Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio News Director. Published October 11, 2023 2:53 P.M.  

(Industry, Pa) Residents are showing support for the installation of lights at the Western Beaver Football Field. The Golden Beavers  have long been used to playing day games at home on Saturdays and being unable to host events at the field at night.  A petition was started on October 8th to allow the community to show support in having lights installed to encourage more use out of the stadium. The petition on Change.org, had 735 signatures as of October 11th.  The organizers of the petition state that if enough signatures are obtained, they will be able to approach the school board to discuss possibilities.

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) and U.S Representative Chris Deluzio (D-PA-17) announced $10 million for Pittsburgh-based Catalyst Connection to support small manufacturers in the region expand and succeed in the clean energy and green technology sectors. With this funding, Catalyst Connection, a non-profit organization that provides consulting and training services for small manufacturers, will collaborate with organizations in New York, Maryland, Ohio, and West Virginia to strengthen the burgeoning clean energy industry. The funding will be used to provide training and supply chain mapping, as well as guidance on factory upgrades to support manufacturing of renewable energy, hydrogen power, low-carbon and decarbonized power, smart grid improvements, electric vehicles, and green buildings. This award from the Appalachian Regional Commission is funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and will help strengthen American manufacturing, creating jobs and boosting the region’s economy while protecting our environment for generations to come.

“The infrastructure law is helping America take control of its future and become the manufacturing powerhouse we know we can be,” Senator Casey said. “This funding will help Catalyst Connection expand their work to help more small manufacturers build the technologies and economy of tomorrow. Catalyst embodies the ingenuity and fighting spirit of Southwestern Pennsylvania and I’m proud to support their work.”

“I’m proud to join my colleagues in announcing this important funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for development right here in western Pennsylvania,” Senator Fetterman said. “This investment will help create jobs in our region, and it’s exactly the kind of funding we need to expand American manufacturing, innovation, and production.”

“I believe in my bones that Western Pennsylvania and America will be better off when we make more here at home—and transformational federal investments like President Biden’s Infrastructure Law are helping us get it done,” said Rep. Chris Deluzio. “With grants like the $10 million announced today for Catalyst Connection, we can bolster American competitiveness in the clean energy and green technology industries, driven by strong growth by small manufacturers. Let’s grow and create solid jobs, secure our energy future, and show the world that American manufacturing is second to none.”

“Catalyst Connection is proud to be selected to spearhead a vital initiative supporting small and mid-sized manufacturers across 5 states and 156 counties as they navigate the new energy economy and we’re grateful for the support we’ve received from Appalachian Regional Commission, Senator Bob Casey, and the surrounding states,” said Catalyst Connection President and CEO Petra Mitchell. “This ARC ARISE grant will allow us to support manufacturers with outreach, assessment, and implementation and financial assistance as they map new supply chains and retool their factories to create a vibrant clean energy industry will reinvigorate the Appalachian economy and uplift families across the region.”

(AP)- Dorothy Hoffner, a 104-year-old Chicago woman whose recent skydive could see her certified by Guinness World Records as the oldest person to ever jump from a plane, has died.

Hoffner’s close friend, Joe Conant, said she was found dead Monday morning by staff at the Brookdale Lake View senior living community. Conant said Hoffner apparently died in her sleep on Sunday night.

Conant, who is a nurse, said he met Hoffner — whom he called Grandma at her request — several years ago while he was working as a caregiver for another resident at the senior living center. He said she had amazing energy and remained mentally sharp.

“She was indefatigable. She just kept going,” he said Tuesday. “She was not someone who would take naps in the afternoon, or not show up for any function, dinner or anything else. She was always there, fully present. She kept going, always.”

On Oct. 1, Hoffner made a tandem skydive that could land her in the record books as the world’s oldest skydiver. She jumped out of a plane from 13,500 feet (4,100 meters) at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois, 85 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

“Age is just a number,” Hoffner told a cheering crowd moments after landing. It was not her first time jumping from a plane — that happened when she was a spry 100 years of age.

