(File Photo:  Caption for Photo: police car lights at night in city with selective focus and bokeh background blur, Credit for Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images/iStockphoto/z1b)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Hanover Township, PA) According to Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver County, forty-one-year-old Bradford L. Ankrom of the area of Clinton, Pennsylvania was the man that was killed in an accident that involved three vehicles in Hanover Township along Route 30 on September 2nd, 2025. This crash that occurred that day at 6:32 p.m. caused the Beaver County Coroner, David J. Gabauer to make an appearance. Ankrom hit a truck after he lost control of his motorcycle. Ankrom also hit a car after he was ejected from his motorcycle. There were no injuries to the drivers of both the car and the truck and both drivers did not get any charges for this Hanover Township three-vehicle accident that occurred on September 2nd, 2025. Other details of the cause of the death of Ankrom is unknown at this time.

(File Photo of Police Siren Lights)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) According to police yesterday, fifty-one-year-old Kevin Jenkins was charged with aggravated assault and multiple misdemeanors for an incident in which he allegedly stabbed a couple in Downtown Pittsburgh. The incident occurred just before 8 p.m. on Sunday at the intersection of Bigelow Street and Chatham Square where Jenkins allegedly stabbed the couple when they refused his demand for money. Jenkins, who was taken into custody, told police that the man and the woman that got allegedly stabbed from him approached him about money he stole from them days before this alleged stabbing incident and demanded drugs from him. However, investigators note that multiple times was how many times Jenkins changed his story of the incident. The couple and Jenkins were hospitalized in stable condition following the incident and after his treatment is finished, Jenkins will be taken to the Allegheny County Jail.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – A Jeep logo is displayed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Jan. 14, 2019. (AP Photo/ Paul Sancya, File)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Toledo, OH) Jeep is recently recalling over 91,700 vehicles because of an error within the hybrid control processor in some of them which may lose drive power in those vehicles. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, this recall affects some 2022 to 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee Plug-In Hybrid Electric SUVs and Chrysler, the parent company of Jeep, does not have a fix for this hybrid control processor error in some of these vehicles. Starting on Thursday, the Vehicle Identification Numbers for this recall can be searched on nhtsa.gov. The internal recall number for Jeep is 73C. A letter will go to the owners of these recalled Jeep SUVs after October 23rd, 2025, that lets them know about this hybrid control processor error, but if they want more information, Chrysler can be contacted at 800-853-1403.

(File Photo of the PennDOT logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(New Castle, PA) PennDOT will host a job fair today from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. at the PennDOT Lawrence County Maintenance Building in New Castle for the public to learn about positions that are available for the PennDOT Lawrence County winter maintenance program. The positions for this job fair include seasonal tradesman helpers and Seasonal (Temp-to-Permanent) Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Operators. CDL positions require a driver’s license and a medical examiner’s certificate that is current to apply, while all other positions need an appropriate form of identification to apply. Conditional job offers for select positions, interviews that are on-the-spot, application completion onsite and driving skills testing will also occur while on-hand recruitment staff from Pennsylvania will be at the PennDOT job fair today in New Castle to talk about the current openings for jobs in PennDOT winter maintenance in Lawrence County.

(File Photo of the Seneca Valley School District Sign in Harmony, Pennsylvania)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harmony, PA) No decision was made at a public hearing yesterday evening at Seneca Valley School District in Harmony, Pennsylvania regarding proposed plans for renovation at Seneca Valley School District that could cost over $165 million. According to Seneca Valley School District, it weighed five options for renovations at the intermediate school, and their top choice includes a partial building renovation, additions, and a connection to the senior high school. Leaders of the Seneca Valley School District confirm that over the next two years, they are considering an 11-mill tax increase there.

(File Photo of PPG Industries Logo)

PITTSBURGH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sep 8, 2025– PPG (NYSE:PPG) yesterday announced Patrick O’Neill, PPG global synthesis and pilot director, was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from Paints and Coatings Industry (PCI) Magazine. This award recognizes individuals for their outstanding contributions to the coatings industry and is presented at the Coatings Trends & Technologies Summit.

