PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh: Allegheny County Councilwoman dies
Barbara Daly Danko died Wednesday night due to breast cancer complications. She was 61. She joined the council in 2011 and was elected to a four-year term in November that year. She was running for a second term.
Allentown: PA senator charged with DUI
Last weekend, Sen. Pat Browne (R-Lehigh Valley) crashed his Harley-Davidson, suffering a punctured lung, broken ribs and a foot injury. Browne already has two DUI convictions from the 1990s, and is now charged with two more counts of drunken driving and one count of driving at unsafe speeds.
Butler: Five schools to close
Butler Area School board directors voted to close five of the district’s 11 elementary schools in order to cut $3.5 million from the budget, most of which comes from teachers’ salaries. The consolidation faced major opposition from members of the board, parents and the public.
Statewide: Shale gas tax costs jobs
A study by the American Petroleum Institute states that implementing a shale gas tax would lead to fewer wells, less gas and lost jobs. Gov. Tom Wolf proposes a 5 percent tax on the gas and natural gas extracted from shale wells, with plans to use the money to fund education and environmental protection programs. PA is the only major oil- and gas-producing state not to have a severance tax.
NEW FROM PUBLICSOURCE
Another crude oil train blows up, N.D. town evacuated
Corrections chief: Increased drug treatment means fewer PA inmates
NATIONAL
Four dead in Atlanta plane crash
On Friday, a small plane took off from the DeKalb Peachtree Airport and crashed on an interstate about a mile away. All four passengers were killed.
Deflategate confirmed
A report assembled by attorney Ted Wells, commissioned by the NFL and released Wednesday indicates that Tom Brady, star quarterback of the New England Patriots, likely knew about the inappropriate activities of locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski.
Increasing abortion deterrents
Abortion opposers in Republican-controlled states are making it more difficult for women to terminate pregnancies. This week, Oklahoma passed a law requiring women to wait 72 hours after confirmation via ultrasound before undergoing the procedure. In Florida, it’s 24 hours. In Wisconsin, it’s illegal to terminate after 20 weeks.
WORLD
Conservatives win British election
With 331 seats in Parliament, the Conservatives have five more spots than necessary to form a majority administration and are able to govern without need for agreement with other parties. The Labour Party now holds 232 seats.
IN OTHER NEWS
Humans defeat CMU poker robot
Four of the world’s top-ranked poker players managed to come out with more than $730,000 of winnings against the CMU-designed pokerbot, Claudico, at the “Brains vs. Artificial Intelligence” tournament at the Rivers Casino.
