Ex-Trump campaign chairman registers as foreign agent

Ex-Trump campaign chairman registers as foreign agent

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for political consulting work he did for a Ukrainian political party, acknowledging he coached party members on how to interact with U.S. government officials.

Manafort says in the filing posted online by The Washington Post that his firm received more than $17 million from the Party of Regions, the former pro-Russian ruling party in Ukraine, for consulting work from 2012 through 2014.

EPA chief met with Dow before deciding on pesticide ban

WASHINGTON

Records show the Trump administration’s top environmental official met privately with the chief executive of Dow Chemical shortly before reversing his agency’s push to ban a widely-used pesticide after health studies showed it can harm children’s brains.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt’s schedule shows he meet with Dow CEO Andrew Liveris for about a half hour March 9 during a conference held a Houston hotel.

Twenty days later Pruitt announced his decision to deny a petition to ban Dow’s chlorpyrifos pesticide from being sprayed on food, despite a review by his agency’s scientists that concluded ingesting even minuscule amounts of the chemical can interfere with the brain development of fetuses and infants.

FDA looks to boost generic competition, limit prices

WASHINGTON

The Food and Drug Administration is making moves to boost the number of generic prescription drugs on sale.

The goal is to make medicines more affordable and prevent price gouging. The FDA will give priority reviews to new generic drugs until there at least three on the market.

High court term ended much different than it began

WASHINGTON

The Supreme Court began its term nine months ago with Merrick Garland nominated to the bench, Hillary Clinton favored to be the next president and the court poised to be controlled by Democratic appointees for the first time in 50 years.

Things looked very different when the justices wrapped up their work this week.

The court’s final decisions and orders were almost emphatic declarations, if there had been any doubt, that this is once again a conservative-leaning court that may only move more to the right in the years to come.

The justices gave President Donald Trump the go-ahead to start enforcing at least part of his travel ban, showed that the wall between church and state is perhaps not as high as it once was and invigorated a baker’s religion-based refusal to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

Associated Press

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Alcoa Inc., .1231.660.48

Aqua America, .71 33.53-0.16

Avalon Holdings,2.44-0.01

Chemical Bank, .2747.030.77Community Health Sys. 9.58 0.23

Cortland Bancorp, .2818.250.05

Farmers Nat., .1614.250.00

First Energy, 1.44 29.70-0.39

Fifth/Third, .5225.120.30

FirstMerit Corp.,--

First Niles Financial, .1210.00-1.15

FNB Corp., .4813.820.06

General Motors, 1.5234.19-0.33

General Electric, .9227.20-0.41

Huntington Bank, .28 12.910.12

iHeartMedia Inc.,1.55-0.05

JP Morgan Chase, 1.9288.060.82

Key Corp, .3418.200.08

LaFarge, .34--

Macy’s, 1.51 23.080.61

Parker Hannifin, 2.52 156.31-0.76

PNC, 2.20121.120.74

Simon Prop. Grp., 6.60162.462.01

Stoneridge 14.97-0.26

United Comm. Fin., .12 7.95-0.01

Selected prices from Tuesday’s 4 p.m. close.