WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency will assign artists to treasured bodies of water in the United States under a new program announced Tuesday at a White House-sponsored conference on exploring ways to use the arts and humanities as another instrument for problem-solving.

Leaders from government, the arts, academia and philanthropy gathered in Washington for “Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Summit on Arts and Culture in our Communities.” Panel discussions focused on turning to the arts and humanities to solve challenges, from improving health to bridging divides.

The National Endowment for the Arts and the White House Domestic Policy Council hosted the daylong conference, which was the product of a September 2022 executive order from President Joe Biden.

Neera Tanden, who advises the Democratic president on domestic policy issues, said in an interview with The Associated Press before the summit that the arts help “people to see each other and understand how we’re connected,” which can help “mend the social fabric of the country.”

Maria Rosario Jackson, the NEA chair, in a separate interview said the conference is an “unprecedented opportunity for people from different sectors to come together and lift up and explore some of the things that are possible when one thinks of the arts as not being confined to a narrow sector, but woven and integrated into other things we care about.”

Discussions focused on using the arts and humanities to improve health and infrastructure and promote a healthy democracy. Participants included soprano Renee Fleming and actor Anna Deavere Smith. Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, was also scheduled to participate.

Radhika Fox, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Water, announced the first-ever artist-in-residence program “to unleash the power of arts and culture to support water restoration and climate resilient efforts around the country.”

To start, artists will be embedded in national estuaries and urban waters federal partnerships in six regions of the country: Seattle, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, greater Philadelphia, Boston and the New York-New Jersey area. Each watershed will receive $200,00 to support the artist.

Jackson and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra will co-chair a new government-wide working group on the arts, health and civic infrastructure, working with federal agencies to find ways to include the arts and humanities in these areas. HHS and the NEA have a long history of working together to improve health using the arts, including through music, Becerra said.

NEA is also committing $5 million for an initiative to support the work of artists and arts organizations that contribute to the health and well-being of individuals and communities.

Separately, the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities are collaborating on United We Stand: Connecting through Culture, an initiative that leverages the arts and humanities to combat hate-fueled violence. The program was launched in 2023, a year after Biden convened a similarly named summit at the White House focused on countering violence motivated by hate.

NEH committed $3 million to the program in 2023, and NEA is offering an additional $2 million.

Shelly Lowe, chair of the NEH, said art has an important role to play in the humanities.

“Art gives you a good sense of people’s cultures. That’s through painting, that’s through food, that’s through performances and music,” Lowe said in an interview before the summit. “They’re so tied together it’s hard to separate the two.”

Biden’s executive order said the arts, humanities and museum and library services are essential to the well-being, health, vitality and democracy of the nation.

“They are the soul of America,” Biden wrote in the order, adding that, under his leadership, they “will be integrated into strategies, policies and programs that advance the economic development, well-being and resilience of all communities, especially those that have historically been underserved.”

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro wants to devote millions of dollars to creating a 10-year economic development plan, including developing commercial and industrial sites, revitalizing an aging workforce and better competing with neighboring states to entice big businesses to choose Pennsylvania.

The plan, which Shapiro announced a week out from his formal budget address, seeks to address workforce shortages, ease challenges for startups and tech spinoffs and boost funding for economic development incentives.

Shapiro’s administration will focus its funding in five industries: agriculture, energy, life sciences, manufacturing and robotics and technology.

Shapiro has been eyeing such a strategy since last year, when he told legislators during his inaugural budget address that he was “competitive as hell — and I’m sick and tired of losing to other states.”

The announcement comes as neighboring states are pouring incentives into luring multibillion-dollar microchip, electric vehicle and battery factories. That includes Ohio landing a $20 billion factory by chipmaker Intel in 2022, which officials say has the power to create a new technology hub in the state.

But business-sector officials say Pennsylvania lacks huge tracts of available land to attract such projects.

Shapiro has worked to shorten the wait time to receive licenses and permits, and he has touted Pennsylvania’s role in being awarded federal funding to establish two hydrogen hubs in the state as part of President Joe Biden’s effort to fight climate change.

