July 30, 2019 3:40 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Pfizer is buying Mylan in an all-stock deal and combining the $10 billion generic pharmaceutical company with its own off-patent branded and generic business. The Pfizer business, called Upjohn, makes Lipitor, Celebrex and Viagra. Mylan, based just outside of Pittsburgh, is best known for its EpiPen, an injector used to halt life-threatening allergic reactions. Pfizer Inc. shareholders will own 57% of the combined new company and Mylan shareholders will own 43%. The deal Monday arrives at a precarious time for big drug makers who are threatened by patent protection losses and lower-priced rivals. The new company will be incorporated in Delaware and run operations in Pittsburgh, Shanghai and Hyderabad, India. The combination is expected to close in the middle of next year.
July 29, 2019 5:59 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf is warning that food stamp benefits for about 200,000 people are jeopardized by a Trump administration move to stop allowing states to exceed federal income eligibility thresholds. Wolf said Monday that such a change would primarily affect the elderly, the disabled and lower-income families. He also says it’ll result in fewer school lunches. In Pennsylvania, more than 1.7 million people are in the food stamp program, called the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP. Current federal guidelines forbid people who make more than 130% of the poverty level from getting food stamps. But most states bypass the limits under a federal policy that allows people who receive benefits through other government programs to automatically qualify for SNAP. The Trump administration seeks to end that policy.
July 29, 2019 5:55 pm
NAGS HEAD, N.C. (AP) – Police say a 6-year-old boy from Pennsylvania has drowned in a swimming pool at a home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. According to Nags Head police, emergency responders went to a home on South Virginia Dare Trail at around 5:25 p.m. on Sunday. A statement from police says family members performed CPR on the boy after he was found unresponsive in the pool, but he was pronounced dead at Outer Banks Hospital. A news release says the incident is under investigation. Police have not released any identities.
July 29, 2019 2:48 pm
The Washington County Chamber of Commerce and the Southpointe CEO Association sponsored a panel discussion featuring the Grow America’s Infrastructure Now Coalition. The group advocates the construction of underground pipelines to transport natural gas to areas of the country that would use the gas or to deliver it to facilities to ship elsewhere in the United States or overseas. GAIN Strategic Advisor Brigham McCown spoke to the safety advantages of pipeline delivery. GAIN Spokesperson Craig Stevens expressed the need to communicate effectively the needs and efficiencies of underground pipelines. Also on the panel, former Chester County state Senator Earl Baker described how the Mariner Pipeline running across Pennsylvania can provide a dual purpose solution for immediate needs for people in Johnstown and also delivery to export facilities in Marcus Hook, PA. Locally, state Senator Camera Bartolotta expressed the needs of this infrastructure investment so that possible ethane storage facilities currently under study in Greene County may come about. Information about pipeline infrastructure construction may be found at www.gainnow.org.
July 29, 2019 10:35 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has signed a bill ensuring that a victims’ compensation fund related to the Sept. 11 attacks never runs out of money. Appearing in the Rose Garden on Monday with first responders from the 2001 terrorist attacks, Trump approved a bill extending the fund through 2092, essentially making it permanent. The $7.4 billion fund had been rapidly depleting, and administrators recently cut benefit payments by up to 70%. The bill passed Congress on a bipartisan basis but only after delays by some Republicans that exposed the legislative branch to withering criticism from activists, including comedian Jon Stewart. More than 40,000 people have applied to the fund, which covers illnesses potentially related to being at the World Trade Center site, the Pentagon or Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after the attacks.
July 29, 2019 10:16 am
CONNOQUENESSING, Pa. (AP) – State police say a deer struck by a car in western Pennsylvania went airborne and through the windshield of an SUV, killing an Ohio man driving the SUV. The crash occurred late Sunday afternoon on Route 68 in Connoquenessing. Authorities say 53-year-old Anthony McCoppin, of Blawnox, was driving eastbound when he hit the deer. The animal went airborne, directly into the path of the westbound SUV driven by 73-year-old Michael Modjallal, 73, of Akron, Ohio. He was killed and his passenger was hurt
July 29, 2019 9:20 am
NEW YORK (AP) – A mother is defending her husband in the deaths of infant twins he left in a hot car in New York City while working an eight-hour shift. Marissa Rodriguez says her husband, Juan Rodriguez, is a good person and would never have hurt the children intentionally. She said in a statement to NBC New York that she is “hurting more than I ever imagined possible.” She said her husband “will never forgive himself for this mistake.” Juan Rodriguez is charged with two counts each of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Police said he discovered the twins, Phoenix and Luna Rodriguez, on Friday after finishing work at a Bronx hospital. He told authorities he thought he had dropped them off at a day care before starting his shift.
July 29, 2019 4:33 am
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) – Police in Medford, Oregon, say Montana authorities have found a body believed to be that of a missing Oregon child. Montana police were searching for 2-year-old Aiden Salcido, the son of Daniel Salcido and Hannah Janiak. The boy’s parents were found dead Wednesday in Kalispell, Montana, after police stopped them following a chase because they had felony burglary warrants for their arrest. Medford police say a dead 2-year-old believed to be Aiden was found in a remote area of Montana. The body was found in the same area that Janiak and Salcido were seen several days earlier. Medford police say witnesses called in tips after seeing the story on the news and were instrumental in helping to locate a remote camp believed to have been occupied by the family.
July 29, 2019 4:31 am
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – The woman who is supposed to replace Puerto Rico’s embattled governor amid a political crisis says she doesn’t want the job. Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez said Sunday in a Twitter post that she hopes Gov. Ricardo Rosselló will appoint a secretary of state before resigning Aug. 2 as planned. Former secretary of state Luis Rivera Marín would have been next in line according to the U.S. territory’s Constitution. But he is one of more than a dozen officials who have resigned since someone leaked an obscenity-laced chat in which Rosselló and close advisers insulted people including women and victims of Hurricane Maria. Vázquez, who is next in line, said she has told Rosselló about her wishes. Her comments come as Puerto Ricans also demand her ouster amid the political crisis.
July 29, 2019 4:30 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Facing growing accusations of racism for his incendiary tweets, President Donald Trump is seeking to deflect the criticism by labeling a leading black congressman as himself racist. In the latest rhetorical shot at non-white lawmakers, Trump said Sunday that his weekend comments referring to Rep. Elijah Cummings’ majority-black Baltimore district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live” were not racist. Instead, Trump argued, “if racist Elijah Cummings would focus more of his energy on helping the good people of his district, and Baltimore itself, perhaps progress could be made in fixing the mess.” His comments capped a weekend of attacks on Cummings, the son of former sharecroppers who rose to become the powerful chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
