[ad_1]
Bridge preservation work in Westmoreland County will bring nightly single-lane restrictions.
Crws are scheduled to lay epoxy on 28 bridges in Donegal, Derry, Lignoier and Unity townships beginning Wednesday night and continuing through Sept. 14, PennDOT officials say.
Single-lane restrictions will last one-to-two days per bridge.
These are the impacted locations:
Route 2002 (Main Street) – between Route 31 and Route 711
Route 981 – between Industrial Boulevard and Freddie Road/Menasha Lane
Route 982 – between Mission Road and Route 982/30 interchange
Route 30 – between West Main Street and Walnut Street
Route 30 – between Route 381 and California Avenue
Route 119 – between Cemetery Road and Dayok Farm Lane
Route 22 – between Ravine Park Road/Stoney Run Road to Jonnel Road
Officials say work is weather and operationally dependent.
The bridge preservation work is part of a $1.4 million infrastructure investment.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
[ad_2]
[ad_1]
Here’s what you need to know about the police action that will make it harder to find a burrito after you leave the bars.
Food trucks outside of Improper City during the soft opening of their new RiNo location. Five Points, July 9, 2018. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)
Burrito? Gyro? Burger? Nope.
Over the weekend, food truck operators learned the police would be banning their food trucks from parking in parts of Lower Downtown from Friday through Sunday, 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.
The effort is one of several police experiments meant to curb late-night gun violence in the entertainment district.
In recent years, downtown Denver has suffered from a reputation as a violent place. Violent crime spiked for the city with the pandemic. Late nights have been marked by some of the worst violence — with both police officers and others opening fire. And while overall crime rates have been trending back down for downtown and elsewhere, businesses have been hurting.
“Protecting the public safety of residents and visitors is a critical priority for the administration,” explained Jordan Fuja, a spokesperson for Mayor Mike Johnston. “This new policy is aimed at dispersing food trucks around the area to prevent large crowds and potential violence.”
Lately, officers have been roaming LoDo on weekend nights. They’ve learned that violence erupts when crowds are leaving nightclubs and bars, head to the food trucks for a bite, and then bump into each other.
“The restricted area of operation is intended to help reduce the number of ‘bump into’ fights and incidents that escalate to gun violence … and to encourage people to leave the LoDo area soon after the bars and nightclubs shut down,” explained a department spokesperson.
Some food truck owners, who rely on those late night crowds, are scrambling for another place to set up, KDVR reported. DPD says that it “recognizes” those concerns and has tried to minimize the affected area.
The police are launching a pilot program to create a few zones around LoDo where food trucks will definitely be allowed to congregate. The details are still being worked out.
The business booster group, the Downtown Denver Partnership, supports the policy as a violence prevention effort, stressing that it just covers a three-block area.
The city is also increasing officer staffing beyond the higher levels that already patrol LoDo on Friday and Saturday nights; improving lighting; and talking more often with the managers of bars and nightclubs in the area.
The agency also created rideshare pickup zones in July, instead of allowing people to hail rides from anywhere in the area. Putting those into action has shaved off more than 30 minutes from the time people typically stay in LoDo after leaving the bars and clubs, according to police.
The hope is that adding these safety measures will make downtown feel accessible and safe to more people.
Food trucks will still have a place downtown. And the move to block them from certain areas of LoDo is experimental.
“Food trucks are an integral part of Denver’s food scene and culture,” Fuja said. “We will work closely with the business owners to ensure that they continue to see success and can adapt to this pilot program.”
Thoughts on the new policy, or the late-nite LoDo vibe? Let us know.
[ad_2]
Kyle Harris
Source link
[ad_1]
Orlando City Council has voted to pass new and permanent mandates on nightlife in downtown Orlando Monday.
The Council passed a new ordinance, taking effect this fall, that will permanently limit the opening of new nightclubs to one nightclub per block in Orlando’s downtown entertainment area, requiring a 300-foot distance between each new club.
