June 12, 2020 1:55 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s most active shale gas driller has pleaded no contest to environmental crimes over its handling of contamination at a pair of well sites. The state attorney general’s office announced Friday that Range Resources Corp. pleaded no contest in Washington County Court to seven misdemeanor counts. As part of its plea, the Fort Worth, Texas-based company will pay $50,000 in fines and make $100,000 in charitable contributions to a pair of watershed groups. Range has drilled more than 1,500 unconventional gas wells in Pennsylvania. It says it’s taken responsibility for the contamination and has improved its operations.
June 12, 2020 4:51 am
It’s now official; there will be no Washington County Agricultural Fair in 2020. The board made the decision Thursday. In a post on its Facebook page, President Todd Richards said “This decision was not made lightly but considering the Covid-19 pandemic concerns and the safety of our many stakeholders we believe it is the right decision.” Last week, the board announced that it wanted more time to make its decision. Both the Greene County and West Alexander fairs announced last week that they were cancelling for 2020. The fair board did vote and approve a resolution to preserve the Junior Livestock Market Competition. A committee will be formed and will immediately begin to work on a plan to conduct the competition during the fair dates of August 15 to 22nd. Detailed competition plans will be announced as soon as they are complete.
June 12, 2020 4:07 am
DALLAS (AP) – President Donald Trump says he will pursue an executive order to encourage police departments to meet “the most current professional standards for the use of force.” He is also accusing Democrats of broadly branding police as the problem. Trump is defending his calls on governors and mayors to aggressively quell violent protests, boasting that, “We’re dominating the street with compassion.” The president offered few details about the yet-to-be-formalized order during a discussion on race relations and policing before a friendly audience in Dallas, but it amounts to his first concrete proposal for police reform in response to the national outcry following the death of George Floyd.
June 12, 2020 4:05 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Authorities say a gunman believed to have wounded a central California sheriff’s deputy and targeted others in a series of attacks has been killed in a confrontation with police. Twenty-six-year-old Mason James Lira died Thursday afternoon in Paso Robles. Lira had been sought since he seriously injured a San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputy and killed a transient man Wednesday. Officials say three other law enforcement officers were wounded Thursday in several confrontations before he was killed but all are expected to recover. Lira’s father says his son had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and did not take his medication.
June 12, 2020 4:04 am
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Black community and political leaders are calling on President Donald Trump to change the date or place of a campaign rally scheduled for Juneteenth in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They are denouncing his plans for a rally on the day that marks the end of slavery in America and in a place that in 1921 was the site of a fiery and orchestrated white-on-black attack. Tulsa community leader Sherry Gamble Smith calls it a “slap in the face.” Trump campaign officials discussed in advance the possible reaction to the Juneteenth date, but there are no plans to change it despite fierce blowback.
June 12, 2020 4:03 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea is again vowing to build up its military force to counter what it perceives as U.S. threats. The country’s foreign minister says there would be little reason to maintain a personal relationship between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump if Washington persists with sanctions and pressure. He spoke on the second anniversary of the first-ever summit between leaders of the two countries. Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said North Korea would never again gift Trump with high-profile meetings and concessions he could boast as achievements unless it gets something substantial in return.
June 12, 2020 4:02 am
ATLANTA (AP) – Political leaders and election experts are concerned about the strength of the U.S. voting system ahead of the November presidential contest. With less than five months to go, fears are mounting that several battleground states are not prepared to administer problem-free elections under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s because of long lines disproportionately affecting voters of color in places with a history of voter suppression, a dramatic shortage of poll workers scared away by the coronavirus and an emerging consensus that it could take several days to determine a winner because of an increase in mail voting.
June 12, 2020 3:58 am
An investigation is underway into the death of a trucker after his rig crashed at a construction site on Interstate 70 east at the South Junction to Interstate 79 in South Strabane Township.
Authorities say fifty-nine-year-old Phillip Keesling of Indiana died after his tractor-trailer failed to round a left curve at exit 21 just after one o’clock Friday morning. The truck crashed through a sign, into the construction zone and then slammed into a metal pole before traveling over an overpass sidewalk and overturning. A section of the roadway was closed for several hours. (Photo: WPXI)
June 12, 2020 2:22 am
Harness racing is returning to the Meadows Racetrack and Casino. The State Health Department on Wednesday approved the facilities mitigation plan related to the coronavirus. Kim Hankins, the Executive Director of the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association says they are working towards a draw and the return of racing on Monday. According to Hankins, three months without racing has been a “hardship”. He says they have been “training horses for three months without any income” and they are “very elated to be back to racing”. Hankins says it will be recommended that everyone on the backstretch wear a mask, especially in the paddock. Drivers do not have to wear a mask on the track. As for limitations on spectators, he says that is still be formulated by casino management.
June 11, 2020 5:30 pm
(AP) – The Dow Jones industrials lost more than 1,800 points, nearly 7%, as increases in coronavirus cases deflated optimism that the economy could recover quickly from its worst crisis in decades. The pullback Thursday comes after the market has been screeching higher for more than two months at a pace that many skeptics say was overdone and didn’t reflect the dire state of the economy. A day earlier, the Federal Reserve said the road back to recovery would be long. Bond yields fell sharply, a sign of increasing caution among investors. Crude oil prices sank 8%.
