FILE – Employees of NY State Solar, a residential and commercial photovoltaic systems company, install an array of solar panels on a roof, Aug. 11, 2022, in the Long Island hamlet of Massapequa, N.Y. The Biden administration is announcing Thursday, April 20, 2023, more than $80 million in funding as part of a push to make more solar panels in the U.S. and make solar energy available in more communities. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

The Biden administration is set to announce more than $80 million in funding Thursday in a push to produce more solar panels in the U.S., make solar energy available to more people, and pursue superior alternatives to the ubiquitous sparkly panels made with silicon. Community solar, which is set up for people who rent or live in condos or don’t control their rooftops — is at the center of the announcement. The goal is that by 2025, five million households will have access to community solar — about three times as many as today,according to the Department of Energy. There is also funding for new types of solar panels that can convert more of the sun’s energy into electricity.

Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is announcing slide repair work on Todd Road (Route 3013) in Center Township, Beaver County, will begin Friday, April 21 weather permitting.

Slide repair and roadway paving requiring will occur on Todd Road near Green Garden Road will begin at 7 a.m. Friday.  Work will continue through mid-May and traffic on Todd Road will be controlled by stop signs.

Crews from A. Liberoni, Inc. will conduct the work.

Please use caution when traveling in this area.

Motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles, including color-coded winter conditions on 2,900 miles, by visiting www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information, and access to more than 1,000 traffic cameras.

511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional twitter alerts accessible on the 511PA website.

Tune in this Today ,  April 20, 2023 at 11:30 AM for a Special Edition of Notes on Local Entertainment with Scott Tady Entertainment Editor for the Beaver County Times and Beaver County Radio’s Eddy Crow. The guys will be joined in studio by Country Star and New Brighton Grad Dawn Savage. Dawn will be performing some of her hits live on the air and on our Facebook page at wbvp-wmba.com .  The Dawn Savage Band will be performing this Sunday at the Maple Syrup and Music Festival in Brady’s Run Park.

 (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jordan Jennings)

SOUTH CHINA SEA – U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Jessica Cruz instructs Cryptologic Technician (Technical) 2nd Class Savannah Dodson, left, from Beaver, Pa., as she performs chest compressions on a practice dummy aboard the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52). Bunker Hill, part of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, is in U.S. 7th fleet conducting routine operations. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy‘s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

FILE – The New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, June 29, 2022 in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is wavering Wednesday following some mixed earnings reports from big U.S. companies and another signal that inflation remains hot around the world. The S&P 500 was mostly unchanged in afternoon trading following a dip earlier. The Dow fell and the Nasdaq rose. High-growth and tech stocks are being hurt in part by higher yields in the bond market, which rose after a report showed U.K. inflation remains above 10%. Tesla is falling after announcing another round of price cut for its U.S. vehicles. Netflix dropped after reporting weaker revenue than expected.

This undated photo provided by Ben Crump Law shows Ralph Yarl, the teenager shot by a homeowner in Kansas City, Mo. (Ben Crump Law via AP)

In the span of six days, four young people across the U.S. have been shot — one fatally — for making one of the most ordinary mistakes in everyday life: showing up at the wrong place. A man shot and wounded two cheerleaders outside a Texas supermarket Tuesday after one of them said she mistakenly got into his car thinking it was her own. Authorities say a group looking for a friend’s house in upstate New York arrived in the wrong driveway only for one of them to be shot to death Saturday. In Missouri last Thursday, a teen was shot twice after going to the wrong home to pick up his younger brothers.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Tae Johnson testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security on the FY2024 budget request for the agency, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are jump-starting an immigration and border enforcement package. The House Judiciary Committee was digging into a proposal Wednesday that would remake immigration law. It includes giving the Homeland Security secretary the power to stop migrants from entering the United States if the secretary determines the U.S. has lost “operational control” of the border. It would also make it more difficult for migrants to apply for asylum at the border. But so far, House Republicans have failed to unify behind a plan. Some Latino Republicans want to see the House prioritize pathways to legal citizenship as well.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

The Beaver County Commissioners gathered for only twenty minutes during their April 19 work session, but the direction paved for the next several weeks ahead became clearer.

One of the biggest subjects facing the County and its Commissioners is the ongoing reassessment of properties, which Solicitor Garen Fedeles provided the latest updates. Fedeles stated that 9,974 review requests have been submitted to Tyler Technologies, with 5,257 of those requests already completed. The final numbers for the reassessment are projected to be completed by June.

Concurrent with the reassessment process for Beaver County over the last several weeks has been the response to the train derailment in nearby East Palestine, Ohio; recent concerns have been focused on agriculture and soil for growing food and other crops.

