PennDOT District 11 is announcing a single-lane restriction on southbound Route 65 in Baden will occur today, weather permitting. A single-lane restriction will occur from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. today on southbound Route 65 between Johnson Avenue and Logan Lane. Crews will conduct inspection and cleaning activities of the sanitary sewers.
President Donald Trump has done something remarkable in the government shutdown: He’s unified House Democrats behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It’s not even about the wall anymore. Democrats are sticking together to strengthen Pelosi’s hand and set a tone in the new Congress. They say if they give in to Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion to build the border wall with Mexico, what will he ask for next? The White House believes Democrats will begin feeling pressure to give in to Trump’s demand.
Robots aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of today’s work. Among those most likely to be affected: Chefs and others in food services, short-haul truck drivers and clerical office workers. That’s according to a Brookings Institution report that says about 36 million Americans hold jobs with tasks that can be mostly performed by machines using current technology.
A full year before the first round of presidential primary voting finds diversity already a hallmark of the field of possible Democratic contenders. Four of those who have either moved toward a campaign or declared their candidacy are women, and one of them is African-American. Another White House hopeful is Latino, and one is gay. The diversity is likely to expand in the coming weeks as other Democrats enter the race.
Two bills in the Senate would reopen federal agencies and pay 800,000 federal workers who are set to miss another paycheck in the partial government shutdown, but the bills are likely to fail Thursday. Democrats are offering to open agency doors for three weeks while bargainers seek a budget agreement. Republicans are offering to end the 34-day shutdown with $5.7 billion for President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall and a revamping of immigration laws.
President Donald Trump says he’ll postpone his State of the Union address until the partial government shutdown ends. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi served notice Wednesday that Trump wouldn’t be allowed to deliver the address to a joint session of Congress next week. Later, Trump tweeted that there’s, “no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber.”
WEATHER FORECAST FOR THURSDAY, JAN. 24TH, 2019
TODAY – SNOW THIS MORNING WILL TAPER OFF AND GIVE
WAY TO CLOUDY SKIES THIS AFTERNOON. SNOW
ACCUMULATIONS LESS THAN ONE INCH. HIGH – 34.
TONIGHT – CLOUDY. A FEW FLURRIES OR SNOW SHOWERS
POSSIBLE. LOW – 17.
FRIDAY – MORNING CLOUDS. AFTERNOON SUNSHINE. A
FEW FLURRIES OR SNOW SHOWERS POSSIBLE.
HIGH – 21.
SATURDAY – CLOUDY. A FEW FLURRIES OR SNOW SHOWERS
POSSIBLE. HIGH – 26.
SUNDAY – CLOUDY WITH SNOW SHOWERS BECOMING A
STEADY ACCUMULATING SNOW LATER ON.
ABOUT ONE INCH OF SNOW EXPECTED. HIGH
NEAR 30.
Larry Fitzgerald returning to Cardinals for 16th season
By BOB BAUM, AP Sports Writer
PHOENIX (AP) — That Hall of Fame slot will have to stay vacant for a while. Larry Fitzgerald isn’t ready to hang up the cleats just yet.
The receiver, whose career statistics rank among the best ever to play the game, has signed a one-year contract to return for a 16th season with the Arizona Cardinals.
“No player has meant more to this franchise or this community than Larry Fitzgerald,” team President Michael Bidwill said Wednesday in the news release announcing the signing.
Fitzgerald explained his decision in an Instagram post.
“A fire burned inside of me my rookie year,” he wrote, “a desire, over all else, to be great. To excel on the field. To impact the lives of others off of it. I’m grateful that the fire still burns just as bright today, and that this organization has let me chase that fire for well over a decade.”
Fitzgerald continued: “Nothing excites me more than continuing to chase greatness with everyone here on and off the field.”
Fitzgerald, who will be 36 before the next season begins, may have been enticed by the hiring of Kliff Kingsbury to replace the fired Steve Wilks. Kingsbury will bring his “air raid” offense from Texas Tech, where he coached for six seasons, and brought in veteran assistant coach Tom Clements to work with quarterback Josh Rosen, who had a rocky rookie season.
In recent years, State Farm Stadium rocked with chants of “Lar-ry! Lar-ry!” after one of his inevitable big plays. Probably no sports figure in Arizona has been as well-loved as No. 11.
Bidwill said in an interview with the team’s flagship radio station, 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station, that he believes Kingsbury’s hiring helped lure Fitzgerald back.
“I think they had a great conversation and he’s excited about focusing on the offense,” Bidwill said. “Obviously, he was very disappointed as all of us were in 2018. He bleeds Cardinal red. He wants to be part of getting this turned around. It’s exciting he was able to make a quick decision and get right to it.”
Arizona went 3-13 last season, the worst record in the NFL and matching the worst for the Cardinals since the franchise moved to the desert from St. Louis 30 years ago. The Cardinals finished last in the league in total offense, passing and rushing.
Consequently, it was a down year for Fitzgerald statistically, too. After three straight 100-catch seasons, Fitzgerald had 69 receptions for 734 yards and six touchdowns. He did, however, throw his first career TD pass, against the Rams in the next-to-last game of the season.
Fitzgerald has been remarkably durable in his career. He’s caught a pass in 227 consecutive games, the second-longest such streak in NFL history.
He passed more milestones last season.
With 16,279 yards receiving, Fitzgerald passed Hall of Famer Terrell Owens for second (behind Jerry Rice) on the NFL career list. With 1,303 career catches, he passed Rice for most receptions for one team in his career. By playing in the season finale at Seattle, Fitzgerald tied kicker Jim Bakken for most games by a Cardinal at 234.
