(File Photo of the Beaver County Courthouse)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver, PA) Several topics were discussed at today’s Beaver County Commissioners’ work session at the County Courthouse.

One of them was the November 3rd election in Pennsylvania, which is approaching.

County Solicitor Garen Fedeles reminded that the County Courthouse is closed for the public during that day, and this is regarding the front doors.

However, Fedeles stated that the back doors of the County Courthouse will be open only for any issues that are election related.

The return rate for the county’s mail-in ballots is 80%, which is the highest in the state for the size that has been sent out at this point.

Fedeles also confirmed that there are 90 ballots that are now defective and consistent of what was done in the past and on this Friday, these individuals will be posted on the website on the county so that they can get the opportunity to correct them before Election Day.

Fedeles also affirmed that there will tentatively be a voting meeting for the county budget on November 19th and another voting meeting to pass the budget on the date of December 17th.

There was also a presentation regarding the William Penn Peace Tree that has now been planted in Beaver County.

This is a white pine tree, and this tree will be placed in all 67 counties in Pennsylvania.

According to County Recreation and Tourism Director Tony Caltury, Beaver County is one of the first counties to get this tree.

One of the reasons that this tree was received was because of a project to represent the values that William Penn believed in like friendship, and he believed that people that had different backgrounds and faiths could live togheter with mutual respect and as well as peace.

David Thompson, the Assistant Director of the Beaver County Office of Planning and Redevelopment, also stated to the Commissioners and the audience: “the county’s hazard mitigation plan has been accepted at the state level by FEMA. It is being forwarded on to FEMA for a final review and acceptance.”

Caltury also let the public know that there will be controlled goose hunts at Brady’s Run Park starting next week.

The dates that these will be happening are November 2nd, 5th, 9th, 12th, and 16th and signs at the ark will indicate where people can walk while these are taking place.

(Credit for Photo: Photo Provided with Release Courtesy of the Beaver County Chamber of Commerce)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(East Rochester, PA) The Beaver County Chamber of Commerce will join Long John Silver’s on Friday, November 13th at 9:45 a.m. to celebrate the reopening of its remodeled location in East Rochester with a special ribbon cutting ceremony at the restaurant on 750 Ohio River Boulevard.

This event will celebrate the refreshed space and reopening of the restaurant.

Long John Silver’s is known for its offerings of seafood, which includes its signature battered fish, chicken, shrimp, and sides.

(Credit for Photo: Photo Courtesy of Gavin Thunberg)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(New Brighton, PA) A house fire occurred in New Brighton yesterday.

Fire crews went to the scene on 6th Avenue near 8th Street.

Crews were on the scene as of 3:20 P.M.

Firefighters worked for more than an hour on overhaul.

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time.

(File Photo of the Pittsburgh International Airport Sign)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) A woman who says that she was sexually assaulted by a passenger on a United Airlines flight from Pittsburgh to Chicago wants answers from federal authorities just over five weeks after the reported incident happened. 

The victim told WPXI that she was traveling for work on September 22nd when a man who was sitting next to her started touching her and exposed himself.  

She stated that this happened about 30 minutes into the flight.  

She noted that she was sitting in a window seat and initially made conversation with the man who was beside her.  

She said she put in her AirPods later on and turned toward the window because she wanted to be left alone. 

The man raised the armrest between them repeatedly after she put it down. 

She confirmed that he pulled out a blanket at one point during the flight, and according to the victim, she began to feel something against her arm, but initially thought it could have been because the passengers were sitting close together. 

However, she affirmed that he was rubbing her arm and he positioned the blanket so that it blocked the view of the two of them. 

She also said that he touched her inner thigh and her leg. 

That is when he exposed himself and touched himself. 

She remembered him mouthing the word “no” after she told him she wanted to get up. 

She eventually woke another passenger up and went to the back of the plane, which is where she told a flight attendant what occurred. 

She was then moved to another seat. 

According to a statement from United Airlines: 

“We take this issue seriously, and this customer was moved to a different seat after reporting the incident to the flight crew. We also spoke with the customer and apologized for her experience. Law enforcement met this aircraft upon arrival in Chicago, and we have banned the other person involved pending our investigation.”

(File Photo: Source for Photo: (File Photo: Source for Photo: Police respond to an active shooter situation at the Tree of Life synagogue on Wildins Avenue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pa., on Saturday, October 27, 2018. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette via AP)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) A commemoration ceremony that was inside the Jewish Community Center in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh marked eight years since the synagogue shooting at the former Tree of Life synagogue that took the lives of 11 people and changed the lives of many others. 

