HARRISBURG — A hunting group has asked a federal judge to throw out Pennsylvania's long-standing ban on Sunday hunting.

Hunters United for Sunday Hunting filed suit against the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the agency that enforces the state's game code.

The Lancaster County-based group says the state's ban on most types of hunting on Sunday is unconstitutional. The group contends the ban costs hunters an “irreparable loss” of time in the field.

Legislation that would have permitted hunting on Sundays died two years ago amid opposition from the state Farm Bureau. The farm bureau has said many people support preserving one day a week when people can be outside without running into hunters or hearing gunfire.

PITTSBURGH — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with XTO Energy over alleged violations of the Clean Water Act stemming from a spill of gas drilling wastewater in central Pennsylvania.The EPA says in a Thursday release that XTO agreed to pay a $100,000 penalty and spend an estimated $20 million to improve its wastewater management in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The alleged violations were at XTO's Lycoming County facility.The EPA says the pollution was found in a tributary of the Susquehanna River.XTO says the spill had no lasting environmental impact and that most of the improvements are in place.

KITTANNING — A former police chief has been sentenced to nine to 27 months in prison after pleading guilty to the theft and sale of a police gun and equipment.Paul Breznican Jr., 53, of Apollo was sentenced Thursday in Armstrong County Court.Breznican was arrested in July 2012 on charges he sold an AR-15 police rifle purchased with federal grant money and pocketed the cash. He pleaded guilty in May.Breznican joined the Apollo police department in the late 1990s. He was fired last November.