Representative Robert Matzie speaks with the press. Governor Tom Wolf today joined students, educators and elected officials in the Aliquippa School District in Beaver County to celebrate the administration’s historic $3.7 billion investment in public education over the past eight years. SEPTEMBER 22, 2022 – ALIQUIPPA, PA

Would allow residents to benefit from community solar projects 

HARRISBURG, Feb. 15 – The Pennsylvania House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee heard testimony Wednesday on legislation (H.B. 1842) that would create a community solar program in Pennsylvania, according to the committee’s majority chairman, state Rep. Rob Matzie.

Matzie said agency staff, industry representatives and other stakeholders shared potential benefits – and some concerns – about the bill, which would allow residents who are unable to install their own solar equipment to subscribe to a community-generated solar program. 

“We heard a lot of promising information about what community solar could do for PA in terms of job creation, reduced ratepayer costs, greater energy independence and new revenue sources for landowners like farmers,” Matzie said. “But we also heard concerns regarding ensuring that costs are not shifted to customers who choose not to participate.

“Having an all-energy portfolio that isn’t reliant on a single source is important for PA’s energy independence and for ensuring that we continue to export energy now and in the decades to come. But, as with all legislation we review, our committee is going to act deliberately and carefully, getting a dialogue moving and ensuring that any legislation we advance is crafted to protect PA consumers.”

(Photo courtesy of Rep. Deluzio’s Office)

CARNEGIE, PA — Yesterday, Congressman Chris Deluzio (PA-17) visited the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Moon Township to learn about their work to protect his constituents’ lives and property in Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District, as well as in 35 counties in Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and Northern West Virginia. The NWS is under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is under the umbrella of the United States Department of Commerce. Congressman Deluzio took the opportunity to highlight ways that his constituents can be safe, prepared, and weather ready.

“Western Pennsylvania can get slippy and snowy, and we experience all kinds of extreme weather, so I want to thank our first responders for all they do to help the public during major weather events,” said Rep. Deluzio. “It’s my job, and the job of the National Weather Service here in Western PA, to inform people on what’s coming our way and to help them be prepared. This winter, I urge Western Pennsylvanians to be weather ready: that means check the forecast, store three days of water and food, modify plans or equipment for safety as necessary, and make an emergency plan for your household.”

“Our region experiences many types of hazardous weather, including winter storms, river flooding, thunderstorms and tornadoes,” said Jeff Craven, meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service forecast office in Pittsburgh. “Western Pennsylvanians can increase their resilience to extreme weather through a few simple steps: prepare in advance, check the forecast at weather.gov, and modify plans when necessary to prioritize safety. The National Weather Service is on duty to support local public safety decisions 24/7, 365 days per year, and we thank Representative Deluzio for visiting our office to amplify the importance of weather preparedness.

(File Photo)

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) and U.S. Representatives Chris Deluzio (D-PA-17) and Summer Lee (D-PA-12) announced that Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) is receiving $5,300,000 in new infrastructure funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Airport Terminal Program, created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“As Pittsburgh International Airport continues to grow, improving the passenger experience is critical,” said Senator Casey. “This funding not only gets passengers where they’re going faster but helps secure PIT’s role as a gateway to Southwestern Pennsylvania’s future economic success.”  

“I am proud to join with Senator Casey and my colleagues to announce this multimillion-dollar grant from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the Pittsburgh International Airport,” said Senator Fetterman. “This funding is another great example of how the Biden administration is delivering wins for Pennsylvania infrastructure and the economy of our Commonwealth.”

 “Thrilled that the Infrastructure Law is delivering even more for folks in Western Pennsylvania,” said Rep. Deluzio. “This $5.3 million investment from the Airport Terminal Program will help make the new landside terminal building at Pittsburgh International Airport a reality—improving customer service and boosting our local economy.”

 “Two weeks ago, when Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came to Pittsburgh to talk about the investment we brought home to fix the I-376 Eastern Parkway, we made our case for additional funding for Pittsburgh’s airport modernization,” said Rep. Summer Lee (PA-12). “I am glad that, just two weeks later, we were able to secure $5 million to build improvements to our airport. This funding will not just create more good union jobs, but will lead to a more connected, thriving region.”

The funding for Pittsburgh International Airport will be used to fund a component of the construction of a new 700,000 square foot landside terminal which will improve passenger experience by reducing the proximity between ticketing, security, and gates by half a mile and improve Pittsburgh International Airport’s ability to secure additional flights, including nonstop.

(File Photo)

Story by Sandy Giordano, Beaver County Radio News

(Ambridge, Pa.) Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano is reporting that the Ambridge Borough Council has approved Bronder Technical Services, inc. to perform the Merchant Street streetscape project in the borough that will begin at 8th Street and end at 12th St. Cost of the bid is $3,785, 168.94.

