Beaver County Radio News Staff. Photos by Gary Miller. Published July 18, 2024 12:09 P.M.

(Rochester, Pa) The Beaver County Chamber of Commerce hosted a legislative Cruise on the Gateway Clipper Wednesday evening. Among those in attendance included Senator Elder Vogel JR, State Representatives Rob Matzie and Jim Marshall, Commissioner Jack Manning, Republican State Representative candidate Roman Kozak, and Rico Elmore of RCBC spoke about his experience at the Trump rally in Butler. Representatives of Chris Deluzio, Josh Kail, and Candidate Kenya Johns also attended.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on stage during his walk-through on the third day of the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Donald Trump takes the stage Thursday at the Republican National Convention to accept his party’s nomination again and give his first speech since he was cut off mid-sentence by a flurry of gunfire in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Trump’s address will conclude the four-day convention in Milwaukee. He appeared each of the first three days with a white bandage on his ear, covering a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting.

His moment of survival has shaped the week, even as convention organizers insisted they would continue with their program as planned less than 48 hours after the shooting. Speakers and delegates have repeatedly chanted “Fight, fight, fight!” in homage to Trump’s words as he got to his feet and pumped his fist after Secret Service agents killed the gunman. And some of his supporters have started sporting their own makeshift bandages on the convention floor.

Trump has said the shooting also led him to change his RNC speech, from what was going to be “a humdinger” made up largely of attacks on President Joe Biden to one more focused on bringing the country together.

“Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now,” Trump told the Washington Examiner.

His son Donald Trump Jr. said earlier this week that he spent a few hours with him trying to “de-escalate” some of the rhetoric in the former president’s speech following the attack. Trump has not released information about the extent of his injuries or the treatment he received.

RNC speakers this week have attributed Trump’s survival to divine intervention and paid tribute to victim Corey Comperatore, who died after shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire at the rally.

“Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning,” Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said in his speech to the convention on Wednesday.

In his first prime-time speech since becoming the nominee for vice president, Vance spoke of growing up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent, and of how he later joined the military and went on to the highest levels of U.S. politics.

The convention has showcased a Republican Party reshaped by Trump since he shocked the GOP establishment and won the hearts of the party’s grassroots on his way to the party’s 2016 nomination. Rivals Trump has vanquished — including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — put aside their past criticisms and gave him their unqualified support.

Even Vance, Trump’s pick to carry his movement into the next generation, was once a fierce critic who suggested in a private message since made public that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.”

While Republicans were set to emerge from their convention more united than in recent memory, Democrats are bitterly divided about whether Biden should continue to lead the ticket. Biden, following his disastrous debate performance against Trump last month, has resisted increasing pressure to drop out, with Democrats’ own party convention scheduled for next month in Chicago.

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats nationally say Biden should step aside and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to an AP/NORC poll released Wednesday.

Some national polls do show a close race, though others suggest Trump with a lead. And some state polls have contained warning signs for Biden, too, including a recent New York Times/Siena poll that suggested a competitive race in Virginia, a state Biden won in their 2020 matchup.

The RNC has tried to give voice to the fear and frustration of conservatives while also trying to promote the former president as a symbol of hope for all voters.

Trump Jr. spoke movingly Wednesday about his father’s bravery, saying he showed “for all the world” that “the next American president has the heart of a lion.” But he toggled back and forth between talking about his father as a symbol of national unity and slamming his enemies.

“When he stood up with blood on his face and the flag at his back the world saw a spirit that could never be broken,” Trump Jr. said.

Trump has not spoken in public since the shooting, though he’s given interviews off camera. But he referenced it during a private fundraiser on Wednesday, according to a clip of his remarks recorded on a cellphone and obtained by PBS News.

“I got lucky,” he said. “God was with me.”

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks during the Republican National Convention Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — JD Vance introduced himself to a national audience Wednesday after being chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate, sharing the story of his hardscrabble upbringing and making the case that his party best understands the challenges facing struggling Americans.

