State News-Monday, Oct. 16th

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Republican Senator Rick Santorum and Democratic challenger Bob Casey will square off not once but twice today in Philadelphia. The candidates plan a live discussion on K-Y-W A-M in the morning, before meeting up again tonight at a debate at the National Constitution Center. Casey, the state treasurer, has been leading Santorum in the polls leading into next month's contest. The race is being closely watched across the country as Democrats seek to pick up seats and regain majority status in Congress.

MEDIA (AP) - Congressman Curt Weldon, who's the subject of an F-B-I influence-peddling investigation, plans a stop in Media this morning for a meeting on airport traffic. Weldon, vice chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is expected to be joined by Deputy Secretary of Transportation Maria Cino. The meeting concerns plans to redesign the air space around Philadelphia International Airport. Weldon, a ten-term Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs, is under investigation for allegedly steering foreign contracts worth one (m) million dollars to his daughter Karen Weldon.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - With just a few legislative voting days left on the fall calendar, state lawmakers still haven't resolved differences over lobbyist disclosure rules, slots and other issues. Because of the November seventh election, this is the last week for legislators to act if the bills are to reach the governor's desk this year for action. Other issues that some lawmakers have championed, from cutting health insurance costs to dropping barriers to cable T-V competition, are certain to have to wait for a new General Assembly, which will be seated in January with dozens of new faces.

MILWAUKEE (AP) - A published report says the Oshkosh Truck Corporation plans to buy a western Pennsylvania company that makes work platforms and booms in a deal worth about three (b) billion. The Wall Street Journal reports that Oshkosh Truck is buying J-L-G Industries, which is based in McConnellsburg. The acquisition positions the Wisconsin-based truck maker to benefit from a global boom in nonresidential construction. J-L-G's products include equipment that lifts workers and heavy materials several stories into the air. Oshkosh Truck makes military, fire, garbage and concrete trucks.

WASHINGTON (AP) - America's six largest automakers, which are heavy users of steel, are banding together to end tariffs on foreign steel. Daimler-Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan and Toyota have appealed to the U-S International Trade Commission to lift duties imposed on galvanized steel in 1993. A hearing is set for Tuesday. But the American Iron and Steel Institute says tariffs aren't protecting a dying industry but keeping the competition fair with heavily subsidized foreign steel. Mittal Steel Company in the Netherlands, Nucor Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina and Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corporation each produce about 20 (m) million tons of steel a year in the United States.