HARRISBURG, Oct. 10 – New funding of $250,975 approved by the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority will support repairs and upgrades to the B.F. Jones Memorial Library in Aliquippa, state Rep. Rob Matzie announced today.

Matzie, who is a commissioner on the PBDA, said the funding will support needed maintenance and upgrades to maintain the building’s structural integrity.

“The B.F. Jones Library has been serving our community for nearly a century, and its role has only expanded over the years,” Matzie said. “Today, the library provides a wealth of programs as well as critical connections, from high-speed internet to helping residents find jobs and access social services.

“The new funding is going to support a wide range of renovations and repairs to this historic building – from painting and resealing windows to fencing, security, and site- and roof-related work – to maintain the building’s structural integrity and ensure visitors remain safe and comfortable.”

The funding was awarded through the Multi-Purpose Community Facilities Program.

An apparent tornado caused by Hurricane Milton, tore the awning off a 7-Eleven convenient store, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Cape Coral, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Milton barreled into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after plowing across Florida, where it knocked out power to more than 3 million customers and whipped up a barrage of tornadoes. The storm caused at least five deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Helene while sparing Tampa a direct hit.

The system tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm in Siesta Key, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa. Damage was widespread, and water levels may continue to rise for days, but Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was not “the worst-case scenario.”

The deadly storm surge feared for Tampa never materialized, though the storm dumped up to 18 inches (45 centimeters) of rain in some areas, the governor said. The worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 8 to 10 feet (2.5 to 3 meters) — lower than in the worst place during Helene.

“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” DeSantis said. “We’ve got more to do, but we will absolutely get through this.”

As dawn broke Thursday, storm-surge warnings were still posted for much of the east-central Florida coast and north into Georgia. Tropical storm warnings were in place along the coast into South Carolina. Officials in the hard-hit Florida counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee urged people to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees in roads, blocked bridges and flooding.

“We’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out,” Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, said on Facebook.

Just inland from Tampa, the flooding in Plant City was “absolutely staggering,” according to City Manager Bill McDaniel. Emergency crews rescued 35 people overnight, said McDaniel, who estimated the city received 13.5 inches (34 cm) of rain.

“We have flooding in places and to levels that I’ve never seen, and I’ve lived in this community for my entire life,” he said in a video posted online Thursday morning.

The tiny barrier island of Matlacha, just off Fort Myers, got hit by both a tornado and a surge, with many of the colorful buildings in the fishing and tourist village sustaining serious damage. Tom Reynolds, 90, spent the morning sweeping out four feet of mud and water and collecting chunks of aluminum siding torn off by a twister that also picked up a car and threw it across the road.

Elsewhere on the island, a house was blown into a street, temporarily blocking it. Some structures caught fire. Reynolds said he planned to repair the home he built three decades ago.

“What else am I going to do?” he said.

In contrast, city workers on Anna Maria Island were grateful not to be wading through floodwaters as they picked up debris Thursday morning, two weeks after Helene battered buildings and blew in piles of sand up to 6 feet (1.8 m) high. Those piles may have helped shield homes from further damage, said Jeremi Roberts of the State Emergency Response Team.

“I’m shocked it’s not more,” city worker Kati Sands said as she cleared the streets of siding and broken lights. “We lost so much with Helene, there wasn’t much left.”

The storm knocked out power across a large section of Florida, with more than 3.4 million homes and businesses without electricity, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.

The fabric that serves as the roof of Tropicana Field — home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St. Petersburg — was ripped to shreds by fierce winds. Debris littered the field, but no injuries were reported. Before the storm hit, first responders were moved from a staging area there.

St. Petersburg residents could no longer get water from their household taps because a water main break led the city to shut down service. Mayor Ken Welch had told residents to expect long power outages and the possible shutdown of the sewer system.

State officials said they completed more than 40 rescues overnight and crews would be going door to door in some areas Thursday. In Tampa, police said they rescued 15 people from a single-story home damaged by a fallen tree.

“We are laser-focused on search-and-rescue operations today,” said Col. Mark Thieme, executive director of the Florida State Guard.

Jessie Schaper, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida, said it was too early to know exactly how many tornadoes touched down or how strong they were.

Among the tornadoes, one twister touched down in the lightly populated Everglades and crossed Interstate 75. Another apparent tornado hit in Fort Myers, snapping tree limbs and tearing a gas station’s canopy to shreds.