Speaking to a packed arena at the Republican National Convention, the Ohio senator cast himself as fighter for a forgotten working class, making a direct appeal to the Rust Belt voters who helped drive Trump’s surprise 2016 victory and voicing their anger and frustration.

“In small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania, or in Michigan, in states all across our country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war,” he said.

“To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and every corner of our nation, I promise you this,” he said. “I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.”

The 39-year-old Ohio senator is a relative political unknown, having served in the Senate for less than two years. He rapidly morphed in recent years from a bitter critic of the former president to an aggressive defender and is now positioned to become the future leader of the party and the torch-bearer of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” political movement.

The first millennial to join the top of a major party ticket, Vance enters the race as questions about the age of the men at the top — 78-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Joe Biden — have been high on the list of voters’ concerns. He also joins Trump after an assassination attempt against the former president — in which Trump came perhaps millimeters from death or serious injury — underscoring the importance of a potential successor.

But Trump’s decision to choose Vance wasn’t about picking a running mate or the next vice president, said Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who introduced the senator at a fundraiser earlier Wednesday.

“Donald Trump picked a man in JD Vance that is the future of the country, the future of the Republican Party, the future of the America First movement,” he said.

Vance shared his story and introduced his family

In his speech, Vance shared his story of growing up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent. He later joined the Marines, graduated from Yale Law School, and went on to the highest levels of U.S. politics — an embodiment of an American dream he said is in now in short supply.

“Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I’d be standing here tonight,” he said.

Vance gained prominence following the publication of his bestselling 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which tells the story of his blue-collar roots. The book became a must-read for those seeking to understand the cultural forces that propelled Trump to the White House that year. Vance spent years as a Trump critic, assailing the former president with insults, before he changed his mind.

Vance, who had never attended, let alone spoken at a previous Republican convention, spent much of his speech talking up Trump and going after Biden, using his relative youth to draw a contrast with the 81-year-old president.

Vance says he was in fourth grade when “a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good American manufacturing jobs to Mexico.”

“Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington as long as I’ve been alive,” he added. “For half a century, he’s been a champion of every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”

The crowd inside the convention hall welcomed Vance warmly. They erupted into chants of “Mamaw!” in honor of his grandmother, and chanted “JD’s Mom!” after he introduced his mother, a former addict who has been sober for 10 years.

Vance was introduced Wednesday night by his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, who talked of the stark difference between how she and her husband grew up — she a middle-class immigrant from San Diego, and he from a low-income Appalachian family. She called him “a meat and potatoes kind of guy” who respected her vegetarian diet and learned to cook Indian food for her mother.

Trump, again wearing a bandage over his injured ear, watched Vance speak from his family box and was often seen smiling.

Most Americans — and Republicans — didn’t know much about Vance before Wednesday night. According to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which was conducted before Trump selected the freshman senator as his choice, 6 in 10 Americans don’t know enough about him to have formed an opinion. That includes 61% of Republicans.

Democrats have attacked Vance for his past support for a national abortion ban, his criticism of U.S. involvement in Ukraine, and his eagerness to blame Democrats for Trump’s assassination attempt. But the young senator steered clear of such controversies in his remarks, which were light on the red-meat conservative attacks that convention audience typically expect.

Biden’s campaign responded with a blistering statement calling Vance “unprepared, unqualified, and willing to do anything Donald Trump demands.”

“Tonight, J.D. Vance, the poster boy for Project 2025, took center stage. But it’s working families and the middle class who will suffer if he’s allowed to stay there,” said Michael Tyler, Biden campaign communication director.

A Trump aide just released from prison electrified the crowd

Convention organizers had stressed a theme of unity, even before Trump survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania Saturday. Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and the subsequent attack on the U.S. Capitol, officials said, would be absent from the stage.

But that changed with former White House official Peter Navarro, who was greeted with a standing ovation hours after being released from a Miami prison where he served four months for defying a subpoena from the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of the former president’s supporter.

“If they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump, be careful. They will come for you,” he said in a fiery speech, comparing his legal troubles to those faced by Trump, who earlier this year was convicted on 34 felony charges in his criminal hush money trial.

