​Harrisburg, PA –The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) today announced that all driver license and photo centers, including the Riverfront Office Center in Harrisburg, will be closed Saturday, May 28, through Monday, May 30, in observance of Memorial Day.

Customers may still obtain a variety of driver and vehicle products and services, including all forms, publications and driver training manuals, online through PennDOT’s Driver and Vehicle Services website, www.dmv.pa.gov.

Driver and vehicle online services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and include driver’s license, photo ID and vehicle registration renewals; driver-history services; changes of address; driver license and vehicle registration restoration letters; ability to pay driver license or vehicle insurance restoration fee; driver license and photo ID duplicates; and driver exam scheduling. There are no additional fees for using online services.

A complete listing of PennDOT driver and photo license center closings in 2022 is available online.

Motorists can check conditions on major roadway miles by visiting www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information, and access to more than 1,000 traffic cameras.

511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional twitter alerts accessible on the 511PA website.

HARRISBURG – Attorney General Josh Shapiro today released a special report warning policymakers and the public of the shift from heroin to fentanyl, a synthetic drug that is significantly more potent than heroin, which is now the dominant opioid in Pennsylvania.

 

“Fentanyl has rapidly replaced heroin as the dominant opioid in Pennsylvania. Last year, our Bureau of Narcotics Investigation seized more fentanyl than they had in the last four years combined. The rise in fentanyl has also contributed to a rise in overdose deaths. Last year, we lost 15 Pennsylvanians each and every day to a drug overdose. Law enforcement and policymakers alike must continue to do more to combat this crisis and devote additional resources to stopping fentanyl at the Southern border,” said AG Shapiro.

 

The report highlights the stark uptick in seizures of fentanyl compared to heroin in recent years. According to the report, in 2021, Office of Attorney General Bureau of Narcotics Investigation (BNI) regions seized more than double the amount of fentanyl than heroin. In the first three months of 2022, BNI seized approximately 40 times the amount of fentanyl compared to heroin – and more fentanyl than was seized in all of the previous year.

 

The report also notes the increase in fentanyl seizures in pill/tablet form that also contribute to the overall overdose rates in Pennsylvania. Fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills resemble legitimate prescription pills and allow dealers continued access to users addicted to prescription opioids with a cheaper, more potent option.

 

In 2022, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Philadelphia Field Division reported more than 20 percent of its analyzed fentanyl seizures to date were pills or tablets. The total weight of analyzed fentanyl seizures by DEA in Pennsylvania in pill/tablet form was five times higher in 2020 than in 2019. These are strong markers of the transition to counterfeit pills, due to their ease of concealment and production, versus powder fentanyl.

 

In Pennsylvania, overdose deaths rose by 16.4 percent in 2020, and continued rising to 5,438 reported overdose deaths in 2021, another 6 percent increase from the prior year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that synthetic opioids (including fentanyl), increasingly found in counterfeit pills, were some of the primary drivers of the increase in overdose deaths in the last several years. DEA states two milligrams can be a lethal dose of fentanyl and their analysis found that counterfeit pills can range from .02 to 5.1 milligrams.

“Fentanyl is deadly, and it is cheap to manufacture. Fentanyl is approximately 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, with doses selling for the price of a six-pack of beer. Just one fentanyl-laced counterfeit pill is enough to cause an overdose. My office is working every day to shut down drug traffickers and remove these poisons from our communities,” said AG Shapiro.

 

Since taking office in 2017, the Office of Attorney General under AG Shapiro’s leadership has arrested more than 8,100 dealers and traffickers, taken approximately 3.2 million doses of heroin and 5.65 million doses of fentanyl off our streets, and increased arrests for diversion, cases where medical professionals are selling prescription drugs, 135 previous over 2016. In July 2021, AG Shapiro announced $1.07 billion had been secured from the national opioid settlement with distributors and Johnson & Johnson.

 

The report calls on policymakers to focus on making substance use disorder treatment available to those suffering from addiction, and to look at the relative costs and benefits of legalizing fentanyl test strips and other methods of testing drugs to know what is actually in these complex compounds and reduce inadvertent overdose deaths.

The featured image above shows Millie Anderson of the BC Woman’s Center presenting Trooper Pat Thomas with the Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Award
Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio, Published May 24, 2022 7:28 A.M.

