December 10, 2019 4:15 pm
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – A report from a national watchdog group says a cut to the tax that coal companies pay to fund a trust for sick miners will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The Washington-based group Taxpayers for Common Sense released a report that says the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund’s debt could be at least $15 billion by 2050. The excise tax on mined coal expired at the beginning of 2019 due to inaction by Congress. That led to a reduction in the amount coal companies pay into the fund. The fund pays benefits and medical bills for miners diagnosed with black lung disease.
December 10, 2019 2:56 pm
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) – A police officer and multiple others have been killed in a shooting in Jersey City that authorities say is not believed to have been a terrorism attack. Mayor Steven Fulop says one officer was pronounced dead at a hospital and multiple other people were found dead at the scene. He says a second officer was struck in the shoulder by gunfire, and two others were injured by shrapnel. A statement from the Archdiocese of Newark says the nearby Sacred Heart School was put on lockdown, but all staff and students were safe. SWAT teams, state police and federal agents responded to the scene. (Photo: AP)
December 10, 2019 12:44 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence has made another trip to the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania this year, this time in a campaign swing. Pence appeared Tuesday in Rochester, near Pittsburgh, to speak to a Veterans for Trump group before joining the president later in the day at a campaign rally at the Giant Center in Hershey. Pence has already made three trips to Pennsylvania this year to visit manufacturers and make the case for Congress to pass the Trump administration’s rewrite of a trade pact with Canada and Mexico. Tonight’s rally is Trump’s fourth visit to Pennsylvania this year. (Photo: WPXI)
December 10, 2019 10:57 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced agreement on a modified North American trade pact, handing President Donald Trump a major Capitol Hill win. This comes on the same day that Democrats announced their impeachment charges against the president. Just before Pelosi announced her support, Trump said the revamped U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will “be great” for the U.S. Pelosi says the revamped U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is a significant improvement over the original North American Free Trade Agreement. In Mexico City, Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said that there would be a meeting of the three countries’ negotiating teams Tuesday “to announce the advances achieved” on the trade agreement.
December 10, 2019 8:48 am
STOCKHOLM (AP) – Marie Fredriksson, the female half of the Swedish pop duo Roxette, has died at age 61. The singer’s management agency said Tuesday that Fredriksson died a day earlier “of the consequences of a long illness.” Fredriksson formed Roxette with Per Gessle in 1986. The two went on to achieve international success in the late 1980s and 1990s, including with the songs “The Look” and “It Must Have Been Love.” Fredriksson had aggressive radiation treatment after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2002 and was left with long-term health problems.
December 10, 2019 4:10 am
WHAKATANE, New Zealand (AP) – Police say a person injured in a volcanic eruption in New Zealand has died in an Auckland hospital, bringing the death toll to six. About 30 people remain hospitalized after Monday’s eruption, many of them suffering severe burns. Authorities believe another eight bodies remain on White Island but they say it’s too dangerous to recover them. Survivors of a powerful volcanic eruption in New Zealand ran into the sea to escape the scalding steam and ash and emerged covered in burns, say those who first helped them.
December 10, 2019 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department’s internal watchdog has declared that the FBI was justified in opening its investigation into ties between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia. President Donald Trump has insisted he was merely the target of a “witch hunt,”” but the inspector general’s report undercuts that claim. The report on Monday does identify “serious performance failures” up the bureau’s chain of command. But it rules out political bias in the decision to investigate Trump’s campaign. Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, quickly rejected the main conclusions by his inspector general, who was in place when Barr was appointed by the president.
December 10, 2019 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House Judiciary Committee is expected to debate and vote on the two articles of impeachment later this week. The articles, one charging President Donald Trump with abuse of power and the other charging him with obstruction of Congress, would be considered separately. The committee’s vote would send the impeachment articles to the House floor for a vote by Christmas. Next would come a Senate trial, likely in 2020. Senators would act as jurors and select House members to act as prosecutors, or impeachment managers. If the Senate approves an article of impeachment with a two-thirds vote of “guilty,” the president is convicted and removed from office. If articles are rejected, the president is acquitted
December 10, 2019 4:04 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania county would lose out on millions of dollars in aid and almost certainly be sued if it refuses to buy new voting machines before Dec. 31. Dauphin County Commissioner Mike Pries said Monday that was the message delivered to him by Gov. Tom Wolf’s top elections officials last week. As a result, Pries said he’s decided to vote to buy new voting machines. Dauphin County signaled last month that it might defy Wolf’s insistence that counties buy new voting systems as a security measure in 2020’s election. Pries had said he was comfortable with the county’s old machines.
December 10, 2019 4:02 am
Peters Township Residents will likely see less congestion at intersections on E. McMurray Road. Peters Township was awarded a Green-Light-Go Grant from PennDot. The intersection of Valleybrook Road and E. McMurray Road will be getting signal upgrades that include radar detection. Turning lanes on E. McMurray at that intersection will also be lengthened and widened. At Center Church Road and E. McMurray Road, the traffic signal controller will be upgraded to include radio communication to Valleybrook Road and at the new Rolling Hills Drive intersection. The grant covers 75% of the project cost. Council awarded the bid to Traffic Control and Engineering Company, Inc for $96,687 for traffic control signals.
