ROCHESTER – To better inform local seniors of programs and services available to them, Sen. Elder Vogel, Jr. (R-47) will be hosting his annual FREE Senior Expo on Friday, Sept. 27, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Community College of Beaver County located at 1 Campus Drive in Monaca.

Pre-registration is encouraged for this event. To pre-register, click here.

Representatives from various state and local organizations will be present to offer helpful information concerning healthcare, government services, and more to attending seniors.

Additionally, there will be refreshments, door prizes, and health screenings which are also free of charge.

Vendors for this event include, but are not limited to: Beaver County Association for the Blind, CapTel Outreach, UPMC FOR LIFE, Beaver County Library System, Anova Healthcare System, Health Plans on Demand, Pa State Police, B & B Benefits, LLC, Success Financial Solutions/American Senior Benefits, Red Hat Beauties of Beaver County, Columbia Gas of PA, and Raccoon Creek State Park.

For further information, contact Vogel’s Rochester District Office at 724-774-0444.

SGT AJ Bialk, LT John Chickos, Mayor Tina Iorfido Miller, Patrol Officer Dante Sciaretta, Patrol Officer John Bialik, Patrol Officer Eric McPhilomy
Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published July 24, 2024 2:04 P.M.

(Ambridge, Pa) Ambridge Mayor Tina Iorfido-Miller presented 5 officers with commendations at Tuesday night’s workshop meeting of council. The officers are Lt. John Chickos, Sgt. Al Bialik, Patrolemen John Bialik, Dante Sciaretta, and Eric McPhilomy for their efforts involving a drug bust that resulted in arrests. The raid was in May. Part time police officer Tina O’Brien-Jones was promoted to full time. Her official start date hasn’t been determined. The next regular meeting is Tuesday, August 13, 2024 at 6:30pm.

A view of the scene Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, as the cleanup continues at the site of of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailment that happened on Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)

Major freight railroads are rushing railcar inspections, reinforcing known safety concerns raised by unions for years, but at a House hearing Tuesday they’ll present new evidence from federal inspectors that railcar checks are routinely less than two minutes per car.

The unions have sounded the alarm often in recent years as the major railroads all adopted versions of the lean Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model and collectively cut roughly one-third of all their workers. Labor groups like the Transportation Communications Union, which represents the expert carmen who are supposed to inspect railcars, have said all the cuts have led to rushed inspections that miss problems and prompted railroads to rely on train crews too often to do limited inspections.

The disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment last year in East Palestine, Ohio, that prompted Tuesday’s hearing was caused by an overheating bearing that wasn’t caught in time by trackside sensors. The National Transportation Safety Board didn’t speculate in its final report released last month whether an inspection in a railyard might have caught the failed bearing, but it did point out that the railroad never inspected the car after it picked it up in St. Louis even though it crossed through several railyards before the crash. And more than 25% of the cars on that train had defects despite being inspected beforehand.

The TCU union’s National Legislative Director David Arouca says inspections are happening less often and with less time these days because of all the job cuts.

“Sadly, in today’s era of railroading, many carmen have to make the difficult decision of what to inspect. Under impossible time pressures, carmen are simply unable to perform full inspections,” Arouca said.

There are at least 90 points on each side of a railcar that are supposed to be checked in an inspection — something that Arouca said can’t be done in the time allotted today. The Federal Railroad Administration study found that the major freight railroads allowed an average of 1 minute and 38 seconds per car while a federal inspector was watching, but documents showed that when an inspector isn’t there inspections are being done in about 44 seconds per car.

The FRA isn’t ready to say that the railroads’ current operating model is unsafe because more research is needed to determine whether that is the case. But FRA Administrator Amit Bose said railroads’ “safety performance has stagnated over the last decade — and by some measures, deteriorated. Despite assertions to the contrary, derailment rates for our nation’s largest rail companies have not significantly improved.”

And even though most derailments don’t cause anything like the massive black plume of smoke and lingering health worries that followed the East Palestine derailment — because many of them happen at slow speeds without spilling toxic chemicals — Bose said smaller derailments shouldn’t be dismissed as the railroad equivalent of a fender-bender because they can still be deadly.

None of the CEOs of the major railroads — which include Norfolk Southern, CSX, Union Pacific, BNSF, Canadian National and CPKC — were at the hearing, even though several of them were invited. Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden said it’s shameful none of the CEOs were willing to show up.

The railroads maintain they are committed to improving safety and have taken a number of steps since the East Palestine derailment including adding hundreds more trackside detectors to spot mechanical problems and reviewing the way they respond to temperature alerts from those devices.

Plus, the Association of American Railroads trade group continues to point out that even with derailments — which happen across the country roughly three times a day — railroads remain the safest option, with more than 99% of all hazardous chemicals arriving safely. But as the Ohio derailment shows, even one derailment can be disastrous if chemicals spill and catch fire.

Railroads also argue that new technology they are investing in can help supplement the visual inspections that workers do and spot problems while trains are moving down the tracks.

But Greg Hynes with the SMART-TD union, which represents conductors and is the largest rail union, said “in the accident’s wake little has changed.”

Ohio’s two senators — including Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance — led a bipartisan group in proposing a sweeping rail safety bill last year that included requirements for inspection standards and rules for those trackside detectors, but that bill stalled after it advanced out of committee and never got a floor vote.

Republican Rep. Troy Nehls, who leads the House subcommittee on railroads, recently introduced a similar, broad bill along with Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton. But most Republicans appear to want a more limited approach based on the findings of the NTSB investigation. A narrower bill hasn’t yet been introduced.

On Tuesday, Republican Rep. Sam Graves, the chair of the Transportation Committee, said he does not think any rail safety legislation was necessary to address the problems that led to the 2023 derailment. He added that a bill would not be emerging from his committee.

But the Chair of the NTSB Jennifer Homendy suggested that Congress should accelerate its phasing out of the older DOT-111 tank cars that are prone to rupturing in a derailment and then look at addressing the more than 200 other outstanding recommendations her agency has “repeated and repeated and repeated with zero action by the railroads and by some regulators.”

In addition to all the rail safety concerns, the NTSB said Tuesday that it is worried that a federal effort by the Drug Enforcement Administration to reclassify marijuana as a less serious drug could prevent train crews, pilots and other transportation workers from being tested for marijuana even though it could impair their judgment.

The NTSB said that eliminating marijuana testing for transportation workers “would create a safety blind spot that could endanger the public.”

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Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report from Washington.

The USDA claims its electronic tag requirements will prevent disease outbreaks and protect beef export markets. (Jackie Nix/Adobe Stock)
Will Walkey – Keystone State News Connection

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will soon require electronic eartags for cattle and bison that cross state lines.

The USDA says its rule will affect some 11 million cattle, or about 12% of the nation’s herd.

There are more than 20,000 cattle operations in Pennsylvania, and the Center for Dairy Excellence says almost all dairy farms in the state are small and family-owned.

But the controversial eartag mandate is worrying some small ag producers, like Judith McGeary – a rancher and executive director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance.

She said it’s expensive and unnecessary.

“We have a system that works well right now,” said McGeary. “And USDA’s own tests of that system show that a cow that crosses state lines can be traced back, in most cases, within an hour. That is more than sufficient.”

The USDA argues it will prevent future epidemics, cut down on paperwork errors, and protect international beef exports. The rule is set to go into effect in about six months.

McGeary, who supports the position of the National Family Farm Coalition on this issue, said it will be easy for large meat companies to implement but challenging for smaller family farms, which could lead to more consolidation in agriculture.

Right now, the USDA is giving away electronic tags through state veterinary offices.

But McGeary said there are other costs with this rule for an industry already on thin margins, including the fact that technology keeps changing.

“For instance, we’ve had reports of a sale barn that went and got an electronic reader to handle the cows that were coming through with electronic tags,” said McGeary, “and within a couple of years, couldn’t find batteries for those readers.”

She added that the rule could be expanded to more domestic herds.

Other stockgrowing groups have supported transitioning to electronic tags, which could cut down on quarantine times during outbreaks.

Multiple bills in Congress seek to block the USDA’s rule, but they’ve yet to build much support.

Kimberly Cheatle, Director, U.S. Secret Service, testifies during a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing on Oversight of the U.S. Secret Service and the Attempted Assassination of President Donald J. Trump, on Capitol Hill, Monday, July 22, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The director of the Secret Service resigned Tuesday in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump that unleashed an outcry about how the agency failed in its core mission to protect current and former presidents.

Kimberly Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director since August 2022, faced growing calls to resign and several investigations into how a gunman was able to get so close to the Republican presidential nominee at an outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she said in an email to staff obtained by The Associated Press. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”

Cheatle’s departure was unlikely to end the scrutiny of the long-troubled agency after the failures of July 13, and it comes at a critical juncture ahead of the Democratic National Convention and a busy presidential campaign season. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have promised more investigations. An inspector general probe and an independent, bipartisan effort launched at President Joe Biden’s behest will keep the agency in the spotlight.