City Council voted unanimously to pass this new ordinance. This was the second vote on the ordinance; the first reading last month moved forward with a 6-1 vote in favor of passing. The sole dissenting voice then, District 2 commissioner Tony Ortiz, switched his vote at Monday’s meeting.
Existing nightclubs that don’t conform to this distance limit would be grandfathered in under the proposal, although they could be prevented from expanding under these rules.
Concurrently, Orlando City Commissioners lifted a moratorium on new bar and nightclub construction. But any new construction would be potentially hamstrung by these limitations.
City leaders made the case that the new rule is another step towards a “safer” and more family-friendly downtown
During the meeting, District 4 commissioner Patty Sheehan did a little bit of pearl-clutching about the supposed dangers of downtown Orlando: “We just have too many bars and too much going on — and I walk through downtown, sometimes. I see the craziness. I hear the craziness!”
Beacham property owner Margaret Casscells-Hamby told Central Florida Public Media that perhaps the Council doesn’t understand the attraction of downtown Orlando for locals: “The people who are trying to — who are wishing this — to happen don’t understand the market. Because the people who come downtown love having fun. … They’re in their 20s, they’re in their 30s. They come from all walks of life.”
This new rule takes effect on Saturday, Sept. 21.
Subscribe to Orlando Weekly newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
[ad_2]
Matthew Moyer
Source link
[ad_1]
[ad_2]
AggregatedNews
Source link
[ad_1]
If Donald Trump were to be elected president in 2024, what would it mean for U.S. tax policy and the national debt?
There are growing expectations that he could deliver another round of big tax cuts, with the reductions coming right as those enacted in 2017’s Tax Cut and Jobs Act are due to expire in 2025.
“If Republicans hold their House…
[ad_2]
[ad_1]
European Union countries are meant to have placed an array of sanctions on Russia, preventing exports of a host of goods and services, ranging from high-end machinery to luxury cars, to the country in the wake of its unprovoked 2022 invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
And official data do show that EU exports to Russia have slumped, by 31% during the first five months of the year.
But, curiously, exports from EU countries to Russia’s neighbors have surged.
Take Germany, for instance, whose exports to Kazakhstan are up 105% on a year-over-year basis. German exports to Central Asia and Belarus are up 75%.
“Not all of this stuff is going to Russia. But a lot of it probably is,” tweeted Robin Brooks, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, who produced the chart.
And it’s not just Germany. Sweden also has seen a surge of exports to Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary have boosted exports to Kyrgyzstan.
Read on:
[ad_2]
[ad_1]
A big mound of fresh dirt sits at Terry Taylor’s marijuana farm in the high desert of north-central Washington state. Each hole for a new plant gets filled with the clean soil.
Large swaths of recently installed landscape fabric cover the ground, and soon the dirt roads on his property will be covered in crushed rock to keep contaminated dust from covering the crops.
Taylor’s pot farm is one of several getting back to business after state regulators halted their operations in April, citing product testing that turned up unacceptable levels of chemicals related to DDT, a synthetic pesticide banned half a century ago.
The affected growers haven’t used the pesticide themselves, but they are located on a 5-mile (8-kilometer) stretch of former fruit orchards along the Okanogan River where it was applied heavily and remains in the soil.
The Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board announced last week it had lifted the holds on the businesses, which are now taking steps with state financial support to keep the residual pesticide at bay and rebuild their brands. The board said it will increase pesticide testing for cannabis from the area.
“I haven’t sold any product since April,” said Taylor, who operates two licensed cannabis producer-processors, Okanogan Gold and Kibble Junction. “It’s just destroyed us. No one wants to buy it.”
Taylor, 58, said he’s been living off savings since April. His income has been about one-tenth of what it was previously. He normally has about six…
[ad_2]
MMP News Author
Source link
[ad_1]
The European Union’s ban on seaborne imports of Russian oil, along with the Group of Seven’s plan to cap prices of oil from Russia early next month won’t guarantee that prices for the commodity will see a lasting rally, or that supplies will tighten further in the days ahead.
