A DRUG TREATMENT CENTER PLAN IS SPARKING A LOT OF CONTROVERSY IN HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP. BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO WAS AT LAST NIGHT’S MEETING. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…

WEATHER FORECAST FOR TUESDAY, JUNE 19TH, 2018

TODAY – MOSTLY CLOUDY SKIES. A STRAY SHOWER OR
THUNDERSTORM IS POSSIBLE. HIGH – 83.

TONIGHT – MOSTLY CLOUDY. POSSIBILITY OF A SHOWER
OR THUNDERSTORM. LOW – 64.

WEDNESDAY – CLOUDY WITH SHOWERS. HIGH NEAR 80.

Lawyers, family seek release of detained pizza deliveryman
By CLAUDIA TORRENS, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — The family and attorneys of an Ecuadorean pizza shop worker who was arrested while trying to make a delivery submitted a formal request to immigration officials Monday demanding his immediate release.
Attorneys from the Legal Aid Society, accompanied by Pablo Villavicencio’s wife and two small daughters, said at a news conference that they filed the petition Monday.
The request argues that Villavicencio’s detention causes significant emotional and financial hardship to his U.S. citizen wife and daughters and that the immigrant has no criminal history and is not a threat to public safety.
Jennifer Williams, deputy attorney in charge of the immigration law unit at the Legal Aid Society, also said that her client’s detention is “unwarranted” until the circumstances surrounding his arrest are clear.
The 35-year-old married father of two young girls was arrested June 1 while making a delivery to the garrison in Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. A routine background check revealed there was a warrant for his arrest for immigration law violations.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the deportation of Villavicencio, but he will remain in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in New Jersey until his case goes to court.
On Monday, Villavicencio’s wife, Sandra Chica, stood next to his two daughters, ages 2 and 3, and pleaded for the release of her husband.
“Let him go back to his daughters and me,” she said in front of the cameras. “Every day my daughters ask, ‘Why is daddy not with us?’ I demand ICE to do the right thing.”
The 3-year-old girl, Luciana Villavicencio, spoke at the news conference, saying: “Daddy, I hope that angels take care of you and that you are well and that nothing bad happens over there.”
An ICE spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
New York City Council speaker Corey Johnson described Villavicencio’s arrest as a “grave injustice.”
“I am outraged, outraged, that the reason (daughters) Luciana and Antonia are feeling this loss is because of our government,” Johnson said. “As an American, my heart breaks.”
An ICE spokesperson has said that in March 2010 Villavicencio was granted voluntary departure by an immigration judge but failed to depart by July, as ordered.

Rendell, ex-Pennsylvania governor, says he has Parkinson’s
By MARC LEVY, Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said Monday that he was diagnosed 3½ years ago with Parkinson’s disease, but said he believes that treatment has stopped the progression of the disease and he has maintained his quality of life.
The 74-year-old Rendell made the announcement at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia with officials and doctors from the University of Pennsylvania as part of a public service message to urge people who suspect they have symptoms to get diagnosed and get treatment early.
He was “stunned and a little bit scared” when he was diagnosed because he had always viewed himself as indestructible, he said.
But Rendell said treatment at the hospital, including medication, has stopped the progression of the symptoms and that he continues to keep a busy schedule, including working out six days a week.
“I’ve been more in a sort of battle mode than depressed,” Rendell said.
Rendell said he had not wanted to reveal his condition before he was certain whether treatment at the hospital was helping him.
“The good news is I can say without any fear of contradiction at least in my own mind that my disease has stabilized — progression has in many ways stopped,” Rendell said. “Some of the symptoms that I was undergoing are better now than they were 3½ years ago.”
His quality of life hasn’t changed, he said, in terms of the things he enjoys, what he eats and where he goes.
Rendell, a Democrat, was Pennsylvania’s two-term governor from 2003 through 2010. The outgoing former Philadelphia mayor with a larger-than-life persona smashed the state’s campaign fundraising records and went from the rough-and-tumble world of Philadelphia politics to the relatively stuffy state Capitol.
He became something of a national figure as a Democratic National Committee chairman during the 2000 presidential election. As a two-term Philadelphia mayor in the 1990s, he garnered the nickname “America’s mayor” after getting a reputation as a cheerleader for the city who would stop at nothing to promote it. He was the city’s No. 1 sports fan, even appearing as a regular on TV sports talk shows, and known for his love of indulgent foods, including cheesesteaks.
A lawyer, Rendell is also a former two-term district attorney of Philadelphia.
Dr. Matthew Stern, a University of Pennsylvania Health System neurologist, said the hospital is at a point where they can “significantly reduce” the effects of Parkinson’s disease.
Rendell, he said, kept a schedule in May that was “ridiculous. None of us would be able to keep up.”
Parkinson’s disease involves a loss of brain cells controlling movement. Besides tremors, it can cause rigid, halting walking, slowed speech and sometimes dementia. Symptoms worsen over time and there is no cure.
Rendell said his mother had Parkinson’s for the last 13 years of her life. He said he first noticed problems with his balance and his hands shaking 3½ years ago, when family members urged him to get it checked out.
“It turns out I wasn’t indestructible, none of us are,” Rendell said. “But I can be helped. All of us can be.”
___
Associated Press reporter Ron Todt in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

