Category: News

Beaver Area High School Principal Placed On Paid Leave

The principal of Beaver Area High School was placed on paid leave ahead of the first day of school Monday. Beaver Area School District officials have confirmed that Steve Wellendorf was put on leave.  They did not elaborate on the reason for the move, calling it a personnel matter. Assistant Principal Meghan Murray will serve as acting principal until the matter can be resolved.

Texas-Based Company Fined For Raccoon Creek Damages In Hookstown

A TEXAS-BASED COMPANY HAS BEEN SLAPPED WITH A HUGE FINE FOR DAMAGE ALONG RACCOON CREEK ROAD WHERE PIPELINE WORK WAS BEING DONE. ABOUT 300 FEET OF STREAM BANK ERODED AND WAS PERMANENTLY DAMAGED DURING PIPELINE WORK NEAR BUNKER HILL ROAD. THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION HAS FINED ENERGY TRANSFER PARTNERS 150-THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR DAMAGE.

Despite strong economy, many Americans struggling to get By

Despite strong economy, many Americans struggling to get by
By SARAH SKIDMORE SELL, AP Personal Finance Writer
Despite a strong economy, about 40 percent of American families struggled to meet at least one of their basic needs last year, including paying for food, health care, housing or utilities.
That’s according to an Urban Institute survey of nearly 7,600 adults that found that the difficulties were most prevalent among adults with lower incomes or health issues. But it also revealed that people from all walks of life were running into similar hardships.
The findings issued Tuesday by the nonprofit research organization highlight the financial strains experienced by many Americans in an otherwise strong economy.
The average unemployment rate for 2017 was 4.4 percent, a low that followed years of decline. But having a job doesn’t ensure families will be able to meet their basic needs, said Michael Karpman, one of the study’s authors. Among the households with at least one working adult, more than 30 percent reported hardship.
“Economic growth and low unemployment alone do not ensure everyone can meet their basic needs,” the authors wrote.
Food insecurity was the most common challenge: More than 23 percent of households struggled to feed their family at some point during the year. That was followed by problems paying a family medical bill, reported by about 18 percent. A similar percentage didn’t seek care for a medical need because of the cost.
Additionally, roughly 13 percent of families missed a utility bill payment at some point during the year. And 10 percent of families either didn’t pay the full amount of their rent or mortgage, or they paid it late.
While startling data to some, it comes as no surprise to those Americans who are struggling to get by.
Debra Poppelaars of Nashville, Tennessee, underwent spinal fusion surgery last fall and was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly thereafter. Although she is insured, she owes roughly $19,000 for her portion of the medical bills.
Between disability, a job change and the mounting debt, she hasn’t been able to make ends meet and is now facing bankruptcy.
“It’s very hard at 64 years old, I look back and think I am in this position and I should be able to retire,” she said.
Jerri Wood of Renton, Washington, says she makes choices each month to pay one bill instead of another as she struggles to pay for her health care. Wood has lived for years with a brain tumor that requires regular monitoring and was recently diagnosed with diabetes that she takes insulin to manage.
Rising costs for her care, even with insurance, have her juggling bills to get by — such as paying her cellphone or electricity bill one month and not the next. And she still feels like one of the lucky ones as she is able to survive.
“There is such a need for safety nets, so many people are in this position,” she said.
The Urban Institute survey comes at a time when lawmakers are considering cuts to some safety-net programs, such as Medicaid, SNAP and housing assistance.
The researchers said that lawmakers run the risk of increasing the rate of hardship if they reduce support services.
It is the first study on the subject by the DC-based organization, which looks at economic and social policy issues. The institute plans to conduct the study every year to track the well-being of families as the economy and safety net systems evolve.

