AP PA Headlines
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s counties and municipal governments will see another drop in the annual fee revenue they get from Marcellus Shale gas wells. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said Thursday that impact fee revenue from Marcellus Shale wells dropped by almost $15 million to about $173 million.
That’s the lowest annual payment in the six-year history of the impact fee, and the third year of decline. The utility commission says the fee revenue is declining because of a persistent slump in natural gas prices and the increasing age of many of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale wells. Most of the money, about $93 million, goes to county and municipal governments, while smaller amounts are earmarked for environmental improvement programs, roadway repairs and water and sewer infrastructure upgrades.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The League of Women Voters is leading a new lawsuit seeking to throw out the map of Pennsylvania’s congressional districts as an unconstitutional gerrymander that favors Republicans and violates the rights of Democratic voters. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in the state Commonwealth Court. It is the first to challenge districts originally drawn by Republican state lawmakers in 2011. It says Pennsylvania’s map is one of the worst gerrymanders in the country.
Republicans fill 13 of Pennsylvania’s 18 seats in the U.S. House, despite winning roughly half of the statewide congressional vote in three ensuing congressional elections. The lawsuit says the new map packs Democratic voters into five districts, taking such extreme measures as shifting whole cities into Democrat-heavy districts to make other districts more Republican friendly.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania is agreeing to a second set of steps to try to ensure mentally ill defendants don’t suffer long stays in jail before getting transferred to a treatment unit. U.S. District Judge Sylvia Rambo told lawyers Thursday that she’d approve a plan for the state Department of Human Services to pay for about 110 more treatment beds and hire consultants to recommend how to reduce the waiting list for treatment.
Civil rights lawyers say waits sometimes exceeding a year in jail amount to hundreds of daily violations of constitutional rights and are likely the longest in the nation for mentally ill defendants. In a filing last month, they accused the department of “foot-dragging” on commitments it made more than a year ago to settle a 2015 lawsuit.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania is joining other states in an investigation into how manufacturers have marketed and sold opioids during an addiction crisis that killed thousands of state residents last year. Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Thursday a majority of his counterparts in other states have joined the probe.
He’s not revealing details, including whether the investigation is civil or criminal, or who the targets are. Shapiro says subpoenas are being used to obtain documents and testimony. AThe U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says more than 4,600 Pennsylvanians died of drug overdoses last year, a jump of more than one third from 2015. Most of them were caused by heroin and other opioids..
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