Trump announces plans for Pentagon to create ‘Space Force’
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Vowing to reclaim U.S. leadership in space, President Donald Trump announced Monday he is directing the Pentagon to create a new “Space Force” as an independent service branch aimed at ensuring American supremacy in space.
Trump envisioned a bright future for the U.S. space program, pledging to revive the country’s flagging efforts, return to the moon and eventually send a manned mission that would reach Mars. The president framed space as a national security issue, saying he does not want “China and Russia and other countries leading us.”
“My administration is reclaiming America’s heritage as the world’s greatest spacefaring nation,” Trump said in the East Room, joined by members of his space council. “The essence of the American character is to explore new horizons and to tame new frontiers.”
Trump had previously suggested the possibility of creating a space unit that would include portions equivalent to parts of the Air Force, Army and Navy. But his directive will task the Defense Department to begin the process of establishing the ‘Space Force’ as the sixth branch of the U.S. armed forces. He said the new branch’s creation will be overseen by Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“When it comes to defending America, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space,” Trump said. He added: “We are going to have the Air Force and we are going to have the Space Force, separate but equal.”
The president also used the White House event to establish a new policy for reducing satellite clutter in space. The policy calls for providing a safe and secure environment up in orbit, as satellite traffic increases. It also sets up new guidelines for satellite design and operation, to avoid collisions and spacecraft breakups.
Trump was joined by Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the recently revived space council, and several Cabinet members, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, retired astronauts and scientists.
The council’s executive secretary, Scott Pace, told reporters before the meeting that space is becoming increasingly congested and current guidelines are inadequate to address the challenge.
___
Associated Press writer Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

H. Clinton: Separating families at border a ‘moral crisis’
By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday called the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that has separated children from their parents at the southern U.S. border “a moral and humanitarian crisis.”
Speaking at an awards lunch for the Women’s Forum of New York, Clinton said what was happening to families at the U.S.-Mexico border is “horrific.”
“Every human being with a sense of compassion and decency should be outraged,” Clinton said.
The separations stem from a policy that turns all cases of people trying to enter the country illegally over for criminal prosecution. Children are not detained with their parents when those parents are facing a criminal charge, as per U.S. protocol.
President Donald Trump has defended the policy, which has taken nearly 2,000 immigrant children away from their parents.
“The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” he added. “Not on my watch,” Trump said Monday.
Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said she had warned during the campaign that Trump’s hard-line immigration stance would result in family separations.
“Now as we watch with broken hearts, that’s exactly what’s happening,” she said.
The policy has come under increasingly strong criticism, with accounts of children kept in cages and parents not knowing where their children are.
Trump has falsely blamed Democrats, and his administration has echoed his stance by claiming it was enforcing the law, with some using the Bible as religious justification.
Clinton pushed back on all of those points, saying the separations are required by no law and grounded in no religion.
“The test of any nation is how we treat the most vulnerable among us,” she said. “We are a better country than one that tears families apart.”

Today, the Pennsylvania legislature might have to break out their gym shorts, as an oversight committee holds a public hearing on school sports in the state. Beaver County Radio News Intern, Kaisha Jantsch, has the story…

Click ‘play’ below to hear the report.

An investigation is now underway in the recenty explosion at a power plant in Crescent Township. Matt Drzik has details…

THE SITE OF TONIGHT’S SPECIAL MEETING IN HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP…HAS BEEN MOVED…AS WE HEAR IN THIS REPORT FROM BEAVER COUNTY RADIO NEWS CORRESPONDENT SANDY GIORDANO: