PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A group of Democratic voters is planning to appeal a ruling that Pennsylvania can keep its congressional map despite a challenge that it was improperly gerrymandered. A three-judge panel on Wednesday rejected the argument that the map should be thrown out because it gives a political advantage to Republicans. The verdict came a day after another judicial panel rejected North Carolina’s congressional map. A lawyer in the Pennsylvania case, Alice Ballard, says the U.S. Supreme Court should make the final decision.
Meantime… The Republican leader of the Pennsylvania state Senate is applauding a ruling that leaves in place the state’s congressional district map. State Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati calls Wednesday’s ruling “another affirmation” that the map is constitutional.
He says challenges to the state’s congressional maps should have been put on hold, pending the outcome of a case on political gerrymandering being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 2-1 ruling, judges rejected an argument from a group of Democratic voters that politics should not be considered at all when congressional districts are drawn.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has declared Pennsylvania’s opioid addiction epidemic a public health emergency and ordered a command center set up to treat the crisis like it would a natural disaster. Wolf signed the order Wednesday. His office says seven other states have taken similar actions to address the problem.
A command center is to be set up at the state’s emergency management headquarters in Harrisburg. Wolf’s office says the move provides wider access to the state’s prescription drug monitoring program and makes it easier for medical professionals to get people into treatment more quickly.
It also will let emergency responders to dispense the overdose antidote naloxone when responding to a call for help. Pennsylvania suffered more than 4,600 fatal drug overdoses in 2016, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The state’s rate of drug overdoses is more than twice the national average.
MONACA, Pa. (AP) — An umbrella group for 140 Presbyterian churches is calling for a halt to construction of a planned $6 billion petrochemical, or ethane cracker, plant in western Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Pittsburgh Presbytery represents more than 28,000 members of the Presbyterian Church in Allegheny County. The group sent a letter saying the Shell Chemicals plant in neighboring Beaver County — along with other plants planned for the Ohio Valley — “will be mass producing plastic products” harmful to the environment.
They say it will also increase carbon dioxide emissions and demand for hydraulic fracturing gas wells and pipelines. Shell spokesman Michael Marr said officials are disappointed that members didn’t meet with them to learn about planned environmental controls. He noted that state environmental officials have approved the project.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Penn National Gaming has won the right to put up a casino in southcentral Pennsylvania. It submitted a winning bid Wednesday of just over $50 million, beating out three other bidders. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is auctioning the rights to 10 new mini-casinos as the state government looks for cash to patch up a budget deficit.
The mini-casinos can have 750 slot machines and Penn National plans to pay another $2.5 million to operate 30 table games. Penn National currently operates a full casino in suburban Harrisburg.
The casino would go inside a 30-mile circle that includes the city of York and is bisected by Interstate 83. The center of the circle is the borough of Yoe, about 10 miles from the Maryland border. It must meet licensing requirements before the deal goes through.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Features
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — The legislative body in Stamford, Connecticut, has removed gender pronouns from its written rules. The Board of Representatives voted last week to remove “he/she” and “his/her” from its rules of order, replacing them with specific titles, including president and clerk, the Advocate newspaper reported. The measure passed unanimously with one abstention. The change was proposed by three Democrats elected to the 40-member board in November, including Raven Matherne, the state’s first openly transgender elected official.
It does not change the way the rules are followed or carried out, she said. “It’s an act to acknowledge the members of this board, just as in each of our districts and the city at large, cannot always be described as he or she,” Matherne said. Stamford is the state’s third most populous city, with about 130,000 residents, according to the city’s website. The move gives Stamford the opportunity to set the bar in updating its language to be LGBTQ inclusive, board members said.
“It’s a modernization,” said Democratic board member Benjamin Lee. “Gendered nouns are no longer used as often in legal documents or legislative documents.” The Triangle Community Center in nearby Norwalk, a resource for the region’s LGBT population, welcomes the change.
“This measure will make Stamford’s governing body more welcoming, inclusive and accessible to people of every gender identity, as it should be,” Executive Director Anthony Crisci said.
