FILE – Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro speaks at an election night event, Nov. 8, 2022, in Oaks, Pa. Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro will take office with a decisive mandate from Pennsylvania voters, who overwhelmingly rejected a Republican drive to pare back abortion rights and voting laws in the premier battleground state. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
By MARC LEVY Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro will take office with a decisive mandate from Pennsylvania voters, who overwhelmingly rejected a Republican drive to pare back abortion rights and voting laws in the premier battleground state. The state’s two-term attorney general will take the reins in a state riven by bitter partisanship over voting laws and the management of the COVID-19 pandemic by his predecessor. And, with the 2024 presidential election looming, big questions remain unresolved over the state’s voting laws. Still, Shapiro stresses that his blowout victory is a salute to crossover support from Republican voters. He says he has a “mandate” to bring people together and work with Republicans.
Story by Beaver County Radio Staff (Perry Twp., Lawrence County, Pa.) Pa State Police in New Castle are reporting that they were called to the scene of a two vehicle accident at 7:02 PM Saturday, November 12, 2022, along Wilson Ave. in Perry Twp., Lawrence County,
Troopers reported via release that upon arriving and investigating that 20-year-old Tyler Bettner of Ellwood City was operating a 2005 Ford Mustang downhill on Wilson Ave. towards River Road when he said he heard a noise and his vehicle started pulling to the right. Bittner said he attempted to turn the vehicle to the left but it kept going to the right. He said he then hit the brakes to try and stop and slid on gravel that caused him to strike a 2013 Kia Optima that was parked. The crash disabled both vehicles.
No injuries were reported but Bittner was charged by Troopers with operating a vehicle without official certificate of inspection.
Story by Beaver County Radio Staff (North Beaver Twp., Lawrence County, Pa.) Pa State Police in New Castle are reporting that they were called to the scene of a one vehicle accident at 10:22 PM Saturday, November 12, 2022 along Pa. Route 18 in North Beaver Township, Lawrence County.
Troopers said when they arrived on the scene near McKinley Lane 33-year-old Derek Monaci informed them that he was driving a 2005 Cadillac Escalade southbound on route 18 when he swerved to the left to miss a deer. Monaci informed Troopers that he woke up inside the vehicle that was on its roof. Troopers reported that the scene showed evidence that the vehicle went through a field, struck a hill and came to a final rest on its roof facing east.
Monaci was transported via Medavac to UPMC Jameson Hospital for unknown injuries. Troopers charged him with Driving under the influence.
Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is announcing inspection activities at the I-79 Glenfield interchange in Glenfield Borough, Allegheny County, will occur Tuesday through Thursday, November 15-17 weather permitting.
Inspection activities will occur on the I-79 bridge over Deer Run Road from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Lane restrictions will occur on Deer Run Road and the ramp from Route 65 to southbound I-79 under the bridge. No restrictions will occur on I-79.
Crews from A&A Consultants will conduct the bridge inspection work.
Flagging operations will occur. Please use caution when traveling through the work zones.
Motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles, including color-coded winter conditions on 2,900 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.
Story by Beaver County Radio staff (Baden, Pa.) Baden Community leaders and citizens are left with many questions on Tuesday after David Christner the borough Police Chief suddenly retired yesterday. There have been many rumors circulating the borough about an internal investigation that is being conducted and there was no reason given for the chief’s abrupted departure.
Stay tuned to Beaver County Radio as this is a developing story.
Story by Beaver County Radio Staff (Potter Twp., Beaver County, Pa.) Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC, a subsidiary of Shell plc, announced Tuesday morning that it has commenced operations of the Shell Polymers Cracker Plant in Potter Twp. .
The facility is the first major polyethylene manufacturing complex in the Northeastern United States and has a designed output of 1.6 million tons annually.
“Building this world-class facility is a fantastic achievement and one the team can be proud of; it’s a showcase of Shell’s project delivery expertise,” said Huibert Vigeveno, Shell Downstream Director. “With great market access, innovative offers and connected infrastructure, Shell Polymers Monaca is well positioned and ready to serve customers with high-quality, competitive products.”
Strategically located within a 700-mile radius of 70 percent of the U.S. polyethylene market, the Potter Twp. facility sits on 384 acres adjacent to the Ohio River in Beaver County. The facility has contracted most of its natural gas feedstock at Final Investment Decision from the nearby Utica and Marcellus basins. The advantages of proximity are not limited to production; SPM also offers customers shorter supply chains, which translates to increased flexibility and access to polyethylene pellets that can be used in a wide variety of products such as common household goods, consumer and food packaging, as well as industrial and utility products.
The start-up of Shell Polymers Monaca represents an important step in growing Shell’s chemicals business as part of its Powering Progress strategy. The company is increasingly participating in value chains closer to end-use customers and using advantaged feedstocks to deliver more high value products while reducing exposure to commodity chemicals over time.
