Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published August 1, 2024 12:06 P.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) Bids were opened for the Fifth Avenue project at Wednesday night’s work session by engineer Ron  Riizzo, and the decision will be announced at the regular meeting on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, which is council’s regular session.

Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio with contributions by Sandy Giordano. Published July 31, 2024 4:30 P.M. 

(Beaver, Pa) Heritage Valley Health System performed an organizational downsizing Wednesday. Numerous employees were let go and multiple branches of the system have been shut down. It is unclear how many employees were terminated.

Beaver County Radio obtained a letter that was sent to employees Wednesday. The letter states “the workforce reduction was given careful consideration, and the affected employees were provided a severance package”. The letter goes on to say “while such descions are painful for all of us, they are unfortunately unavoidable in order to preserve the future viability of the health system.”

Locations that were closed as part of the reorganization are a pediatric facility in Calcutta, Ohio, and an MRI facility in Robinson Township. BusinessCare in Center Township will close on September 30th.

Heritage Valley cites operational and financial challenges as the cause of the downsizing.

President and CEO Norm Mitry told Beaver County Radio that the system is exploring all of their options when asked about the possibility of a merger with Allegheny Health Network.

The letter that was sent to employees can be viewed below.

FILE – People play slot machines at Philadelphia Park Casino and Racetrack, June 25, 2007, in Bensalem, Pa. The owners of twelve Pennsylvania casinos have asked the state’s highest court to declare that a tax on slot machine revenue is unconstitutional because the state doesn’t impose it broadly on cash-paying electronic game terminals known as skill games that can be found in many bars and stores. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The owners of twelve Pennsylvania casinos have asked the state’s highest court to declare that a tax on slot machine revenue is unconstitutional because the state doesn’t impose it broadly on cash-paying electronic game terminals known as skill games that can be found in many bars and stores.

The lawsuit, filed Monday, could endanger more than $1 billion in annual tax revenue that goes toward property tax rebates and economic development projects.

The state’s collection of the roughly 54% tax on casinos’ revenue from slot machines, but not on revenue from skill game terminals, violates constitutional guarantees designed to ensure that taxation is fair, the casino owners contend.

“There is no basis for requiring licensed entities to pay about half of their slot machine revenue to the Commonwealth while allowing unlicensed entities to pay no tax on such revenue,” they argue in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit asks the court to force the state to apply the same tax rate to skill games or to bar it from collecting taxes on slot machines.

The casinos’ owners include dozens of principals, as well as major casino companies such as Caesars Entertainment Inc. and Penn Entertainment Inc.

The state Department of Revenue declined comment on the lawsuit. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said it had just learned of lawsuit and was evaluating it.

Pennsylvania brings in more tax revenue from casinos than any other state, according to American Gaming Association figures.

The fate of the lawsuit, filed by the owners of 12 of the state’s 17 licensed and operating casinos, is likely tied to the outcome of a separate lawsuit that the state Supreme Court is considering.

That case — between the state attorney general’s office and Pace-O-Matic Inc., a maker of skill games — could decide whether the skill games that have become commonplace in nonprofit clubs, convenience stores, bars and elsewhere are unlicensed gambling machines and, as a result, must be shut down.

A lower court found that the Pace-O-Matic games are based on a player’s ability and not solely on chance, like slot machines and other traditional gambling games that are regulated by the state.

For years, the state has maintained that the devices are unlicensed gambling machines that are operating illegally and subject to seizure by police. Machine makers, distributors and retailers contend that they are legal, if unregulated, games that are not subject to state gambling control laws.

Lawmakers have long discussed regulating and taxing the devices, but any agreement has been elusive.

It’s unclear exactly how many skill game terminals there are in Pennsylvania, but the American Gaming Association estimates there are at least 67,000, which would be more than any other state.

Casinos operate roughly 25,000 regulated slot machines on which gamblers wagered almost $32 billion last year and lost just over $2.4 billion. The state and casinos effectively split that amount.

FILE – A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains, Feb. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

People who live near East Palestine, Ohio, can now get $25,000 apiece for any injuries they sustained after last year’s Norfolk Southern freight train derailment on top of whatever money they get for property damage as part of the $600 million class-action settlement.

The lawyers who negotiated the deal have increased the estimated injury payment from the original $10,000 because they now have more information about how many claims there will be. One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Adam Gomez, said the original estimate was conservative to ensure that no one will receive less than they were promised as part of the settlement.

“We are not looking to over promise and under deliver in any way shape or form to the class,” Gomez said.

The lawyers plan to hold a Zoom call for residents Thursday evening to explain why the health payment is increasing and why they believe it is the right amount.