Cheatle’s resignation came a day after she appeared before a congressional committee and was berated for hours by both Democrats and Republicans for the security failures. She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades, but she angered lawmakers by failing to answer specific questions about the investigation.

Biden said in a statement that “what happened that day can never happen again,” and he planned to appoint a new director soon, but he did not discuss a timeline.

The president and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas thanked Cheatle for her service. Mayorkas appointed Deputy Director Ronald Rowe as acting director. He has worked for the agency for 23 years.

“At this moment in time, we must remain focused,” Rowe said in a note to staff obtained by AP. “We will restore the faith and confidence of the American public and the people we are entrusted to protect.”

Congressional questioning

At the hearing Monday, Cheatle remained defiant that she was the “right person” to lead the Secret Service, even as she said she took responsibility for the failures. When Republican Rep. Nancy Mace suggested Cheatle begin drafting her resignation letter from the hearing room, Cheatle responded, “No, thank you.”

The 20-year-old shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get within 135 meters (157 yards) of the stage where the former president was speaking when he opened fire. That’s despite a threat on Trump’s life from Iran that led to additional security for the former president in the days before the rally.

Cheatle acknowledged Monday that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the rally shooting. She also revealed that the roof from which Crooks fired had been identified as a potential vulnerability days earlier. But she failed to answer many questions about what happened, including why there were no agents on the roof.

A bloodied Trump was quickly escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents, and agency snipers killed the shooter. Trump said part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting. One rallygoer was killed, and two others were critically wounded.

Details continue to emerge about signs of trouble that day and the roles of the Secret Service and local authorities. The agency routinely relies on local law enforcement to secure the perimeter of events. Former top Secret Service agents said the gunman should never have been allowed to gain access to the roof.

After Cheatle’s resignation, Trump posted on his social media network: “The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy. IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!”

The House Homeland Security Committee had asked Cheatle to testify Tuesday for another hearing on the assassination attempt, but lawmakers said she refused. Cheatle’s name was on a card on a table in front of an empty chair during the hearing, which began shortly before her decision to step down became public.

Investigating an ever-growing number of threats

The Secret Service is a part of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes immigration, transportation security and the Coast Guard. The department was formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

A few years ago, there was a movement to shift the agency back to the Treasury Department, where it was housed before Sept. 11, particularly because Homeland Security’s intense focus on immigration added to the growing divide between what the Secret Service sees as its dual missions — protecting the president and investigating financial crime — and the mission of its parent department. But that movement stalled.

Roughly half of the Secret Service’s $3 billion budget is spent on protective services. It also has a robust cybercrime division, state-of-the-art forensic labs and a threat-assessment center that studies how to mitigate and train against threats.

With a workforce of 7,800 special agents, uniformed officers and other staff, the Secret Service has investigated an ever-increasing number of threats against the president and other officials under its protection. It has also managed a growing number of high-profile government figures asking for support. Staffing has not kept pace with the workload increase. Around Sept. 11 there were about 15 full-time protectees. That number has now more than doubled.

Trump is the first modern ex-president to seek another term, and because of his high visibility, his protective detail has always been larger than some others. That protective bubble got tighter in recent months as he drew closer to the nomination. All major party nominees are granted enhanced details with counterassault and countersniper teams similar to the president.

Calls for accountability

There were calls for accountability across the political spectrum, with congressional committees immediately moving to investigate and issuing subpoenas. Top Republican leaders from both the House and the Senate said Cheatle should step down.

Biden, a Democrat, ordered an independent review into security at the rally, and the Secret Service’s inspector general opened an investigation. The agency is also reviewing its countersniper team’s “preparedness and operations.”

On Tuesday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said Cheatle’s resignation was “overdue.”

“Now we have to pick up the pieces. We have to rebuild the American people’s faith and trust in the Secret Service as an agency,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., introduced legislation Tuesday to require Senate confirmation of future Secret Service directors.

Cheatle served in the Secret Service for 27 years. She left in 2021 for a job as a security executive at PepsiCo before Biden asked her to return in 2022 to head the agency.

She took over amid a controversy over missing text messages from around the time thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, following his 2020 election loss to Biden.

During her time at the agency, Cheatle was the first woman to be named assistant director of protective operations, the division that protects the president and other dignitaries, where she oversaw a $133.5 million budget. She was the second woman to lead the agency.

When Biden announced Cheatle’s appointment, he said she had served on his detail when he was vice president and he and his wife “came to trust her judgment and counsel.”

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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Rebecca Santana, Zeke Miller and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington and Michelle Price in New York contributed to this report.