FILE – Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks to the media, Nov. 9, 2022, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday, choosing an affable longtime politician who Democrats hope can keep newfound party unity alive in a campaign barreling toward Election Day.

Harris said in a post on social media that Walz has “delivered for working families” as a governor, coach, teacher and veteran. Walz called it “the honor of a lifetime” to be Harris’ vice presidential pick. The two will appear together in Philadelphia at an evening rally.

In choosing the 60-year-old Walz, she is turning to a Midwestern governor, military veteran and union supporter who helped enact an ambitious Democratic agenda for his state, including sweeping protections for abortion rights and generous aid to families.

“It’s great to have him on the team,” Harris wrote on X. “Now let’s get to work.”

He is joining Harris during one of the most turbulent periods in modern American politics, promising an unpredictable campaign ahead. Republicans have rallied around former President Donald Trump after his attempted assassination in July. Just weeks later, President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign, forcing Harris to unify Democrats and consider potential running mates over a breakneck two-week stretch.

Harris hopes to shore up her campaign’s standing across the upper Midwest, a critical region in presidential politics that often serves as a buffer for Democrats seeking the White House. The party remains haunted by Trump’s wins in Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016. Trump lost those states in 2020 but has zeroed in on them as he aims to return to the presidency this year and is expanding his focus to Minnesota.

Harris, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Walz are set to appear together for an evening rally in Philadelphia, recalling a joint 2020 appearance by Biden and Harris in Wilmington, Delaware.

After Tuesday’s trip to Pennsylvania, they will spend the next five days flying thousands of miles around the country touring critical battleground states. They’ll visit Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Detroit on Wednesday and Phoenix and Las Vegas later in the week.

Planned stops in Savannah, Georgia, and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, were postponed because of Tropical Storm Debby ’s effects.

A team of lawyers and political operatives led by former Attorney General Eric Holder pored over documents and conducted interviews with potential selections, and Harris herself met with her three finalists on Sunday. She mulled the decision over on Monday with top aides at the vice president’s residence in Washington and finalized it Tuesday morning, the people said.

Harris, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to lead a major party ticket, initially considered nearly a dozen candidates before zeroing in on a handful of serious contenders, all of whom were white men. In landing on Walz, she sided with a low-key partner who has proved himself as a champion for Democratic causes.

“It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s campaign press secretary. “Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide.”

Walz has been a strong public advocate for Harris in her campaign against Trump and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, labeling the Republicans “just weird” in an interview last month. Democrats have seized on the message and amplified it since then.

During a fundraiser for Harris on Monday in Minneapolis, Walz said: “It wasn’t a slur to call these guys weird. It was an observation.”

Walz, who grew up in the small town of West Point, Nebraska, was a social studies teacher, football coach and union member at Mankato West High School in Minnesota before he got into politics.

He won the first of six terms in Congress in 2006 from a mostly rural southern Minnesota district, and used the office to champion veterans issues. Walz served 24 years in the Army National Guard, rising to command sergeant major, one of the highest enlisted ranks in the military.

He ran for governor in 2018 on the theme of “One Minnesota” and won by more than 11 points.

As governor, Walz had to find ways to work in his first term with a legislature that was split between a Democratic-controlled House and a Republican-led Senate. Minnesota has a history of divided government, though, and the arrangement was surprisingly productive in his first year. But the COVID-19 pandemic hit Minnesota early in his second year, and bipartisan cooperation soon frayed.

Walz relied on emergency powers to lead the state’s response. Republicans chafed under restrictions that included lockdowns, closing schools and shuttering businesses. They retaliated by firing or forcing out some of his agency heads. But Minnesotans who were stuck at home also got to know Walz better through his frequent afternoon briefings in the early days of the crisis, which were broadcast and streamed statewide.

Walz won reelection in 2022 by nearly 8 points over his GOP challenger, Dr. Scott Jensen, a physician and vaccine skeptic. Democrats also kept control of the House and flipped the Senate to win the “trifecta” of full control of both chambers and the governor’s office for the first time in eight years. A big reason was the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which held that the Constitution doesn’t include a right to abortion. That hurt Minnesota Republicans, especially among suburban women.

“Tim has been in the news because the country and the world is seeing the guy we love so much,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Monday.

Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota-Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party said young people he spoke to on the campaign trail were “Walz pilled.”

Walz and other Democrats went into the 2023 legislative session with an ambitious agenda — and a whopping $17.6 billion budget surplus to help fund it. Their proudest accomplishments included sweeping protections for abortion rights that included the elimination of nearly all restrictions Republicans had enacted in prior years, including a 24-hour waiting period and parental consent requirements. They also enacted new protections for trans rights, making the state a refuge for families coming from out of state for treatment for trans children.

Their other major accomplishments included tax credits for families with children that were aimed at slashing childhood poverty, as well as universal free school breakfasts and lunches for all students, regardless of family income. They also enacted a paid family and medical leave program, legalized recreational marijuana for adults and made it easier to vote.

Republicans complained that Walz and his fellow Democrats squandered a surplus that would have been better spent on permanent tax relief for everyone. And they’ve faulted the governor and his administration for lax oversight of pandemic programs that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Federal prosecutors charged 70 people with defrauding federal food programs that funded meals for kids during the pandemic out of $250 million on Walz’s watch. Known as the Feeding Our Future scandal, it’s one of the country’s largest pandemic aid fraud cases. The Office of the Legislative Auditor, a nonpartisan watchdog, delivered a scathing report in June that said Walz’s Department of Education “failed to act on warning signs,” did not effectively exercise its authority and was ill-prepared to respond.

Republicans still criticize Walz for his response to the sometimes violent unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, which included the torching of a police station.

During a May fundraiser in St. Paul, Trump repeated his false claim that he was responsible for deploying the National Guard to quell the violence. “The entire city was burning down. … If you didn’t have me as president, you wouldn’t have Minneapolis today,” Trump said.

It was actually Walz who gave the order, which he issued in response to requests from the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. But within Minnesota, GOP legislators said both Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were too slow to act. And there was finger-pointing between Frey and Walz on who was responsible for not activating the Guard faster.

Walz has served often as a Biden-Harris surrogate and has made increasingly frequent appearances on national television. They included an interview on Fox News that irritated Trump so much that he posted on Truth Social, “They make me fight battles I shouldn’t have to fight.” Walz is also co-chair of the rules committee for the Democratic National Convention. And he led a White House meeting of Democratic governors with Biden following the president’s disastrous performance in his debate with Trump.

Putting Walz on the ticket could help Democrats hold the state’s 10 electoral votes and bolster the party more broadly in the Midwest. No Republican has won a statewide race in Minnesota since Tim Pawlenty was reelected governor in 2006, but GOP candidates for attorney general and state auditor came close in 2022.

Trump finished just 1.5 percentage points behind Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state in 2016. While Biden carried Minnesota by more than 7 points in 2020, Trump has taken to falsely claiming that he won the state last time and can do it again.

Minnesota has produced two vice presidents, Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published August 6, 2024 11:39 A.M.

(Hopewell Township, Pa) Hopewell Park has been reopened following issues due to heavy rain last week. Brad Batchelor, Park and Recreation Director for Hopewell Township reported on Sunday that the park was cleaned up quickly from the flooding last week. He says the only thing left is to get rid of a downed tree.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published August 6, 2024 10:47 A.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) Firefighters were dispatched to 113 Locust street for a house fire at 12:28pm on Monday.  When firefighters arrived, the fire was on the front porch and spread to the second floor. A second alarm brought firefighters and additional resources to the scene from Ambridge, Baden, Beaver Falls, New Brighton and Sewickley, according to Fire Chief Tim Firich. Allegheny Health Network’s Response Team was also on scene, according to the Chief. The fire was extinguished in about 20 minutes and no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published August 6, 2024 10:41 A.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) Fire Chief Tim Firich reported that the Aliquippa Fire Department received a report of a passenger vehicle on fire at Elizabeth and Gregory Streets in the city at 5:31am Tuesday. Crews had the fire under control in 10 minutes, according to the chief. We have not heard any reports of injuries.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published August 6, 2024 10:36 A.M.

(Monaca, Pa) One person has died after being hit by a train early Tuesday morning. CSX reported Tuesday that a CSX train came into contact with a trespasser on the train tracks near the east end of the railroad bridge over the Ohio River near Atlantic Avenue and Fourth Street in Monaca. PA. The incident occurred at 12:33am. The unidentified individual suffered fatal injuries as a result of the incident. CSX said they appreciated the quick response from Beaver County first responders who were on scene. The incident is under investigation.

Update 11:13AM: Monaca Police Chief Dave Piuri said his department responded to a report of a pedestrian struck by a train early Tuesday morning . CSX reported the incident to the Beaver County Emergency Services. Monaca Police responded and were met by 2 men who reported that their friend was struck by a train on the train bridge in the area of the boat launch. They were walking from Monaca to Beaver, where they all reside. They observed the lights of the northbound train from Monaca to Beaver in the same direction.

Monaca Police searched the area and located a deceased male. He was a 35 year-old male , according to the press release. The identification of the deceased will come from the coroner’s office, and police are withholding the names of the 2 witnesses. The incident is still under investigation.

In the Keystone State, 76% of counties face one-way travel times of one to two hours to reach secure detention facilities, while 22% had to endure even longer journeys of three to four hours each way. (EFStock/Adobe Stock)
Danielle Smith – Keystone State News Connection

Pittsburgh’s only juvenile detention center has reopened, offering trauma-informed care and a secure haven for young people at risk.

The Westmoreland County-based nonprofit Adelphoi operates Highland Detention at Shuman Center. It includes physical, mental and behavioral health services. Karyn Pratt, Adelphoi’s vice president for marketing and strategy development, said the facility currently has 12 beds, with plans for more.

She emphasized the center’s role in addressing community needs and relieving pressure on a state juvenile-justice system that is stretched thin.

“We know that this service is important because it’s protection for the kids; it’s protection for the community,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to just provide a pause, provide stabilization for that child, and assess the services that they’re going to need as they move on to their next placement.”

Pratt said the center also addresses a critical shortage of detention beds, which has led to overcrowding in the Allegheny County jail and long-distance transport for youths.

Adelphoi CEO Nancy Kukovich stressed that detention is intended as a short-term placement that allows her organization to assist juvenile probation personnel in gathering the information they need to determine the best way to help a young person get back on track.

“What does the community need to know? It is one piece of a very wide continuum of services that are needed for juveniles,” she said. “And what we want is for there to be very few kids in Highland, because we have really been working hard on reducing the number of kids that walk through the system.”

She said they have a dozen more beds, exclusively for Allegheny County youths, in their Cambria facility, and two placements for girls in Latrobe, for a total capacity of 26.

Kukovich added they’ve conducted more than 200 interviews and have hired about 30 people, but as more renovations are completed, they’ll need even more caring staff members.

“I think it’s a good job,” she said. “The pay is between $20 and $25, depending on the experience that you’ve had. We’ve got some people who are working there who used to work at Shuman, which is kind of fun to hear what it is that they had to say about the previous place. And we’ll be looking for more people.”

Alternatives to detention are community-based programs that provide supervision, support and services to youths. These programs also aim to prevent recidivism and ensure court attendance, and allow a young person to remain with their family.

FILE – Work continues at a shale gas well drilling site in St. Mary’s, Pa., March 12, 2020. Facing the need to win Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris has sworn off any prior assertion that she opposed fracking. But that hasn’t stopped Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump from wielding her now-abandoned position as to win over working-class voters in the key battleground state where the industry means jobs. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Facing the need to win battleground Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris is swearing off any prior assertion that she opposed fracking, but that hasn’t stopped Republican Donald Trump from wielding her now-abandoned position to win over voters in a state where the natural gas industry means jobs.

Last week, in his first appearance in Pennsylvania since Harris became the Democrats’ presumptive nominee, Trump repeatedly warned that Harris would ban fracking — a position she held as a presidential primary candidate in 2019 — and devastate the economy in the nation’s No. 2 natural gas state.

“She’s against fracking, she’s against oil drilling, she wants everybody to have one electric car and share it with the neighbors,” Trump told rallygoers at a Harrisburg rally on Wednesday, which was also his first appearance in the state since he was wounded in a July 13 assassination attempt in Butler County. “Harris has stated repeatedly that she supports, quote, banning fracking. I’ll ban fracking, I’ll ban it on my first day.”

Harris’ campaign, in a statement, insisted she would not ban fracking, and called Trump’s claims an “attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class.”

Still, Trump criticized Harris’ support as a senator and candidate in 2020’s presidential primary for a Democratic resolution to create a “Green New Deal,” a sweeping progressive effort to shift the country toward renewable energy. Trump called the platform — never fully translated into policy proposals — a “$100 trillion green new scam designed to abolish the oil, coal and natural gas industry entirely.”

While Harris considers choosing popular Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as a finalist to be her running mate on the Democratic ticket, Trump has made it clear that he won’t concede the swing state, part of the decisive “blue wall” along with Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump repeatedly has said his administration would “drill baby drill” and dismissed Harris’ change of position with these words of caution: “Remember, a politician always goes back to what their original thought was.”

Fracking is nearly always on the ballot in Pennsylvania. Formally named hydraulic fracturing, it has made the United States an oil and gas superpower over the past decade, along with horizontal drilling.

Republicans routinely attack Democrats over fracking to drive a wedge into the party’s fragile alliance between its left wing, which is hostile to fossil fuels, and its bedrock building trade union base, whose workers are building an expanding network of gas pipelines, power plants and processing facilities in Pennsylvania.

Republicans have used similar attacks in the past two election cycles, both unsuccessfully, against Joe Biden in 2020’s presidential race and against Sen. John Fetterman in 2022.

