PENNSYLVANIA

Pittsburgh: Earning a profit

The city is on track to end the year with a surplus of up to $5 million, likely because real estate and income taxes were raised 0.5 mills.

Pittsburgh: Uber fares drop

In an effort to spike demand, Uber lowered the price of service 15 percent on Tuesday. Drivers were not given advance warning and are concerned that the diminished prices won’t create more earnings.

Pittsburgh: Sick pay

New legislation by the Pittsburgh City Council aims to make paid sick leave mandatory. The number of cities that have passed similar laws is growing, and they include Philadelphia, Seattle and San Francisco.

Allentown: Mayor suspends bid for U.S. Senate

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski withdrew from the race after FBI agents searched City Hall as part of a grand jury investigation.

Philadelphia: Foundations donate money to literacy push

The William Penn and Lenfest foundations donated a combined $10.5 million to Philadelphia School District’s $30 million literacy initiative. The money will go toward teacher training, literacy coaches and in-class libraries.

Statewide: Turnpike tolls increase

All tolls will go up by 6 percent starting Jan. 3, 2016. The tolls are used to pay funding requirements and to improve the Turnpike. Tolls are expected to increase yearly.

NATIONAL

Obama turns to Vietnam

Seeking to forge a partnership against China, President Obama welcomed the Communist Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong to the Oval Office on Tuesday to discuss an economic and militaristic alliance. Vietnam is among the nations in the Pacific Rim trade pact.

New CDC report on heroin use

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Tuesday, showing that the heroin epidemic is fueled by new users: women and white Americans between 18 and 25, most of whom make the transition to heroin because of opioid painkillers.

U.S. and Britain denied communication access

The governments are seeking exceptional access to encrypted communications, but an elite panel of code breakers denounced their plans in a report, citing that giving the governments backdoor keys only invites more malicious hacking.

IN OTHER NEWS

Millions of mummies

In the Saqqara site in Cairo, Egypt, archeologists dug up catacombs full of mummies, but not the human kind — they found eight million mummified animals, mostly dogs, who were bred for sacrifice to Anubis.

The daily report was compiled by Stephanie Roman, a PublicSource intern. You can reach her with questions or suggestions at sroman@publicsource.org.

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