Cohen’s lawyer walks back claim Trump knew of Russia meeting

Cohen’s lawyer walks back claim Trump knew of Russia meeting
By MICHAEL R. SISAK, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Another day, another twist in what Michael Cohen may — or may not — know about Donald Trump, Russian dirt and the 2016 election.
Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, is walking back his assertions that his client, the president’s former “fixer,” could tell a special prosecutor that Trump had prior knowledge of a meeting with a Russian lawyer to get damaging information on Hillary Clinton.
“I should have been much clearer that I could not confirm the story,” Davis said Monday, attempting to clean up his comments in interviews last week after Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and bank fraud.
Davis told The Washington Post over the weekend that he “could not independently confirm” the claims he made on television last week that Cohen witnessed Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., telling his father about the Trump Tower meeting beforehand.
“I take responsibility for not communicating more clearly my uncertainty,” Davis said. “I regret the error.”
Davis is also hedging suggestions he made on television last week that Cohen could tell special prosecutor Robert Mueller about whether Trump was aware of and encouraged Russian hacking during the 2016 campaign before it became publicly known.
After suggesting to CNN last Wednesday that “Cohen was an observer and was a witness to Mr. Trump’s awareness of those emails before they were dropped,” Cohen told the Post, “there’s a possibility that is the case. But I am not sure.”
The prospect of Cohen telling Mueller that Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting has hung over the Russia probe since CNN, citing anonymous sources, reported last month that Cohen was willing to share the information.
Davis told The Associated Press at the time that the basic substance of the CNN report was correct and told CNN last Wednesday that Cohen “was present during a discussion with junior and dad” pertaining to the Trump Tower meeting.
Davis, citing a lack of independent verification, apologized to the AP on Monday. “I express my regrets that I could not confirm what I told you,” he said.
Trump, who has denied knowing about the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, seized on Davis’ about-face.
“Michaels Cohen’s attorney clarified the record, saying his client does not know if President Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting (out of which came nothing!),” Trump tweeted on Saturday. “The answer is that I did NOT know about the meeting. Just another phony story by the Fake News Media!”
CNN said it stands by the story, which included reporting from Pulitzer Prize-winning Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein. Trump Jr. tweeted that CNN was defending “literal fake news” and derided Bernstein as a “leftist hack.

President Trump says the US and Mexico are tentatively set to replace NAFTA with new dea

US and Mexico tentatively set to replace NAFTA with new deal
By PAUL WISEMAN, LUIS ALONSO LUGO and ROB GILLIES, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration and Mexico have reached a preliminary accord to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement with a new deal that would be intended to encourage more manufacturing in the United States.
At the same time, President Donald Trump threatened to keep Canada, the third member of NAFTA, out of any new trade agreement. In announcing the tentative accord Monday at the White House, Trump said a new pact would be called “the United States-Mexico Trade Agreement.”
Trump said he was open to including Canada — “if they’d like to negotiate fairly.” He threatened to impose new taxes on Canadian auto imports to intensify pressure on Ottawa to a agree to deal to Trump’s liking.
Canada’s NAFTA negotiator, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, is cutting short a trip to Europe to fly to Washington Tuesday to try to restart talks.
“We will only sign a new NAFTA that is good for Canada and good for the middle class,” said Adam Austen, a spokesman for Freeland, adding that “Canada’s signature is required.”
“There is still a great deal of uncertainty .. trepidation, nervousness — a feeling that we are on the outside looking in,” said Peter MacKay, a former Canadian minister of justice, defense and foreign affairs who is now a partner at the law firm Baker McKenzie.
Trump has frequently condemned the 24-year-old NAFTA trade pact as a job-killing “disaster” for American workers. Yet the preliminary agreement announced Monday is far from final. Even after being formally signed, it would have be ratified by lawmakers in each country.
The U.S. Congress wouldn’t vote on it until next year — after November midterm elections that could end Republican control of the House of Representatives.
“There are still a lot of questions left to be answered,” MacKay said. He noted, for example, that Trump said nothing Monday about dropping Trump’s tariffs on Mexican or Canadian steel — tariffs that were imposed in part to pressure those countries to reach an agreement on NAFTA.
But at least initially, it looks like at least a tentative public-relations victory for Trump, the week after his former campaign manager was convicted on financial crimes and his former personal attorney implicated him in hush money payments to two women who say they had affairs with Trump.
Over the weekend, U.S. and Mexican negotiators worked to narrow their differences, capping talks that had begun a year ago and have proved highly contentious.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Monday that Mexico had agreed to ensure that 75 percent of automotive content be produced within the trade bloc (up from a current 62.5 percent) to receive duty-free benefits and that 40 percent to 45 percent be made by workers earning at least $16 an hour. Those changes are meant to encourage more auto production in the United States.
For months, the talks were held up by the Trump administration’s insistence on a “sunset clause”: A renegotiated NAFTA would end after five years unless all three countries agreed to continue it. Mexico and Canada considered that proposal a deal-killer.
On Monday, the Trump administration and Mexico announced a compromise on that divisive issue: An overhauled NAFTA would remain in force for 16 years. After six years, the countries would review the agreement and decide whether it needed to be updated or changed. They then would either agree to a new 16-year deal or the pact would expire.
Critics quickly denounced the prospect of cutting Canada out the North American trade pact. Many manufacturers have built complex but vital supply chains that cross all three NAFTA borders.
And there are political reasons to keep Canada inside the regional bloc: “Mexico will have a difficult time selling ‘Trump’s deal’ back home if Canada does not think it is a good deal,” said Daniel Ujczo, a trade attorney with Dickinson Wright PLLC. “It will appear that Mexico caved.”
In fact, the announcement immediately ran into pushback in Mexico.
“To obtain an agreement with Trump, the government of Mexico turned its back on a friend nation, Canada,” Mexican analyst and columnist Alejandro Hope said on Twitter. “I hope it has been worth it, a maneuver that, to put it politely, does not do us honor.”
The No. 2 Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, hailed Monday’s news as a “positive step” but said Canada needs to be party to a final deal. “A trilateral agreement is the best path forward,” he said, adding that millions of jobs are at stake.
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Gillies reported from Toronto. Darlene Superville in Washington and Peter Orsi in Mexico City contributed to this report.

