AP PA headlines, features, scores and skeds – February 1

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidates Paul Mango and Scott Wagner are donating heavily to their campaigns, putting up millions of their own dollars for the right to challenge Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in the November election, according to campaign finance reports disclosed Wednesday.  Wednesday was the deadline for the gubernatorial campaigns to report to state elections officials how they raised and spent money last year.

The campaigns are heading into 2018 with more than $23 million combined in the bank, as the heavy spending season approaches. Mango and Wagner are airing TV ads, likely every day until the May 15 primary election.  Meanwhile, Wolf can nurse his campaign account — at just over $11 million as of Dec. 31 — because he doesn’t have a serious primary challenger. Also in the running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination are state House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, and lawyer Laura Ellsworth. All told, the candidates have marshaled more than $33 million for their campaigns, and spent about $9.5 million last year.

Features

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump reached an audience of 45.6 million people for his first State of the Union address, not enough to give him bragging rights over his predecessor.  The Nielsen company said former President Barack Obama drew 48 million people for his first State of the Union in 2010.  Trump’s audience was down from the 47.7 million people who watched his address to the joint session of Congress last February.

Fox News Channel earned the top spot among the individual networks, with 11.5 million viewers during the speech. It was the first time that Fox News, home of Trump-friendly opinion hosts like Sean Hannity, beat all of the networks for the State of the Union, although Fox also was the network of choice for Trump’s address to Congress last February.

SAUGATUCK, Mich. (AP) — Michael Ryder had been approved for $360 every week in Michigan unemployment benefits — until the state learned he’d been dogging it at the Detroit-area restaurant chain where he supposedly worked.  Ryder is a German Shepherd owned by attorney Michael Haddock on the other side of the state in Saugatuck.

WZZM-TV reports that Haddock received a benefits letter addressed to “Michael Ryder” from Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency. The station says Haddock contacted the agency about the letter.  The agency says its computer system sent the letter, but the claim later was flagged as suspicious and denied.  Investigations administrator Tim Kolar wrote in a tongue-in-cheek email that he knows “first-hand it is rare for ‘man’s best friend’ to contribute financially to the household and that will continue in this instance.”

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Talk about one heckuva an explosive donation.  Authorities say a grenade launcher, loaded with a live grenade, was left with other donated items at a Florida Goodwill store.  The Bradenton Herald reports that employees at a Goodwill store near Tampa reported the weapon on Sunday.

The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office says the store manager told deputies that the grenade launcher had come in a shipment from another store several days earlier. The employees at the other location said they sent it along because they didn’t know what it was.  Deputies say they disposed of the active grenade in a Hazmat locker, and the launcher was stored in the agency’s property room.  It’s not clear who donated the items.”

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — It’s a different type of Nipplegate — one that will end up being decided by New Hampshire’s highest court. The justices will begin hearing arguments today in the case of three women challenging a law in Concord that bars them from going topless on a beach. The women are part of what’s known as the Free the Nipple campaign. They were busted, pardon the pun, in 2016 after they removed their tops at a beach — and refused to put them back on when beachgoers complained.

The women appealed to the state Supreme Court after a district court judge rejected their request to dismiss the case. The woman say there’s no state law that bars women from baring their breast — and call the case against them a matter of gender-based discrimination because men don’t have to cover their nipples.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A lot of people have repeated the vulgar word that President Donald Trump used to describe Haiti and African nations. And while Trump hasn’t lost his job because of the slur, the top lottery official in Illinois is losing his for repeating it. Blair Garber, chairman of the Illinois Lottery Control Board is resigning after tweeting the vulgarity to describe East St. Louis — a mostly black area near St. Louis.

The (Springfield) State Journal-Register first reported about his tweet and his resignation. The paper reports that on Jan. 17, Garber tweeted the vulgarity in a message to country music star Charlie Daniels. That came after Daniels mocked Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who told reporters Trump had used the term.

BAYONNE, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey city that denied a Muslim group’s bid to build a mosque last summer has reached a settlement with the group that will allow the project to proceed. Muslims in Bayonne had filed a federal lawsuit against the city in May, arguing that they were turned down following an onslaught of bigotry.

Federal law enforcement officials then announced they were investigating the city’s decision. Under terms of the settlement, Bayonne will have to pay the group $400,000 — and put the project up for another vote. The Muslim group’s president commended the city for “moving now to correct the wrong that was done.”

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Sports, Scores & Skeds

BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Bucktail 59, Montgomery 58

Carlisle 87, Mifflin County 56

Central Columbia 51, Bloomsburg 39

Central Mountain 64, Selinsgrove 53

Danville 65, Milton 48

Jersey Shore 69, Shikellamy 52

Juniata 45, Lancaster Country Day 42

Loyalsock 67, Lewisburg 43

Montoursville 62, Mifflinburg 46

Shamokin 72, Midd-West 39

Southern Columbia 58, Hughesville 38

Sullivan County 53, Neumann 50

Upper Dauphin 54, Millersburg 48

Warrior Run 66, South Williamsport 64

Williamsport 65, Central Dauphin East 49

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

Big Spring 48, Halifax 24

Juniata 56, Lancaster Country Day 40

Lewisburg 59, Mount Carmel 51

Penns Valley 78, Central Martinsburg 27

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved