(File Photo of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) Gambling in Pennsylvania reached a high of over $6 billion because of the online gaming industry last year. Taxes reached around $2.7 billion from the fees each year for this revenue and to operate slot machines. According to a report from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, 2024 revenues increased by 7.73% for over $6.1 billion. 

Source for Photo: A report card from the group Inseparable found Pennsylvania has one school counselor for every 369 students, while the recommended ratio is 1 to 250. (Adobe Stock) Danielle Smith – Keystone State News Service

(Reported by Danielle Smith of Keystone News Service)

(Harrisburg, PA) As young people struggle with mental-health issues, schools often provide the best avenue for getting them help. However, Pennsylvania has fallen behind in providing services to students. A mental-health report card for Pennsylvania found that more than 57-thousand children with major depression didn’t receive treatment. Kate Fox is behavioral health policy coordinator with Children First P-A. She says schools are vital for identifying mental-health warning signs and intervening early, and emphasizes the need for system-wide, sustainable reforms that create a workforce pipeline for diverse mental-health professionals to support children in and out of schools. Fox says the report card also shows only one school social worker for every 3416 students, and that recommended ratio is one for every 250. Fox points out that access to school-based mental-health services in Pennsylvania varies significantly, largely due to funding disparities. Wealthier districts generally offer more robust support compared with underfunded districts. She adds the ADA was first passed in 1990 under President George H-W Bush, and its legal precedent was based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

 

(File Photo of Transportation Security Administration logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) According to TSA, two separate handguns were intercepted at Pittsburgh International Airport on Tuesday morning. The first situation occurred when a loaded .32 caliber handgun with six bullets that belonged to an unidentified man was intercepted. The second situation occurred when a .40 loaded caliber handgun was intercepted after being brought to the airport by a man from Baden. These are the first firearms that were intercepted in 2025 at the Pittsburgh airport after forty-two were found last year. 

(File Photo of Moon Township Police logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Moon Township, PA) The Moon Township Police Department is looking for public information about a home invasion robbery that occurred near Snyder Drive and Thorn Run Road early Monday morning. Both suspects are white males, one near 5 feet 8 and the other near 5 feet 11, as described by the victim. Masks, sweatshirts with hoods and gloves were all worn by the two suspects. One owned a Glock pistol and the other owned a rifle that was AR style. If you have any information about this incident, please call 412-262-5000 or send an email to jbrace@moonpolice.us.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – In this Monday, Sept. 16, 2019, file photo, a woman pumps gas at a convenience store in Pittsburgh. Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday, March 15, 2020, that gas prices could continue to fall as demand shrinks amid the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Gas prices are seven cents higher in Western Pennsylvania this week at around $3.45 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s gas price report. The report states that at this week last year, gas prices were priced at around $3.40 per gallon. The report also notes that the average price that you can expect for a gallon of unleaded gas here in Beaver County is around $3.41. 

According to AAA East Central, here are the average prices of unleaded self-serve gasoline in various Pennsylvania areas:

$3.509      Altoona
$3.411      Beaver
$3.573      Bradford
$3.212      Brookville
$3.477      Butler
$3.457      Clarion
$3.435      DuBois
$3.436      Erie
$3.441      Greensburg
$3.489      Indiana
$3.399      Jeannette
$3.465      Kittanning
$3.460      Latrobe
$3.456      Meadville
$3.553      Mercer
$3.340      New Castle
$3.460      New Kensington
$3.459      Oil City
$3.453      Pittsburgh
$3.306      Sharon
$3.472      Uniontown
$3.597      Warren
$3.454      Washington

(Photo Provided with Release)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) According to a release from Allegheny Health Network, the hospital announced Tuesday that Dr Kirsten Newhams was appointed as the new director of the Esophageal Institute. Dr. Newhams will succeed Dr. Blair Jobe after Dr. Jobe chose to retire. Dr. Newhams is also a speaker who is well-known in the medical field and is a member of a few professional organizations, including the American Foregut Society, the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, and the American College of Surgeons.

 

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Dave Sunday speaks to the audience in the Forum Auditorium across the street from the Capitol after taking the oath to become Pennsylvania’s next attorney general, Jan. 21, 2025, in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s three statewide row officers were sworn in to new four-year terms on Tuesday, joining Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro in Harrisburg and marking the first time that all three offices were filled at the same time by elected Republicans.

Treasurer Stacy Garrity and Auditor General Tim DeFoor embarked on their second four-year terms, while Attorney General Dave Sunday was sworn in to his first four-year term as the state’s top law enforcement officer.

They took their oaths in separate, back-to-back ceremonies in the ornate Forum Auditorium, across the street from the state Capitol. Shapiro spoke, as did former Govs. Mark Schweiker and Tom Corbett.

The trio is taking office amid divided government in Harrisburg and the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.

In his remarks, Corbett — also a former attorney general — told Sunday to have a thick skin for criticism: “You have to put the tortoise shell on and go forward.” He told the new attorney general to understand that the office will bring challenges that are as much about policy as they are about the law.

“I guarantee you could wake up tomorrow and somebody’s going to come to you with a problem that none of us have ever heard about and expect you to have an answer,” Corbett said.

He also warned Sunday about the political pitfalls of the times.

“You assume this office in a very unusual period of time in our history, a very unsettled period of time, I think, when it comes to politics,” Corbett said. “I would urge you to take the politics, as much as you possibly can, out of this.”

The meat and potatoes of the job of Pennsylvania’s attorney general is prosecuting fraudsters, drug traffickers, gun traffickers, public corruption and environmental crimes, while defending state agencies against lawsuits.