But challenges still abound. Even though Pennsylvania’s payrolls hit a record high in December, the state’s labor force has lagged behind pre-pandemic levels. The state’s economy is less dynamic than some other states and its workforce is relatively older and slower-growing.

Shapiro has warned that being competitive would take money, and he plans to ask lawmakers for millions to kick start the plan.

A “major investment” would go to site development, building on a pilot program that provided grant funding to do site assessments and prepare land for remediation as a sweetener to commercial and industrial businesses.

For small businesses and commercial corridors, Shapiro is proposing $25 million. Another $3.5 million will create the new Pennsylvania Regional Challenge, which is aimed at incentivizing regional growth. To further develop the workforce and create more internships as a way to keep people in the state, he is asking for $2 million.

Other funds will support start-ups and entrepreneurs, with $10 million set aside for the agricultural industry.

(AP)

Wall Street limped early Tuesday with corporate earnings rolling in and the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate decision imminent.

Futures for the S&P 500 and futures for the Dow Jones industrials each slipped less than 0.2% before the bell.

UPS tumbled more than 7% after the package delivery company unexpectedly dialed back expectations for the year.

General Motors climbed nearly 8% as the automaker’s profit and sales rose by double-digit percentages last year.

Microsoft, Google and Starbucks report their latest financial results after the bell Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, the US reports on job openings for November and the Conference Board releases consumer confidence data for January.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will make its next decision on what to do with interest rates. Most expect the Fed will no make any changes, but there is hope that it may cut rates in March. That would be the first downward move since the Fed began dramatically raising interest rates two years ago to get inflation under control.

There is a lot of evidence suggesting that the Fed may be able to pull off a so-called economic “soft landing” after a period of accelerated inflation. The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge cooled further last month even as the economy kept growing briskly, a trend sure to be welcomed at the White House as President Joe Biden seeks re-election in a race that could pivot on his economic stewardship.

On Friday, the U.S. government will release its monthly jobs report. Economists expect continued growth in hiring, but at a cooler pace. That’s exactly what the Fed wants to see after surging U.S. growth contributed to rising prices.

Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.6%, Germany’s DAX rose 0.2% and the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.5%.

Shares in property developer China Evergrande Group, the world’s most heavily indebted real estate company with more than $300 billion in liabilities, remained suspended from trading after a Hong Kong court ordered the company to be liquidated because it is insolvent.

But shares in China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group closed 4.4% higher after they resumed trading following a suspension on Monday. Evergrande Property Services fell lost 3.9%.

Other property companies led the decline in Hong Kong, where the benchmark Hang Seng index sank 2.3% to 15,703.45. Country Garden tumbled 5.7% and Sunac China Holdings was down 7.1%. Guangzhou R&F Properties lost 5.5%.

Technology companies also retreated, with food delivery company Meituan down 2.8% and e-commerce giant Alibaba falling 2%.

The Shanghai Composite index gave up 1.8% to 2,830.53.

Chinese regulators have been moving to prop up the markets, among the world’s worst performing so far this year, amid worries about the troubled property industry and slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

“Skepticism persists regarding the equity plunge protection plan,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. “While measures akin to a band-aid on a broken leg may temporarily boost stock prices, they do little to stabilize earnings or foster growth.”

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index edged 0.1% higher to 36,065.86 and the Kospi in South Korea edged 0.1% lower, to 2,498.81. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 picked up 0.3% to 7,600.20.

Bangkok’s SET lost 0.2% while India’s Sensex shed 1.1%.

In other trading Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gave back 20 cents at $76.58 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It dropped $1.23 to settle at $76.78 a barrel on Monday.

A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, lost 28 cents to $81.55 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar fell to 147.36 yen from 147.50 yen. The euro rose to $1.0842 from $1.0835.

On Monday, U.S. stocks gained as they kicked off a week where Wall Street’s most influential stocks may show whether the huge expectations built up for them are justified.

The S&P 500 gained 0.8% and the Dow industrials climbed 0.6%. The Nasdaq composite jumped 1.1%.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — U.S. Steel has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the Pittsburgh-based company of violating federal clean air laws by operating plants without its desulfurization controls for more than three months, emitting clouds of sulfurous gas into surrounding towns.

