….AND NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE ‘BUSINESS MINUTE’ REPORT…BROUGHT YOU BY MINUTEMAN PRESS:

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate rose in December for the fourth straight month, as payrolls shrank and the labor force hit another record high. The state Department of Labor and Industry said Friday that Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate rose two-tenths of a percentage point to 4.5%, after hitting a four-decade low of 3.8% last year. The national unemployment rate was 3.5% in December. A survey of households found Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force rose by 18,000 to a record high. However, a separate survey of employers showed seasonally adjusted non-farm payrolls dropped by almost 10,000. Friday’s figures are preliminary and could change.

Absentee ballots in Beaver County will soon require the voter to supply the return postage. In years past, the county has absorbed the cost of the return stamp, even though it isn’t required by law. That can lead to a cost of about 20-grand in return postage alone during a presidential election year. County officials say they were one of only a few counties statewide that provided the return envelope postage paid.

A large, colorful pest from Asia is costing the Pennsylvania economy about $50 million and eliminating nearly 500 jobs each year. That’s according to a Penn State study released Thursday. The study represents researchers’ first attempt to quantify the destruction caused by the spotted lanternfly. It was first detected in the U.S. in 2014, in Pennsylvania’s Berks County. It’s since overrun the state’s southeastern corner and spread into nearby states including New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia. Penn State economists estimated the financial impact on industries most susceptible to spotted lanternfly, including nurseries, vineyards, Christmas tree growers and hardwood producers.

The Trump administration is threatening California with a potential loss of federal health care funds over the state’s requirement that insurance plans cover abortions. The announcement from the Health and Human Services Department came a short time before President Donald Trump was to address the annual anti-abortion March for Life. HHS is giving California 30 days to comply with a federal law known as the Weldon amendment. That law bars federal health care funding from being provided to states or entities that practice “discrimination” against health care organizations that do not “provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.”

U.S. stocks fell in midday trading Friday over increased fears that a deadly virus could continue spreading globally. Airlines and other companies in the travel and tourism industries fell. Banks and health care companies led the losses. Intel surged after a blowout earnings report and helped lift technology stocks. The S&P 500 index fell 0.6% as of 12:10 p.m. Eastern time. he Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 125 points, or 0.4%, to 29,034. The Nasdaq fell 0.5%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.69% from 1.74% late Thursday.

….AND THAT’S THE ‘BUSINESS MINUTE’ REPORT…BROUGHT YOU BY MINUTEMAN PRESS.

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says 34 U.S. troops have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries suffered in this month’s Iranian missile strike on an Iraqi air base. Half of the troops have returned to their duties, while the others are still under observation. The 34 total is more than previously reported. President Donald Trump had initially said he was told that no troops had been injured in the Jan. 8 strike. The military said symptoms were no immediately apparent, and that in some cases, the concussion-like symptoms appeared days later. After the first reports that some troops had been diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms, Trump referred to the injuries as “headaches.”

BEIJING (AP) — China is expanding its lockdown against the deadly new virus to an unprecedented 36 million people and rushing to build a prefabricated, 1,000-bed hospital for victims as the outbreak cast a pall over Lunar New Year, the country’s biggest and most festive holiday. The number of confirmed cases around the world has climbed sharply to more than 850, with at least 25 deaths, all of them in China. The U.S. is reporting its second case, involving a Chicago woman in her 60s who was hospitalized after returning from China.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic House prosecutors are launching their final arguments on obstruction charges at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. They argued Thursday that he abused his presidential power in his Ukraine dealings and should be convicted because “right matters.” Now they’re addressing the second article of impeachment, which says Trump improperly blocked Congress’ investigation of his actions. The president’s legal team is preparing its defense, expected to start Saturday. Trump bemoaned the schedule in a morning tweet, saying it “looks like my lawyers will be forced to start on Saturday, which is called Death Valley in T.V.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump called it his “profound honor” on Friday to be the first president to attend the annual anti-abortion gathering in Washington called the March for Life. He used his speech to attack Democrats as embracing “radical and extreme positions” on abortion. He praised those attending the event, saying “unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House.” Trump once declared in a 1999 interview that he is “pro-choice in every respect.” Now, as he heads into the 2020 election, Trump continues to reach out to the white evangelical voters who have proven to be among his most loyal backers.

A man who had been watching the impeachment trial of President Trump on Tuesday allegedly choked and punched his girlfriend in a Pennsylvania motel room…when she wanted to watch something else. The woman told police that 53-year-old Lonnie Clark, who lives at the northern York County motel, had been drinking alcohol all day while watching the impeachment trial and became upset when she wanted to change the channel. She was eventually able to get away and called 9-1-1. Clark faces charges of strangulation, simple assault and harassment.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., is reportedly considering an endorsement of Joe Biden, The New York Times reported Thursday. The move could boost the former vice president’s campaign — and even boost Harris’s chances of becoming vice president, The Times reported, citing unnamed sources. According to The Times, Harris and Biden — who famously clashed over race relations during a Democrats’ debate last year — have stayed in contact since she dropped out of the race for the White House. Asked if he would consider her as his running mate, Biden told The Times, “Of course I would.”

The Doomsday Clock that tracks humanity’s threat to survival was moved 20 seconds closer to midnight – its closest point in its 73-year existence. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which formed after the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II, moved the clock Thursday from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight. The group decided to make the advance because of nuclear and climate dangers that are compounded by cyberthreats. The clock last moved in 2018 when it advanced 30 seconds from 2 1/2 minutes to midnight to two minutes to midnight.