FILE – A Chicago Transit Authority electric bus charges at Navy Pier Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, in Chicago. The Biden administration is awarding nearly $2 billion in grants to help restart or expand electric vehicle manufacturing and assembly sites in eight states, including the presidential battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Grants totaling $1.7 billion will be issued by the Energy Department to create or retain thousands of union jobs and support auto-based communities that have long driven the U.S. economy, the White House said Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is awarding nearly $2 billion in grants to General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and other carmakers to help restart or expand electric vehicle manufacturing and assembly sites in eight states, including the presidential battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

The Energy Department will issue grants totaling $1.7 billion to create or retain thousands of union jobs and support auto-based communities that have long driven the U.S. economy, the White House said Thursday. Besides the three battleground states, grants also will go to EV facilities in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Virginia.

The grants cover a broad range of the automotive supply chain, including parts for electric motorcycles and school buses, hybrid powertrains, heavy-duty commercial truck batteries and electric SUVs, the White House said.

“Building a clean energy economy can and should be a win-win for union autoworkers and automakers,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “This investment will create thousands of good-paying, union manufacturing jobs and retain even more — from Lansing, Michigan to Fort Valley, Georgia — by helping auto companies retool, reboot and rehire in the same factories and communities.”

GM said Thursday that its $500 million federal grant will help the company convert an assembly plant in Lansing, Michigan to produce EVs. GM has already announced over $12 billion in investments in its North American EV manufacturing and supply chain since 2020. That investment and the federal grant “underscore our commitment to U.S. leadership in manufacturing and innovation,″ said Camilo Ballesty, GM vice president of North America Manufacturing and Labor Relations.

The grants, paid for by the landmark 2022 climate law, will help deliver on his commitment to ensure the future of the auto industry is made in America by American union workers, Biden said.

“Workers that were left behind by my predecessor are now making a comeback with the support of my policies, including the conversion grants my administration is announcing today,” the Democratic president said.

The grant announcement comes as Biden rejects calls to step aside after a disastrous debate performance last month. Biden, 81, has acknowledged his poor performance but has brushed it off as a “bad night,” even as many congressional Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have declined to give him a full vote of confidence.

Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has maintained a tight grip on the Republican party, even after becoming the first former president to be convicted of a felony.

The grants announced Thursday come after a federal competition that included four times as many applicants as grant recipients, the Energy Department said. Officials declined to identify companies that unsuccessfully applied for grants, but said all projects that were awarded funding currently employ Americans working in union jobs in the U.S.

“There is nothing harder to a manufacturing community than to lose jobs to foreign competition and a changing industry,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, a former Michigan governor. Even as competitors like China invest heavily in electric vehicles, the federal grants will help “ensure that our automotive industry stays competitive — and does it in the communities and with the workforce that have supported the auto industry for generations,” Granholm said.

The new grants complement $177 billion in private sector investment in EV and battery manufacturing since Biden took office, Granholm and other officials said.

Awards are subject to negotiations to ensure that commitments to workers and communities are met, officials said. The Energy Department also will complete environmental reviews before money is awarded later this year.

If awards are completed as planned, the selected projects would create more than 2,900 jobs and help ensure that about 15,000 union workers are retained across all 11 facilities, the White House said. The grants come after successful union organizing drives from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Fort Valley, Georgia, the White House said.

“The president will not take his foot off the pedal when it comes to supporting the U.S. auto industry,” said White House national economic adviser Lael Brainard.

Transportation accounts for the single largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution and Biden has made electric vehicles a key part of his climate agenda.

“Not only are we delivering new sources of clean transit — that iconic yellow school bus going green — but we’re also delivering to the American people options to save … thousands of dollars of fuel and maintenance costs over the lifetime of a vehicle” by going electric, White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said.

Companies slated for awards include Blue Bird Body Co., which will receive nearly $80 million to convert a Georgia site previously used to make diesel-powered motor homes to produce electric school buses. Fiat Chrysler will receive nearly $335 million to convert an idled assembly plant in Illinois to assemble electric vehicles, and $250 million in a separate grant to convert an Indiana transmission plant to make electric drive modules for EVs.

Harley-Davidson will receive $89 million to expand a facility in York, Pennsylvania to make electric motorcycles, and Volvo Group will receive $208 million to upgrade three manufacturing facilities that supply and build Mack and Volvo-branded heavy-duty trucks. The plants are located in Macungie, Pennsylvania; Dublin, Virginia; and Hagerstown, Maryland.