The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed and at least five people killed in tornadoes, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said.

Before the hurricane arrived, about 125 homes were destroyed, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was downgraded to a Category 2 storm. By early Thursday, the hurricane was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 85 mph (135 kph) and leaving the state near Cape Canaveral.

The storm slammed into a region still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris before Milton’s winds and storm surge could toss it around and compound any damage.

Officials had issued dire warnings to flee or face grim odds of survival.

Jackie Curnick said she wrestled with her decision to stay at home in Sarasota, just north of where the storm made landfall. She and her husband started packing Monday to evacuate, but they struggled to find available hotel rooms, and the few they came by were too expensive.

With a 2-year-old son and a baby girl due Oct. 29, Curnick said there were too many unanswered questions if they got in the car and left: Where would they sleep? Would they be able to fill their gas tank? And could they even find a safe route out of the state?

“The thing is it’s so difficult to evacuate in a peninsula,” she said ahead of the storm. “In most other states, you can go in any direction to get out. In Florida, there are only so many roads that take you north or south.”

Video taken during the storm showed howling winds and sheets of rain lashing their glass-enclosed swimming pool as their son and dog watched. Trees shook violently.

On Thursday morning, she reported that the family was without power but safe.

About 80,000 people spent the night in shelters and thousands of others fled after authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people.

In Orlando, Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and Sea World remained closed Thursday. The Tampa airport, which took minimal damage, was expected to reopen no later than Friday, DeSantis said.

Crossing the bridge from the mainland to Anna Maria Island early Thursday, Police Chief John Cosby breathed a sigh of relief. Nearly all residents had evacuated, there were no injuries or deaths and the projected storm surge never happened. After fearing that his police department would be under water, it remained dry.

“It’s nice to have a place to come back to,” he said.

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This version removes an erroneous reference to 150 tornadoes. Scientists say it’s too early to know how many tornadoes developed.

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Associated Press journalists Holly Ramer in New Hampshire; Joseph Frederick in West Bradenton, Florida; Curt Anderson in Tampa; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; Brenden Farrington in Tallahassee; Michael Goldberg in Minneapolis; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

This Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, photo shows a Social Security card in Tigard, Ore. Social Security checks to increase by 5.9%, as inflation fuels largest COLA for retirees in nearly 40 years (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Social Security recipients will get a 2.5% cost-of-living increase to their monthly checks beginning in January, the Social Security Administration announced Thursday.

The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for retirees translates to an average increase of more than $50 for retirees every month, agency officials said.

About 72.5 million people, including retirees, disabled people and children, get Social Security benefit.

But even before the announcement, retirees voiced concern that the increase would not be enough to counter rising costs.

Sherri Myers, an 82-year-old retiree from Pensacola City, Florida, is now hoping to get an hourly job at Walmart to help make ends meet.

“I would like to eat good but I can’t. When I’m at the grocery store, I just walk past the vegetables because they are too expensive. I have to be very selective about what I eat — even McDonald’s is expensive,” she said.

Recipients received a 3.2% increase in their benefits in 2024, after a historically large 8.7% benefit increase in 2023, brought on by record 40-year-high inflation.

The smaller increase for 2025 reflects moderating inflation.

Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley told The Associated Press that the upcoming increase will provide a measure of relief for recipients as inflation has cooled and the agency serves a record number of retirees while funding is at a historic low.

His message to those who feel that the adjustment is not enough: “They’re not wrong.”

”I’ve heard the stories and it is a struggle for seniors,” he said, adding that “in their older years, they have to spend their money on a different array of costs and expenses, including prescription drugs.”

He said policies advanced by the Biden-Harris administration should result in many people seeing lower prescription drug costs.

The agency will begin notifying recipients about their new benefit amount by mail starting in early December. Adjusted payments to nearly 7.5 million people receiving Supplemental Security Income will begin on December 31.

The program is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers and that is slated to increase to $176,100. The maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes was $168,600 for 2024, up from $160,200 in 2023.

The announcement comes as the national social insurance plan faces a severe financial shortfall in the coming years.

The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released in May said the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035. If the trust fund is depleted, the government will be able to pay only 83% of scheduled benefits, the report said.

AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins said in a statement that “there is more we must do to ensure older Americans can continue to count on Social Security. AARP continues to call on Congress to take bipartisan action to strengthen Social Security and secure a long-term solution that Americans can rely on.”

