PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh: New jail health system to employ more psychiatrists
The Allegheny County Jail recently teamed up with Allegheny Health Network to improve health care at the jail. The plan is more expensive than the previous arrangement with Corizon Health, but it will include more services for mental illness.
Bristol: Turnpike tolls
The method for collecting tolls at the Pennsylvania-New Jersey crossing will see a drastic change at the start of next year. Everything will be electronic, so people with E-ZPasses can continue as normal. License plate photos will be taken of those without them; they’ll then receive a bill in the mail.
Erie: Drug-related deaths on the rise
The Erie County coroner’s report indicates that 60 people died in the county from drug-related deaths last year, with half of them attributed to heroin. Drugs caused more fatal vehicle accidents than alcohol did.
Harrisburg: Former Steelton Water chief operator charged
Daniel Scheitrum is charged with tampering with public records related to the safety of drinking water. He was in charge of reporting data to the Department of Environmental Protection, but the Steelton Water Treatment Plant was consistently cited by the agency for failing to report critical information. If convicted, Scheitrum faces up to three years behind bars and fines.
Statewide: PA has more low-income households than national average
The Brookings Institution report shows that in most small cities the bottom 20 percent and top 5 percent are overrepresented, but in Pennsylvania, households in the low-income bracket make an even higher showing. More than 40 percent of Reading households make less than $21,000 a year.
NATIONAL
Tragedy in Charleston, S.C.
Nine people were shot and killed Wednesday during prayer service, and more are injured. Dylann Roof, the suspect behind the murder of six women and three men at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, is in custody as of Thursday afternoon. The Justice Department is investigating the shooting as a hate crime.
Brian Williams gets a second chance
The longtime “NBC Nightly News” anchor won’t return to that position, as it’s been handed permanently to his stand-in, Lester Holt, but NBC News said he’ll return in a different role. Williams will now be a breaking news and special report anchor for MSNBC.
A woman on the $10 bill
Will it be Harriet Tubman? Eleanor Roosevelt? Whoever it is, the U.S. Treasury announced that Alexander Hamilton’s face will play second fiddle to a woman’s visage, and the new $10 bills will circulate in 2020 as part of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
WORLD
Pope Francis’ encyclical
The new papal encyclical acknowledges that humans are causing global warming. “The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish,” the pope wrote.
IN OTHER NEWS
Pittsburgh: Unusual ketchup tastes
Old Heinz ketchup bottles might have QR codes on them that are supposed to link to a contest page, but the promotion ended in 2014. A German man scanned the code and got something entirely different: a porn website, which evidently obtained the QR code after Heinz.
The battle over an 8,500-year-old man
The Kennewick Man was found in 1996 with a 9,000-year-old spear lodged in his hip. Although originally considered Caucasian, a Texas A&M study thought him to come from Asian descent. But new DNA testing reveals he’s Native American, and his genetically-related tribal group wants custody of his remains so they can bury him.
The daily report was compiled by Stephanie Roman, a PublicSource intern. You can reach her with questions or suggestions at sroman@publicsource.org.