Fitzgerald needs 23 catches to pass Antonio Gates into second (again behind Rice) in career receptions.
Drafted No. 3 overall by the Cardinals out of Pittsburgh in 2004, Fitzgerald has never indicated a desire to play anywhere else, despite the intermittent struggles of the team.
He’s caught passes from 19 quarterbacks during his time in Arizona, with the most memorable years coming when he was paired with Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer.
He’s been at his best in the postseason.
No one has matched his record of 942 yards receiving in his first nine playoff games. He has five 100-yard receiving games in the postseason, an NFL-best three of at least 150 yards.
At the news conference announcing his hiring, the 49-year-old Kingsbury was asked about trying to woo Fitzgerald back for another season.
“What a great role model, what a great leader to have on your team,” Kingsbury said at the time, “and I would be honored to work with him. He’s a guy I’ve admired from afar for a long time.”
Fitzgerald earned $11 million each of the past two years and this deal probably is about the same.
“I don’t want to push Larry, I want him to come to his own decision,” Bidwill said. “When he was ready . we did the deal. Was over at his house signing it on his kitchen table yesterday morning before he left town.”
It’s been a good month for Fitzgerald. Last week, while playing golf with former President Barack Obama, he hit a hole in one.
Now Fitzgerald, who shared the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year award with Eli Manning in 2016, will probably be off soon on one of his trademark trips to some faraway part of the world.
Most importantly for the Cardinals and their fans, he’ll be back when summer workouts begin.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Casey to back bill to fund government, not border wall
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania says he’ll vote against a bill reflecting President Donald Trump’s demand for border wall funding in exchange for temporary protections for some immigrants.
Casey, speaking Wednesday in suburban Harrisburg, said he supports a bill already passed by the Democratic-controlled House to reopen the government through Feb. 8. It doesn’t allow money for a border wall.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scheduled the two votes for Thursday, a day before some 800,000 federal workers could miss a second paycheck.
Casey says the first priority should be reopening the federal government.
He also says Trump should tell the truth about effective border security and that a border wall shouldn’t be confused with border security when most drugs and bad actors get in through ports of entry.
Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen delaying testimony to Congress
By MICHAEL BALSAMO, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, will not testify before a House committee next month as scheduled, his adviser said Wednesday, depriving Democrats for now of a prime opportunity to scrutinize Trump, his links to Russia and payments to buy the silence of a porn star.
Cohen indefinitely delayed his Feb. 7 appearance before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. He blamed threats from Trump and the president’s attorney-spokesman, Rudy Giuliani, and cited his own ongoing cooperation in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Cohen adviser Lanny Davis said the decision was made on advice of Cohen’s lawyers.
“This is a time where Mr. Cohen had to put his family and their safety first,” Davis said in a statement.
The statement did not detail the threats. But Trump and Giuliani have publicly urged the Justice Department to investigate Cohen’s father-in-law, insinuating he was part of some unspecific criminal activity. Trump, for example, told Fox News this month that Cohen “should give information maybe on his father-in-law, because that’s the one that people want to look at.”
Asked about the claim of a threat, Trump accused Cohen of lying.
“He’s only been threatened by the truth, and he doesn’t want to do that, probably for me or other of his clients,” Trump said at the White House. “He has other clients also, I assume, and he doesn’t want to tell the truth for me or other of his clients.”
Trump’s fixer-turned-foe is a central figure in Mueller’s investigation into possible coordination between Russia and Trump’s campaign. Cohen also played a pivotal role in buying the silence of a porn actress and a former Playboy Playmate who both alleged they had sex with Trump. The president has denied their claims.
Cohen pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance violations and other offenses connected to the payments. Federal prosecutors have said Trump directed Cohen to make the payments during the campaign.
Newly empowered Democrats wanted to make Cohen the first high-profile witness since they regained control of the House and have promised an aggressive effort to investigate the president. They have pledged to limit their questioning to avoid interfering with any investigations.
It is unclear how long Cohen is seeking to delay his testimony, but Cohen “looks forward to testifying at the appropriate time,” Davis said.
Cohen is scheduled to report to prison on March 6 to begin a three-year sentence.
Democrats have suggested they may subpoena Cohen to compel his testimony.
In a statement, the committee’s chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings, and Rep. Adam Schiff, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, said they understood the “completely legitimate concerns” Cohen raised about threats. But, they added, it “was never an option” for Cohen not to appear before Congress.
The committee has been in touch with Cohen and offered to work with law enforcement to enhance security measures to protect his family and is in touch with Cohen’s lawyers about when he would testify, they said.
“We will not let the president’s tactics prevent Congress from fulfilling our constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities,” the chairmen said in a statement. “This will not stop us from getting to the truth.”
In November, Cohen also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress. He admitted that he said negotiations over the development of a Trump-branded tower in Moscow had ended in January 2016 but had actually continued until at least June 2016, well into Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen has said he lied to be consistent with Trump’s “political messaging” and to minimize the public’s understanding of Trump’s ties with Russia.
Republicans, in their questioning at a Cohen hearing, probably would have seized on a disputed BuzzFeed News story that Trump instructed Cohen to lie before Congress.
The special counsel’s office issued a rare public statement after the story ran last week disputing elements of the article. BuzzFeed stands by the story and has asked for clarity from Mueller’s team.
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Associated Press writers Chad Day and Darlene Superville in Washington and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.