun policy. In a troubling sign for both parties, the poll finds many Americans say they think neither side of the aisle is better at focusing on the issues important to them or getting things done.
July 8, 2022 4:23 am
NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) – Deeply divided top diplomats from the world’s richest and largest developing nations struggled to find common ground over Russia’s war in Ukraine and its global impacts. Talks were knocked off balance by two unrelated and unexpected political developments far from the Indonesian resort of Bali where they were meeting. Foreign ministers from the Group of 20 heard an emotional plea for unity from their Indonesian host. Yet, consensus appeared to remain elusive amid deepening East-West splits driven by China and Russia on one side and the United States and Europe on the other. The meeting opened only hours after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned and was just underway when former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot. Both men are well known to the G-20 family.
July 8, 2022 4:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden will take executive action to protect access to abortion, according to three people familiar with the matter, as he faces mounting pressure from Democrats to be more forceful on the subject after the Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to the procedure two weeks ago. He is expected to formalize instructions to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to push back on efforts to limit the ability of women to access federally approved abortion medication or to travel across state lines to access clinical abortion services. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Biden’s actions before they were officially announced.
July 8, 2022 4:21 am
NARA, Japan (AP) – Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated on a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech. The attack stunned the nation that has some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere. The 67-year-old Abe, who was Japan’s longest-serving leader when he resigned in 2020, collapsed bleeding and was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead from major damage to his heart and two neck wounds. Police arrested the suspected gunman at the scene and identified him as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, a former member of Japan’s navy.
