Danielle Smith – Keystone State News Connection

In Pennsylvania, some former coal communities are transitioning into clean energy hubs with funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.

Pennsylvania has received $953 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to improve infrastructure resilience. Based in York, Voith Hydro North America manufactures hydroelectric turbines.

Carl Atkinson, vice president of sales for Voith Hydro, said the federal funding and tax incentives have helped them to collaborate with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union to expand manufacturing and create jobs.

“The credit that we applied for, it’s through the Inflation Reduction Act,” Atkinson explained. “It is basically a 30% tax credit for businesses that invest in their existing manufacturing operations for renewable energy equipment.”

Because it is a tax credit, he said Voith has a list of requirements to meet for apprenticeships, paying prevailing wages and more. He added Voith is eligible for an almost $6 million in tax credits due to its investments in two machines totaling nearly $20 million.

Atkinson noted the funding allows for equipment upgrades and improvements to productivity and worker safety. He pointed out it supports Voith’s apprenticeship programs in welding and machining and the continuous learning makes the workers eligible for higher grades of work and more pay.

“Those apprenticeships are fully supported by the IAM, our union partners,” Atkinson emphasized. “It’s apprenticeship and training, so it qualifies for new and existing employees to secure career growth opportunities in their trades.”

Atkinson added Voith has invested heavily in technology improvements, manufacturing equipment and state-of-the-art machining sets. He described them as large milling machines for steel components.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republicans are stepping up scrutiny of Pennsylvania’s system for registering people to vote through its driver’s licensing centers, six weeks before what is expected to be a close presidential contest in the battleground state.

Auditor General Tim DeFoor, a Republican running for re-election in the Nov. 5 election, last week launched an audit of Pennsylvania’s so-called motor voter system.

The audit comes one year after Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration began automatic voter registration at driver’s licensing centers. The audit is to include checking to see whether noncitizens are properly screened out from registering to vote — dovetailing with a top election-year issue for many Republicans nationally who are questioning whether noncitizens are registering to vote.

Shapiro’s introduction of automatic voter registration last year drew condemnation from Republicans and former President Donald Trump and threats of litigation. At the time, some two dozen states already had authorized a version of automatic voter registration and no court challenge in Pennsylvania has emerged.

The Shapiro administration says non-citizens are not allowed to register to vote and that there is no evidence that noncitizens have registered to vote in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, dozens of state Republican lawmakers are demanding the Shapiro administration do more to ensure that noncitizens are not registered to vote and curtail automatic voter registration functions strictly to transactions involving driver licensing.

In a statement Monday, PennDOT Secretary Michael Carroll said the agency will cooperate with the audit.

But Carroll accused DeFoor of “politicizing his office, and undermining confidence in our election system by furthering the disproven myth that non-citizens are registering or voting in Pennsylvania.”

DeFoor’s office called it “disheartening that so many baseless assumptions” have been made about the audit.

“Our audits do not play ‘gotcha’ or play into a political agenda,” DeFoor’s office said in a statement.

DeFoor notified Shapiro’s administration on Sept. 16 that his office was launching an audit of the “Motor Voter process” to ensure it complies with state and federal law. The audit will study data between Jan. 1 through June 30.

A spokesperson for DeFoor said the audit arose because the program is a year old and has enough data to perform an audit. DeFoor’s spokesperson said audits typically take months or years to complete — not weeks — and is unlikely to be completed before the November election.

Last year’s introduction of automatic voter registration means that, under the new format, prompts on computer screens in driver’s license centers take the user to a template to register to vote. That leaves it up to them to choose not to register. Previously, prompts on the computer screen first asked the user whether they wanted to register to vote.

The Shapiro administration says the system is programmed to screen out noncitizens.

But Republican lawmakers say other transactions with PennDOT are performing automatic voter registration functions, without legal authority.

They cited a Sept. 13 state Supreme Court ruling involving a contested ballot in a Luzerne County primary election. The voter who cast the contested ballot had testified before a lower court that he believed changing his vehicle registration address — not his driver’s license — had triggered a change in his voter registration address.

In a letter on Friday, 63 House Republicans asked Shapiro to restrict automatic voter registration to interactions only involving someone getting or updating a driver’s license or a state photo identification card.

Forms available from PennDOT for a driver to change their vehicle registration address include the notification that “this application will also serve as a request to update your voter registration unless you check this box.”

In a statement, Shapiro’s office said automatic voter registration is separate from the process to change a vehicle registration address. It also said the facts of the court case were “severely underdeveloped.”