The settlement with environmental groups Clean Air Council and PennEnvironment and the Allegheny County Health Department was filed in federal court Monday for a judge to review, the groups said.

PennEnvironment and the other plaintiffs accused the steel producer of more than 12,000 violations of its air pollution permits.

They put the value of the settlement at $42 million, including $37 million worth of improvements to U.S. Steel’s pollution control and plant reliability systems at its Mon Valley Works plants.

The rest is a $5 million penalty that U.S. Steel agreed to pay to fund clean air efforts. It is one of the largest-ever fines nationally in a citizen-enforced lawsuit under federal clean air laws, Clean Air Council and PennEnvironment said.

“This historic announcement should send a message to all illegal polluters who put the health and environment of Pittsburghers at risk,” David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, said at a news conference Monday. “We will not sit by while illegal air pollution rains down on nearby communities and the Pennsylvanians who live in them.”

U.S. Steel said it regretted the “accidental” emissions and that it strives to comply with environmental regulations.

“When we miss that mark, we will make changes so we can do better,” said Kurt Barshick, the company’s Mon Valley Works vice president, said in a statement.

The environmental groups sued in 2019, after a Christmas Eve fire at the Clairton coke works plant caused $40 million in damage.

The fire damaged pollution control equipment and led to repeated releases of sulfur dioxide, the lawsuit said. Sulfur dioxide is a colorless, pungent byproduct of fossil fuel combustion that can make it hard to breathe.

In the wake of the fire, Allegheny County warned residents to limit outdoor activities, with residents saying for weeks afterward that the air felt acidic, smelled like rotten eggs and was hard to breathe.

The fire knocked out pollution controls at its Mon Valley plants, but U.S. Steel continued to run them anyway, the groups said.

The lawsuit also cited repeated breakdowns at the Clairton plant, including one in 2019 in which the company reported a release of 525,000 pounds of coke oven gas from a pressure release valve. Allegheny County, which is home to Pittsburgh and the Mon Valley Works plants, said U.S. Steel has already spent about half of the $37 million on improvements.

U.S. Steel also must permanently close approximately 60 of the worst polluting coke ovens, the groups said. The ovens turn coal into coke, a raw ingredient in the steelmaking process.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Yesterday’s 3-2 ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to challenge the constitutionality of an older state law that limits the use of Medicaid dollars to cover abortion costs has received at least one major dissenter in the State House of Representatives.

House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler of Lancaster County said in a statement following the decision on Tuesday that  “Pennsylvania law already allows public funds to be used to pay for abortions in case of incest, rape or to protect the life of the mother. This decision, supported by only part of the seven-member court, eviscerates the past, well-established precedent of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and opens the door for tax dollars to pay for all elective abortions.”

Cutler additionally stated that the decision “does nothing but further the divide over such a sensitive topic and will only lead to more mischief and bad faith where lawmakers and other elected officials should be leading with respect and understanding.”

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

The Shell Polymers plant in Monaca will be holding a virtual community meeting tomorrow, Wednesday January 31st, from 7 until 8 PM.

Shell invites any and all community members to attend this meeting where the leadership team will discuss current operations, provide details about recent flaring, and talk about the philanthropic actions that Shell has taken in Beaver County and nearby communities.

Registrations and questions for the meeting can be submitted by going to www.shell.us/poly-e.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

After a week of rising due to the cold spell that fell upon Western Pennsylvania, gas prices once again dipped slightly across the region. According to AAA East Central’s latest report, the average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline has fallen to $3.39. That average is one cent below last week’s $3.40 a gallon, and down a full 48 cents from the average of $3.87 one year ago.

Beaver County once again follows the trends of the region, moving one cent down from $3.47/gallon last week to $3.46/gallon this week. Pittsburgh drops one cent as well from $3.45/gallon to $3.44/gallon, but Butler jumps two cents from $3.47/gallon last week to $3.49/gallon this week.

Conversely, the national average has risen three cents this week to $3.10/gallon according to AAA East Central, due to the overall rising cost of oil.

This week’s average prices: Western Pennsylvania Average                        $3.393
Average price during the week of January 22, 2024                                         $3.401
Average price during the week of January 30, 2023                                         $3.865

The average price of unleaded self-serve gasoline in various areas:      

$3.269      Altoona
$3.463      Beaver
$3.587      Bradford
$3.198      Brookville
$3.494      Butler
$3.340      Clarion
$3.214      DuBois
$3.239      Erie
$3.481      Greensburg
$3.483      Indiana
$3.484      Jeannette
$3.594      Kittanning
$3.490      Latrobe
$3.190      Meadville
$3.349      Mercer
$3.111      New Castle
$3.450      New Kensington
$3.399      Oil City
$3.440      Pittsburgh
$3.279      Sharon
$3.456      Uniontown
$3.599      Warren
$3.434      Washington

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II is getting tired of having his club watch the Super Bowl on TV.

Rooney would rather the Steelers be there in person on the field. And with the franchise riding a seven-year drought since its most recent postseason victory — the team’s longest gap between playoff wins since the 1970 merger — Rooney is getting antsy.

“I think all of us that have been around for a little while are anxious to take this next step and getting a little impatient and we need to see the kind of improvement we all want to see,” Rooney said on Monday.

Pittsburgh used a late-season surge to finish 10-7 and earn a wild-card berth before being quickly sent home in a first-round loss to Buffalo.

There was some speculation outside the building late in the season that longtime coach Mike Tomlin was entertaining taking a break, speculation Tomlin tamped down two weeks ago and Rooney dismissed during his season-ending news conference.

The Steelers and the NFL’s longest-tenured head coach are working on a contract extension that will keep Tomlin in town beyond the 2024 season.

“I think the players still respond to Mike and that’s No. 1,” Rooney said “He still has the key characteristics that we saw when we hired him. He can keep the attention of a group of 20-year-olds for a whole season and keep them in the fight for the whole way. So still feel good about Mike.”

Tomlin is 173-100-2 in 17 seasons with the Steelers and has never finished below .500. Yet Pittsburgh also hasn’t won a playoff game since beating Kansas City in the divisional round after the 2016 season. The Steelers have dropped five straight playoff games, four by at least double digits.

“We’ve had enough of this, it’s time to get some wins, it’s time to take these next steps,” Rooney said.

Steps the Steelers will attempt to take in 2024 with — at least for now — Kenny Pickett at quarterback. Pickett struggled at times during his first full season as the starter and served as the backup over the final two weeks as longtime third-stringer Mason Rudolph helped key a surge that carried the Steelers into the playoffs.

Despite the very obvious growing pains Rooney remains bullish on Pickett, who is under contract for at least two more seasons.

“We still feel good about Kenny Pickett and his future, but he knows he needs to work hard to take the next step,” Rooney said. “And we’ve talked about that and one of the things we liked about Kenny in terms of his career at (the University of Pittsburgh) was how hard he worked and he took a step every year. So we’re looking for that to happen here.”

Rooney indicated the Steelers are also interested in holding on to Rudolph, who can become a free agent in March. He also didn’t rule out bringing in someone else, be it in the draft or on the open market.

“You can’t discount what Mason did and can’t discount the fact that having competition will be good for everybody,” Rooney said. “And I think Mike feels that way and we all feel that way. So I’d say there’s still more to come to see who’s in the room on the quarterback room. We start camp this summer.”

More pressing than figuring out the quarterback room is figuring out who will be the one calling the plays. The Steelers are in the interview process for a new offensive coordinator and have already talked to Houston Texans quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson — himself a former Steeler — and former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith among others.

The goal for whoever gets the job is obvious.

“We need to do everything we can to make sure we get quality play out of our quarterback position going forward,” Rooney said, later adding, “so, somebody that believes in that and comes in and can work with this roster, do what’s kind of already built here in terms of the roster and some of the skill sets that we have; I think that’s what we’re looking for.”

Rooney added the team is finishing up a bid that will allow the club to host the NFL draft at some point in “the not-too-distant future.” The Steelers have also hired consultants to take a look at 22-year-old Acrisure Stadium to see what enhancements can be made to keep the club in the venue down the road.

