HARRISBURG — A Republican-majority county board in rural northern Pennsylvania on Tuesday accused a state senator of creating “unnecessary chaos” in pushing for a detailed review of how the county collected and counted votes in former President Donald Trump’s reelection defeat last year.

The three Tioga County commissioners all read portions of a statement at a board meeting urging state Sen. Doug Mastriano to reverse his demand that Tioga and two other counties turn over election records and equipment to the Intergovernmental Operations Committee he chairs.

“It is time for Sen. Mastriano to withdraw his demands and to let responsible Republicans get back to work on subjects such as recovering from COVID-19, addressing the opioid crisis and the ‘help wanted’ issue,” the statement said.

Mastriano said a week ago he expected to have a committee vote within two weeks on his proposal to subpoena the elections material from the vote last November as well as from the May primary. There are indications he may face opposition from fellow GOP senators — so far he has not issued the public notice required for a committee to vote and Republican leaders in the Senate have not signaled their support.

Democratic-heavy Philadelphia County’s elections board voted unanimously not to comply. Tioga also turned him down. York County, with a strong Republican majority of voters, raised concerns about his demands but has not expressly said yes or no.

In tiny Fulton County, which did allow third parties to examine its election records and equipment earlier this year, the Department of State has decertified its voting machines, leaving the county with the large and unanticipated expense of replacing them. Other counties have been similarly warned against allowing such access.

(NEWSER) – The death toll from devastating floods across parts of western Germany and Belgium rose above 90 on Friday, as the search continued for hundreds of people still unaccounted for and officials warned such disasters could become more common due to climate change. Authorities in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate said 50 people had died there, including at least nine residents of an assisted living facility for people with disabilities, the AP reports. In neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia state, officials put the death toll at 30, but warned that the figure could rise further. Some 1,300 people in Germany were still reported missing, though authorities said efforts to contact them could be hampered by disrupted roads and phone connections.

In a provisional tally, the Belgian death toll has risen to 12, with five people still missing, local authorities and media reported early Friday. The flash floods this week followed days of heavy rainfall which turned streams and streets into raging torrents that swept away cars and caused houses to collapse across the region. President Biden and Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed their sorrow over the loss of life during a news conference at the White House late Thursday. The longtime German leader said she feared that "the full extent of this tragedy will only be seen in the coming days." Rescuers were rushing Friday to help people trapped in their homes in the town of Erftstadt, southwest of Cologne. Regional authorities said several people had died after their houses collapsed due to subsidence, and aerial pictures showed what appeared to be a massive sinkhole.

(NEWSER) – Firefighters in California say that after a "cautious and technical" operation, a woman was rescued from a tiny gap between two buildings. The naked woman had somehow become stuck in the space between two businesses in Santa Ana, Fox 11 reports. Max Benett, the owner of Tim's Auto Repair and Smog, says the space is less than 10 inches wide. "It's big enough for a cat, or maybe a dog, but definitely not a human," he tells the Orange County Register. Firefighters cut through the concrete wall of his business to rescue the woman, who was freed Tuesday afternoon, more than two hours after her cries for help were heard.

Firefighters say workers in the auto shop heard her pleading for help, but because of noise in the business, it took almost 30 minutes for them to find out where the cries were coming from. "The biggest challenge was cutting close enough to actually get her out without pulling her through this tight little space but then also not [letting] any part of that wall come down on her and injure her," says Capt. Thanh Nguyen of the Orange County Fire Authority, per NBC Los Angeles. "She was just right inside here. She was scrunched in there sideways." He says the woman, who was alert and conscious during the rescue, was taken to an area hospital for evaluation. Details on how or why she got stuck haven't yet been revealed.

HARRISBURG — Just one day after Spotlight PA contacted the Department of Labor and Industry with a list of questions about a serious error that overcharged unemployed Pennsylvanians millions of dollars in interest for a decade, the agency announced Friday it will issue refunds to roughly 250,000 people.

Each year, interest accrues on money people owe to the department because, for various reasons, the state overpaid their unemployment benefits. A Spotlight PA investigation found the Department of Labor and Industry, from 2006 to 2016, did not use interest rates set annually by the state revenue department, which ranged between 3% and 8%.

The agency instead charged a fixed, 9% interest rate, because it failed to adjust the number annually in the computer system that processes payments. The department said this was an oversight following a 2005 legal change.

During that time, the state collected millions of dollars in inflated interest charges from hundreds of thousands of unknowing Pennsylvanians. The state made a rough estimate Friday, in response to questions from Spotlight PA, that it owes at least $14 million, saying this amounts to less than $50 for most people.

But former employees at the Department of Labor and Industry tasked with assessing the mistake have for months told Spotlight PA that the agency owes much more money.

According to internal emails and datasets reviewed by Spotlight PA, records obtained from the department through Right-to-Know requests, and corroborative interviews with former labor employees, the state learned about the mistake in late 2016, referring to it as the “interest rate problem.”

Three former employees who began working on the issue in early 2017 told Spotlight PA they were instructed to keep it confidential during the years of aftermath. The employees said numerous refunds were worth more than $500, not $50, and often several thousands of dollars. The highest refund, one said, exceeded $11,000.