NEW YORK (AP) — After allegations of sexual misconduct circulated on social media about James Franco, the actor told late-night host Stephen Colbert that the “the things I heard on Twitter are not accurate.” The allegations against Franco were prompted in part by Franco’s best actor in a comedy or musical win Sunday at the Golden Globes for his film “The Disaster Artist.”
At the ceremony, Franco wore a pin supporting the “Time’s Up” initiative for gender equality in Hollywood. Actress Violet Paley said on Twitter that Franco pushed her head toward his groin in a car, and filmmaker Sarah Tither-Kaplan claimed a $100-a-day contract she signed to perform nudity in a film of Franco’s was exploitive. Actress Ally Sheedy also said in a since-deleted tweet that Franco was an example of why she left the movie business.
NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Douglas has come forward to vigorously deny an allegation of sexual misconduct from three decades ago — before the publication of the claim.
The two-time Oscar winner told Deadline that he anticipated an upcoming report would contain an allegation by a former employee that he acted inappropriately in front of her about 32 years ago.
Douglas decided to try “to get ahead of” the story by speaking to Deadline, calling it a “complete lie, fabrication.” He says his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, “has been very supportive.” Douglas says he remembers the former employee who is allegedly making the accusation and calls her “sophisticated intelligent” with a “good sense of humor.” He says he’s had no contact with her in more than 30 years.
NEW YORK (AP) — As more than two dozen men have lost media jobs or projects after sexual misconduct accusations in the last several months, their departures have opened doors for a handful of women. The wave of accusations has led to other changes as well, leading to hopes that newsroom culture is improving for women in media. Digital media company Vice says it will hire more women and pay them the same as men. And more women are speaking up about harassment and unfair pay, and pressing for better treatment.
Historically, there have been far fewer women than men in news organizations. Women have made up about 36 to 38 percent of newspaper newsrooms for roughly the last 20 years, said Scott Reinardy, a journalism professor at the University of Kansas who has studied newsroom employment. In local TV news, it’s more balanced , according to Radio Television Digital News Association research, but men are still more likely to be news directors. And a March 2017 report by the Women’s Media Center , a non-profit group started by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem, found that male journalists got more bylines and reported on-air more often than female counterparts.
PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. (AP) — Country singer Dolly Parton has discarded “Dixie” from the name of a popular dinner show. From now on, the attraction will simply be known as Dolly Parton’s Stampede. Parton said in a statement that the name change was spurred by changing attitudes and “will remove any confusion or concerns about our shows” as the company that operates the attraction expands into new markets.
World Choice Investments LLC currently operates the Stampede dinner show for Parton in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri. World Choice spokesman Pete Owens said Parton is referring shifting attitudes about the word “Dixie” and its connotations. “It has added to confusion in discussions about the expansion of our dinner theaters to new locations across the country and around the world,” he said in a statement.
“Some of our guest comments and comments of developers, in markets around the country with whom we spoke, show a misconception of what our show is. They do not realize The Stampede is a very patriotic, spectacular, horse show with 32 beautiful horses as the stars.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Seven immigration agents filed into a 7-Eleven store before dawn Wednesday, waited for people to go through the checkout line and told arriving customers and a driver delivering beer to wait outside. A federal inspection was underway, they said.
Within 20 minutes, they verified that the cashier had a valid green card and served notice on the owner to produce hiring records in three days that deal with employees’ immigration status.
The well-rehearsed scene, executed with quiet efficiency in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, played out at about 100 7-Eleven stores in 17 states and the District of Columbia, a rolling operation that officials called the largest immigration action against an employer under Donald Trump’s presidency.
The employment audits and interviews with store workers could lead to criminal charges or fines. And they appeared to open a new front in Trump’s expansion of immigration enforcement, which has already brought a 40 percent increase in deportation arrests and pledges to spend billions of dollars on a border wall with Mexico. A top official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the audits were “the first of many” and “a harbinger of what’s to come” for employers.