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, and Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) introduced the Capping Prescription Costs Act, which would lower prescription drug costs for millions of Americans. The bill would place annual caps on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs­­—$2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families. Casey’s bill builds on the success of the Inflation Reduction Act, which capped prescription drug cost-sharing for Medicare Part D beneficiaries, extending the savings to the commercial health care market.

“Prescription drug costs are like a bag of rocks tied around the necks of millions of Americans, weighing them down every single day,” said Chairman Casey. “My new bill will place a cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for Americans with private insurance, building on the success of the Inflation Reduction Act and lightening the load that has been weighing down Americans for far too long.”

 

“Long before I came to the U.S. Senate, I was fighting to make health care more affordable and accessible. Struggling families shouldn’t have to skip refills, ration prescriptions, and risk their health just to afford the medications they need to survive,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “In a nation as rich and powerful as the United States that should never be the case, so I’m proud to join Senator Casey to introduce the Capping Prescription Costs Act that will help families afford the prescriptions they need to live healthy, full, independent lives.”

Over 60 percent of American adults take at least one prescription drug, with 25 percent of adults taking four or more. Yet Americans often pay more for the same prescription drugs than people in other countries, and due to the cost burden, American patients often cannot afford their medications as prescribed. This results in patients skipping doses, cutting doses in half, or taking over-the-counter medications instead of their prescriptions. One study found that 31 percent of patients did not take their medications as prescribed due to cost.

Chairman Casey has long been a leader in the Senate’s efforts to bring down prescription drug costs. In August 2022, Casey fought to pass the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to lower health care and prescription drug costs for older adults, people with disabilities, and families across the Nation. Starting in January 2023, the IRA capped the cost of insulin for Medicare Part D beneficiaries at $35 a month for certain covered insulin products. The law also will limit Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 per year beginning in 2025.

Casey’s new bill will extend that out-of-pocket cost cap to the commercial health care market. The new $2,000 cap on cost-sharing for individuals and $4,000 for families will apply to all of the 173 million Americans who have private health insurance.

(PITTSBURGH, PA) The home of World Famous Fries, McDonald’s is celebrating National French Fry Day with two days of deals for the first time ever.

Fans can kick off the weekend with McDonald’s Free Fries Friday on July 12 by making a $1 minimum purchase in the app to receive a free* order of medium fries. Then the celebration continues Saturday, July 13 with FREE any size fries exclusively in the McDonald’s App, no purchase necessary. **

McDonald’s serves a variety of menu options made with quality ingredients to millions of customers every day. All McDonald’s restaurants around here are owned and operated by independent entrepreneurs who live in the communities where they do business. For more information about local McDonald’s restaurants, follow on Facebook and Instagram @McDonald’s of Three Rivers.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published July 11, 2024 12:37 P.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) A male was reported to have been shot on the 300 block of Return Street in the city just after 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, he was already being driven to the hospital when police arrived at in the area of Linda Lane and Monaca Road. The investigation is continuing. Anyone with information is asked to call state police at 724-773-7400.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published July 11, 2024 12:35 P.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) A 17 year old female was shot in the torso around 5 a.m. on Wednesday. According to the updated report the incident occurred in the area 1024 Irwin Street. She was transported to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital with non-life threatening injuries .
Anyone with information is asked to contact state police at 724-773-7400.

Facts and Concerns about the Spread of Bird Flu

 

FILE – A shopper heads into a Target store Jan. 11, 2024, in Lakewood, Colo. Target will no longer accept personal checks from shoppers as of July 15,  underscoring how this once popular method of payment has gone the way of such archaic artifacts as the floppy disc or the rolodex. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Target will no longer accept personal checks from shoppers as of July 15, another sign of how a once ubiquitous payment method is going the way of outmoded objects like floppy disks and the Rolodex.

The Minneapolis-based discounter confirmed the move in a statement to The Associated Press on Tuesday, citing “extremely low volumes” of customers who still write checks. Target said it remained committed to creating an easy and convenient checkout experience with credit and debit cards, “buy now, pay later” services and the Target Circle membership program, which applies deals automatically at checkout.

“We have taken several measures to notify guests in advance” about the no-checks policy, the company said.

Target’s decision leaves Walmart, Macy’s and Kohl’s among the retailers that still accept personal checks at their stores. Whole Foods Market and the Aldi supermarket chain previously stopped taking checks from customers.

Shoppers have pulled out checkbooks increasingly less often since the mid-1990s. Cash-dispensing ATMs, debit cards, online banking and mobile payment systems like Venmo and Apple Pay mean many young adults may never have written a check.