“In isolation, the sanctions on Russia should be bullish for prices,” says Matt Smith, lead oil analyst, Americas, at Kpler. However, they may have a limited effect, as Russian barrels get “rerouted and not taken off the market,” while a price cap still has so much uncertainty surrounding it that its impact may be “muted due to workarounds or may simply be ineffective.”
[ad_2]
[ad_1]
Donald Trump will seek the presidency for a third time in 2024, the former president announced in a speech from his Florida estate Tuesday night, paving the way for a contentious Republican primary and a potential rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden for the White House in two years.
“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump said from Mar-a-Lago.
The former president spoke a week after midterm elections that saw Democrats keep the Senate, and a number of candidates backed by him lost their races, such as Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and that state’s GOP gubernatorial candidate, Doug Mastriano. That’s prompted debate about moving on from Trump as the party eyes its 2024 chances.
Now read: Trump vs. DeSantis: Midterm election results shake up the Republican 2024 field
Trump — who a House panel has charged with a conspiracy aimed overturning the 2020 presidential election — is likely to face a crowded field in the contest for the GOP presidential nomination, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis seen at this stage as his most formidable opponent. Other potential candidates include former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
See: Here’s how candidates endorsed by Trump performed in the midterm elections
Trump may view DeSantis as posing his most daunting challenge, given the energy he has spent since the midterm elections lashing out at the the Florida governor. The former president remains a popular figure in the Republican Party and has proven himself adept at sidelining rivals for the affection of the GOP base.
Speaking to a crowded room at Mar-a-Lago, Trump bashed the Biden administration and claimed, “we built the greatest economy in the history of the world.” Under Biden, he said, the U.S. is a “nation in decline.” Biden fired back in a video posted on Twitter as Trump was speaking: “Donald Trump failed America.”
“America’s comeback starts right now,” Trump said. “I will fight like I’ve never fought before.”
During his White House term, Trump presided over impressive gains in the stock market, with the 24.2% rise in the Nasdaq
COMP,
ranking as the best ever during a presidential term since the index made its debut in the early 1970s. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
gained 11.8% and the S&P 500
SPX,
rose 13.7% during the four-year span.
Read:Stock-market performance under Trump trails only Obama and Clinton
Some of those gains can be attributed to Trump’s signature legislative achievement: a major corporate-tax cut that saw the top federal rate slashed from 35% to 21%, padding corporate profits and making the shares of large U.S. companies more valuable, often via share buybacks.
Investors were less enthusiastic about the former president’s trade war with China — a high-profile standoff that often sent stocks tumbling on news of new trade restrictions, or soaring on the perception of easing tensions.
From the archives (May 2020): Trade-war collateral damage: destruction of $1.7 trillion in U.S. companies’ market value
The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the focus of policy makers in both countries, and Biden has largely kept the tariffs his predecessor put in place. Despite these restrictions, the U.S. trade deficit in goods with China set a record of $355 billion in 2021.
Trump on Tuesday said he wants to eliminate the U.S.’s dependence on China, by bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. He also falsely claimed that inflation is at a 50-year high — it is at a 40-year high.
Economic policy often took a back seat to the various scandals that plagued Trump in his tumultuous term in office, when he became the first president to ever be impeached twice by the House of Representatives.
The first impeachment resulted from a 2019 phone call when he asked Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky for a “favor” in announcing the launch of an investigation into Biden, then viewed as a likely Trump rival in the 2020 election. Democrats alleged that Trump withheld aid approved by Congress in an effort to ensure an investigation was announced.
The second impeachment of Trump followed the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, with a bipartisan majority in the House arguing that he encouraged the attack.
The former president’s legal troubles have not abated since he left office, and he’s facing several state and local investigations, civil and criminal, while some experts believe he will be indicted by Attorney General Merrick Garland for mishandling defense secrets and obstruction of justice after an FBI raid appeared to show that he lied to the government about classified documents in his possession.
[ad_2]
