(File Photo of Road Work Ahead Sign)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Allegheny County, PA) PennDOT announced that inspection work on the southbound Route 65 ramp to northbound I-279 in the City of Pittsburgh will occur today and tomorrow, weather permitting.   

Inspection work requiring lane narrowing and traffic shifts conducted by crews from The Markosky Engineering Group, Inc. and the Sofis Company, Inc. will occur from 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. each day on the following ramps: 

• Southbound Route 65 to northbound I-279 (Parkway North) 

• Southbound I-279 to the Fort Duquesne Bridge 

(File Photo: Source for Photo: A 1,200-year-old Major Oak tree, where Robin Hood allegedly used as a hide out, stands in Sherwood Forest near Nottinghamshire, England, on Oct. 19, 2007. (AP Photo/Simon Daswon, File)

LONDON (AP) — A massive ancient oak tree linked to the legend of Robin Hood may have been loved to death.

The 1,200-year-old Major Oak in Sherwood Forest is believed to have died after it didn’t sprout leaves this spring, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said Thursday.

Visitors over the past two centuries who viewed the tree’s gnarled limbs and sprawling canopy in Nottingham compressed the soil, making it difficult for rain to reach its roots, the conservation group said.

The forest has been under threat for years and the tree had been rumored to have died in the past — only to have the group confirm it was still alive.

That is no longer the case.

“The tree’s failure to produce leaves this year is heartbreaking for everyone,” Hollie Drake of the RSPB said in a statement announcing the death.

The tree is said to have sheltered Robin Hood, the legendary 13th-centruy bandit who stole from the rich and gave to the poor and took refuge in the forest when being pursued by the sheriff of Nottingham.

It got its name after being mentioned in a book on oaks by Major Hayman Rooke in 1790 that led to the first wave of fans who flocked to the forest.

It’s impossible to say what killed the tree, but the footprints of millions contributed to its downfall, along with intervention to shore up its massive limbs using cables and poles. Climate change that has brought heat waves and drought was also blamed.

Tree experts found the root system strangled and starved.

“Ancient trees like the Major Oak are the ‘conservation white rhinos of the U.K.’ but their decline is far less visible,” said Ed Pyne, of the Woodland Trust. “Saving them is vital to the health of the world we live in and yet most disappear quietly, without the recognition or care given to the Major Oak.”

In addition to its place in folklore, the forest is known for Sherwood oaks that floated the ships of Vice Adm. Horatio Nelson’s Royal Navy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and as timbers in the roof of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

The Major Oak was spared from the saw and has been protected by a fence since the 1970s.

“The Major Oak will continue to stand at the heart of Sherwood as a natural monument for visitors to come and see, living on in the legend of Robin Hood and continuing to provide as much support to the forest’s ecosystem in death as in life,” Drake said.

(File Photo of a Deer Approaching Sign)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) Hunting licenses are going on sale on June 22nd in Pennsylvania and residents should know that there will be a couple of changes.

The main one is that the Pennsylvania Game Commission decided to make it available to hunt on Sundays during hunting season. All hunting seasons include all of the Sundays within them except for migratory game bird seasons.

The state legislature dropped the ban on Sunday hunting in 2025 and 13 Sundays were included in the fall season.

(Credit for Photo: Photo Courtesy of WPXI-TV Pittsburgh, Posted on Facebook on June 19th, 2026)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Moon Township, PA) A truck overturned in Moon Township today. 

According to 911 dispatchers, the crash was reported just before noon in the 5000 block of University Boulevard. 

A WPXI employee captured photos of the truck, which was lying on its side and appeared to have struck a pole. 

It is unclear if anyone was injured at this time. 

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Smoke rises to the sky in an area near Beaufort Castle following an Israeli military strike in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group agreed Friday to halt the heavy fighting in southern Lebanon that had threatened to unravel an interim peace agreement between the United States and Iran, officials said. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah immediately confirmed the truce.

It came after a heavy exchange of fire killed 47 people in Lebanon and four Israeli soldiers.

Hezbollah and Israel went to war shortly after the outbreak of the wider conflict, with Hezbollah firing rockets and drones at civilian communities in northern Israel and Israel seizing large swaths of southern Lebanon.

The agreement to end the Iran war calls for a halt to military operations in Lebanon and for its sovereignty to be respected. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah is a party to the deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep Israeli forces in southern Lebanon until the threat is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt its attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing from Lebanon, which Iran says is also a condition of the wider agreement.

The deal aims to end the war between the U.S. and Iran, open the Strait of Hormuz to relieve the world economy, and relaunch talks on Iran’s nuclear program with a 60-day deadline for a final accord. But it already faces threats, chiefly from Lebanon, with the fighting there leading to a delay in the start of talks planned for Friday in Switzerland.