That payment for health problems is on top of the up to $70,000 households can receive for property damage. But to get the injury payment, residents who live within ten miles of where the train derailed have to agree before the Aug. 22 deadline to give up the right to sue the railroad or anyone else involved down the road even if they develop cancer or other serious health conditions later.

The biggest property damage payments of $70,000 per household are limited to people who lived within two miles of the derailment. The payments get much smaller toward the outer edge of the 20-mile radius that’s covered in the settlement.

The personal injury payments are only available to people who lived within ten miles of the derailment.

For the folks in East Palestine who are worried about the possibility of developing cancer or another serious health condition down the road like Jami Wallace even $25,000 seems way too low. She thinks residents’ health claims are likely worth way more than that.

Gomez said that the settlement is primarily designed to address only the short-term health impacts that residents have seen since the derailment because the courts won’t allow them to try to cover future health problems.

But the lawyers hired their own toxicologists and testing experts to try and determine what kind of long-term risks the community faces from the cocktail of chemicals that spilled and burned after the train derailment along with the vinyl chloride that was intentionally released and burned three days after the crash.

Gomez said the evidence they gathered about the chemicals that spilled and how long people were exposed to them suggests there may not be a rash of terrible illnesses in the future.

“In fact, we do not think that there is, support in that data for any significant increase in the number of additional cancers or other illnesses in East Palestine or the surrounding communities,” Gomez said.

But Wallace and others in town may not be ready to believe that because of what she has heard from other chemical experts and the doctors who are studying the health problems residents have reported.

“I have letters written from multiple toxicologists that have credentials longer than your arm that’ll say there’s definitely a huge health risk in the future,” Wallace said.

But Gomez cautioned that anyone who opts out of the class action settlement now should consider the difficult road they would face in bringing their own lawsuit later. He said it will likely be difficult that something like cancer was caused by the derailment because the disease can be caused by other factors.

The National Transportation Safety Board said that the East Palestine derailment, which was the worst rail disaster in the past decade, was caused by an overheating bearing on one of the cars on the train that wasn’t detected soon enough by the network of detectors the railroad has alongside the tracks.

The head of the NTSB also said that the five tank cars filled with vinyl chloride didn’t need to be blown open to prevent an explosion because they were actually starting to cool off even though the fire continued to burn around them.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, listens as U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign event in Pennsylvania, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, July 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has agreed to be interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation into his attempted assassination in Pennsylvania earlier this month, a special agent said on Monday in disclosing how the gunman prior to the shooting had researched mass attacks and explosive devices.

The expected interview with the 2024 Republican presidential nominee is part of the FBI’s standard protocol to speak with victims during the course of its criminal investigations. The FBI said on Friday that Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet or a fragment of one during the July 13 assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“We want to get his perspective on what he observed,” said Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office. “It is a standard victim interview like we would do for any other victim of crime, under any other circumstance.”

Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired Monday night that he expected the FBI interview to take place Thursday.

Through more than 450 interviews, the FBI has fleshed out a portrait of the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, that reveals him to be a “highly intelligent” but reclusive 20-year-old whose primary social circle was his family and who maintained few friends and acquaintances throughout his life, Rojek said. Even in online gaming platforms that Crooks visited, his interactions with peers appeared to have been minimal, the FBI said.

His parents have been “extremely cooperative,” with the investigation, Rojek said. They have said they had no advance knowledge of the shooting.

The FBI has not uncovered a motive as to why he chose to target Trump, but investigators believe the shooting was the result of extensive planning, including the purchase under an alias in recent months of chemical precursors that investigators believe were used to create the explosive devices found in his car and his home, and the deployment of a drone about 200 yards (180 meters) from the rally site in the hours before the event.

The day before the shooting, the FBI says, Crooks visited a local shooting range and practiced with the gun that would be used in the attack.

After the shooting, authorities found two explosive devices in Crooks’ car and a third in his room at home. The devices recovered from the car, consisting of ammunition boxes filled with explosive material with wires, receivers and ignition devices, were capable of exploding but did not because the receivers were in the “off” position, Rojek said. How much damage they could have done is unclear.

The FBI has said that Crooks in the lead-up to the shooting had shown an online interest in prominent public figures, searching online for information about individuals including President Joe Biden. In addition, Rojek said, Crooks looked up information about mass shootings, improvised explosive devices, power plants and the attempted assassination in May of Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress last week that on July 6, the day Crooks registered to attend the Trump rally, he googled: “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” That’s a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the shooter who killed President John F. Kennedy from a sniper’s perch in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

New details, meanwhile, were emerging about law enforcement security lapses and missed communications that preceded the shooting.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, released text messages from members of the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit that showed how local officers had communicated with each other about a suspicious-behaving man who turned out to be Crooks lurking around more than an hour before the shooting.