McCain’s final statement: Americans have ‘more in common’

McCain’s final statement: Americans have ‘more in common’
By MELISSA DANIELS and LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) — Sen. John McCain expressed his deep gratitude and love of country in his final letter and implored Americans to put aside “tribal rivlaries” and focus on what unites.
Rick Davis, former presidential campaign manager for McCain who is serving as a family spokesman, read the farewell message Monday at a press briefing in Phoenix.
In the statement, McCain reflected on the privilege of serving his country and said he tried to do so honorably. He also touched on today’s politics.
“Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here,” McCain wrote. “Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.”
McCain died Saturday from an aggressive form of brain cancer. Plans taking shape called for McCain to lie in state Wednesday in the Arizona State Capitol on what would have been his 82nd birthday. A funeral will be conducted Thursday at North Phoenix Baptist Church with former Vice President Joe Biden speaking.
In Washington, McCain will lie in state Friday in the Capitol Rotunda with a formal ceremony and time for the public to pay respects. On Saturday, a procession will pass the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and arrive for a funeral at Washington National Cathedral. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama are expected to speak at the service.
The Senate has draped John McCain’s desk in black fabric and placed a vase of white roses on top. Monday was the Senate’s first day back in session since his death, though McCain had not been back to Washington since December.
A private funeral is planned for Sunday afternoon at the Naval Academy Chapel followed by a private burial at the academy cemetery.
President Donald Trump was not expected to attend any of the services.
McCain was a noted critic of Trump, and Trump’s response to McCain’s death has been closely watched.
The flag atop the White House flew at half-staff over the weekend in recognition of McCain’s death but was raised Monday and then lowered again amid criticism.
Trump said Monday afternoon that he respects the senator’s “service to our country” and signed a proclamation to fly the U.S. flag at half-staff until his burial.
When asked about Trump’s response to McCain’s death after the flag was raised Monday, Davis said that the family is focusing on the outpouring of support from around the world instead of “what one person has done or said.”
“The entire focus of the McCain family is on John McCain,” Davis said. “There really is no room in the McCain family today to focus on anything but him.”
In Arizona, high-profile campaigns announced that they have suspended some activity this week.
McCain was just one of 11 U.S. senators in the state’s 116-year history, and on Tuesday, primary voters will decide the nominees in races across all levels of government. There’s also the sensitive question of who will succeed McCain.
Arizona law requires the governor of the state to name an appointee of the same political party who will serve until the next general election. Since the time to qualify for November’s election is past, the election would take place in 2020, with the winner filling out the remainder of McCain term until 2022.
Possible appointees whose names circulate among Arizona politicos include McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, former U.S. Senator Jon Kyl and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s chief of staff Kirk Adams.
Throughout the weekend, Arizona politicos across all levels of government offered remembrances of McCain. Noting McCain’s death, several candidates, including Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Rep. Martha McSally, who are expected to win their party’s races for the state’s other U.S. Senate seat, on Sunday evening said they would suspend their campaigns on Wednesday and Thursday. Ducey, whose office is coordinating services at the Arizona State Capitol for McCain, will not attend any campaign events between now and when McCain is buried.
Tributes poured in from around the globe. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted in English that McCain “was a true American hero. He devoted his entire life to his country.” Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said McCain’s support for the Jewish state “never wavered. It sprang from his belief in democracy and freedom.” And Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, called McCain “a tireless fighter for a strong trans-Atlantic alliance. His significance went well beyond his own country.”
McCain was the son and grandson of admirals and followed them to the U.S. Naval Academy. A pilot, he was shot down over Vietnam and held as a prisoner of war for more than five years. He went on to win a seat in the House and in 1986, the Senate, where he served for the rest of his life.
“He had a joy about politics and a love for his country that was unmatched,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., told CNN’s “State of the Union.” ”And while he never made it to the presidency, in the Senate, he was the leader that would see a hot spot in the world and just say, we need to go there and stand up for that democracy.”
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Kellerman reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.