FILE – Former President Donald Trump points to the crowd as he arrives to speak at a rally July 22, 2022, in Prescott, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

SMITHTON, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump sat in a large barn in rural Pennsylvania on Monday, asking questions of farmers and offering jokes but, in a rarity for his campaign events, mostly listening.

The bombastic former president was unusually restrained at an event about China’s influence on the U.S. economy, a roundtable during which farmers and manufacturers expressed concerns about losing their way of life. Behind Trump were large green tractors and a sign declaring “Protect our food from China.”

The event in Smithton, Pennsylvania, gave Trump a chance to drive his economic message against Vice President Kamala Harris, arguing that imposing tariffs and boosting energy production will lower costs. He highlighted Harris’ reversal of a previous vow to ban fracking, a method of producing natural gas key to Pennsylvania’s economy.

And he noted the tractors behind him were manufactured by John Deere, which announced in June it was moving skid steer and track loader manufacturing to Mexico and working to acquire land there for a new factory. Trump threatened the firm with a 200% tariff should he win back the presidency and it opted to export manufacturing to Mexico.

“If they want to build in the United States, there’s no tariff,” he added.

Trump opened the event with some of his usual themes. He declared that in 2020: “We had an election that didn’t exactly work out too good. And it was a disgrace.”

But he then did something unusual: He let others do most of the talking.

When one farmer said recent decades had seen scores of family farms shut down, Trump asked what that meant for overall production. The response was that, thanks to larger farms now operating, total production is actually up but “we are losing the small family farms.”

“I know that, yes,” Trump responded somberly. Later, he said, “I am not too worried about the people around this table” supporting him on Election Day, while jokingly adding, “But you never know.”

In response to another participant’s concerns about energy production, Trump said he didn’t know that farmers were so energy-dependent. Another farmer talked about Chinese-subsidized businesses, prompting Trump to respond, “That’s why we need tariffs.”

After the same farmer finished her comments by praising him profusely, he intoned: “Amen. I agree.”

Trump has embraced tariffs as he tries to appeal to working-class voters who oppose free-trade deals and the outsourcing of factories and jobs, and the event wasn’t all about showing a more personable side.

Later, the former president took questions from reporters and got more customarily combative when asked whether he was concerned that tariffs on manufacturers like John Deere would increase costs for farmers. He said of Harris, “She is not going to be good for Pennsylvania.”

Stopping at a neighborhood market prior to an evening rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Trump bought a bag of popcorn and quipped that, if elected, he may send for more from the Oval Office. He also gave a woman paying for groceries a $100 bill, declaring that her total “just went down a hundred bucks.”

The change didn’t last long. At his evening rally, Trump reverted to form, using an abrasive message to energize mostly conservative, white, working-class voters.

“She’s a one-woman economic wrecking ball and if she gets four more years, her radical agenda will smash the economy into rubble and grind your financial situation right into the dust,” Trump said of Harris. He claimed, “She wants to take your guns away” even as the vice president has stressed being a gun owner herself.

“She’s coming for your money. She’s coming for your pensions, and she’s coming for your savings,” he said.

The former president urged supporters to “get out and vote” but scoffed at the idea of casting early ballots, suggesting without evidence that it allowed more time to commit fraud. Citing unknown sources, he declared, “They said, if we don’t win this election, there may never be another election in this country.”

At one point, the former president caught a glimpse of himself on the big screen and joked about a ”handsome man over there” before concluding, “Oh, it’s Trump.”

He also got especially candid with the rally audience saying, “I don’t like anybody that doesn’t like me, I’ll be honest,” before adding, “sounds childish” but “that’s the way it is … call it a personality defect.”

It was a starkly different tone from Trump’s first event in Smithton, which was hosted by the Protecting America Initiative, led by Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, and former New York congressman Lee Zeldin.

Grenell told the small group of attendees there, “China is getting into our farmlands, and we have to be able to see China very clearly.”

At the end of 2022, China held nearly 250,000 acres of U.S. land, which is slightly less than 1% of foreign-held acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. By comparison, Canada was the largest foreign owner of U.S. land, accounting for 32%, or 14.2 million acres.

Still, the National Agricultural Law Center estimates that 24 states ban or limit foreigners without residency and foreign businesses or governments from owning private farmland. The issue emerged after a Chinese billionaire bought more than 130,000 acres near a U.S. Air Force base in Texas and another Chinese company sought to build a corn plant near an Air Force base in North Dakota.

Rex Murphy, from a nearby rural community who raises cattle and grows corn and hay, said farmers support Trump in this area, and said he wanted fewer taxes and “more freedom.”

