….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.