Also spotted on the floor of the convention: Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chair, and Roger Stone, who were both convicted as part of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in that election. Trump pardoned both Manafort and Stone.

Families blamed Biden for the losses of their loved ones

Beyond Vance’s primetime speech, the Republican Party focused Wednesday on a theme of American global strength.

In a particularly powerful moment, the relatives of service members killed during Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan took the stage, holding photographs of their loved ones.

Christy Shamblin, whose daughter-in-law Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee died in the attack, spoke of the six hours she said Trump spent with her family in Bedminster, New Jersey and “spoke to us in a way that made us feel understood.”

“Donald Trump carried the weight for a few hours with me. And for the first time since Nicole’s death I felt I wasn’t alone in my grief,” she said.

Herman Lopez, whose son, Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez, was among those killed, read aloud the names of all 13 U.S. service members who died in the Aug. 26, 2021, attack.

Also featured were the parents of Omer Neutra, one of eight Americans still being held hostage in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

His parents, Ronen and Orna, said Trump called them after their son, a soldier in the Israeli army, was captured, and offered support. As they spoke, the crowd chanted “Bring them home!”

___

Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Ali Swenson in Minneapolis, Farnoush Amiri, Michelle L. Price and Bill Barrow in Milwaukee, and Will Weissert and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE – President Joe Biden speaks at a 2024 Prosperity Summit, July 16, 2024, in North Las Vegas, Nev. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party select a different candidate, according to a new poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It sharply undercuts his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new poll, sharply undercutting his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him.

The new survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted as Biden works to salvage his candidacy two weeks after his debate flop, also found that only about 3 in 10 Democrats are extremely or very confident that he has the mental capability to serve effectively as president, down slightly from 40% in an AP-NORC poll in February.

The findings underscore the challenges the 81-year-old president faces as he tries to silence calls from within his own party to leave the race and tries to convince Democrats that he’s the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump. The poll was conducted mostly before Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. It’s unclear whether the shooting influenced people’s views of Biden, but the small number of poll interviews completed after the shooting provided no early indication that his prospects improved.

Meanwhile, as Vice President Kamala Harris receives additional scrutiny amid the talk about whether Biden should bow out, the poll found that her favorability rating is similar to his — but the share of Americans who have an unfavorable opinion of her is slightly lower.

The poll provides some evidence that Black Democrats are among Biden’s strongest supporters, with roughly half in the survey saying he should continue running, compared to about 3 in 10 white and Hispanic Democrats. Overall, seven in 10 Americans think Biden should drop out, with Democrats only slightly less likely than Republicans and independents to say that he should make way for a new nominee.

“I do have genuine concerns about his ability to hold the office,” said Democrat Andrew Holcomb, 27, of Denver. “I think he’s frankly just too old for the job.”

Janie Stapleton, a 50-year-old lifelong Democrat from Walls, Mississippi, held the opposite view, saying Biden is the “best candidate” for president.

People aren’t just sour on Biden on as they size up their choices this election season.

About 6 in 10 Americans want Trump to withdraw — but relatively few Republicans are in that camp.

As for Biden, younger Democrats are especially likely to want to see him bow out – and to say they’re dissatisfied with him. Three-quarters of Democrats under the age of 45 want Biden to drop out, compared to about 6 in 10 of those who are older.

“I just feel like these two individuals are a sad choice,” said Alexi Mitchell, 35, a civil servant who lives in Virginia. She identifies as a Democratic-leaning independent, and while she thinks Biden is probably still mentally up to the job, she worries that the past few weeks’ unraveling of support makes him a weak candidate, no matter what happens next. “If he doesn’t have control over his own party, that’s a fatal flaw,” she said. “He’s put us in a bad position where Trump might win.”

Despite bullish talk from the Biden campaign heading into the debate, the faceoff only left the president in a deeper hole. Democrats are slightly more likely to say they’re dissatisfied with Biden as their nominee now than they were before his halting performance. About half are dissatisfied, an uptick from about 4 in 10 in an AP-NORC poll from June.