Check usage has been in decline for decades as Americans have largely switched to paying for their services with credit and debit cards. Americans wrote roughly 3.4 billion checks in 2022, down from nearly 19 billion checks in 1990, according to the Federal Reserve. However, the average size of the checks Americans wrote over the 32-year period rose from $673 in 1990 — or $1,602 in today’s dollars — to $2,652.

The drop in check writing enabled the Federal Reserve to sharply reduce its national check processing infrastructure. In 2003, it ran 45 check-processing locations nationwide; since 2010, it has operated only one.

Rising incidents of check fraud are also making people shy away from check writing. It’s being fueled by organized crime that is forcing small businesses and individuals to take additional safety protections or to avoid sending checks through the mail altogether.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Two swing districts in a swing county may very well decide which party controls the House in the swing state of Pennsylvania, one of several where pivotal legislative battles are playing out in the shadow of the presidential campaign.

Democrat Brian Munroe and Republican Joe Hogan were elected nearly two years ago to their seats in the suburbs north of Philadelphia, winning by margins of 515 and 76 votes, respectively, out of more than 30,000 ballots cast.

Their races this year are among a few dozen nationally that could determine party control in state capitols and, ultimately, who sets public policy on such contentious issues as abortion, guns and transgender rights. The contests are particularly important due to recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have weakened federal regulatory oversight and returned more power to states.

“State legislatures will determine the rights and freedoms we have and the direction our country takes. The stakes couldn’t be higher,” said Daniel Squadron, co-founder of The States Project, which recently announced a $70 million effort to aid Democratic legislative candidates in certain states.

All told, groups aligned with Democrats and Republicans are planning to pour a couple hundred million dollars into state legislative battles. Nearly 5,800 legislative seats in 44 states are up for election this year. The top targets include a half-dozen states where control of a chamber is in play — Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Most of those states also are presidential battlegrounds. In some cases, national political groups are trying to link legislative candidates to the fortunes of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. In others, they are trying to distinguish them from the top of the ticket.

Biden sought to rebound from a poor debate performance by campaigning in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. But his political problems have led some Democrats to suggest he should step aside and raised concern that down-ballot Democrats also could suffer if discouraged Democrats choose not to vote.

Democrats won a slim 102-101 majority in the Pennsylvania House two years ago. But Republicans expressed confidence they can retake the chamber this year, citing inflation, immigration and Biden’s troubles.

“If the election were held tomorrow, I’d feel great about it,” said Pennsylvania state Rep. Josh Kail, head of the campaign efforts for Pennsylvania House Republicans.

The Republican State Leadership Committee already has run ads in Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin pinning inflation on Biden and other Democrats while touting Republican legislative candidates.

Democrats are targeting Wisconsin after a new liberal majority of the state Supreme Court struck down the previous Republican-drawn districts that had entrenched the GOP in power. The new districts, backed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, improve Democrats’ chances.

The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning a half-century of abortion rights showed both the influence of national politics in state elections and the importance of state legislatures. After the ruling, many Republican-led states banned or limited abortion while many Democratic-led states strengthened abortion protections.

The ruling gave Democrats a new campaign theme for the 2022 legislative elections, which were the first conducted under voting districts redrawn using 2020 census data. Democrats wrested control of legislative chambers away from Republicans in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

This year’s reelection bids by Hogan and Munroe are among 15 Pennsylvania House races spotlighted by the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. Both of their Bucks County districts gave slightly more than half their votes to Biden four years ago and a larger margin to Democrats John Fetterman and Josh Shapiro in their 2022 races for U.S. Senate and governor.

“We believe we have a great opportunity not just to protect our majority in the suburbs, but to grow our majority,” Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Matt Bradford said.

Democrat Anna Payne, who is challenging Hogan, sees abortion rights, public safety and school funding as the key issues.

“To some extent, people are looking for common sense,” Payne said. “They don’t want anybody who’s too extreme on one side or too extreme on the other.”

Hogan, a former congressional aid, has burnished a moderate image in the General Assembly, working on childhood education and public transit, among other things.

“I’m willing to work with anybody to do what I think is the right thing,” Hogan said.

Rosemary Donahue, a 77-year-old retired nurse and registered Republican, said she has received mail from Hogan and will be evaluating his performance on such issues as fixing roads, supporting schools and women’s health rights. She regularly follows state and national politics.

“If you watch television, you can’t think of anything else, because you’re constantly being bombarded by the presidential election, advertisements and all,” Donahue said.

