(Photo Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)

(Cleveland, Ohio) U.S. Coast Guard Station Lorain crew members rescued a 19-year-old male after a car accident occurred outside the station in Lorain, Ohio, Aug. 2, 2021.

Seaman Thomas Borden and Petty Officer 3rd Class Kaleb Hersey investigated the situation and removed the adult-male driver from the car and extinguished flames on the individual with their uniform blouses.

At approximately 12:10 a.m., Coast guard Sector Buffalo received notification of a loss of power at Station Lorain due to a car collision at a power junction box located outside the station’s front gate.

Station Lorain personnel contacted local authorities who responded with EMS, police and fire rescue. Lorain County Fire Department extinguished the remaining fire and EMS transported the male to Mercy Hospital. He was subsequently airlifted to MetroHealth Cleveland in critical condition.

The cause of the incident is under investigation. There is no damage or injury to Coast Guard personnel or property.

(Butler, Pa.) Paul Harmon is headed to prison for nearly six years after he admitted that he embezzled more than $1.5 million from his former employer, Fuellgraf Electric Company in Butler over a six year period.

Harmon who was the company’s former corporate controller for more than 40 years created hundreds of false entries in the company’s books to conceal the theft.

A judge ordered ordered to pay back all the money.

(Leetsdale, Pa.) Hussey Copper has agreed to perform a comprehensive environmental audit, implement an updated environmental management system, and pay an $861,500 penalty to resolve alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) and Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law (PCSL) at its smelting facility in Leetsdale, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

The civil complaint, brought by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) and filed simultaneously with the settlement, alleges violations of the CWA and PCSL that threaten to degrade receiving streams and impact public health and harm aquatic life. These include chronic exceedances of effluent limits in the facility’s PADEP-issued CWA permit — limiting oil sheens and discharges of copper, chromium, nickel, oil and grease, lead, pH, total suspended solids and zinc.

“This settlement reaffirms that industrial polluters must do the necessary work to ensure that their operations are not causing harm to our nation’s waterways,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jean E. Williams for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “We are happy to have partnered with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to ensure the continued protection of the Ohio River.”

“This agreement holds Hussey Copper accountable for the impact their actions have had on the health of the Ohio River,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania. “We will continue to work with our partners to enforce the laws enacted to protect our region’s abundant natural resources.

“Today’s settlement improves water quality for the citizens of Leetsdale and surrounding communities,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield for the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “This agreement requires Hussey to address their existing environmental violations, as well as implement plans to address any future noncompliance.”

Under the settlement, along with payment of the penalty, Hussey Copper will:

• Conduct a comprehensive review of its wastewater treatment system.
• Hire third-party consultants to conduct a compliance audit and implement corrective measures.
• Hire third-party consultants to review, update, and audit compliance with the facility’s environmental management system.
• Implement a process to prevent and correct violations of permit effluent limits.
• Conduct annual compliance training of employees and contractors.
• Pay agreed-upon penalties on demand for future violations.

PADEP has assisted EPA in the investigation and litigation of this case and is a co-plaintiff and signatory to the proposed consent decree. Under the settlement, penalty funds will be distributed evenly between the United States and PADEP.

Previous to this settlement, Hussey Copper was ordered to pay a criminal fine of $550,000 and to serve three years’ probation after pleading guilty to three felony CWA charges in December 2020 for offenses involving a multi-year pattern of submitting false discharge monitoring reports to conceal 140 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit violations, discharges of oil into the Ohio River, and the failure to report those oil discharges to the federal government.

The settlement is with Libertas Copper LLC, which does business as Hussey Copper.

This settlement furthers EPA’s national compliance initiative to reduce significant noncompliance and improve surface water quality by assuring dischargers comply with NPDES permit requirements.

Keystone State News Connection

Emily Scott

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Despite youth incarceration rates falling nationwide in the last few years, major racial disparities remain for kids in Pennsylvania’s detention facilities.

