June 15, 2021 4:11 am
BRUSSELS (AP) – President Joe Biden turns his attention to the European Union on Tuesday when he meets with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The U.S. president has sought to gather support for a more unified approach to Russia prior to his Wednesday summit with President Vladimir Putin. But the U.S.-EU relationship is not without tension. Biden will meet with European Union officials at a moment when the continent’s leaders are becoming impatient that the American president has not yet addressed his predecessor Donald Trump’s 2018 decision to impose import taxes on foreign steel and aluminum.
June 15, 2021 4:09 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s Legislature are looking to voter referendums to get around Gov. Tom Wolf and make policy that the Democrat cannot block with his veto pen. Republicans have newly unveiled a proposed constitutional amendment to expand Pennsylvania’s existing voter identification requirements. Republicans also plan to introduce another proposal to repeal Pennsylvania’s expansive mail-in voting law. Wolf has vowed to oppose both, seeing them as attacks on voting access. Democrats see Republicans as being emboldened by last month’s voter approvals of two Republican-penned proposals to expand lawmakers’ powers over a governor’s disaster emergency declarations. However, using a constitutional amendment to change the law is unusual, law professors say.
June 15, 2021 4:07 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s counties and municipal governments will see the lowest level of annual fee revenue they get from Marcellus Shale gas wells, as drilling slowed and prices sank during the pandemic. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said Monday that impact fee revenue from Marcellus Shale wells sank to $146 million from drilling activity in 2020, down $54 million from the year before. Lawmakers authorized the fee in 2012. But the average price of natural gas in 2020 was $2.08 per unit, down from $2.63 in 2019. Pennsylvania also saw the fewest number of new wells drilled than in any year since the law was enacted.
June 15, 2021 3:28 am
Pennsylvania State Police were called out Sunday afternoon around four-thirty to a home at 1015 Arch Street in Washington. Troopers say they received information that a seventeen-year-old male who is wanted by police and Washington County Juvenile Probation for a firearms and probation violation and a flight to avoid apprehension arrest warrant, was hiding inside the home. Police say that because of the juvenile’s violent criminal history and recent pictures with firearms, the Pennsylvania State Police Special Emergency Response Team was called to clear the residence. Police say that after searching the home, the juvenile was not found.
June 15, 2021 3:27 am
Council members in Peters Township approved a proposal Monday night, authorizing township officials to execute a recycling grant agreement. This agreement, between the municipality and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, allows for the purchase of new recycling containers and equipment. This includes two bins for glass, two bins for cardboard, alongside remote monitoring for each receptacle. Glass containers will be procured from Pennsylvania Resources Council, who provided the township with one glass recycling bin in 2019. That particular recycling bin will be reclaimed by the PRC and then distributed to another municipality as the two new ones replace it. Additionally, the cardboard compacting bins will be leased from Waste Management. Township manager Paul Lauer noted the financial benefits of purchasing these new containers. “It will reduce operating costs to be able to continue to offer board and glass recycling”, Lauer said. Although the approximate cost of this project is 57,000, the state will be covering 90% of it through its reimbursement for the township’s recently bought residential recycling containers.
June 14, 2021 4:57 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Ned Beatty, the Oscar-nominated character actor who in half a century of American movies, including “Deliverance,” “Network” and “Superman,” was a booming, indelible presence in even the smallest parts, has died. He was 83. Beatty’s manager, Deborah Miller, said he died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by friends and loved ones. After years in regional theater, Beatty was cast in “Deliverance” as Bobby Trippe, the happy-go-lucky member of a male river-boating party terrorized by backwoods thugs. The scene in which Trippe is brutalized became the most memorable in the movie and established Beatty as an actor whose name moviegoers may not have known but whose face they always recognized.
June 14, 2021 4:31 am
BRUSSELS (AP) – NATO leaders have declared that China poses a constant security challenge and is working to undermine global order. And they say they’re worried about how fast the Chinese are developing nuclear missiles. It’s a summit message in Brussels on Monday in sync with President Joe Biden’s efforts to get allies to speak out with a more unified voice against China’s trade, military and human rights practices. Biden, meanwhile, reaffirmed America’s commitment to the NATO alliance that has been beleaguered during the presidency of Donald Trump.
June 14, 2021 4:30 am
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Vermont became the first state in the country to vaccinate at least 80% of the eligible population, prompting Gov. Phil Scott to lift all remaining state COVID-19 restrictions. Vermont crossed the threshold on Sunday when the state vaccinated 1,151 people, reaching a level of 80.2% of those over age 12. The goal was reached 464 days after Scott declared the state of emergency on March 13, 2020. The state has now vaccinated 81.1% of the population over 18, exceeding President Biden’s goal of 70% of those 18 and older.
June 14, 2021 4:29 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department will tighten its rules around obtaining records from members of Congress. The news comes amid revelations the department under former President Donald Trump had secretly seized records from Democrats and members of the media and amid the news that the Justice Department’s top national security official is resigning. John Demers will leave his position by the end of next week. That’s according to a Justice Department official who spoke Monday to The Associated Press. The resignation comes amid questions about what Demers knew about the Justice Department’s efforts to confiscate phone data from House Democrats and reporters as part of the aggressive investigations into leaks.
June 14, 2021 4:28 am
JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel has a new prime minister for the first time in 12 years after Naftali Bennett secured the backing of parliament and ousted longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The two were slated to hold a handover meeting on Monday, but without the formal ceremony that traditionally accompanies a change in government. The new government was sworn in late on Sunday and set to work on Monday morning, with ministers announcing appointments of new ministry directors. A Netanyahu aide said the former prime minister was “full of motivation” as he assumes a role in the opposition “to topple this dangerous government as soon as possible.”