“At PPG, we’re proud to develop industry-leading scientists that are able to translate advanced innovations into customer needs,” said David Bem, PPG senior vice president, science and technology and chief technology officer. “Technologies that Patrick has invented and co-developed over nearly 30 years have had a positive impact on our customers across the automotive, packaging and industrial businesses.”

O’Neill was recently inducted into the PPG Collegium, an association of longstanding leaders who have made significant technological contributions that support PPG’s growth, innovation and sustainability. Most notably, he was the co-inventor of a patent for lead-free electrocoat technology, a water-based, cathodic epoxy coating that provides exceptional corrosion resistance and efficient material application for automotive and industrial applications. He also played a critical role in helping establish operations for the PPG-Kansai automotive coatings alliance. O’Neill has held several global product management roles, championing technologies such as electrocoats with high throwpower, or the ability for coatings to be deposited in recessed areas. He also led PPG’s Packaging Coatings business through a number of significant BPA-NI (bisphenol-A non-intent) conversions.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – This is the sign on a PNC Bank in downtown Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, file)

NEW YORK (AP) — PNC Financial said Monday that it plans to buy Colorado-based FirstBank for $4.1 billion, giving PNC a substantial presence in the Colorado banking market as well as Arizona.

Based in Lakewood, Colorado., FirstBank, which is also branded as 1stBank, is a midsized bank that operates 120 retail branches with $26.7 billion in assets. The bank is privately held, but the banks disclosed that the stockholders of FirstBank who collectively own 45.7% of the shares have already voted in favor of the merger.

“Its deep retail deposit base, unrivaled branch network in Colorado, growing presence in Arizona, and trusted community relationships make it an ideal partner for PNC,” said Bill Demchak, chairman and chief executive officer of PNC, in a statement.

PNC has been on an acquisition streak in the last few years that has made the Pennsylvania bank one of the biggest players in retail banking in the country, as PNC executives like to say “a coast-to-coast banking franchise.” PNC bought the U.S. operations of Spanish bank BBVA shortly after the pandemic for $11.6 billion. The bank has also been opening new branches in multiple markets, but particularly in the Southwest.

The FirstBank acquisition will make PNC the largest bank in the Denver market, and will give PNC more than 70 branches in Arizona. PNC will also grow to roughly $575 billion in assets.

The FirstBank purchase will put PNC closer in size to Capital One and U.S. Bank, who are PNC’s closest rivals. U.S. Bank, in particular, operates heavily in the Colorado and Arizona market.

Alex Overstrom, head of retail for the bank, said PNC may consider additional acquisitions to build out its franchise.

“We are not slowing down our organic growth but may consider opportunities as they arise,” Overstrom said, in an interview.

PNC is typically referred to as a super regional bank, a group of large national banks that are significant in size, often hundreds of billions in assets and hundreds of branches, but are dwarfed in size by the banking giants Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, who have size and scale that the super regionals cannot replicate.

The super regionals have been growing considerably in recent years in order to better compete with the Wall Street titans in various businesses. For example, Capital One bought Discover Financial, which jointly created the nation’s largest credit card company. Huntington Bancshares bought Detroit’s TCF back in 2021.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Commuters ride on the SEPTA route 125 bus, as seen from the Wissahickon Transportation Center, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, in Philadelphia. (Alejandro A. Alvarez/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration on Monday approved the use of hundreds of millions of dollars in capital project funding for Philadelphia’s public transit agency to help it restore bus, trolley and rail services that it had eliminated to shore up its deficit-riddled finances.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority — one of the nation’s largest mass transit agencies with 800,000 daily riders — had made the request to comply with a judge’s order to undo the two-week-old cuts. A similar request is likely to come from the state’s next largest public transit agency, Pittsburgh Regional Transit.

SEPTA made the service reductions after Shapiro and Democratic lawmakers had been unable for the past two years to persuade enough Republican lawmakers to approve hundreds of millions more dollars in new transit aid to help fill deficits at transit agencies around the state.

