Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is announcing single-lane restrictions have been extended on the Rochester-Monaca Bridge, which carries Route 18 over the Ohio River, in Rochester and Monaca boroughs, Beaver County.

Single-lane alternating traffic will continue, as needed, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays through late November on the Rochester-Monaca Bridge (Route 18) to allow crews to conduct pier work, downspout work, and other miscellaneous construction.

This $6.69 million project includes bridge preservation work on the Rochester-Monaca Bridge between Atlantic Avenue in Monaca Borough and Pleasant Street in Rochester Borough. Preservation work includes expansion joint replacement, zone painting, concrete deck overlay, downspout repair and replacement, steel and concrete repairs, as well as sidewalk, deck, barrier, and fence repairs, pavement marking upgrades, and other miscellaneous construction activities. This project is expected to be completed in late 2024.

This combination of photos shows Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, left, at the DNC on Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago, and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, on Sept. 25, 2024, in Traverse City, Mich. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tim Walz and JD Vance will meet for their first and possibly only vice presidential debate Tuesday, in what could be the last debate for both campaigns to argue their case before the election.

The debate in New York hosted by CBS News will give Vance, a Republican freshman senator from Ohio, and Walz, a two-term Democratic governor of Minnesota, the chance to introduce themselves, make the case for their running mates, and go on the attack against the opposing ticket.

Tuesday’s matchup could have an outsized impact. Polls have shown Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump locked in a close contest, giving added weight to anything that can sway voters on the margins, including the impression left by the vice presidential candidates. It also might be the last debate of the campaign, with the Harris and Trump teams failing to agree on another meeting.

The role of a presidential running mate is typically to serve as an attack dog for the person at the top of the ticket, arguing against the opposing presidential candidate and their proxy on stage. Both Vance and Walz have embraced that role.

Vance’s occasionally confrontational news interviews and appearances on the campaign trail have underscored why Trump picked him for the Republican ticket despite his past biting criticisms of the former president, including once suggesting Trump would be “America’s Hitler.”

Walz, meanwhile, catapulted onto Harris’ campaign by branding Trump and Republicans as “ just weird,” creating an attack line for Democrats seeking to argue Republicans are disconnected from the American people.

A new AP-NORC poll found that Walz is better liked than Vance, potentially giving the Republican an added challenge.

After a Harris-Trump debate in which Republicans complained about the ABC News moderators fact-checking Trump, Tuesday’s debate will not feature any corrections from the hosts. CBS News said the onus for pointing out misstatements will be on the candidates, with moderators “facilitating those opportunities.”

Both sides are trying to lower expectations

Ahead of the debate, allies of both men were lowering expectations that their candidate will have a decisive performance.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., called Vance “an accomplished debater” and contrasted that with Walz, saying he was “not a lawyer-debater type.” Klobuchar said Walz spent time growing up thinking about football, not debating.

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, portrayed Walz much differently than Klobuchar.

“Tim Walz is very good in debates, really good. He’s been a politician for nearly 20 years. He’ll be very well prepared for tomorrow night,” Miller told reporters Monday. He predicted the Democratic governor of Minnesota will be much more “buttoned up” than he is on the campaign trail and ready to defend his record, but added, “That’s not to say that JD Vance won’t be prepared tomorrow, or that somehow he isn’t up to the challenge.”

Vance, speaking to reporters last week, said he didn’t “have to prepare that much” for the debate because he had “well-developed views on public policy.”

But Vance has been doing debate prep sessions where he’s been joined by his wife, Usha Vance, Miller, senior Vance aides, and Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., who has played Walz, according to a person familiar with his preparations who requested anonymity to discuss strategy. Moderating their mock debates was Monica Crowley, who served in the Trump administration, hosts a podcast and contributed to Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for remaking government that Trump claims he knows ” nothing about.”

“JD Vance is prepared to wipe the floor with Tim Walz and expose him for the radical liberal he is,” Emmer told reporters on Monday.

Walz’s debate prep has included sessions hunkered down in a Minneapolis hotel, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg standing in for Vance, according to a person familiar with the process who requested anonymity to discuss the campaign’s internal dynamics. Others helping in the preparations include Rob Friedlander and Zayn Siddique, who helped Harris prepare for her debate with Trump, along with other aides to Walz and the campaign.