A report from The Sentencing Project revealed nationally, Black youth are more than five times more likely to be placed in juvenile detention facilities as their white peers, as of 2019.

The report showed Pennsylvania closed this gap by more than one-third between 2015 and 2019.

Marsha Levick, chief legal officer at the Juvenile Law Center, said the state’s overall rate of kids in detention custody is still above the national average, and argued there is much more work to be done to better serve young people in the justice system.

“It is beyond time that we really reexamine how we invest resources, and how we think about our kids in the justice system,” Levick asserted. “There’s a significant amount of research that the benefits of keeping children in their communities and closer to home also promote public safety.”

Pennsylvania has also cut the disparity between white and Latino youths in detention by 56% in recent years. Nationally, a Latino young person is 28% more likely to end up in detention than a white counterpart.

Josh Rovner, senior advocacy associate at The Sentencing Project and the report’s author, said one of the first steps in addressing these disparities is to look at the point of contact within the justice system where they emerge.

“The first disparity, the strongest one, is at the point of arrest,” Rovner explained. “And that’s not because youth of color are more likely to commit these offenses. It’s because youth of color live in communities that are vastly overpoliced.”

Some solutions in the report to help divert kids from the justice system included community service and counseling. Both can help young people avoid probation, which can lead to future incarceration.

(Story & Photos by Matt Drzik, additional photos by Mark Benes)

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask.

Eight-year-old Emily Sledzianowkski was asked by her teacher to write a letter to a local politician. She wrote to New Galilee mayor Mark Benes about the possibility of improving the Gilkey Walking Track at New Galilee Park, located on Fairlane Blvd near the junction of Routes 168 & 351. The letter was hand-delivered to Mayor Benes back in June.

Roughly two months later, the letter turned into a reality.

On August 3, the finalization for the paving took place at Gilkey Park, with Sledzianowkski, Mayor Benes, and State Representative Jim Marshall (R-Beaver/Butler) on hand to see through the words in the letter come to life. Beaver County Radio was there as well as the Lindy Paving trucks were making their way around the track.

Sledzianowkski wanted a track where she and her friends could bike safely, which would have been rather fruitless in the track’s old state, given the gravel that was first placed there had since grown over. But her letter went from Mayor Benes to Vice President Dan Ganoe of Lindy Paving, and within two months the plan was put in place to pave over the old trail with a new, smooth surface donated to the community by Lindy,

Not only is this the propelling of Sledzianowkski’s reality come to life, but according to Mayor Benes, it could be the start of something new in the New Galilee area, as the track is now more user-friendly and could attract more walkers and bikers to the borough.

A sign at the entrance of the Gilkey Trail will be created thanking both Sledzianowkski for her ingenuity and pursuance, as well as Lindy Paving for donating their time and resources.

And all it took was a simple letter.

To check out photos from the paving ceremony, take a look below!

(File Photo)

(New Sewickley Twp., Pa.) Pa State Police in Gibsonia are reporting that they were called to the scene of a one vehicle accident at mile marker 24.1 west bound on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in New Sewickley Township on Thursday July 30, 2021, at 11:25 PM.

Troopers report upon arriving on the scene and investigating they discovered that a 2013 GMC Terrain that was being driven by 51-year-old Tina Bloom of Boardman Ohio was traveling westbound on the Pa. Turnpike in the right-hand lane when Bloom failed to safely negotiate a slight right hand curve losing control of the vehicle leaving long length skid marks in both lanes of travel. The vehicle then crossed onto the shoulder of the highway and struck an embankment with the right passenger side of the vehicle. After hitting the embankment Bloom’s car traveled 195 feet in the grass overturning multiple times before coming to a final rest. Bloom suffered serious injuries and was air-lifted to UPMC Presby in Pittsburgh. Troopers stated that Bloom showed signs of intoxication and charges are pending lab results. There was no update provided of bloom’s condition and she was charged with not properly driving on the right side of the road.