Conant said he was working through paperwork to ensure that Guinness World Records certifies Hoffner posthumously as the world’s oldest skydiver, but he expects that will take some time. The current record was set in May 2022 by 103-year-old Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson of Sweden.

Conant said Hoffner didn’t skydive to break a record. He said she had so thoroughly enjoyed her first jump that she just wanted to do it again.

“She had no intention of breaking the record. And she had no interest in any publicity or anything. She wasn’t doing it for any other reason than she wanted to go skydiving,” he said.

Skydive Chicago and the United States Parachute Association celebrated Hoffner in a joint statement Tuesday.

“We are deeply saddened by Dorothy’s passing and feel honored to have been a part of making her world-record skydive a reality.

“Skydiving is an activity that many of us safely tuck away in our bucket lists. But Dorothy reminds us that it’s never too late to take the thrill of a lifetime. We are forever grateful that skydiving was a part of her exciting, well-lived life,” they said.

Conant said Hoffner worked for more than four decades as a telephone operator with Illinois Bell, which later became AT&T, and retired 43 years ago. The lifelong Chicago resident never married, and Conant said she had no immediate family members.

A memorial service for Hoffner will be held in early November.

“She was a dear friend who was an inspiration,” Conant said.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Four of Pennsylvania’s universities are plugging budget gaps while they await hundreds of millions of dollars in aid that has been snarled in a partisan dispute among lawmakers in a state that has one of the nation’s most abysmal records for funding higher education.

Education advocates argue that even a proposed increase in aid won’t make a dent in the underfunding of Pennsylvania’s higher education.

The University of Pittsburgh, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln are in line to receive about $623 million, a 7% increase proposed by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro “to keep them whole as federal aid shrinks.” The universities, referred to as state-related universities, are not state owned, but receive subsidies.

The funding levels for higher education, however, lag behind those from decades ago.

Lawmakers approved funds to go out to the state-owned higher education system, community colleges and state financial aid. If the Legislature doesn’t send any money to the four state-related schools, Pennsylvania’s spending on higher education will be below $1.5 billion in fiscal 2023-24. That is below the $1.6 billion it was spending 25 years ago.

Pennsylvania ranks nearly last in just about every measure for college affordability. Tuition rates are high, students leave encumbered with more debt and the state gives less to higher education than others.

Advocates say a lack of state aid is a big reason for the higher tuition rates. The Keystone Research Center, a progressive thinktank organization in Harrisburg, found Pennsylvania spends $153 per capita on higher education, well below the U.S. average of $338.

Pennsylvania’s Class of 2020 had the third-highest student loan debt in the nation, leaving college with an average debt of $39,375, the research center found.

This year, universities are addressing their budgets by not filling vacant positions, delaying upcoming raises, pausing some construction plans and putting out calls for advocacy from alumni. They planned their budgets with the optimism that the proposed increase would get lawmakers’ approval.

“For us, the delay really hits us because it’s our operations. And so we manage with any cash that we have sitting around,” said Lincoln President Brenda Allen. “These days — not a lot of cash is sitting around.”

State House Republicans have cited concerns about tuition increases while repeatedly denying the necessary two-thirds majority needed to send the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to the schools. The Democrats that control the House of Representatives bypassed the dispute last week by turning to a legislative maneuver that required approval of only a simple majority, but the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

The schools operate on the fiscal year, but revolve around their academic calendar, said Zack Moore, the vice president of government and community relations for Penn State. If the appropriation passes in during the school’s current fall semester, the university will be fine, he said.

“But I do believe that if we get into the new year, into the second semester of the academic year, then we will certainly get very, very nervous and potentially have to start taking other fiscal actions to make sure that we can pay salaries, can operate,” he said.

House Majority Leader Rep. Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, agreed that tuition freezes were necessary, but said the discussion hinges on the state funding levels.