By contrast, most Republicans – about 6 in 10 – came out of the debate very or somewhat satisfied with Trump as their candidate. Too few interviews were conducted after the assassination attempt to provide a clear indication of whether Republicans or Americans overall have rallied further around Trump since then.

David Parrott, a Democrat from Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, was willing to give Biden the benefit of the doubt given the president’s age, but he still voiced concerns about a potential second term.

“I don’t know if he can make it another four years or not,” said Parrott, a 58-year-old retiree. “Shouldn’t he be sitting at his beach house taking it easy?”

All of the recent churn has left Americans much more likely to think Trump is capable of winning the 2024 election than is Biden – 42% to 18%. About a quarter thought the the two men equally capable of winning.

Even Democrats are relatively dour about their party’s prospects come November.

Only about a third of Democrats believe Biden is more capable of winning than is Trump. About 3 in 10 think the two are equally capable of winning and 16% say victory is more likely to go to the Republican. By contrast, Republicans are overwhelmingly convinced that Trump is in the best position to win.

Trump also has the edge on Biden when Americans consider who is most capable of handling a crisis, 38% to 28%. And people are about equally divided on which candidate has the better vision for the country, with 35% saying Biden and 34% Trump.

For all of the disenchantment Biden is up against, the president insists it’s not too late to turn things around, saying past presidents have come back from a deficit at this stage in the campaign. In an interview Tuesday with BET News, he said many voters haven’t focused yet, adding, “The point is, we’re just getting down to gametime right now.”

The poll did also offer a bright spot for Biden: 40% of adults say he’s more honest than Trump, while about 2 in 10 think the opposite.

Most Democrats — around 6 in 10 — say that Vice President Harris would make a good president, while 22% think not and 2 in 10 don’t know enough to say. The poll showed that 43% of U.S. adults have a favorable opinion of her, while 48% have an unfavorable opinion. Somewhat more have a negative view of Biden: approximately 6 in 10 Americans.

The survey was conducted before Trump selected freshman Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate. It showed that for most Americans, Vance is still an unknown. Six in 10 don’t know enough about him to form an opinion, while 17% have a favorable view and 22% view him negatively.

___

The poll of 1,253 adults was conducted July 11-15, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

Logan Check, left, junior firefighter, and Randy Reamer, president and rescue captain at the Buffalo Township Fire Company 27, hang bunting on the fire station in memory of fellow firefighter Corey Comperatore, in Buffalo Township, Pa., Sunday, July 14, 2024. Comperatore was killed during a shooting at a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pa., on Saturday. The flag at the station house flies at half staff at left. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

SARVER, Pa. (AP) — Hundreds of people who gathered to remember the former fire chief fatally shot at a weekend rally for former President Donald Trump were urged to find “unity” as the area in rural Pennsylvania sought to recover from the assassination attempt.

Wednesday’s public event was the first of two organized to memorialize and celebrate Corey Comperatore’s life. The second, a visitation for friends, was planned for Thursday at Laube Hall in Freeport.

Outside Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, where the vigil was held for Comperatore, a sign read: “Rest in Peace Corey, Thank You For Your Service,” with the logo of his fire company.

On the rural road to the auto racing track — lined with cornfields, churches and industrial plants — a sign outside a local credit union read: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Comperatore family.”

Comperatore, 50, had worked as a project and tooling engineer, was an Army reservist and spent many years as a volunteer firefighter after serving as chief, according to his obituary.

He died Saturday during the attempt on Trump’s life at the rally in Butler.

Comperatore spent the final moments of his life shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire, officials said.

Vigil organizer Kelly McCollough told the crowd Wednesday that the event was not political in nature, adding that there was no room for hate or personal opinions other than an outpouring of support for the Comperatore family.

“Tonight is about unity,” McCollough said. “We need each other. We need to feel love. We need to feel safe. We need clarity in this chaos. We need strength. We need healing.”

Dan Ritter, who gave a eulogy, said he bought Comperatore’s childhood home in 1993 — sparking a friendship that grew with their shared values of family, Christian faith and politics.

“Corey loved his family and was always spending time with them,” Ritter said. “This past Saturday was supposed to be one of those days for him. He did what a good father would do. He protected those he loved. He’s a true hero for us all.”

