WEATHER FORECAST FOR MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18TH, 2019

TODAY – CLOUDY SKIES. A FEW FLURRIES OR SNOW
SHOWERS POSSIBLE. HIGH NEAR 30.

TONIGHT – A FEW FLURRIES POSSIBLE THIS EVENING.
SOME CLOUDS OVERNIGHT. LOW – 16.

TUESDAY – PARTLY SUNNY. HIGH – 34.

Pope asks for prayers for sex abuse summit at Vatican
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is asking for prayers for this week’s sex abuse summit at the Vatican, calling abuse an “urgent challenge of our time.”
He has summoned bishops to Rome to help him chart a way forward after decades of abuse by priests and prelates and the systematic cover-ups of that by their superiors. The scandals have eroded Catholics’ trust in the Vatican and in church leaders like bishops.
Francis told pilgrims and other visitors Sunday in St. Peter’s Square that beginning Thursday, the heads of episcopal conferences worldwide will discuss “protection of minors in the church.”
He said: “I ask prayers for this appointment, which I wanted as an act of strong pastoral responsibility in the face of an urgent challenge of our time.”

White House indicates Trump to veto disapproval of emergency
By ZEKE MILLER, Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A top adviser to President Donald Trump indicated Sunday that Trump is prepared to issue the first veto of his term if Congress votes to disapprove of his declaration of a national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The West Wing is digging in for fights on multiple fronts as the president’s effort to go around Congress to fund his long-promised border wall faces bipartisan criticism and multiple legal challenges. After lawmakers in both parties blocked his requests for billions of dollars to fulfill his signature campaign pledge, Trump’s declared national emergency Friday shifts billions of federal dollars earmarked for military construction to the border.
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller told “Fox News Sunday” that “the president is going to protect his national emergency declaration.” Asked if that meant Trump was ready to veto a resolution of disapproval, Miller added, “He’s going to protect his national emergency declaration, guaranteed.”
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra told ABC’s “This Week” that his state would sue “imminently” to block the order, after the American Civil Liberties Union and the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen announced Friday they were taking legal action.
Democrats are planning to introduce a resolution disapproving of the declaration once Congress returns to session and it is likely to pass both chambers. Several Republican senators are already indicating they would vote against Trump — though there do not yet appear to be enough votes to override a veto by the president.
The White House’s Miller insisted that Congress granted the president wide berth under the National Emergencies Act to take action. But Trump’s declaration goes beyond previous emergencies in shifting money after Congress blocked his funding request for the wall, which will likely factor in legal challenges.
Trump aides acknowledge that Trump cannot meet his pledge to build the wall by the time voters decide whether to grant him another term next year, but insist his base will remain by his side as long as he is not perceived to have given up the fight on the barrier.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he believes Congress needs to act to “defend” its powers of the purse.
“I do think that we should not set the terrible precedent of letting a president declare a national emergency simply as a way of getting around the congressional appropriations process,” he said.
Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, a critic of Trump’s border policies, said he would support legislation to review Trump’s emergency declaration, saying, “It sets a dangerous precedent.”
“My concern is our government wasn’t designed to operate by national emergency,” he told CBS.
Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told ABC that he believes there are enough GOP votes to prevent the supermajorities required to override a veto.
“I think there are plenty of votes in the House to make sure that there’s no override of the president’s veto,” he said. “So it’s going to be settled in court, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Hundreds taking part in annual Penn State dance marathon
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Hundreds of hardy Penn State students are taking part in the annual 46-hour dance marathon known as Thon to raise money for pediatric cancer patients.
The Penn State Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, billed as the world’s largest student-run philanthropy, kicked off Friday night and runs through Sunday.
Last year, students raised more than $10 million for pediatric cancer patients and their families at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
Child cancer survivors and their families also participate along with the dancers, who aren’t allowed to sleep or even sit and are helped by thousands of other students in support roles.
The event has raised more than $147 million since 1977.