One text just before 4:30 p.m. describes a man “sitting to the direct right on a picnic table about 50 yards from the exit.”

In another text at 5:38 p.m., an officer tells other counter-snipers: “Kid learning around building we are in. AGR I believe it is. I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out. I lost sight of him.” Photographs of Crooks circulated among the group.

AGR is a reference to a complex of buildings that form AGR International Inc, a supplier of automation equipment for the glass and plastic packaging industry. Crooks scaled the roof of one of the buildings of the compound and is believed to have fired eight shots at the rally stage with an AR-style rifle that was purchased legally by his father years earlier.

The shots were fired at 6:12 p.m., according to a Beaver County after-action report.

Trump said he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” and he appeared in the days later with a bandage on the ear. One rallygoer, Corey Comperatore, was killed, and two others were injured. Crooks was shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper.

In an interview with ABC News, a Beaver County officer who sounded the alarm said that after sending a text alerting others to Crooks, “I assumed that there would be somebody coming out to speak with this individual or find out what’s going on.”

Another officer told ABC News that the group was supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service counter-snipers but that that never happened.

An email to the Secret Service seeking comment was not immediately returned Monday.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro gestures at a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris in Ambler, Pa., Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is set to launch a battleground tour next week with her yet-to-be-named running mate, with stops in seven swing states stretching from Pennsylvania to Nevada, her campaign said Tuesday.

The planned tour is the latest sign of the whirlwind pace at which Harris has gone from President Joe Biden’s supportive running mate to likely Democratic nominee ready to identify her No. 2 and take on Republican Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

Harris said Tuesday she hadn’t made a decision yet on whom she will select.

Those who are under consideration have been demonstrating a time-honored tradition: summertime auditions in which vice presidential contenders walk the line between open self-promotion and loyal advocacy for the potential boss.

To that end, Democrat Josh Shapiro told enthusiastic voters in suburban Philadelphia this week that Harris belongs in the White House — and then reminded them of all he’s done as governor of battleground Pennsylvania. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, likewise, told voters in Georgia that Harris has the makings of “a great president” — and then highlighted the elections he’s won as a Democrat in Republican territory.

Harris’ campaign has been vetting about a dozen potential running mates, according to people familiar with the search process. Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly are seen as among the front-runners, according to the people.

The campaign said Harris and her running mate will make stops next week in Philadelphia; western Wisconsin; Detroit; Raleigh, North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Phoenix and Las Vegas.

In the meantime, Harris advisers, led by former Attorney General Eric Holder, have been combing through reams of paperwork submitted by potential running mates, while the candidate herself is holding personal conversations with the finalists, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details that haven’t been made public.

Harris, according to another person familiar with the matter, is seeking someone with executive experience who can also serve as a governing partner. Notions of a so-called short list have not stopped those on the Democrats’ broader national bench from finding the spotlight.

“I’m not going to talk about the interactions I’ve had with the campaign,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker declared recently on MSNBC. He added, though, “Let’s just say I’m aware that the vetting process is quite an in depth one.” Then he listed his accomplishments, offering that he was the only Midwestern governor to raise his state minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Harris would be the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to serve as president. Many Democrats have argued she should balance her ticket both demographically and politically.

Dems’ VP list has notable differences

Shapiro, 51, is among the most popular U.S. governors, winning his 2022 election in a rout over a Trump-endorsed Republican. He’s an outspoken supporter of abortion rights who has won three statewide elections in Pennsylvania. His speaking style draws comparisons to former President Barack Obama. But he has taken flak from the left for his support for Israel’s war on Hamas, a private school voucher program and natural gas infrastructure.

His allies argue that he would help Harris win Pennsylvania, complicating if not blocking Trump’s path to an Electoral College majority.

Like all contenders, Shapiro sidesteps questions about the vetting process and stresses Harris should not be pressured. But he’s mentioned more than once that he’s known her for nearly two decades.

Beshear stands out in a heavily Republican state. During his weekend stop in Georgia, he talked of winning votes in “tough counties” but emphasized liberal bona fides: “I am a proud pro-union governor. I am a proud pro-choice governor. I am a proud public education governor. I am a proud pro-diversity governor.”

Closest in age to JD Vance among the Democrats’ possibilities, Beshear openly mocks Trump’s understudy for presenting himself as a son of Appalachia. “I mean, there’s a county that JD Vance says he’s from in Kentucky – and I won it by 22 points last November,” he said.