Jeff Lowers of the Freeport Fire Department trained with Comperatore and said at the vigil that he always had a smile on his face.

Afterward, Heidi Powell, a family friend, read remarks from Comperatore’s high school economics teacher, who could not attend the vigil.

“What made Corey truly extraordinary was his indomitable spirit, unyielding courage, his unflappable optimism,” the teacher, Mark Wyant, wrote.

Comperatore’s pastor, Jonathan Fehl of Cabot Methodist Church in Cabot, said the family “has been humbled by the way this community has rallied around them,” and by the support they have received from people around the world.

The vigil concluded with people in the crowd lighting candles and raising cellphones, glow sticks and lighters as Comperatore’s favorite song — “I Can Only Imagine,” by Christian rock band MercyMe — played while pictures of him and his family were shown on a screen.

Two other people were injured at the rally: David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township. As of Wednesday night, both had been upgraded to serious but stable condition, according to a spokesperson with Allegheny Health Network.

In a statement, Dutch’s family thanked the “greater western Pennsylvania community and countless others across the country and world” for the incredible outpouring of prayers and well wishes.

Trump suffered an ear injury but was not seriously hurt and has been participating this week in the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Four days after a gunman’s attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, the public is still in the dark over the extent of his injuries, what treatment the Republican presidential nominee received in the hospital, and whether there may be any long-term effects on his health.

Trump’s campaign has refused to discuss his condition, release a medical report or records, or make the doctors who treated him available, leaving information to dribble out from Trump, his friends and family.

The first word on Trump’s condition came about half an hour after shots rang out and Trump dropped to the ground after reaching for his ear and then pumped his fist defiantly to the crowd with blood streaming down his face. The campaign issued a statement saying he was “fine” and “being checked out at a local medical facility.”

“More details will follow,” his spokesperson said.

It wasn’t until 8:42 p.m., however, that Trump told the public he had been struck by a bullet as opposed to shrapnel or debris. In a post on his social media network, Trump wrote that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part” of his right ear.

“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he wrote.

Presidents and major-party candidates have long had to balance their right to doctor-patient confidentiality with the public’s expectations that they demonstrate they are healthy enough to serve, particularly when questions arise about their readiness. Trump, for example, has long pressed President Joe Biden to take a cognitive test as the Democrat faces doubts after his stumbling performance in last month’s debate.

After a would-be assassin shot and gravely wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981, the Washington, D.C., hospital where he was treated gave regular, detailed public updates about his condition and treatment.

Trump has appeared at the Republican National Convention the past three days with a bandage over his right ear. But there has been no further word since Saturday from Trump’s campaign or other officials on his condition or treatment.

Instead, it has been allies and family members sharing news.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who served as Trump’s White House doctor and traveled to be with him after the shooting, said in a podcast interview Monday that Trump was missing part of his ear — “a little bit at the top” — but that the wound would heal.

“He was lucky,” Jackson said on “The Benny Show,” a conservative podcast hosted by Benny Johnson. ”It was far enough away from his head that there was no concussive effects from the bullet. And it just took the top of his ear off, a little bit of the top of his ear off as it passed through.”

He said that the area would need to be treated with care to avoid further bleeding — “It’s not like a clean laceration like you would have with a knife or a blade, it’s a bullet track going by,” he said — but that Trump is “not going to need anything to be done with it. It’s going to be fine.”

The former president’s son Eric Trump said in an interview with CBS on Wednesday that his father had had “no stitches but certainly a nice flesh wound.”

The lack of information continues a pattern for Trump, who has released minimal medical information throughout his political career.

When he first ran in 2016, Trump declined to release full medical records, and instead released a note from his doctor that declared Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

Dr. Harold Bornstein later revealed that the glowing, four-paragraph assessment was written in 5 minutes as a car sent by Trump to collect it waited outside.

Jackson, after administering a physical to Trump in 2018, drew headlines for extolling the then-president’s “incredibly good genes” and suggesting that “if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years he might live to be 200 years old.”

