In a new step forward, NASA announced Thursday that nine companies in the United States are eligible to bid on $2.6 billion worth of contracts over the next 10 years to deliver services to the moon.

The companies include a Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic Technology which was founded in 2008 by Carnegie Mellon University professor Red Whitaker, and is developing robots to operate on the moon and other planets.

Earlier this year, NASA awarded Astrobotic a $10 million grant to create a precision landing system for their spacecraft, Peregrine.

“Potentially, this spacecraft could be the first thing to show that we can produce water fuel from the moon and potentially turn the moon into a refueling station for spacecraft to go deeper and deeper into space,” said John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic.

A caller reported to Aliquippa police on Monday that 2 men were seen dragging a woman into an apartment. When officers arrived they stopped a car leaving the scene with a woman driving and 2 men in the back with a woman between them.
Drugs were seen immediately and after being taken into custody, the two men from Michigan were found to have large amounts of cash, multiple packs of heroin and crack cocaine, a digital scale, sandwich bags, sleeping pills and more.
The two failed to post the $400,000 bond and are charged with kidnapping, robbery, unlawful restraint, possession with intent to deliver, possession of controlled substances, resisting arrest, providing false identification and possession of drug paraphernalia. The driver of the vehicle was not charged.

Because CCBC is on a different fiscal calendar, they will be able to defer a portion of their 2019-2020 subsidy from the county freeing up funds in 2019 so the Commissioners will not raise taxes or cut services. According to CCBC interim president Roger W. Davis, this unique fiscal strategy will serve as a win-win for both the college and the people of Beaver County.
A preliminary budget will be adopted on December 6 and left on display for 20 days before final adoption December 27th.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Dylan Elchin, a 25 year old resident of Hookstown, died Tuesday when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Ghazni province, an area where the Taliban is resurgent.
He was brought back to the U.S. early Friday morning, with a dignified transfer happening at Dover Air Force Base. Vice President Mike Pence was among those in attendance.Also killed in the blast Tuesday were Army Capt. Andrew Patrick Ross, 29, of Lexington, Virginia, and Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Michael Emond, 39, of Brush Prairie, Washington.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the ambush, which also wounded three service members and an American contractor.

9 Vehicle chain reaction crash in Lawrence County

According to Trooper Matthew Woloszyn the crash on routes 422 and 388 in Slippery Rock Township, Lawrence County on Wednesday was “Without a fatality being involved, it’s probably the worst crash that I’ve investigated,” Tara Ulrich who was on board the Newcastle Transit Authority bus said there were 9 vehicles involved. The chain reaction crash included a tractor trailer, a pick-up truck, several cars and a bus.
Three people with “major life-threatening injuries” were flown by medical helicopter to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, police said in a WTAE-TV interview. All others in the crash suffered minor or no injuries, police said.

More than the number of people who die in car crashes or by gun violence is the total of Americans who died of overdoses in 2017. That number released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control indicates it is more than 70,000.
Gateway Rehab’s new medical director, Dr. Jason Kirby, who has only been on the job a little over a month, stated that “Unfortunately, the rates of addiction are still on the rise in this country.” and Pennsylvania, as well as West Virginia and Ohio, rank among the highest.
Dr. Kirby says every demographic has seen an uptick from teens to people in their 80s and one of the main contributors is a drug with a strength 50-times more powerful than heroine: fentanyl.

Dr. Kirby says if it hasn’t affected you personally, it will and stresses that medicines like Narcan, an overdose reversal drug, “needs to be available, it is highly effective when used correctly when bringing people back from the brink of death.”