(File Photo Courtesy of Pa. Media Services)
By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Wolf administration is asking the state Supreme Court to keep the state’s mail-in voting law in place while the justices consider a lower-court ruling throwing it out. Lawyers for the Department of State in a Thursday filing argued the court should overturn a Commonwealth Court ruling that means the popular voting law may no longer be in effect as of March 15. That’s a week after the Supreme Court is expected to hear oral argument in the case. The state lawyers argue that eliminating mail-in voting ahead of the spring primary season “would, if anything, only exacerbate voter confusion and the danger of disenfranchisement.”

(AP Photo)
By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A new filing by top state elections officials argues it would be premature for the state Supreme Court to order Pennsylvania’s legislative elections this year to be held based on old maps of state House and Senate districts. The officials argued in a filing made Wednesday that House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff’s request to use the old maps “is without foundation in law or fact.” Benninghoff sued a week ago, asking the high court to throw out the new district plan and to declare that this year’s elections be run based on district lines adopted in 2013.

(AP Photo)
By JOHN DANISZEWSKI Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — It has been a long time since the threat of nuclear weapons has been brandished by a world leader, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has just done so. He warned that he has the weapons available if anyone dares to use military means tries to stop the takeover of Ukraine. The threat may have been empty, a mere baring of fangs by the Russian leader. But it brought out thoughts of a nightmare scenario in which Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine could lead to a nuclear war through accident or miscalculation.

Keystone State News Connection

Emily Scott

With the end of the public-health emergency looming, a new report reveals millions of children in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are at risk of losing insurance, some for administrative reasons.

More than half of Pennsylvania children are insured through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). They’ve been able to maintain stability in their coverage thanks to the continuous-coverage requirement from the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.

Laura Stephany, health policy manager for Allies for Children, said when the public health emergency ends, it will put many Pennsylvania kids at risk of losing insurance due to procedural policies such as the state not having an up-to-date address.

“If a family is low-income, and they don’t really have the best housing security because of the economic crisis that’s been going on for the past two years, they’re more likely to move around a lot and to be missed,” Stephany explained. “We really want to ensure that the most vulnerable families don’t fall through the cracks.”

The report was released by the Georgetown Center for Children and Families. The public health emergency is set to expire April 15 but could be extended past July. Since the start of the pandemic, 192,000 additional Pennsylvania children have enrolled in Medicaid coverage.

Tricia Brooks, research professor in the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, said there are policies states can implement now to help minimize coverage disruption.

She urged states to slow down the process, to ensure efforts to prevent automatic disenrollment are thorough.

“States should start by maximizing the use of existing data sources to confirm ongoing eligibility for as many people as possible now to reduce the backlog of pending actions,” Brooks suggested.

Pennsylvania advocates recommended Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration utilize the 12-month period permitted by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services for the eligibility and renewal process. Phone calls, emails and text messages could also help reach families at risk of losing coverage.

(File Photo taken by Sandy Giordano of Aliquippa Police Chief John Lane)

Story By Sandy Giordano, Beaver County Radio News Correspondent 

(Aliquippa, Pa.) Ads have been placed in the Beaver County Times. New Pittsburgh Courier, and the PA Chiefs of Police Association’s website letting qualified police officer candidates know Aliquippa has openings . Police Chief John E. Lane  said, hopefully we’ll get a lot of applications. Cadets are graduating from the local academies in June, and 3 have expressed interest in Aliquippa.

(AP Photo)
By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sally Kellerman, the Oscar nominated actor who played Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in director Robert Altman’s 1970 film “MASH,” has died. Kellerman’s publicist says she died Thursday of heart failure in Los Angeles. She was 84. Kellerman had a career of more than 60 years in film and television. She appeared in the 1986 comedy “Back to School” with Rodney Dangerfield. She was nominated for an Emmy for a role on “The Young and the Restless.” But she would always be best known for playing straitlaced army nurse Major Houlihan. She was nominated for an Oscar for the role.

(AP Photo)
By ZEKE MILLER Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will significantly loosen federal mask-wearing guidelines to protect against COVID-19 transmission on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter. That will mean most Americans will no longer be advised to wear masks in indoor public settings. The new metrics will still consider caseloads, but also take into account hospitalizations and local hospital capacity. Under the new guidelines, the vast majority of Americans will no longer live in areas where indoor masking in public is recommended based on current data.

(File Photo)

(Ambridge, Pa.) There continues to be a Water issues in Ambridge this morning. Water Buffalos will be available at the Ambridge Fire Department starting at 8 AM this morning for those who are serviced by the Ambridge Water Authority who are in need of water.
The problem started yesterday around 5 a.m. there was a break inside the treatment plant and crews were unable to stop treated water from flowing back into the plant. 8,000 customers were left without service in Ambridge and parts of Harmony Township.
The water authority contracted a company to come in and build two valves to isolate the plant and pump water out to customers. The Authority said that they found that two of their man pumps had been flooded in about 30 feet of water for nearly eight hours, damaging the motors.
Now with the flooding under control, the water authority has since been able to get water flowing to customers from a reserve tank in Ambridge and two more in Economy. As service is restored, all customers are under a boil water advisory and are being told to conserve water while the authority works to get everything running as normal.

The Rochester Girls played a good solid game against a ST Joseph team that came on strong in the second half. Rochester started off with good defense boxing out ST Joseph through out the first half taking a 36 17 lead in the third quarter only to have it slip away, ST Joseph went on a 25 to 10 run on the rams and would take the lead with 2 :45 left in the game. The Rams did get the lead again  but could not hold on to it. The lady Rams are not out of the playoffs yet but they do need ST Joseph to play again like they did tonight and win their next game which would get Rochester back in the state playoffs final score ST Joseph 57 Rochester 54.