The presidential candidates, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, have presented dueling plans on how they would strengthen Social Security.

AARP conducted interviews with both Harris and Trump in late August and asked how the candidates would protect the Social Security Trust Fund.

Harris said she would make up for the shortfall by “making billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes and use that money to protect and strengthen Social Security for the long haul.”

Trump said “we’ll protect it with growth. I don’t want to do anything having to do with increasing age. I won’t do that. As you know, I was there for four years and never even thought about doing it. I’m going to do nothing to Social Security.”

O’Malley said there is a push for the Social Security Administration to use a different index to calculate the cost-of-living increase that measures price changes based on the spending patterns of older people on things such as health care, food and medicine costs.

The COLA is now calculated according to the Consumer Price Index, a market basket of consumer goods and services. O’Malley said lawmakers who are advocating for a shift “are advancing a very sound policy.”

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published October 10, 2024 1:49 P.M.

(Hopewell Township, Pa) In a report released Thursday morning, State Police reported they responded to a report of a male that was assaulted inside a vehicle. The incident took place just after 3pm on Monday, October 7 in Hopewell  Township. The incident is under investigation, according to the report.

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to  18 months of probation, including 90 days of home confinement, a $1,375 forfeiture, and a $1,500  fine on his conviction for bribery, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced today. 

Chief United States District Judge Mark R. Hornak imposed the sentence on Walter Eiseman, 59.  

According to information provided to the Court, Eiseman was a building inspector for the  City of Pittsburgh, where he was responsible for performing inspections of properties that were the  subject of applications for certificates of occupancy. In 2018, a developer was working on a project  to redevelop a commercial building in downtown Pittsburgh as luxury apartments and hotel rooms.  As part of the financing for the project, the developer sought a historical tax credit, which would  only be granted after the developer obtained a temporary certificate of occupancy for one of the  project’s floors by the end of December 2018. As part of his guilty plea, Eiseman admitted  performing inspections on two floors of the project during the month of December, which resulted  in a temporary certificate of occupancy being issued. In return for such official action, Eiseman  accepted home appliances from the developer, which were delivered in early January 2019. Eiseman  also admitted that he solicited a set of kitchen cabinets from the developer, which were ordered but  ultimately not delivered to Eiseman’s residence.  

Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey R. Bengel prosecuted this case on behalf of the  government. 

U.S. Attorney Olshan commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the investigation  that led to the successful prosecution of Eiseman. 

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A resident of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in federal court on  October 8, 2024, to a charge of mail fraud, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced  today. 

Michael Dominick, 44, pleaded guilty to one count before United States District Judge  Cathy Bissoon. 

In connection with the guilty plea, the Court was advised that Dominick, a former manager  at the Ambridge Water Authority (AWA), defrauded AWA of money and property totaling  approximately $1,073,185 during the period of January 2020 through August 2022. As manager of  AWA, Dominick was responsible for overseeing all daily business and financial activity and thus  had access to AWA’s bank accounts and cash and check payments made to AWA for water and  related services. Dominick admitted that he secretly diverted AWA’s money into his own personal bank accounts by writing checks to himself, depositing cash and checks issued to AWA into his  personal bank accounts, using an AWA debit card to make purchases of personal items, and  adjusting or failing to report the true location of AWA’s funds on critical financial records.  

“Michael Dominick’s theft of more than a million dollars from the Ambridge Water  Authority is an alarming violation of the public trust,” said U.S. Attorney Olshan. “Those who  hold positions of authority at any level of government—and particularly those who are responsible  for managing and safeguarding public finances—owe a special duty to act in the best interest of  their employer and the community. Our office and our partners in law enforcement will continue  to root out and hold accountable public officials who violate federal law and undermine public  confidence in government.” 

“This plea marks a significant step toward justice,” said FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in  Charge Kevin Rojek. “This fraud not only affects critical public resources, but also represents a  betrayal of public trust. The AWA exists to provide an essential resource to our community.  Stealing money in this manner has the potential to directly impact the well-being of tens of  thousands of people.”

Judge Bissoon scheduled sentencing for February 20, 2025. The law provides for a total  sentence of up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both. Under the federal  Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed is based upon the seriousness of the offense and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant. 

Assistant United States Attorney Carolyn J. Bloch is prosecuting this case on behalf of the  government. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Beaver County District Attorney’s Office  conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of Dominick.