Arlene McBride, who recently became one of Munroe’s constituents, said she’ll be watching his race with Bucks County Recorder of Deeds Dan McPhillips to see who is more inclined to preserve the social safety net. She ranks women’s health, education and welcoming immigrants among her top issues.

“Do they care about others or are they strictly for business?” said McBride, 90, a registered Democrat. “It doesn’t seem that those who are strictly for big business really care about the less fortunate.”

Research has shown that many voters know little about their state legislative candidates, so “national politics will probably dominate the state legislative elections,” said Steven Rogers, a political scientist at Saint Louis University who focuses on state legislatures.

While Republicans seek to reverse their 2022 losses, Democrats are pushing to flip closely divided, GOP-led legislative chambers in Arizona and New Hampshire.

Immigration and inflation are especially hot issues in Arizona. And abortion rights supporters recently submitted petition signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. That has raised the stakes in a state where voter registration is divided almost equally among Republicans, independents and Democrats.

“I’m expecting a lot of the national issues — the national dynamics — to really play into the legislative races in Arizona because of our battleground-state status,” said James Strickland a political scientist at Arizona State University.

FILE – A food delivery worker rides down a sidewalk after a pickup from a restaurant in New York on Jan. 29, 2024. DoorDash is stepping up efforts to stop delivery drivers who are breaking traffic laws. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, FILE)

DoorDash said Tuesday that it’s stepping up efforts to identify dangerous delivery drivers and remove them from its platform after a flood of complaints from cities.

In a letter sent last month to DoorDash and other food delivery companies, Boston officials said they were seeing an increase in the unlawful and dangerous operation of motorcycles, mopeds and motorized scooters by delivery workers.

The city said riders were running red lights, traveling the wrong way on one-way streets, exceeding posted speed limits and driving on sidewalks.

San Francisco-based DoorDash said it has created a dedicated point of contact for the Boston Police Department to make it faster and easier to process requests for drivers’ records. The company said it would also consider removing drivers from the platform if police report they have broken traffic laws.

DoorDash said it was starting the effort in Boston but may expand it to other cities.

DoorDash said it’s also partnering with Boston and other cities to share guidance on vehicle registration requirements in multiple languages. It will also warn delivery workers about activities that break local laws, like driving on sidewalks.

“We will remind Dashers that failing to comply with local laws or our standards could lead to removal from our platform,” the company said.

Officials in Boston, New York and other cities have said that in many cases, drivers are using unregistered vehicles for deliveries. Some drivers may also share accounts, so a person with multiple traffic violations might be using a vehicle registered to someone else.

In New York, authorities have seized 13,000 scooters and mopeds so far this year that were unregistered or used to break traffic laws.

“They have terrorized many of our pedestrians, particularly our senior and older adults,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said last month at an event where 200 motorized two-wheeled delivery vehicles were destroyed. “Riders who think the rules don’t apply to them, they’re going to see an aggressive enforcement policy that’s in place.”

In response, DoorDash said it will more frequently prompt drivers to submit a real-time selfie to prove their identity while they’re making deliveries. The selfie is then compared to previously submitted government identification.

DoorDash said it would remove drivers who fail to confirm their identities.

DoorDash wouldn’t say Tuesday how many drivers it typically removes from its platform each year for breaking traffic laws.

FILE – Logo of BMW is seen displayed at the Auto Expo in Greater Noida, near New Delhi, India, Feb. 8, 2018. BMW of North America is recalling more than 390,000 vehicles in the U.S. because an airbag inflator could possibly explode, leading to a potentially serious injury or death. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, file)

WASHINGTON (AP) — BMW of North America is recalling more than 390,000 vehicles in the U.S. because they are equipped with airbag inflators that can explode, leading to a potentially serious injury or death.

The original steering wheel may have been replaced with a sport or M-sport steering wheel equipped with a Takata inflator, the agency said.

If the inflator explodes, it may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants of a vehicle, resulting in serious injury or death, the NHTSA said.

BMW has not received any reports of any accidents or injuries in the U.S. that may be related to this issue, according to the latest report.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Wednesday that the recall of 394,029 vehicles includes certain 2006-2011 3 Series Sedan (324i, 325i, 325xi, 328i, 328xi, 330i, 330xi, 335i, 335xi), 2006-2012 3 Series Sportswagon (325xi, 328i, 328xi), and 2009-2011 3 Series Sedan (335d) vehicles.

BMW dealers will inspect and replace the driver’s air bag module as necessary for free.

Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed on Aug. 23. Vehicle owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417 or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236.