“I’m proud that in delivering this facility we’ve had a strong and innovative safety focus; invested in the community through employment and education; and helped repair and improve the local environment by remediating a brownfield site. These commitments are core to Shell’s Powering Progress strategy today and will remain so in the years to come,” said Vigeveno.
The first hour of Tuesday’s Teleforum program will see a visit from 1st Consultants’ Tom Young! (Economic wellbeing is the subject) The second hour of Teleforum will have everyone hear from Jeff Bost; (a drinking report from the pandemic/Not good news), and the third hour will have Eddy babbling. Teleform is on every weekday from 9 till noon on am1230, am1460, fm99.3, and fm95.7.
The New Brighton School Board met for its first–and only–meeting of November 2022, thus making it a regular voting meeting instead of the usual planning meeting that preludes the voting meeting that would take place two weeks later.
In this meeting, the board unanimously accepted the resignation of Travis Whalen from the School Board. School board President John Ludwig thanked Mr. Whalen for his time and service to the board, and Whalen responded in kind. “To everybody here, thanks for being such great colleagues. We have great leadership here, and great board members,” Whalen said. “I’m not going very far, I’m literally right there.” Whalen joked that he is relocating to the “wrong side” of Wises Grove Road; his resignation takes effect on December 6, 2022.
The board also unanimously approved the building of a new playground by Snider Recreation at a cost not to exceed $70,000. “This will replace what I call the ‘original’ playground, the main playground that’s closest to the building,” stated Superintendent Dr. Joseph Guarino, saying that it will not replace the newer playground donated by HeadStart that is located outside the high school gymnasium.
“The original playground has far exceeded its life expectancy,” he added, “and it’s starting to need serious repairs, which obviously is not worth it for playground equipment.” Guarino said that the funding for the playground comes from surplus money held back from as far back as the 2018-19 school year, and that the timeline for construction relies heavily on the supply chain.
Also approved by the school board were the implementation of Act 57 of 2022 Property Tax Penalty Waiver Provisions, as well as a 10-year agreement to renew the lease between the New Brighton School District and New Brighton Youth Baseball. There will be no additional meetings by the School Board for November; their next meeting will be their Reorganization meeting on December 5.
“First and foremost, you have to be a fine musician. But there’s so many other skills you have to learn, and we’re helping her learn those. That’s our goal.”
In 2022, the Beaver County Choral Society launched their inaugural Choral Conducting Scholar program, designed to give collegiate students the experience to not only conduct the singers and orchestra, but ultimately to plan, organize, polish, and execute a full performance piece from start to finish.
Miah Sirianni, inaugural Choral Conducting Scholar for the Beaver Valley Choral Society [Image courtesy BVCS]Miah Sirianni, a native of Buffalo, New York and current student at Duquesne University, became the first recipient of the Choral Conducting Scholar position, where she has already “dipped her toes” into working and conducting with the BVCS and Treble Youth Chorale. She was joined by Artistic Director Sharon Burchill and Vice President Pat Stagno on the November 14 edition of A.M. Beaver County to talk about her journey to learning and working with the Beaver Valley Choral Society.
“I came to Duquesne to pursue my Bachelor’s in Music Education,” Sirianni stated, “and through that I really found out that conducting was another one of my callings, if you will.” Sirianni found out about the BVCS through one of her professors at Duquesne who knew Mrs. Burchill, and that led to her obtaining this position: “I’m so fortunate and so grateful to the BVCS for all the opportunities they’ve given me.”
“We are having a ball with Miah,” Stagno added. “We’re really proud of her, and we’re really pleased to support young conductors and musicians, and one of the missions of the Beaver Valley Choral Society is to encourage and support young people…that’s the next generation of musicians, and we need to be behind them.”
Sirianni joined the BVCS as Choral Conducting Scholar for the Christmas concert season, but the plan–according to Burchill–is to have her become more heavily involved in the spring/Easter concerts. “For the spring, she will have a piece that she will introduce to the choir, teach the choir, conduct from beginning to end, the whole process,” Burchill said. “She’s going to be able to walk through, with mentorship, how to do that whole process, and she’ll conduct them at all the concerts.”
To watch the full conversation with Sharon, Pat, and Miah–click on the Facebook feeds below!
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Authorities say a man was shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire with police in a Pittsburgh suburb over the weekend. Allegheny County police say officers in Forest Hills were dispatched shortly before 10:30 a.m. Sunday to investigate a report of a man yelling at people and lifting his shirt to display a firearm. Officers say they found the man and tried to talk to him but he fired at them and they returned fire, hitting him multiple times. He was pronounced dead at a hospital; his name wasn’t immediately released. Conty police say they were asked by local police to investigate.