Beshear and Shapiro were both state attorneys general, like Harris, before becoming governors. But their tenures did not overlap considerably with Harris’ service in California. She worked more closely with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper during his days as an attorney general, but Cooper on Monday said he had opted not to be considered for vice president.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, 60, is a favorite of some progressives. He brings an atypical national political resume: He was a non-commissioned Army officer, public school teacher and state high school championship football coach before entering politics. Before being elected governor, he was one of the last white Democrats in Congress to represent a mostly rural, small-town House district — a notable juxtaposition to Harris, the Bay Area Californian.

“She will make the best choice she’s going to,” Walz said Sunday on CNN, a day after Trump held a mass rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota. “One way or another, she is going to win in November, and that’s going to benefit everyone,” Walz said, including “a lot of those folks who were out in St. Cloud with the (former) president.”

Kelly, 60, is the only top contender in Congress. He boasts an impressive military resume and experience as an astronaut. He has strong Latino support locally and solid relationships with Arizona officials along the U.S.-Mexico border. That balance could give him credibility on immigration policy as Republicans frame high numbers of migrant border crossings as a national crisis.

But Kelly has had to shore up his credentials with labor, a key Democratic faction. He took heat from union leaders because he was one of just a handful of Democrats who did not sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would make it easier to organize workers. He said at the time he supported the goals but had concerns. Following pressure this month, he now says he would vote for the bill if it came up for a vote.

Everyone has an opinion

While Harris considers her choices, everyone seems to have an opinion.

Steven Benjamin, the White House director of public engagement, laughed as he told reporters on Air Force One on Monday that his office has received thousands of recommendations from around the country.

Donna Brazile, who managed Democrat Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000 and was instrumental in urging Biden to pick Harris in 2020, said the selection process involves “a lot of noise” that underplays the complexity of the decision.

“The most important stage is what the lawyers will do to you,” she said, with a laugh and emphasizing the seriousness. “It’s worse than a dental hygiene check. … Before you get to suitability and other factors, before it gets to political people like me, they’ve done a forensic examination of your life.”

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Barrow reported from Cumming, Georgia. Associated Press reporters Will Weissert in Washington, Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Bruce Schreiner in Frankfort, Kentucky; Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix; and Colleen Long aboard Air Force One contributed.

This image released by the Food Safety and Inspection Service, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, shows the product label for Boar’s Head Virginia Ham meat, one of 71 products recalled as an investigation into a deadly listeria outbreak. The popular deli meat company is recalling an additional 7 million pounds of ready-to-eat products made at a Virginia plant as the investigation continues, U.S. Agriculture Department officials said Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (FSIS/USDA via AP)

The popular deli meat company Boar’s Head is recalling an additional 7 million pounds of ready-to-eat products made at a Virginia plant as an investigation into a deadly outbreak of listeria food poisoning continues, U.S. Agriculture Department officials said Tuesday.

The new recall includes 71 products made between May 10 and July 29 under the Boar’s Head and Old Country brand names. It follows an earlier recall of more than 200,000 pounds of sliced deli poultry and meat. The new items include meat intended to be sliced at delis as well as some packaged meat and poultry products sold in stores.

They include liverwurst, ham, beef salami, bologna and other products made at the firm’s Jarratt, Virginia, plant.

The recalls are tied to an ongoing outbreak of listeria poisoning that has killed two people and sickened nearly three dozen in 13 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly all of those who fell ill have been hospitalized. Illnesses were reported between late May and mid-July.

The problem was discovered when a liverwurst sample collected by health officials in Maryland tested positive for listeria. Further testing showed that the type of bacteria was the same strain causing illnesses in people.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we decided to immediately and voluntarily expand our recall to include all items produced at the Jarratt facility,” the company said on its website. It has also halted production of ready-to-eat foods at the plant.

The meat was distributed to stores nationwide, as well as to the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama, Agriculture Department officials said.

Consumers who have the recalled products in their homes should not eat them and should discard them or return them to stores for a refund, company officials said. Health officials said refrigerators should be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized to prevent contamination of other foods.

An estimated 1,600 people get listeria food poisoning each year and about 260 die, according to the CDC.

Listeria infections typically cause fever, muscle aches and tiredness and may cause stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. Symptoms can occur quickly or to up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food. The infections are especially dangerous for people older than 65, those with weakened immune systems and during pregnacy.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published July 31, 2024 12:45 P.M.

(Hopewell Township, Pa) Joe Lamenza was hired at Tuesday night’s Hopewell School Board work session. He will be paid $25,000 for Athletic Director, and $80,000 as Assistant Principal at the high school. His starting date will be determined by Superintendent Dr. Jeff Beltz.