“I am taking this action … to support SEPTA, to make sure that these 800,000 Pennsylvanians and the millions who will visit our commonwealth have a trolley or a bus or a subway or a train to get around,” Shapiro told a news conference Monday.

As a result of SEPTA’s cutbacks, schools in Philadelphia reported a big increase in late student arrivals and absenteeism in the just-begun school year, Shapiro said. Meanwhile, Philadelphia is helping host major tourist attractions next year, including FIFA World Cup matches and events surrounding the celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday.

The struggles in the nation’s sixth-most populous city reflect similar dilemmas at major transit agencies around the U.S. as they navigate rising costs and lagging ridership after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted commutes.

SEPTA had described the cuts as more drastic than any undertaken by a major transit agency in the U.S. but necessary to deal with a deficit of more than $200 million.

However, testimony in the court challenge described the cuts as being unnecessary and discriminatory toward poor and minority communities.

SEPTA said that shifting $394 million in state-provided capital funds could restore services and avoid other planned cuts for the next two years.

That’s about a year’s worth of funding it gets from the state for capital projects. The authority will still impose fare increases of 21.5% that it estimated will bring in $31 million a year.

All told, SEPTA had warned that it will cut half its services by Jan. 1.

Across the state, Pittsburgh Regional Transit said Monday that it is considering a similar request from the state.

It has been discussing a 35% service reduction to help close what it calls a roughly $100 million deficit this year. That could include eliminating 45 bus routes, reducing 54 others and eliminating one of three light rail lines.

That deficit will grow each year without more aid, and shifting money for capital projects is only a stopgap measure and not a sustainable plan, it said.

“Using capital funds for operations would only be a stopgap measure. Pennsylvania needs a long-term, reliable funding solution to provide the safe, reliable, and affordable service our communities depend on,” PRT said in a statement.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo gestures as speaks to supporters and members of the media before a bill signing by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Nov. 18, 2021, in Brandon, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara, File)

(AP) Florida’s plan to drop school vaccine mandates likely won’t take effect for 90 days and would include only chickenpox and a few other illnesses unless lawmakers decide to extend it to other diseases, like polio and measles, the health department said Sunday.

The department responded to a request for details, four days after Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, said the state would become the first to make vaccinations voluntary and let families decide whether to inoculate their children.

It’s a retreat from decades of public policy and research that has shown vaccines to be safe and the most effective way to stop the spread of communicable diseases, especially among children. Despite that evidence, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expressed deep skepticism about vaccines.

Florida’s plan would lift mandates on school vaccines for hepatitis B, chickenpox, Hib influenza and pneumococcal diseases, such as meningitis, the health department said.

“The Department initiated the rule change on September 3, 2025, and anticipates the rule change will not be effective for approximately 90 days,” the state told The Associated Press in an email. The public school year in Florida started in August.

All other vaccinations required under Florida law to attend school “remain in place, unless updated through legislation,” including vaccines for measles, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, mumps and tetanus, the department said.

Lawmakers don’t meet again until January 2026, although committee meetings begin in October.

Ladapo, appearing Sunday on CNN, repeated his message of free choice for childhood vaccines.

“If you want them, God bless, you can have as many as you want,” he said. “And if you don’t want them, parents should have the ability and the power to decide what goes into their children’s bodies. It’s that simple.”

Florida currently has a religious exemption for vaccine requirements. Vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives globally over the past 50 years, the World Health Organization reported in 2024. The majority of those were infants and children.

Dr. Rana Alissa, chair of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said making vaccines voluntary puts students and school staff at risk.

This is the worst year for measles in the U.S. in more than three decades, with more than 1,400 cases confirmed nationwide, most of them in Texas, and three deaths.

Whooping cough has killed at least two babies in Louisiana and a 5-year-old in Washington state since winter, as it too spreads rapidly. There have been more than 19,000 cases as of Aug. 23, nearly 2,000 more than this time last year, according to preliminary CDC data.