NEW YORK (AP) — A spirited Dutch duck-luring dog and a friendly French rabbit hound are now running with the American Kennel Club’s pack. The club announced Wednesday that it’s recognizing the Nederlandse kooikerhondje (pronounced NAY’-dehr-lahn-seh KOY’-kehr-hahnd-jeh) and the grand basset griffon Vendeen. They’re the first breeds added to the roster since 2016.
They’re eligible for many dog shows this year but can’t compete at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club show until next year. The Nederlandse kooikerhondje (pronounced goes back hundreds of years in Holland. The smallish, brown-and-white, spaniel-style dogs can be seen in some Dutch Old Master paintings. “They’re actually like a toddler that never grows up,” said breeder D. Ann Knoop-Siderius. She said they are happy, sometimes naughty and “very playful” dogs.”
UNDATED (AP) —The German edition of Playboy magazine says it will feature a transgender model on its cover for the first time. Giuliana Farfalla – born as Pascal Radermacher – is already well-known in the country after appearing as a contestant last year on Heidi Klum’s “Germany’s Next Topmodel” television show. The German Playboy’s editor-in-chief said that putting 21-year-old Farfalla on the cover – topless, as is customary for such magazines in Germany – is in line with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s tradition of being “resolutely opposed to all forms of exclusion and intolerance.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington Post has suspended one of its reporters over a sexual misconduct case. The newspaper benched Joel Achenbach for 90 days without pay. But the Post hasn’t said what it determined he did. Achenbach has released a statement saying he did things that were “unprofessional” and apologized to the women who spoke out against him.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Scores & Skeds
BOYS BASKETBALL
Upper Dauphin 72, Susquenita 27
Williamsport 47, Hollidaysburg 45
GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
Benton 52, Millville 38
Berwick 67, Wilkes-Barre GAR 20
Columbia-Montour 39, Montgomery 37
Jersey Shore 44, Shikellamy 38
Lewisburg 43, Danville 17
Loyalsock 57, Bloomsburg 39
Midd-West 46, Central Mountain 32
Mifflinburg 63, Central Columbia 46
Montoursville 53, Milton 27
Mount Carmel 48, Warrior Run 33
Newport 53, Harrisburg Academy 21
Penns Valley 44, Huntingdon 37
Shamokin 46, Selinsgrove 36
Southern Columbia 52, South Williamsport 23
Sullivan County 58, Muncy 45
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Final Utah 107 Washington 104
Final Dallas 115 Charlotte 111
Final Miami 114 Indiana 106
Final Detroit 114 Brooklyn 80
Final 2OT Chicago 122 N-Y Knicks 119
Final Houston 121 Portland 112
Final Memphis 105 New Orleans 102
Final Minnesota 104 Oklahoma City 88
Final Milwaukee 110 Orlando 103
Final Atlanta 110 Denver 97
Final L.A. Clippers 125 Golden State 106
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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Final Ottawa 4 Toronto 3
Final Minnesota 2 Chicago 1
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TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Final (1) Villanova 89 (10) Xavier 65
Final OT (4) Michigan St. 76 Rutgers 72
Final (7) Duke 87 Pittsburgh 52
Final 2OT Texas 99 (16) TCU 98
Final Louisville 73 (23) Florida St. 69
TODAY’S SPORTS SCHEDULE
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NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Boston at Philadelphia 3:00 p.m.
Cleveland at Toronto 8:00 p.m.
L.A. Clippers at Sacramento 10:00 p.m.
San Antonio at L.A. Lakers 10:30 p.m.
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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Carolina at Washington 7:00 p.m.
Columbus at Buffalo 7:00 p.m.
Calgary at Tampa Bay 7:30 p.m.
———
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
(6) Wichita St. at East Carolina 9:00 p.m.
Oregon at (11) Arizona St. 10:00 p.m.
Portland at (15) Gonzaga 9:00 p.m.
Oregon St. at (17) Arizona 9:00 p.m.
(19) Clemson at NC State 9:00 p.m.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