Commissioner Jack Manning spoke about the “very good results” through recent soil testing that showcase that there has been “no contamination at elevated levels” for the soil in local crops, which has led local farmers to continue growing crops as previously intended. “I would just ask that everyone in Beaver County continue to support their local Farmers’ Markets,” Manning said, saying that it’s important to carefully combat the perception that the soil is unsafe following the recent results.

Commissioner Tony Amadio echoed Manning’s statements regarding supporting the farmers: “We have to maintain the perception that it is good, because if the perception is not there,  people will not buy those goods. So we’ve got to convince them, based on our data that we’ve been receiving, that the food is safe, the meat’s safe, the water’s safe, and the soil’s safe. Until we see something to the contrary, I think we’ve got to keep continually promoting that.”

Another promotion for Beaver County’s success came from Manning, who spoke about Beaver County’s job growth over the last five years, with Beaver County being one of only five counties within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to have positive numbers during that span. “It’s not just all related to the Cracker Plant,” Manning added, “it’s also a lot of entrepreneurship, new businesses, and startups in our downtowns, and I’m pretty excited to say that.” Beaver County had a net positive of roughly 1,500 jobs over those five years; by comparison, neighboring Allegheny County lost a cumulative 50,000+ jobs over that same time period.

Commissioner Chairman Dan Camp spoke about the regionalization of the soon-to-be Beaver Valley Regional Police, comprising of the Freedom, Baden, and Conway municipalities and subsequent resources. Per District Attorney David Lozier, whom Camp spoke to during the session, the official date for regionalization is set to take place in early June. However, due to a lack of grant funding, the previous resources for the BVRPD will not be labelled with the new name.

The next work session for the Beaver County Commissioners is scheduled for April 26 at 10:00 AM.

Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) today highlighted the regional winners of the ninth annual Governor’s STEM Competition. This year’s competition marks the first in-person competition since 2019. Twenty regional winning teams from across the Commonwealth displayed and demonstrated their projects for year’s theme, “Innovating the Commonwealth through Collaboration and Computing.”

 

“The Pennsylvania Department of Education applauds this year’s STEM Competition winners and appreciates all of the teams that participated,” said Acting Secretary of Education Dr. Khalid N. Mumin. “The thought and innovation that went into this year’s projects continues to show us why Pennsylvania has long been seen as a national leader in STEM. The Commonwealth is fortunate to have such talented, knowledgeable, and creative students.”

 

Facilitated by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), the Governor’s STEM Competition challenges and engages students from high schools around the Commonwealth to create teams that work together during the school year to research, design, and present a device or project that can help improve the lives of Pennsylvanians and fulfill real-world needs.

 

This year, a total of 62 teams submitted projects for consideration. The top 20 teams represent 14 different intermediate units across Pennsylvania, and will demonstrate or display their STEM-related projects for peer review and selection as “People’s Choice Award” in the Governor’s STEM Competition.

 

The top 20 teams in the 2023 Governor’s STEM Competition included:

• Berwick Area Senior High School, Berwick Area School District (Team A)
• Berwick Area Senior High School, Berwick Area School District (Team B)
• Bishop Shanahan High School, Archdiocese of Philadelphia
• Carlisle High School, Carlisle Area School District
• Central Cambria High School, Central Cambria School District
• Conestoga High School, Tredyffrin/Easttown School District
• Downingtown STEM Academy, Downingtown Area School District
• East Stroudsburg High School North, East Stroudsburg Area School District
• Exeter Township Senior High School, Exeter Township School District
• Fox Chapel Area High School, Fox Chapel Area School District
• Garnet Valley High School, Garnet Valley School District
• Hollidaysburg Area Senior High, Hollidaysburg Area School District
• Parkland High School, Parkland School District
• Pennridge High School, Pennridge School District
• The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School
• Pottstown High School, Pottstown School District
• Waynesboro Area Senior High School, Waynesboro Area School District
• Wilson High School, Wilson School District
• Whitehall High School, Whitehall-Coplay School District
• Wyoming Area Secondary Center, Wyoming Area School District

 

Of the top 20 finalists, a total of eight winning teams will receive one time scholarship payments for placing as Grand Champion, First Runner Up, Second Runner Up, or Third Runner Up.

In addition to his plan to increase funding for computer science and STEM education through PASmart by 25 percent to support innovative education initiatives and practices for Pennsylvania learners, Governor Shapiro’s 2023-24 budget proposal includes an increase of $567.4 million for basic education funding.

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, April 14, 2023. The Justice Department has charged 28 members of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, including sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in a sprawling fentanyl-trafficking investigation. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal watchdog is investigating whether the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration under chief Anne Milgram improperly awarded millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to hire her past associates. That’s according to people familiar with the probe who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Among the contract spending under scrutiny by the Justice Department’s Inspector General is $4.7 million to hire people Milgram knew from her days as New Jersey’s attorney general and as a New York University law professor – at costs exceeding pay for government officials. DEA declined to comment specifically but said in a statement it has acted to “set a new vision.”