(Beaver, PA) Last Friday morning the Beaver County Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial Service was held at the memorial in Beaver  despite the rain.  The memorial was dedicated May 10, 2003.  Beaver County Commissioners chairman Daniel C. Camp III issued a proclamation. Taps was played by Henry and Dave Bufalini , Hopewell residents. Master of Ceremonies was Center Township police Chief Barry Kramer.  Invocation and Memorial Prayer and Benediction  were delivered by the police chaplain Reverend Steven Mckeown. The Law Enforcement prayer was delivered by Monaca Police Chief Dave Piuri, FOP Lodge 84, the Salute to our Fallen Brothers was Aliquippa Police Detective Sgt. Steve Roberts, President of  the James M. Naim Memorial Lodge FOP Lodge #26.
The event is held annually  and is a collaborative efforts by the DA’s, Office, Sheriff’s Department, Beaver Valley Chiefs of Police Association.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — David McCormick’s campaign is suing in a Pennsylvania court over his neck-and-neck Republican primary contest for the U.S. Senate against celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz. McCormick is trying to ensure counties obey a brand-new federal appeals court decision. His lawsuit, filed late Monday, asks the state’s Commonwealth Court to require counties to promptly count mail-in ballots that lack a required handwritten date on the return envelope. Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by 992 votes, or 0.07 percentage points, out of more than 1.3 million ballots reported to the state as of Monday night. The race is close enough to trigger Pennsylvania’s automatic recount law.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A former Pennsylvania attorney general who served jail time for leaking grand jury material and lying about it has admitted she violated her probation when she was arrested for drunken driving. Kathleen Kane was sentenced Monday to two months to a year of jail on the probation violation. She was given credit for time served and was to be paroled to a residential alcohol treatment center. Kane was charged with drunken driving in March following a crash in Scranton. She had been on probation from a 2016 conviction for perjury and other counts. Kane was the first woman and first Democrat to be elected attorney general.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Police say three teenagers were wounded by gunfire, one critically, near a school in Philadelphia. Authorities said the male victims, ages 15, 16, and 17, were shot as classes were ending Monday afternoon. The 15-year-old was hit in the thigh and was in critical condition at a hospital. The 17-year-old was shot in the foot and is in stable condition, while the 16-year-old was grazed on an arm and declined medical treatment. No arrests were immediately reported. Over the weekend, three teenagers were wounded by gunfire during a festival in Philadelphia. The city recorded a total of six homicides Saturday and Sunday.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republicans in the Pennsylvania Legislature are extending their inquiry into the state’s 2020 presidential election inspired by former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. The contract is to last another six months, through Nov. 18, under an extension signed last week. The original no-bid contract, including an addendum, was worth $485,115 and expired last week. The extension has no dollar figure attached to it. Senate Republican officials say the contractor hasn’t billed for the contract’s full value while Republicans fight in court to get access to voting machines and certain information about voters and voting systems. Republicans have yet to report any findings.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A cabinet secretary who helped shepherd Pennsylvania’s entry into a regional carbon pricing program to combat climate change is leaving the administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. The governor said Monday that Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Patrick McDonnell will be replaced in July by Ramez Ziadeh. McDonnell was deeply involved in the state’s entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The program imposes a cost for emitting planet-warming carbon dioxide from fossil fuel-fired power plants. McDonnell started at the agency in 1998 and has been secretary since 2016. Ziadeh has been a deputy secretary at the agency after starting there in

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — An autopsy report shows that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins was legally drunk when he was fatally struck by a dump truck on a Florida highway last month. The Broward County Medical Examiner said in its report released Monday that Haskins’ blood-alcohol content was more than twice the legal level for driving when he was struck April 9. Painkillers Ketamine and norketamine were also found in his system. The 24-year-old former Ohio State star had run out of gas on Interstate 595 near Fort Lauderdale about dawn. He told a companion he was going to find a gas station. The dump truck driver told investigators Haskins stepped in front of him as he traveled in the center lane.

(Beaver, PA) The Veterans Memorial located at Clark Park in Beaver was vandalized sometime Sunday. Beaver Police are investigating and there is a $500 reward for information leading to an arrest.  The memorial honors those that served in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and the Civil War.