Dem presidential candidates introducing themselves to voters
By ELANA SCHOR, Associated Press
Five Democratic senators vying for their party’s nomination to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020 fanned out across the country Saturday to campaign and meet voters.
Kamala Harris of California spent her second straight day in the pivotal early-voting state of South Carolina, holding a town hall meeting in Columbia, the capital. Also visiting the state was Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who met with an estimated 800 voters in Greenville before heading to Georgia — an unusual early stop for a White House hopeful but one that signals Democratic hopes to make inroads in the South.
Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York both focused on New Hampshire. Booker made his first visit to there since joining the race earlier this month, holding a question-and-answer session with more than 400 voters in Portsmouth.
Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, meanwhile, made her own uncommon choice for early campaigning by visiting Wisconsin before heading to Iowa, home to the nation’s first caucus.
And a Democratic heavyweight who’s yet to address his 2020 plans, former Vice President Joe Biden, made his own high-profile appearance at the Munich Security Conference.
The Democratic senators stepped up their campaigning during the long holiday weekend at the start of Congress’ first recess this year. Their outreach to voters came in the wake of Trump’s controversial decision to declare a national emergency in order to unilaterally redirect federal money for his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Some highlights from the trail:
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CORY BOOKER
The New Jersey senator plans to spend three days in New Hampshire, which casts the first votes in the 2020 primary, and he kicked off the swing with a freewheeling “conversation” that drew questions on health care, the environment and foreign relations.
Booker is one of several Democratic presidential contenders who back legislation that would transition the United States to universal health insurance coverage, but he acknowledged Saturday that compromise may be necessary to get major health care legislation through the Senate.
Booker told voters in New Hampshire there are a “lot of pathways” to achieving universal health coverage, noting that just lowering Medicare eligibility to age 55 would be “a step in the right direction.” He said supporters of so-called Medicare for All are “going to have to find ways to advance the ball given the Congress that we have.”
Booker brought a personal touch to his first official visit to New Hampshire as a presidential candidate, sharing his African-American family’s story of struggling to buy a home in a majority-white neighborhood in the late 1960s as he urged the crowd to “put that indivisible back in this one nation under God.” The famously social media-savvy senator stayed long after the event concluded to snap selfies and record videos with supporters.
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KAMALA HARRIS
The California senator visited a handful of female-owned businesses in Columbia, South Carolina, on the second day of a swing through the early-voting state.
Harris walked along Lady Street and stopped in Styled by Naida, a black-owned business, and made several purchases, including a wide-brimmed teal hat. The candidate also met with a group of women leaders at a restaurant a block away.
Her visit was organized by Jennifer Clyburn Reed, whose father is Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., the third-ranking Democratic leader in the U.S. House.
A prominent Democratic activist in the state, Clyburn Reed hasn’t yet backed any of the Democrats running for president, and she’s organized similar trips for other candidates.
At a town hall in West Columbia, a voter told Harris that most Democrats are looking for someone who will defeat Trump in 2020. The woman became emotional and said she feared the world she was leaving behind for her children and grandchildren, and asked Harris what sets her apart from other Democrats running.
Harris said she believes this moment is a time “that we need fighters on stage who know how to fight – I do – and who have a proven desire to lead.”
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KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
Gillibrand, in her second day of campaigning in New Hampshire, issued a rebuke of what she called President Donald Trump’s divisive language.
The New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate told a crowd of about 450 people Saturday at Dartmouth College — her alma mater — that the president’s worst offense since he was elected has been to “dehumanize people” and create a climate of fear and hatred, especially toward immigrants.
Gillibrand said Trump wants Americans “to be afraid of one another.” She insisted “that’s not who we are.”
Gillibrand, who took questions from the audience, said she favors a single-payer health care system modeled on Medicare and would take on climate change by incentivizing the creation of renewable energy. She added that she was optimistic that “common sense” gun laws would pass now that young voters are calling for change.
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JOE BIDEN
The former vice president isn’t officially part of the 2020 presidential race, but he bolstered his case for a potential candidacy by speaking to an international audience about the need to restore America’s ability to claim leadership in the world.
Without saying President Donald Trump’s name, Biden said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference that current policies do not reflect the country as he perceives it.
“The America I see values basic human decency, not snatching children from their parents or turning our backs on refugees at our border. Americans know that’s not right,” Biden said.
He said the U.S. doesn’t want to turn its back on its closest allies and cherishes democracy, the rule of law and a free press, telling the conference that the America he sees “stands up to the aggression of dictators and against strongmen who rule by coercion, corruption and violence.”
A former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden is likely to lean on his international-relations credentials should he choose to join the increasingly crowded field of Democrats running for their party’s presidential nomination.
While he has yet to disclose any timetable for deciding whether to enter the race, Biden has two public events slated for later this month, the first at the University of Pennsylvania and the second in Delaware, his home state.
And he isn’t the only well-known politician on the fence about the Democratic primary. Among the others are Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman, and Sherrod Brown, an Ohio senator.
___
Associated Press writer Juana Summers in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

In first year, Pennsylvanians paid out $132M for medical pot
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — State officials say Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program provided the drug nearly 600,000 times during its first year of sales.
The Wolf Administration said Friday that more than 83,000 people have purchased medical marijuana at the 45 dispensaries that are up and running.
Statewide medical marijuana sales totaled $132 million in the past year.
More than $2 million in state taxes were paid by grower-processors.
About 1,000 doctors are currently approved to certify patients for the program.
Pennsylvania’s 2016 medical marijuana law permits its use for a list of conditions that include AIDS, autism, cancer, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Congress’ two top Democrats say they’ll use “every remedy available” to oppose President Donald Trump’s declaration of an emergency to shift billions of federal dollars into building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday they’ll take action “in the Congress, in the Courts, and in the public.” Trump says he needs to use emergency powers to protect the nation and expects legal challenges.

Beaver County authorities are looking for the suspect in a string of burglaries. Baden police say a man smashed his way into several homes over eight months, taking items that he sold to fund a drug habit. The latest burglary occurred just this week. Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano has the latest developments…

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Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto is digging in his heels over proposed ordinances restricting guns in the city. Speaking with reporters yesterday, Peduto said he’s prepared to defend the laws all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, should the legal battle over them go that far. Gun rights groups have promised to sue the city should leaders pass bills prohibiting certain types of semi-automatic rifles, ammunition and accessories. The ordinances also include a “red flag” law that would allow a judge to remove someone’s firearms if they are deemed a threat to themselves or others.