“We like the stadium, think it is a great facility and with the right kinds of improvements can continue to be our home for a long time,” he said.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court said Monday that a lower court must hear a challenge to the constitutionality of a decades-old state law that limits the use of Medicaid dollars to cover the cost of abortions, a major victory for Planned Parenthood and the abortion clinic operators who sued.

The decision also elicited hope that the state Supreme Court may one day find a right to abortion in Pennsylvania’s constitution after the U.S. Supreme Court ended nearly a half-century of federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade.

The 3-2 decision both overturns a lower court decision to dismiss the case on procedural grounds and puts aside a 1985 state Supreme Court decision that upheld a law banning the use of state Medicaid dollars for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s president and CEO, called the decision a “landmark victory for reproductive freedom.”

The high court’s majority said Monday in a 219-page decision that prior court decisions did not fully consider the breadth of state constitutional protections against discrimination, beyond those provided by the federal constitution.

The lawsuit, brought in 2019 by Planned Parenthood and other operators of abortion clinics, said the 1982 law unconstitutionally discriminates against poor women.

“Today’s ruling is the first step toward ending discriminatory access to care, and we remain committed to removing every barrier to abortion,” Signe Espinoza, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania’s policy arm, said in a statement.

The state House’s Republican floor leader, Rep. Bryan Cutler, had opposed the lawsuit in court and on Monday accused the state Supreme Court of “seeking to overstep its authority and change well-settled law.”

The new ruling does not necessarily find a constitutional right to an abortion in Pennsylvania, where abortion is legal under state law through 23 weeks of pregnancy.

Rather, it turns on the question of whether the state Medicaid law unconstitutionally singled out a procedure sought only by women and differentiated between women who carry to term and women who get an abortion.

Women who get an abortion receive no government funding for the reproductive care they seek, while women who carry to term receive full coverage, the majority opinion said. Seventeen other states cover abortion in their state Medicaid programs, the court said.

The lower Commonwealth Court had said in its 2022 decision that it was bound by the prior state Supreme Court decision in dismissing the lawsuit.

But the majority said the lower court must now reconsider the case under a more stringent constitutional standard.

That part of the majority opinion was written by Justice Christine Donohue and joined by Justices David Wecht and Dougherty. Dissenting were Chief Justice Debra Todd and Justice Sally Mundy, the lone Republican to take part in the decision.

Todd and Mundy disagreed that the high court had issued a flawed decision in 1985. In her dissent, Mundy wrote that the 1985 decision was “well-considered, restrained and appropriate,” and preserved the balance of power between the judicial and legislative branches.

That balance will be upset, however, if the court prevents lawmakers from advancing a state interest — for instance, encouraging childbirth over abortion — by prioritizing how to spend public money, Mundy wrote.

Justices Kevin Brobson and Daniel McCaffery joined the bench after the case was argued and didn’t participate in the decision.

In one part of the majority opinion, Donohue made it clear that she sees a state constitutional right to abortion in the existing structure of Pennsylvania’s constitution.

“We conclude that the Pennsylvania Constitution secures the fundamental right to reproductive autonomy, which includes a right to decide whether to have an abortion or to carry a pregnancy to term,” Donohue wrote.

Wecht joined that part of the opinion. However, the other three justices did not.

Dougherty said he agreed with Todd and Mundy that the case is not about the right to an abortion, but qualified it in his written opinion by saying “at least, not yet.”

David S. Cohen, a constitutional law professor at Drexel University’s law school who helped argue the case, acknowledged that a majority of the court didn’t find a fundamental right to abortion in Pennsylvania.

But, Cohen said, the issue will come back to the court in the future “and we now have a great building block to accomplish that goal.”

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

A New Castle was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to a 66-month prison sentence following a guilty plea for multiple cocaine trafficking offenses, including distributing cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school.

28-year-old Forrest Gilmore admitted in his guilty plea to distributing 450 grams of cocaine and 25 grams of crack between June 2020 and June 2021 throughout the New Castle area, following a prior 60-month trafficking sentence from which Gilmore was released into federal supervision in April 2020. 

This 66-month sentence comes with an additional six years of federal supervision following the completion of his prison sentence.