(File Photo of Beaver Falls drawing)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver Falls, PA) The Tabernacle Baptist Church in Beaver Falls will host featured speaker Stratton Nash at 4 p.m. on Sunday, February 16th for the fortieth year of their yearly Black History Symposium. According to the Beaver County Historical Society, several historical facts will be discussed by Nash. The acknowledgement of the late pastor of the church and the late founder of the event will also be accomplished by Nash. You can call 724-843-6319 or 724-847-0877 for more information.

(Photo from Recreation and Tourism website)

Story by Beaver County Radio Staff

(Beaver Pa.)  The Annual Beaver County Snow Shovel Riding Contest was a topic of discussion at the Beaver County Commissioners work session on Wednesday. Tony Caltury the head of Recreation and Tourism in Beaver County informed the Commissioners and the crowd in attendance that this years event is being cancelled due to the lack of snow.  The festival was scheduled to take place this Saturday, February 15, 2025.

Caltury said that they are going to switch it up for next year. In December they will open registration and inform registrants that they will decide on a weekend in January when there is snow on the ground. Caltury said they will make the decision on a Wednesday and notify everyone that it is happening that weekend. They will avoid the weekend of the Polar Plunge. Commissioners Chairman Dan Camp stated that 55 people had registered this year to participate.

(File Photo of Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) Aqua Pennsylvania Wastewater is planning to buy the wastewater collection and treatment system of the City of Beaver Falls and state officials are seeking public input about it. On Wednesday, February 26th, two meetings will be held by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the City of Beaver Falls Meeting Room. The public can also join the meeting by phone by dialing 717-783-5453 as well as giving their first and last name, the phone number used to get into the meeting, email address if they have it and phone number to contact if possible for the requirement.

(File Photo: Caption for Photo: Eviction Final Notice to Vacate Immediately on House Door)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission is giving three tips to protect you since a door-to-door scam which involves solicitors posing as door-to-door salespeople is going around. The first is to check the person’s identification for a badge. The second is to know who they are, where they work, and the reason why they are there. The third is to avoid both quick and very stressful sales. People also need to leave immediately if you tell them to leave your home. Monaca is a local area in which someone needs a permit for door-to-door purposes. 

(File Photo: Caption for Photo: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) N95 face mask)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Masks are being recommended instead of required at UPMC outpatient facilities and hospitals. UPMC stated on Monday that Wednesday would be the first day when masks would be required for all staff, visitors, and patients. This was due to respiratory illnesses increasing. The reason for this change is undetermined at this time. 

(File Photo of Kennywood logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Kennywood has announced that a new exhibit called “Kennywood Junction” will replace “Thomas Town.” The new area offers five new rides and is a tribute to the industrial roots of Pittsburgh. There will also be a gift shop and a Celebration Room in the new section of the park. According to a news release, Kennywood Junction will also be the place where their Easter celebration will be from April 12th through April 27th. 

(Photo Provided with Release)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Monaca, PA) According to a release from the Community College of Beaver County, CCBC announced their Spanish for First Responders training program was launched for the first time ever. The Beaver County Sheriff’s Office and the Beaver County Emergency Services also helped to develop the program of three six-week sessions. Beaver County Emergency Services will host classes twice each week. The classes for police officers are starting now from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays through February 19th.

(File Photo of Beaver Valley Regional Police Car)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Center Township, PA) Congressman Chris Deluzio made an announcement Wednesday that federal funding of $150,000 will support regionalization efforts for the Beaver Valley Regional Police Department. The Beaver Valley Regional Police Department will use the money for supplies, new uniforms, personnel, and costs involving the beginning of the new consolidated department. The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program was the source of the funding.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a briefing at the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the weeks since Donald Trump returned to office, Democrats and legal scholars have warned that he’s provoking a constitutional crisis by trying to expand his power and ignore laws that stand in his way.

On Wednesday, the White House had a new response to that. It’s not the president who is causing the problem, said press secretary Karoline Leavitt, it’s the judges who are blocking some of his agenda by saying it’s illegal.

“We believe these judges are acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law,” Leavitt told reporters. She insisted that “the real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch.”

The denunciation, delivered from the lectern in the White House briefing room, was the latest example of an escalating assault on the court system from Trump and his allies. Supporters have circulated pictures of judges online, made claims about their families and suggested that the Republican president simply ignore their orders.

Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, said he was working on legislation to limit the ability of lower-ranking judges to issue nationwide blocks on presidential actions.

Elon Musk, Trump’s most powerful adviser, has used his social media platform X to amplify attacks.

“This evil judge must be fired,” he wrote about a member of the bench who ordered the Trump administration to restore health-related webpages and datasets scrubbed from government websites, including reports on HIV prevention and guidance on reproductive health care.

The rhetoric has alarmed legal experts, who say the foundational concept of judicial review — that the courts interpret the law and serve as a check on the other branches of government — is being threatened.

“Under our system, up until now, it’s always been understood that it’s the courts that decide whether executive authority is legitimate or not,” said Jeremy Paul, a law professor at Northeastern University. Trump is far from the only president to have his agenda slowed by the courts.

With the Republican-controlled Congress providing almost no resistance to the president, the courts have emerged as the only clear guardrail on the White House. Judges have blocked, at least temporarily, Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship and allow Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access the U.S. Treasury’s payment system.

One of the judges who ruled against the Trump administration was nominated by the president during his first term. Two others were placed on the bench by Ronald Reagan, and two more by George W. Bush, both Republicans.

Some judges have occasionally sided with the administration in other cases, refusing to issue immediate blocks in response to challenges over DOGE’s access to the Labor Department, allegations that Musk’s team is using a private email server and the dissolution of the CBP One app for asylum seekers.

On Wednesday, a judge in Boston allowed Trump’s plan to downsize the federal workforce to move forward after initially blocking it. Trump and Musk have wanted to offer financial incentives to government employees to quit their jobs.

The president has not said that he would defy a court order, even though one judge accused his administration of doing exactly that by failing to deliver some federal funding.

“I follow the courts. I have to follow the law. All it means is that we appeal,” he said Wednesday in the Oval Office.

The previous day, Trump said judges were preventing his administration from stopping fraudulent government spending.

“We want to weed out the corruption, and it seems hard to believe that a judge could say we don’t want you to do that,” he said. “So, maybe we have to look at the judges because I think it’s a very serious violation.”

University of Pennsylvania law professor Claire Finkelstein said that “there’s been a concerted effort to try to cast judges as the enemy.”

“The idea that he can start removing judges is fanciful, but he can make their lives so difficult they maybe start resigning. I think that’s part of the attempt here,” she said.

Musk, the world’s richest person, who has been given far-reaching powers by Trump to shrink the federal government, has posted on social media that judges who rule against the administration should be impeached.

“A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!” Musk wrote about the judge in the Treasury Department case.

Vice President JD Vance said Sunday on X, “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said he “wholeheartedly” agrees with Vance.

“The courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out,” he said.

When asked Wednesday if the White House believes the courts have the authority to issue nationwide injunctions to Trump’s orders, Leavitt said the rulings “have no basis in the law” and “have no grounds.” She said the White House would comply with the courts but believed the administration would “ultimately be vindicated.”

There have been at least 60 lawsuits filed over Trump’s actions since he took office on Jan. 20, a reminder of how presidencies often become bogged down in litigation, regardless of party.

“The sheer concentration of activity is unusual,” said Willy Jay, a former assistant solicitor general who clerked for late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. “But the idea that basically everything of significance on the administration’s side is immediately challenged by state attorneys general of the other party? That seems to have been a constant over the last two to three administrations.”