Klobuchar said Walz will show the American people “a real person” who brings “buoyancy” and positivity to the debate stage that will contrast with Vance, but “he is not going to be shy about pointing out the problems.”

“Just because he’s an optimistic, positive person doesn’t mean he’s a pushover,” she said.

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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Josh Boak in Baltimore, and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Longshoremen strike at midnight at Bayport Terminal on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Dockworkers at ports from Maine to Texas began walking picket lines early Tuesday in a strike over wages and automation that could reignite inflation and cause shortages of goods if it goes on more than a few weeks.

The contract between the ports and about 45,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association expired at midnight, and even though progress was reported in talks on Monday, the workers went on strike. The strike affecting 36 ports is the first by the union since 1977.

Workers began picketing at the Port of Philadelphia shortly after midnight, walking in a circle at a rail crossing outside the port and chanting “No work without a fair contract.”

The union had message boards on the side of a truck reading: “Automation Hurts Families: ILA Stands For Job Protection.”

Local ILA president Boise Butler said workers want a fair contract that doesn’t allow automation of their jobs.

Shipping companies made billions during the pandemic by charging high prices, he said. “Now we want them to pay back. They’re going to pay back,” Butler said.

He said the union will strike for as long as it needs to get a fair deal, and it has leverage over the companies.

“This is not something that you start and you stop,” he said. “We’re not weak,” he added, pointing to the union’s importance to the nation’s economy

At Port Houston, at least 50 workers started picketing around midnight local time carrying signs saying “No Work Without a Fair Contract.”

The U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents the ports, said Monday evening that both sides had moved off of their previous wage offers. But no deal was reached.

The union’s opening offer in the talks was for a 77% pay raise over the six-year life of the contract, with President Harold Daggett saying it’s necessary to make up for inflation and years of small raises. ILA members make a base salary of about $81,000 per year, but some can pull in over $200,000 annually with large amounts of overtime.

But Monday evening, the alliance said it had increased its offer to 50% raises over six years, and it pledged to keep limits on automation in place from the old contract. The union wants a complete ban on automation. It wasn’t clear just how far apart both sides are.

“We are hopeful that this could allow us to fully resume collective bargaining around the other outstanding issues in an effort to reach an agreement,” the alliance statement said.

In a statement early Tuesday, the union said it rejected the alliance’s latest proposal because it “fell far short of what ILA rank-and-file members are demanding in wages and protections against automation.” The two sides had not held formal negotiations since June.

“We are prepared to fight as long as necessary, to stay out on strike for whatever period of time it takes, to get the wages and protections against automation our ILA members deserve,” Daggett said in the statement. “They must now meet our demands for this strike to end.”

The alliance said its offer tripled employer contributions to retirement plans and strengthened health care options.

Supply chain experts say consumers won’t see an immediate impact from the strike because most retailers stocked up on goods, moving ahead shipments of holiday gift items.

But if it goes more than a few weeks, a work stoppage would significantly snarl the nation’s supply chain, potentially leading to higher prices and delays in goods reaching households and businesses.

If drawn out, the strike will force businesses to pay shippers for delays and cause some goods to arrive late for peak holiday shopping season — potentially impacting delivery of anything from toys or artificial Christmas trees to cars, coffee and fruit.

The strike will likely have an almost immediate impact on supplies of perishable imports like bananas, for example. The ports affected by the strike handle 3.8 million metric tons of bananas each year, or 75% of the nation’s supply, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

It also could snarl exports from East Coast ports and create traffic jams at ports on the West Coast, where workers are represented by a different union. Railroads say they can ramp up to carry more freight from the West Coast, but analysts say they can’t move enough to make up for the closed Eastern ports.

“If the strikes go ahead, they will cause enormous delays across the supply chain, a ripple effect which will no doubt roll into 2025 and cause chaos across the industry,” noted Jay Dhokia, founder of supply chain management and logistics firm Pro3PL.

J.P. Morgan estimated that a strike that shuts down East and Gulf coast ports could cost the economy $3.8 billion to $4.5 billion per day, with some of that recovered over time after normal operations resume.