In other business Park benches and picnic tables for Henning Park will be purchased from Barco Products , Six picnic tables and 6 park benches  will cost $8,000.00 plus shipping.

A keycode agreement with the Beaver County Humane Society was also approved to allow access 24 hours a day as needed by the police department.

Council’s work session is Tuesday, February 27, 2024 at 6:30 p.m.

FILE – In this Feb. 24, 2019, file photo, containers of Roundup are displayed on a store shelf in San Francisco. The Bayer Corporation has spent more than $10 billion to settle lawsuits that claim the popular weed killer Roundup causes cancer. But a single verdict in Philadelphia this year has topped $2 billion and thousands of cases are still to come. Bayer calls the recent verdict “excessive” and insists Roundup is safe. However, it has reformulated the consumer version to remove a pesticide called glyphosate. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — When a Philadelphia jury awarded $2.25 billion in damages this year in a case that linked Roundup to a cable technician’s blood cancer, the verdict became the largest yet in the long-running litigation over the popular Monsanto weed killer.
Corporate parent Bayer had set aside more than $10 billion in 2020 to settle about 125,000 cases, many consolidated in California. And it won a string of nine individual lawsuits that started going to trial in 2021. But the tide changed last year when juries began handing down nine- and 10-figure awards to plaintiffs who had developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“They try to show that non-Hodgkin lymphoma is just something that happens randomly,” said lawyer Tom Kline, who represented the Philadelphia plaintiff with co-counsel Jason Itkin. “(But) the arc of the scientific literature has turned against Monsanto in the past seven years.”
Thousands of cases remain, including one under way in Delaware over a South Carolina groundskeeper’s cancer death. Bayer insists the weed killer is safe, but has reformulated the version sold to consumers to remove the pesticide known as glyphosate.
“Bayer will continue to try cases based on the overwhelming weight of science and the assessments of leading health and scientific regulators worldwide, including E.P.A., that support the safety and non-carcinogenicity of Roundup,” the Berlin-based company said in a statement, referring to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Kline argued that Bayer ignored known health risks from glyphosate to keep Roundup on the market, failing to even warn consumers to wear gloves and protective clothing when they used it. He and Itkin obtained a $175 million verdict in another Roundup case in Philadelphia last fall.
Their latest client, John McKivison, told jurors in January that he used the product for 20 years — at a former warehouse job, on a deer food patch he tended at his home near Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and at the church and Little League where he volunteered. He said he mixed the concentrated version of Roundup into a spray bottle, which sometimes led to spills that soaked his skin.
McKivison’s cancer is in remission but he said he fears a relapse and at 49 spends his days “worrying, wondering and waiting.”
The jury awarded him $250 million in actual damages, then penciled in an additional “2 billion dollars” for punitive damages, the verdict slip shows. The jury foreman, a college librarian, declined to comment while other Roundup cases are still playing out.
Bayer, in a 174-page post-trial motion filed this month, called the jury award “excessive” and the ground rules in Philadelphia courts unfair. The company, for instance, said there was no evidence McKivison had suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in actual losses.
And the company continues to challenge the central claim that glyphosate causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma, pointing to studies that say it occurs at the same rate in Roundup users as the general population.
The Roundup lawsuits took off after a branch of the World Health Organization raised concerns about glyphosate in 2015, calling it “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
The EPA meanwhile says it does not pose an “unreasonable risk.” A U.S. appeals court in California has ordered the agency to review that 2020 finding, while Bayer hopes to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court that the EPA’s stamp of approval should invalidate the state court claims.
Bayer meanwhile hopes to reduce the McKivison award, noting that judges have slashed three other large verdicts. A $2 billion verdict awarded to a California couple who both got cancer was reduced to about $87 million. A $289 million verdict in the first Roundup trial was cut to $78 million and then about $20 million.
Bayer, in the post-trial motion, said the McKivison judge allowed “improper and abusive cross-examinations” and let their opponents make “the gruesome and false statement that the plaintiff is under a ‘death sentence.'”
Large jury awards in Philadelphia are nothing new and the city has the dubious distinction of often topping a list of ” judicial hellholes ” by the ATR Foundation, a tort reform group.
However, Kline said the city jury pool is changing along with its demographics as more young professionals settle there. He said half of the 12 jurors had attended college and a few, including the foreman, had graduate degrees. Ten of them had to agree Roundup was more likely than not a cause of McKivison’s cancer to find Bayer liable.
“We’re confident that the verdict is sound,” Kline said.
Bayer bought St. Louis-based Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018, only to see its share price tumble in the years since.

(File photo)

(Brighton Twp.) Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro will be a guest on ‘Live Mic” with Mike Romigh at 8:40 AM Thursday, February 15, 2024. Governor Shapiro will be discussing the budget, East Palestine, Marijuanna laws, raising the minimum wage, erasing medical debt, and whatever else comes up.

The interview will be on 99.3 FM, 1230 WBVP, and streaming online via our apps and website.