When Trump was infected with the coronavirus in the midst of his 2020 re-election campaign, his doctors and aides tried to downplay the severity of his condition and withheld information about how sick he was and key details of his treatment.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows wrote in his book that Trump’s blood oxygen dropped to a “dangerously low level” and that there were concerns that Trump would not be able to walk on his own if he had waited longer to be transported to Walter Reed for treatment.

This aerial photo of the Butler Farm Show, site of the Saturday, July 13, 2024 Trump campaign rally, shown Monday, July 15, 2024 in Butler, Pa. On Saturday, Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump was wounded during an assassination attempt while speaking at the rally. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

PITTSBURGH, Pa. (July 16, 2024) — The family of David Dutch, who was critically injured Saturday evening during a campaign rally in Butler County for former U.S. President Donald Trump, has issued the following statement to media:

 

The Dutch family would like to extend its sincerest gratitude to the greater western Pennsylvania community and countless others across the country and world for the incredible outpouring of prayers and well wishes for David, as he recovers from injuries he sustained during former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024.  David and our entire family are especially grateful to all the first responders and medical professionals who saved his life, including the Life Flight and trauma surgical teams at AGH. As we focus on David’s recovery, we also offer our deepest condolences and prayers for the other victims of this tragic event and their families. 

 

The Dutch family respectfully asks that the public and media understand and accept their need for privacy at this time.

 

Mr. Dutch, of New Kensington, Pa., is one of two victims injured during the Butler County, Pa., assassination attempt who are receiving care at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. He was upgraded to serious but stable condition as of 1 PM Wednesday.

MONACA, July 17 – State Rep. Rob Matzie, D-Beaver, will host a license plate replacement event from 10 a.m. to noon Friday, July 19 in the parking lot of the Community College of Beaver County Dome, located on Campus Drive.

Local police will review license plates to determine whether they are illegible. State law prohibits driving with a plate that is blistered, peeling or discolored; has lost reflectivity; or has at least one number or letter that can’t be recognized from 50 feet away.

Residents with plates that qualify will receive help applying for a free replacement plate.

(Center Township, Pa) Last year was the first time CCBC hosted Community Day in over a decade. They say they are excited to bring the event back to campus again on Saturday, July 20th to celebrate the community that makes their organization possible. Local businesses, non-profits, college affiliates, politicians, and other community resources will be in attendance, along with all CCBC schools and departments.

FILE – Kyle Gass, left, and Jack Black of Tenacious D perform at the Louder Than Life Music Festival in Louisville, Ky., on Sept. 22, 2022. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)

The comedy rock duo Tenacious D — made up of Jack Black and Kyle Gass — has canceled the rest of their tour after Gass’ remarks about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

While onstage at a concert in Sydney on Sunday, Gass was presented with a birthday cake and asked to “make a wish” by Black. Gass responded, “Don’t miss Trump next time,” an apparent reference to the rally shooting a day before that left the former president with an injured ear. The video of Gass was widely circulated on social media.

“I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday. I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form,” Black said in a Tuesday statement on Instagram. “After much reflection, I no longer feel it is appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour, and all future creative plans are on hold. I am grateful to the fans for their support and understanding.”

Following Black’s statement, Gass apologized on Instagram.

“The line I improvised Sunday night in Sydney was highly inappropriate, dangerous and a terrible mistake,” he wrote Tuesday. “I don’t condone violence in any kind, in any form, against anyone. What happened was a tragedy, and I’m incredibly sorry for my severe lack of judgement.”

The band recently completed dates in the U.S. and Europe. Their “Spicy Meatball Tour” was slated to continue Tuesday night in Newcastle, hitting most major cities in Australia and New Zealand this month before returning to the U.S. for a select few dates in October.

“Frontier Touring regret to advise that Tenacious D’s concert tonight at Newcastle Entertainment Centre has been postponed,” their touring company announced in a statement on Instagram Tuesday. “Ticket holders are asked to hold onto their tickets until further information is available.”

When asked for further comment, a represented for the band directed the Associated Press back to Black’s statement. Details on refunds for the remaining tour dates were not immediately available.