The strike comes just weeks before the presidential election and could become a factor if there are shortages. Retailers, auto parts suppliers and produce importers had hoped for a settlement or that President Joe Biden would intervene and end the strike using the Taft-Hartley Act, which allows him to seek an 80-day cooling off period.

But during an exchange with reporters on Sunday, Biden, who has worked to court union votes for Democrats, said “no” when asked if he planned to intervene in the potential work stoppage.

A White House official said Monday that at Biden’s direction, the administration has been in regular communication with the ILA and the alliance to keep the negotiations moving forward. The president directed Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard to convene the alliance’s board members Monday afternoon and urge them to resolve the dispute fairly and quickly — in a way that accounts for the success of shipping companies in recent years and contributions of union workers.

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Krisher in reported from Detroit. Associated Press journalists Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, Mae Anderson and Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit, Josh Boak in Washington, and Annie Mulligan in Houston contributed to this report.

FILE – Cleanup continues, Feb. 24, 2023, at the site of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailment that happened on Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio. (AP Photo/Matt Freed, File)

Settlement checks related to Norfolk Southern’s disastrous 2023 derailment could be delayed up to two years now because an appeal of a federal judge’s decision last week to approve the $600 million deal has been filed, lawyers in the case said Monday.

Many residents of East Palestine, Ohio, expressed outrage about the appeal because it will delay the payments they had been counting on to help them recover from the toxic train crash that disrupted their lives when it spewed hazardous chemicals into their community. Some people had planned to use the money to relocate.

People in town who are frustrated they won’t get their money right away lashed out at Rev. Joseph Sheely and started threatening him and his wife Monday because his name is on the appeal. Sheely did challenge the settlement this summer but said he specifically asked his lawyer to leave him out of any appeal and doesn’t want any part in it. He said with the serious health concerns he and his wife developed since the derailment, they can no longer tolerate the stress of being at the center of the case.

“I was trying to do something for the residents of East Palestine, including myself,” Sheely said. “But it seems like they don’t want anybody to do anything. They just want the cash. And so I’m done. I’m so totally done.”

The plaintiffs’ attorneys had hoped to start sending out the first checks before the end of the year, but that won’t happen because the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals will first have to address concerns about whether the deal offers enough compensation and whether residents were given enough information to decide whether it is fair.

“We will do everything in our power to quickly resolve this appeal and prevent any further burdens on the residents and local businesses that want to move forward and rebuild their lives,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys said in a statement. “It is tragic that one person is substituting their judgment for the entire community who wants this settlement, and instead of opting out, they have gone this route.”

The lawyers estimated that the payments will be delayed at least six to 12 months while the appellate court considers the appeal that was filed Friday but they could be delayed even longer if the case is appealed up to the U.S. Supreme Court or sent back for additional proceedings in Judge Benita Pearson’s court.

Sheely’s attorney, David Graham, said the statement from the plaintiff’s attorneys only served to put more pressure on his client and spurred on the threats.

“Their reckless statements have put my client in jeopardy and make my client feel unsafe in his own community,” Graham said.

The settlement offered payments of up to $70,000 per household for property damage and up to $25,000 per person for injuries to those who lived within two miles of the derailment. The payments would drop off significantly further out with only a few hundred dollars offered to people who live closer to the limit of 20 miles (32 kilometers) away.

The appeal won’t increase the $162 million in legal fees and $18 million in expenses the judge awarded to the plaintiff’s attorneys last week unless the deal is overturned and new fees are awarded as part of the case.

Residents posting on the “East Palestine off the rails!” Facebook group accused the pastor who filed the appeal of being greedy because one of his objections to the deal is the frustration that any payments residents received from the railroad since the derailment to temporarily relocate or replace damaged belongings will be deducted from any settlement they receive. Some characterized that as a desire to be compensated twice for the derailment.

But the vocal few who objected to the deal have said they have deeper concerns. They have said they don’t know the full extent of the chemicals they were exposed to because the plaintiff’s lawyers have refused to disclose what their expert found when he tested in town and because the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t disclose everything it knows about the extent of the lingering contamination.

The town of East Palestine remains deeply divided over the derailment with some residents eager to move forward and put the disaster behind them while others who are still dealing with unexplained health problems can’t see how to do that. The dispute over the appeal in the class action case only adds to the divisions.