To attack Biden in 2020, Republicans seized on a series of confusing statements — such as remarks on the oil industry from a debate just a couple weeks before the election — to claim he intended to “ban” or end national gas extraction. That was not Biden’s official position, and if he intended to restrain the extraction method, it was hard to find evidence of it in energy production data during his first three years in office.

Biden has sought to slow down leasing on federal lands and emphasize conservation as part of a large-scale effort to slow global warming. But U.S. natural gas production and crude oil production have hit record monthly highs in the past year, according to federal energy statistics. The same thing has happened with gas production in Pennsylvania, which also has posted record monthly highs during Biden’s time in office.

Harris has backed Biden’s plan to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But that plan never included a ban on fracking, and Biden has said he viewed those energy sources as necessary during the transition.

Trump, meanwhile, has heavily courted the gas industry in Pennsylvania and has ridiculed the science behind increasingly urgent warnings for immediate action to stave off the worst of climate damage by cutting fossil fuel emissions.

Oil and gas producers have opposed a range of energy policies under Biden, including tougher regulations on tailpipe emissions and vehicle fuel economy that they see as a de facto electric vehicle mandate, clamping down on leases on federal lands and delaying liquefied natural gas projects.

Energy companies want to know whether Harris will continue down those roads.

“It’s safe to say that we and a lot of other folks are eager to hear from the vice president,” said Dustin Meyer, a senior vice president at the American Petroleum Institute.

Attacking Harris over fracking is reminiscent of Republican efforts to turn union workers against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. In tenor and scale, Trump’s overtures to the industry have echoed the unfulfilled promises he made to save the coal industry during his first campaign.

Clinton was hammered for saying “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” when describing her climate plan, a comment that was used to suggest she had declared war on coal.

Democrats in Pennsylvania — such as Fetterman, Shapiro and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey — have successfully run on getting tough on fracking through stronger regulation. They shun talk of a fracking ban, although they may not necessarily support every aspect of Biden’s energy policy if unions oppose it.

When Biden dropped his candidacy, the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters, whose members work on pipelines and in power plants, quickly endorsed Harris in a unanimous vote.

Mark McManus, the union’s general president, pointedly noted that Harris “did have a previous position in a previous role in a different state,” but said she has been clear about her new position on fracking.

“And it’s a good position for the United Association,” McManus said. “She’s a nationwide candidate right now.”

McManus described Harris’ energy approach as being joined at the hip with Biden, a Pennsylvania native the union endorsed twice in his races against Trump, including this year’s campaign. McManus embraced what he described as an “all of the above energy approach.”

Still, in a heavily populated and heavily contested state where Trump won by just over 44,000 votes in 2016 and Biden won by just over 81,000, any marginal change is significant, campaign strategists and pollsters say.

Christopher Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion in Allentown, said fracking simply won’t be a decisive factor for most Pennsylvania voters because opinions on it are highly divided in the state.

The gas industry has flushed money into some local economies. But it has also inspired a backlash in other communities, most notably in Philadelphia’s suburbs.

The sweet spot for statewide candidates — such as Casey, Shapiro and Fetterman — has been not calling for a ban, but calling for tight regulation, clear disclosure about the process and limits on where it can be done, Borick said.

“It’s been successful for all of them,” Borick said, “and that’s where you see Harris going now.”

[Aug. 5, 2024] — The American Red Cross is experiencing an emergency blood shortage as the nation faces dangerous levels of heat and people head out for final summer travel plans. Since July 1, the Red Cross national blood supply has fallen by more than 25%, and blood donors of all types, especially those with type O blood, are urged to give as soon as possible to help patients receive lifesaving medical care.

 

Heat impacted more than 100 blood drives in July in nearly every state where the Red Cross collects blood – compounding other seasonal obstacles to blood donation, such as travel and summer activities. Together these factors contributed to a shortfall of more than 19,000 blood donations in July. At the same time, hospital demand for blood products remains strong. Blood products are being sent to hospitals faster than donations are coming in. Right now, type O inventory is so low, distributions of this vital blood type are reduced below what hospitals count on.

 

“It’s critical hospitals have both type O positive and O negative blood ready to go for patients in the most life-threatening situations,” said Dr. Eric Gehrie, executive physician director for the Red Cross. “Type O is especially important for victims of accidents and other trauma who are receiving emergency treatment. Now is the time for donors of all blood types to give and ensure hospital shelves can be restocked before any impact to patient care.”

 

The Red Cross is working with hospitals around-the-clock to meet the blood needs of patients – but can’t do it alone. To make an appointment, download the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit RedCrossBlood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).