“We need to talk about how we fund our schools and then about the issues of affordability, about tuition,” he said. “And if you want to talk about things like freezes, you better get real about the funding levels.”

It’s been a long term problem for the state, going back to the 1980s, said Stephen Herzenberg, an economist and executive director of the Keystone Research Center.

As the era where careers were plentiful for people with only a high school education came to an end, cuts started coming to higher education. It has made it more difficult for people to get a degree they now need to find good paying jobs, he said.

Coupled with significant slashes to state funding around 2011, Pennsylvania has been on a trajectory of ranking low for affordability.

Even as they wait, the universities are already developing their requests for the next fiscal year. Hari Sastry, the senior vice chancellor and chief financial officer at the University of Pittsburgh, said they’ve heard the concerns about affordability, and have pitched a “shared sacrifice for the state.”

To keep tuition flat for 2025, it would take an increase of 9% in the state appropriation. The university would fund about 3% itself, he said.

“It’s a little bit of a different approach than what we’ve taken before,” he said. “But we thought it was important to just show, you know, our commitment to making sure that that tuition stays affordable as possible.”

The House Democrats’ effort to skirt the Republican no votes is now before the state Senate, along with other legislation meant to tie up loose ends on the state’s spending plan. Both chambers are scheduled to return next week.

“This is a skirmish, which will probably be resolved,” Herzenberg said. “The long term funding issue is not a skirmish, it’s a structural problem. And that’s what Gov. Shapiro said in his budget address in early March — what we’re doing right now in our education isn’t working. And that’s exactly right.”

(Sandy Giordano/Beaver County Radio)

At Tuesday night’s school board meeting, a recent report and video were made aware to Hopewell School District Superintendent Dr. Jeff Beltz about a student using a bathroom they didn’t identify with, which has since created concern among parents and community members.

Dr. Beltz said the video from the junior high school revealed that the student used the correct bathroom. However, the response from the parents to the incident have ranged vastly, from those who want cameras in all bathrooms, to allowing for transgender bathrooms.

Solicitor John Salopek told those in attendance that  the district  is concerned about the wellbeing of all students, but he also stated that no incidents have been reported to the administration about bathroom use.

The issue will be further discussed at the board’s next meeting on October 24.

It was also announced at the meeting that Janet Logan was promoted to full-time speech teacher (after previously being part-time) effective October 16, and that Nicholas Zabala and Lisa Sinclair were hired as part-time transportation aides, backdated to October 2 and October 4, respectively.

FILE – Colored coordinated Presidential Primary Election ballots are organized by political parties for voters on June 7, 2016, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Porterville, Calif. While the politics are murky, the fresh frenzy of outsider candidates threatens to weaken both major parties as President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump tighten their grip on their party’s presidential nominations. There’s little concern that the independent or third-party candidates would actually win the presidency, but they could siphon support from the ultimate Democratic and Republican nominees. (Chieko Hara/The Porterville Recorder via AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Two political outsiders have taken steps to launch independent or third-party presidential bids over the past week. And the prospect of at least two more looms. Leaders in both major political parties acknowledge the rise of serious outsider candidates threatens to undermine the strength of Democratic and Republican candidates in the 2024 general election. Anti-vaccine activist Robert Kennedy Jr. is a scion of the Democratic dynasty but is expected to become the latest to launch an independent or third-party presidential bid Monday in Philadelphia. The rise of such outsider candidates in 2024 reflects the extraordinary unpopularity of both major parties, led by Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speaks during a campaign event at Independence Mall, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Republicans are attacking Robert F. Kennedy as he drops his Democratic primary bid and launches an independent run for the White House. Their fiery response reflects growing concerns that the former Democrat now threatens to take votes from former President Donald Trump in 2024. National Democrats have stayed silent on Kennedy’s announcement. Kennedy declared independence from the Democratic Party in Philadelphia on Monday. He spoke of a “rising tide of discontent” in the United States and said he wants to make a “new Declaration of Independence” from corporations, the media and the two major political parties.