State attorneys general also are becoming big players in forging national policy by increasingly challenging federal laws and regulations in court, usually in bands of Republican-led states or Democratic-led states.

When Shapiro was attorney general, his office sued dozens of times over Trump administration policies, most often with other Democratic-led states, and defended the state’s 2020 presidential election in court against attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn it.

Already on Tuesday, attorneys general from 22 states sued to block Trump’s move to end a century-old immigration practice known as birthright citizenship guaranteeing that U.S.-born children are citizens regardless of their parents’ status. Pennsylvania was not among the states that sued.

Pennsylvania’s three row offices are often viewed as a springboard to running for higher office, and the row officers each have built-in watchdog duties that could affect how Shapiro governs.

For instance, a treasurer or auditor general must approve a general obligation bond issue, while both must approve a tax-anticipation note.

Treasurers can block payments they see as illegal, auditors general can probe politically sensitive programs to see if they comply with the law, and attorneys general have the authority to investigate political corruption.

Attorneys general must ensure all executive branch contracts are legal and can carry a governor’s policy agenda in the courts, such as in clashes with lawmakers or the White House.

All three offices can use their statewide platform to amplify an opposition message.

The three officers will be in office at a time when there is considerable friction between Shapiro and the Republican-controlled state Senate over state spending.

The state is projected to have a $10.5 billion surplus at the end of the fiscal year on June 30, but Garrity and other Republicans are warning that the pace of state spending could deplete that in a few years.

Garrity, meanwhile, is considered a potential GOP challenger to Shapiro as he gears up to seek a second four-year term in the 2026 election.

For his part, Shapiro made the shortlist of running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris in her White House bid last year, and he is widely viewed as a leading contender for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in 2028.

Sunday, a Navy veteran, was York County’s district attorney for the past seven years. Before Sunday, the last Republican to win an election for attorney general in Pennsylvania was Corbett in 2008.

Four of the last five elected attorneys general went on to run for governor. Corbett won his race for governor in 2010 and Shapiro won in 2022. Both of them won two campaigns for attorney general and served six years in the office.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – This photo taken with a drone shows portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

(AP) Residents challenging Norfolk Southern’s $600 million settlement for the disastrous East Palestinetrain crash have asked a court to reject a judge’s order requiring them to put up an $850,000 bond to continue their appeal for higher compensation and more information about the contamination.

Nearly $300 million of the settlement has been on hold because of the appeal even though a judge approved the deal in September. The holdout residents are urging the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to stop them from having to put up the huge sum to continue with their claims stemming from the February 2023 derailment and fire.

Class-action attorneys who negotiated with Norfolk Southern have said the appeal will add significant administrative costs for the firm disbursing person injury payments to people who lived or worked within 20 miles (32 kilometers) of the derailment site even though $18 million has already been set aside to cover expenses.

The freight train derailment in the Ohio village near the Pennsylvania state line included 11 cars transporting hazardous materials. Area residents evacuated and, days later, officials fearing a possible uncontrolled blast intentionally released and burned toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke into the sky.

Attorney David Graham said his clients are pressing ahead with the appeal in the belief that the settlement does not do enough to compensate them for possible future health effects. They worry the contaminants could lead to cancers and other serious ailments in the future, and they want to know what the lawyers uncovered during their investigation so they can better judge the risks.

“We’re not intimidated and we’re not going anywhere,” Graham said.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has said toxic levels of chemicals haven’t been detected in the community since shortly after the derailment, but residents and some of the doctors conducting research on the health effects of the train derailment say they are concerned about the health impacts of prolonged exposure to low levels of chemicals.

Separately, the class action attorneys have refused to disclose what their own testing expert discovered when he visited the community because they agreed to keep that information confidential as part of the settlement.

Even while the appeal continues, the company handling the settlement has begun to distribute $120 million for personal injury claims. Many residents have been waiting months to receive official letters advising the amounts they would receive.

The class-action lawyers, who received $162 million in fees for their work on the case, promised residents last summer that they would get up to $25,000 per person for personal injuries if they lived within two miles (3 kilometers) of the site. But accepting that money meant that residents were giving up the right to sue later if they do develop health problems.

At the time, dozens of railcars careened off the tracks, spilling their toxic contents and catching fire. The disaster was made worse three days later when officials decided to blow open five tank cars of vinyl chloride and burn their contents, a step investigators later determined was unnecessary.

The main payments of up to $75,000 per household for property damage have been on hold because of the appeal. The amounts people are to receive from the settlement gradually decrease the further they are from the derailment site — down to just a few hundred dollars at the outer edges.

Some residents who have received determination letters about the payments have posted online that they are sometimes thousands less than promised last summer. Others posted that the amounts are exactly as advised.

The class-action attorneys always emphasized the largest possible payments in their meetings in the community, but the official formula dictating how much each person would receive was not available until after the settlement was approved.

The official formula posted online says that to receive a full payment, residents had to have returned to their homes before the evacuation order was lifted on Feb. 8, 2023. If they waited until the next day to return, then they would only be eligible for half the settlement amount they might get otherwise.

Representatives of the Kroll company that is administering the settlement payments didn’t respond Tuesday and a representative of the class-action attorneys said they didn’t have anyone available to answer questions before Wednesday.

The East Palestine derailment was the worst rail disaster in a decade and prompted calls for reform. A subsequent rail safety bill in Congress stalled and was never approved. The industry promised https://apnews.com/article/railroad-safety-derailment-east-palestine-norfolk-southern-bef9b47b5200f033d2f045c850745e94 some changes like adding more trackside detectors to help spot defects before they can cause derailments, but those haven’t yet made a significant difference in railroads’ safety records.