July 12, 2024 4:49 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania lawmakers have approving legislation aimed at helping the nation’s No. 2 natural gas-producing state attract carbon capture projects and enable federally-funded hydrogen hubs. The Republican-penned bill passed Thursday authorizes the Department of Environmental Protection to write regulations to oversee underground wells that store carbon dioxide. It’s a critical component of carbon capture technology that supporters envision as a way to slow climate change. The bill passed the House and Senate and was sent to Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk. Skeptics say carbon capture has been oversold as a climate change solution and merely will spawn pipelines and extend the life of a fossil fuel industry that burns oil, coal and natural gas.
July 12, 2024 4:48 am
A motion to approve the sale of the Crossroads parking garage passed during Washington city’s monthly council meeting Thursday night. The step clears the next hurdle in the possible sale of the structure to the County. The city is looking to off-load the 17 year old garage as a cost saving measure. The garage has been losing money since it opened in 2007. The county commissioners would like to purchase the property for county employees to use since they will be forced out of Courthouse Square once plans to build a new public safety complex are complete. The motion passed pursuant to negotiations and a review by the city solicitor. The Washington School District will also need to sign off on the deal since they have a minority stake in the garage. Details of the sale have not been finalized.
July 12, 2024 4:45 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania lawmakers have passed a budget deal that took nearly two weeks into the new fiscal year to reach. The $47.6 billion plan approved Thursday represents a 6% increase. Most of the new money is going toward public schools and human services to boost pay for direct care workers. The votes in the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House came within hours of rank-and-file lawmakers getting their first look at hundreds of pages of budget-related legislation. Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the main spending bill late Thursday night. The plan doesn’t increase sales or income tax rates and requires $3 billion in surplus cash to balance. Shapiro had initially sought a 7% increase.
July 12, 2024 3:40 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump will have one last chance Saturday to dramatically unveil his vice presidential pick on a rally stage before the Republican National Convention kicks off next week. Trump’s rally in western Pennsylvania, at the Butler Farm Show just outside Pittsburgh, comes as the former reality TV star and tabloid hound continues to tease his pick for maximum attention. But Trump has made clear in recent days that his preference is to dramatically reveal his pick live at the convention — something the ratings-obsessed former president has said would make the proceedings more “interesting” and “exciting.”
July 12, 2024 2:28 am
(AP) – Shelley Duvall, the intrepid, Texas-born movie star whose wide-eyed, winsome presence was a mainstay in the films of Robert Altman and who co-starred in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” has died. She was 75. Duvall died Thursday in her sleep at her home in Blanco, Texas, her longtime partner, Dan Gilroy, announced. The cause was complications of diabetes, said her friend, the publicist Gary Springer. “My dear, sweet, wonderful life, partner, and friend left us last night,” Gilroy said in a statement. “Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away beautiful Shelley.” Duvall was attending junior college in Texas when Altman’s crew members, preparing to film “Brewster McCloud,” encountered her as at a party in Houston in 1970. They introduced her to the director, who cast her “Brewster McCloud” and made her his protege. Duvall would go on to appear in Altman films including “Thieves Like Us,” “Nashville, “Popeye,” “Three Women” and “McCabe & Ms. Miller.” (Photo: AP)
July 11, 2024 5:39 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania lawmakers are grinding through votes to finalize a budget deal that took nearly two weeks into the new fiscal year to reach. The $47.6 billion plan under consideration Thursday represents a 6% increase. Most of the new money is going toward public schools, services for adults with intellectual disabilities and nursing home care for the poor. Hundreds of pages of budget-related legislation are just becoming public and could reach Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk by late Thursday. The plan doesn’t increase sales or income tax rates. It will require some of the state’s surplus cash to balance. Shapiro had initially sought a 7% increase.
July 11, 2024 2:37 pm
Day two of testimony in the murder trial of North Strabane Township physical therapist Scott Edmonds continued much the same way as day one. The prosecution called 4 expert witnesses and a police officer to testify. Blood evidence, fingerprint and toxicology experts began the day. The afternoon began with a North Strabane Township police detective testifying to his findings and preliminary interview with Scott Edmonds when he arrived at the scene. The prosecution ended the day with the testimony of a forensic pathologist that reviewed autopsy results and other forensic evidence indicating that suicide was highly unlikely and that from the path traveled by the fatal bullet from the back of Weis-Edmonds head to where the bullet lodged in the front of her head, homicide was the true manner of death. Testimony will continue at 9:30 AM on Friday.
July 11, 2024 7:49 am
Freedom Transit has landed a $15 million federal grant for its new bus storage and maintenence facility. Wednesday’s announcement is part of approximately $1.5 billion in funding to support 117 projects that will improve public transportation in 47 states. Freedom Transit says the new facility will enhance their ability “to efficiently maintain its buses, strengthen service reliability, and meet safety standards.” They will also convert part of its fleet to Compressed Natural Gas to support its green bus fleet in the future. Back in 2022, Freedom Transit purchased 12 acres of property off of Berry Road in South Strabane Township for $3.2 million. It will serve as the site of the more than $50 million facility. At 88,000 square feet, it will include indoor storage for 80 vehicles, six maintenence bays, a mechanical bus wash, fueling stations and office space for dispatch, operations and staff training. Demolition of the current buildings on that site is planned for this fall with construction of the new facility to begin next year with completion expected in 2026.
July 11, 2024 5:11 am
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Prosecutors sought to cast Alec Baldwin as someone who flouts rules and has little regard for safety at the first day of his New Mexico trial in the shooting of a cinematographer. Special prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson repeatedly referred to Baldwin playing “make-believe” with a revolver on the set of the film “Rust.” She said it led to very real danger and the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin’s attorney, Alex Spiro, told jurors that the actor did only what actors always do — act like the characters they’re playing. He called the death an “unspeakable tragedy,” but said Baldwin had committed no crime.
July 11, 2024 5:10 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities in Western states are warning of the rising risk of wildfires as hot conditions and low humidity dry out the landscape amid a protracted heat wave baking much of the U.S. California’s top fire official says so far this year the state has responded to more than 3,500 wildfires that have scorched nearly 325 square miles of vegetation. Blazes are also burning in Oregon, where the governor issued an emergency authorization allowing additional firefighting resources to be deployed. More than 142 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts Wednesday, especially across the West, where dozens of locations tied or broke heat records.