“I want him to do everything for the economy,” said Murphy, 48. “If he just becomes president, and he does what he does, he will do more.”

Harris is visiting Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Attending a New York fundraiser on Monday, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, told a group of about 30 donors focused on climate change that Trump’s energy catchphrase of “drill, baby, drill” is “not a solution to things, and the public knows that it’s a cheap, easy thing.”

Walz, speaking at a midtown Manhattan hotel to an audience that included former presidential candidate Tom Steyer and Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, called climate change an “existential threat” but also “an incredible opportunity to grow our economy.” He specifically cited farmers who use their land to generate wind energy in addition to growing crops.

Harris campaign spokesman Joseph Costello said that “despite all his lies and pandering, Donald Trump used the White House to give handouts to wealthy corporations and foreign companies.”

Costello said in a statement that those came “at the expense of family farmers, drive farm bankruptcies to record levels, and sacrifice small American farmers as pawns in his failed trade war with China.”

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Colvin reported from Indiana, Pennsylvania. Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Didi Tang in Washington and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.

FILE – A large Kmart sign is displayed in front of a shopping plaza in Avenel, N.J., April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Attention, Kmart shoppers, the end is near!

The erstwhile retail giant renowned for its Blue Light Specials — featuring a flashing blue orb affixed to a pole enticing shoppers to a flash sale — is shuttering its last full-scale store in the mainland United States.

The store, located in swank Bridgehampton, New York, on Long Island, is slated to close Oct. 20, according to Denise Rivera, an employee who answered the phone at the store late Monday. The manager wasn’t available, she said.

That will leave only a small Kmart store in Miami. There also are a handful of stores in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Transformco, the company that in 2019 bought the assets of Sears and Kmart out of the bankruptcy of Sears Holdings, did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

In its heyday, there were more than 2,000 Kmarts in the U.S.

Struggling to compete with Walmart’s low prices and Target’s trendier offerings, Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2002 — becoming the largest U.S. retailer to take that step — and announced it would close more than 250 stores.

A few years later, hedge fund executive Edward Lampert combined Sears and Kmart and pledged to return them to their former greatness. But the 2008 recession and the rising dominance of Amazon contributed in derailing that mission. Sears filed for Chapter 11 in 2018 and now has just a handful of stores left in the U.S., where it once had thousands.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published September 24, 2024 11:25 A.M.

(Ambridge, Pa) Ambridge High School students are learning remotely on Tuesday, September 24. A spokesperson confirmed that there was a threat at the high school, prompting the district to close the high school. There was no answer in the superintendent’s office when Beaver County Radio reached out. Ambridge Police also did not comment on the incident as of 11am Tuesday.

(Story written by Noah Haswell of Beaver County Radio, Published on September 24, 2024 at 11:18 A.M.)

(Butler, PA) Former President and Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump is returning to Butler, Pennsylvania for another rally on October 5th. Former President Trump had a rally in Butler on July 13 and a shooter, Thomas Crooks, tried to assassinate him and shot him in the ear. Ever since then, the former president has been speaking behind bulletproof glass. The time of the October 5th rally has yet to be determined.

Source for Photo: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pa., Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

(Story written by Noah Haswell of Beaver County Radio, published on September 24, 2024 at 11:16 A.M.)

(Pittsburgh, PA) The United States Department of Education has recognized seven schools in the Pittsburgh area as National Blue Ribbon Schools. Thirteen schools in Pennsylvania were given this honor, and the schools in the Pittsburgh area are Butler Area’s Connoquenessing Elementary School, Fox Chapel Area’s Dorseyville Middle School, Ambridge Area’s Economy Elementary School, Mercer Area High School, Quaker Valley Middle School, River Valley’s Saltsburg Elementary School and Lakeview’s Oakview Elementary School. There will be an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. in November to formally recognize these schools and their achievements. 

(Story written by Noah Haswell of Beaver County Radio, Published on September 24, 2024 at 11:10 A.M.)

(Hookstown, PA) A cow named Speck who belongs to a Beaver County family is missing after escaping a trailer. Ashley Thompson from Thompson’s Family Farms has noted that her son takes good care of Speck by daily washing, bathing, and walking the cow. Thompson also expressed that the family would need to get more money to buy another cow because the money that her son spent to show Speck at the Hookstown Fair next year will go to waste if Speck is not found. If you have a trail camera or have seen Speck around Hopewell, Clinton, or Hanover, please send a message to the Thompson Family Farms Facebook page, where pictures of Speck are posted.