By MARC LEVY and MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf will not submit a new Republican-drawn map of Pennsylvania’s congressional districts to the state’s high court, saying Tuesday that it uses the same unconstitutionally partisan tactics as the 6-year-old boundaries struck down in a gerrymandering case.
Wolf’s move came six days before the deadline set by the Democratic-majority state Supreme Court to impose new boundaries for Pennsylvania’s 18 congressional districts. However, Wolf’s office did not immediately say whether he would submit his own map to the court, and he has not publicly released his own proposed map.
Redrawing the map of Pennsylvania districts could boost Democrats nationally in their quest to take control of the U.S. House, and leaves district boundaries up in the air barely three months before May’s primary election.
The governor said his office’s analysis of the plan put forward Friday night by leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature concluded that it was clearly designed to help their own candidates.
“There is basically no chance it wasn’t drawn in a way to benefit Republicans,” Wolf press secretary J.J. Abbott said.
The governor’s office retained a mathematician with an expertise in redistricting, Moon Duchin of Tufts University, to review the GOP-drawn map. In a one-page summary released Tuesday by the governor’s office, Duchin called the GOP’s revised plan “extremely, and unnecessarily, partisan.”
Republicans who drew the proposal said it adhered to the court’s line-drawing benchmarks, eliminating dozens of municipal and county divisions and creating more compact districts. It also kept nearly 70 percent of residents — and every incumbent congressman — in their old districts.
The governor was notifying lawmakers of his specific problems with the Republican leaders’ proposal, but is also leaving open the possibility of working with the Legislature to submit a consensus map by Monday’s deadline, Abbott said.
The court ruling Jan. 22 said a Republican-drawn map created in 2011 put partisan interests above other line-drawing criteria, giving GOP candidates an unfair edge.
In the three elections under that map, Republicans have maintained a 13-5 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation.
Pennsylvania is politically divided — Republican Donald Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania by less than 1 percentage point in the state. Democrats have more registered voters than Republicans, and hold the governorship and three elected statewide row offices, as well as the high court majority.

President Donald Trump returns to Beaver County later this month for a campaign rally. The President will be at the Ambridge Area Senior High School Gymnasium in Ambridge on Feb. 21. The event is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. According to Trump officials, this is his twentieth rally in Pennsylvania and fifth in the Pittsburgh area since June 2015.

THE HOPEWEL AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT ELEMENTARY SECRETARY HAS ANNOUNCED SHE WILL RETIRE. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO HAS THE STORY. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…

WEATHER FORECAST FOR TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH, 2018

TODAY – SUNSHINE THIS MORNING FOLLOWED BY CLOUDY
SKIES THIS AFTERNOON. HIGH – 43.

TONIGHT – CLOUDY SKIES DURING THE EVENING WITH
AREAS OF FOG DEVELOPING AFTER MIDNIGHT.
SLIGHT CHANCE OF A RAIN SHOWER. LOW – 36.

WEDNESDAY – FOGGY DURING THE MORNING HOURS
FOLLOWED BY OCCASIONAL SHOWERS IN
THE AFTERNOON. HIGH NEAR 50.

Markets Right Now: Stocks surge; Dow industrials gain 400
NEW YORK (AP) — The latest on developments in financial markets (all times local):
4 p.m.
Stocks are surging on Wall Street as the market claws back some of its massive losses from last week. The Dow Jones industrials climbed 400 points.
The gains Monday came after the market slumped into a ‘correction’ last week for the first time in two years.
Technology companies and banks, some of the biggest winners over the past year, rose up the most. Apple jumped 4 percent and Bank of America rose 2.6 percent.
Amazon rose 3.5 percent.
The Dow rose 410 points, or 1.7 percent, to 24,601. It was up as much as 574 points earlier.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500, which many index funds track, rose 36 points, or 1.4 percent, to 2,656. The Nasdaq composite gained 107 points, or 1.6 percent, to 6,981.
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2 p.m.
Stocks are surging on Wall Street as the market claws back some of its massive losses last week. The Dow Jones industrials were up more than 500 points.
The gains in afternoon trading Monday came after the market slumped into a ‘correction’ for the first time in two years last week.
Technology companies and banks, some of the biggest winners on the market over the past year, are up the most. European markets also rose.
The Dow was up 488 points, or 2 percent, to 24,678. It was up as much as 548 earlier.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500, which many index funds track, rose 43 points, or 1.7 percent, to 2,663. The Nasdaq composite gained 118 points, or 1.7 percent, to 6,992.
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11:45 a.m.
U.S. stocks are posting solid gains in midday trading as the market recovers from its worst week in two years.
Technology and industrial companies and retailers were leading the market higher Monday. Apple rose 3.3 percent, Boeing climbed 2.7 percent and Amazon also rose 2.7 percent.
European markets are also higher.
The market is coming off two weeks of steep losses that put stocks into a “correction” — a decline of 10 percent from a peak — for the first time in two years.
The Dow industrials were up 279 points, or 1.2 percent, to 24,471.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500, which many index funds track, rose 25 points, or 1 percent, to 2,645. The Nasdaq composite gained 87 points, or 1.3 percent, to 6,962.
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9:35 a.m.
Stocks are surging in early trading on Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones industrial average up as much as 300 points.
Technology companies and banks are posting some of the biggest gains Monday. Cisco Systems rose 2.9 percent and Citigroup climbed 2 percent.
The market is coming off a turbulent week that left major indexes with their biggest weekly losses in two years.
The Dow industrials were up 270 points, or 1.1 percent, to 24,461.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500, which many index funds track, rose 30 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,648. The Nasdaq composite gained 74 points, or 1.1 percent, to 6,948.
Bond prices didn’t move much. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at 2.86 percent.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a man shot by a Pittsburgh police officer after officials allege he and another officer were fired upon over the weekend.
Allegheny County police said two Pittsburgh officers on foot patrol in the Homewood neighborhood shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday were fired upon by a man who emerged from behind a building. An officer returned fire then and when they found the suspect again.
Officials said the officers followed a blood trail with a police dog and found the suspect bleeding behind a home. They began CPR, but he died at a hospital. The county medical examiner’s office identified him Monday as 39-year-old Mark Daniels.
Police said a 40 caliber semi-automatic pistol was recovered and is being tested. The officers weren’t wearing body cameras.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The city of Pittsburgh is getting out of a state program that helps financially distressed governments.
The Wolf administration said Monday that improving finances mean Pittsburgh no longer qualifies, becoming the second city and 14th municipality in the state to emerge from distressed status.
Pittsburgh was plagued by debt, pension demands and budget problems when it entered into the Municipalities Financial Recovery Act program in 2003.
At that time, the city’s credit was junk-bond status. It had spent more than it collected for at least three years and had run a 5 percent deficit for two successive years.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s secretary of community and economic development made the decision after a hearing in late December on the current status of Pittsburgh’s finances.