Family members lit 11 candles yesterday for the 11 congregants of Dor Hadash, New Light, and Tree of Life who were shot and killed on October 27th, 2018. 

The victims of that shooting were: Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger. 

That event brought a room of people together for a night of prayer, reflection and song. 

This ceremony finished with remarks from the event’s keynote speaker, Mark Nordenberg, who served as the chancellor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh. 

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Chester County, Pa. election workers process mail-in and absentee ballots at West Chester University in West Chester on Nov. 4, 2020. Law enforcement agencies, civil defense officials and election administrators have begun meeting in Pennsylvania to coordinate how they will identify and fight election threats with the presidential contest just eight months away in the battleground state, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration said Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt reminded voters, in his eighth and final pre-election virtual media briefing, that the deadline to apply for a mail ballot (click here to do so) for the November 3rd election is here.

The deadline was yesterday at 5 p.m.

You can go to vote.pa.gov to apply online, and voters should complete their ballot and immediately return it to their county elections office.

People can either drop it off at their county elections office or they can drop it off at an authorized drop box if their county has one.

Mail ballots must be received at respective county elections offices by 8 p.m. on Election Day for them to count. 

(File Photo of an American Flag)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) Eat’n Park restaurants will offer a 10% discount to both active and former U.S. military personnel as well as their families throughout the month of November. 

This discount will be available at all Eat’n Park locations across the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. 

The discount applies to all meals on the check of the active or former military member.

Military personnel will also receive a free Smiley Cookie with their meal on Veterans Day, which is November 11th. 

This military discount and Veterans Day cookie offer are valid exclusively for dine-in guests of Eat’n Park.

That promotion cannot be applied to online purchasing or takeout orders.

Guests must present proof of military service to receive this offer.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Environmental Protection Agency workers survey Leslie Run in East Palestine, Ohio, on June 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

(EAST PALESTINE, OH-AP) The Environmental Protection Agency’s response to the disastrous 2023 East Palestine train derailment will be investigated after local residents of the small town on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border and Vice President JD Vance pressed for the review.

The Inspector General of the EPA announced the investigation Tuesday to assess the agency’s response to the worst rail disaster in more than a decade and the subsequent health and environmental concerns that have developed despite the EPA’s assurances to the public that no toxic levels of chemicals lingered in the community weeks and months later.

An assortment of chemicals spilled and caught fire after the failed bearing sent the Norfolk Southern train careening off the tracks late one Friday night in February 2023. Residents evacuated as officials decided three days later to blow open five rail cars and burn the vinyl chloride inside.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined the “vent and burn” move that generated a massive black plume of smoke and sent chemicals drifting across several states was unnecessary. But at the time, the officials in charge of the emergency response worried the tank cars might explode and do even more harm.

Jami Wallace and other East Palestine residents have been pushing for this investigation — much like they pressed the EPA initially to test for whether cancer-causing dioxins were released in their hometown — so she said “I’m going to cry” when she heard the news. Since the derailment, Wallace has kept track of more than 80 people who live in the area and have developed cancer, although it’s difficult to prove that every illness is directly linked to the derailment.

“It’s like we’ve had to push them along the way for every single thing they did, and then they didn’t even do it right,” said Wallace, who promised never to give up the fight. “We’re not going to stop when you poison our kids.”

The recent request from Vance and the head of the EPA helped get the investigation started. But multiple complaints from residents and whistleblowers have also been made in the years since the derailment.

The Inspector General’s office said this investigation will determine whether the EPA fulfilled its responsibilities and whether the EPA had “sufficient data to support the agency’s public communications” assuring residents they were safe to return home and live in the small town. Testing experts questioned whether the test data EPA shared with the public obscured the risks and whether the agency could determine just how dangerous it is to be exposed to this cocktail of chemicals. Health standards are generally based only on exposure to a single chemical.

Wallace said she’s not sure how much good might come out of this investigation, but it will continue to put a bit of light on the lingering concerns around East Palestine.

“If nothing else, at least we’re getting attention again,” Wallace said. “And people know that we’re here and that we are not OK.”

Norfolk Southern agreed to a $600 million class action settlement with residents, but that money has been largely tied up in the courts and questions about the initial settlement administrator mishandling the funds. A group of residents has also sued because they argue the class action attorneys misled them and pressured them into signing the deal.

A separate federal settlement that includes a $15 million fine for the railroad and $55 million to pay for decades of medical exams and groundwater testing has been under review for more than two years without a judge approving it.

Norfolk Southern is seeking to merge with Union Pacific and create the nation’s first transcontinental railroad. But that $85 billion deal still faces an extensive review by the Surface Transportation Board.