(File Photo of a United States Flag)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) A United States flag has been on a year-long adventure around the world visiting U.S. territories as well as military cemeteries overseas and all 50 of the United States of America, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the country. The flag is on the last leg of its tour going through thirteen sites in Western Pennsylvania to represent the original thirteen colonies of the nation. It will be in Washington D.C., the nation’s capital, on the Fourth of July. This trip is part of Sojourn250, which was organized by the National Flag Foundation (NFF) and America250’s America Waves program as a way to bring people together in a “project of national unity” to honor the American flag and its people for the 250th anniversary, especially the veterans who gave their lives in service to the United States. According to a report from the Beaver County Times, here are the dates, times and locations where people can see the U.S. flag as it travels across the area for the Pittsburgh Regional Sojourn250:

July 1st

• 3-4 p.m. at the United Steel Workers headquarters, 60 Boulevard of the Allies, where Pittsburgh welcomes the flag in honor of the workers who helped to build the nation.

July 2nd

• 9-10:30 a.m. at Fort Ligonier, 200 South Market Street, where the flag will be raised at the Upper Fort.
• “To Rise and Fight Again,” a new American250 exhibit, opens at the fort on July 4th and continues through December 2026.
• 12-1 p.m. at Fort Pitt, Point State Park, 601 Commonwealth Place, Pittsburgh.
• 1:30-3 p.m. along Pittsburgh’s North Shore. An honor service and walk starting at the Fred Rogers statue and passing the memorials on the North Shore, ending with a flag raising just past PNC Park.
• 6-7:30 p.m. at Soldiers & Sailors Hall, 4141 Fifth Avenue. A flag raising along Fifth Avenue and a presentation of the colors at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Americana Concert, which starts at 7 p.m. The concert is free, but reservations are required (click here to reserve your spot); register for tickets at the orchestra’s website.
• 8:15-9 p.m., a sunset honor guard presentation on Mount Washington.

July 3rd

• 8-9 a.m. at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies, 1158 Morgan Road in Bridgeville, recognizing those who gave their lives for our nation.
• 10-11 a.m. at Flag Plaza, 1275 Bedford Avenue in Pittsburgh. Flag raising hosted by Scouting America and joined by sheriffs from around the region.
• 12-1:30 p.m., at Freedom Corner, Crawford Street in the Hill District, in recognition of the unfinished work of equal justice and democracy.
• 4-5 p.m. at Bakery Square, 6425 Penn Avenue. A Happy Hour celebration of Pittsburgh’s growing leadership in healthcare, life sciences, information technology, artificial intelligence and robotics.
• 6-8 p.m. at the Carrie Blast Furnaces, 801 Carrie Furnace Road, where a community picnic is planned honoring the workers who helped to power America.

July 4th

• 5:45-6:30 a.m. along Grant Street, where the Allegheny County sheriff will hand over the U.S. flag to the American Legion Riders for the trip to Washington, D.C.

(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today that a citizen of the Dominican Republic illegally residing in The Bronx, New York, has been sentenced in federal court to time served of approximately 35 months of imprisonment and ordered to pay restitution totaling more than $896,000 to dozens of victims on his
convictions for conspiracy to transport stolen money in interstate commerce and interstate transportation of stolen money. Forty-three-year-old Stalin Acosta Paulino was sentenced and he is expected to be deported to the Dominican Republic.
According to information presented to the Court, Paulino participated in a complex fraud with numerous other individuals then living in New York in which they traveled to various states, including Pennsylvania and Virginia, and stole cash from skilled gaming machines they had broken into. Paulino and his conspirators then transported the money that was stolen to the New York area.

(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today that a resident of Butler has been sentenced in federal court to three years of probation and ordered to pay restitution of $711,253.10 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on
his conviction of willful failure to collect or pay over tax. Fifty-one-year-old Michael D. Funovits was sentenced, and according to information presented to the court, between 2016 and 2023, he failed to pay over to the IRS payroll taxes he collected on behalf of his businesses, PennRo Associates LLC and Penn Exteriors LLC.

(Credit for Photo: Photo Provided with Release Courtesy of AAA East Central)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Gas prices are ten cents lower in Western Pennsylvania this week at about $4.23 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report. Drivers are continuing to see relief at the gas pump as the national gas price average declines for the fifth week in a row. The national average for a gallon of gas is six cents less than last week at $3.86 per gallon. Crude oil prices have also continued to fall as the U.S. and Iran work toward a long-term deal to end the war between them. Despite the lower prices, demand could rise as a record number of Americans prepare to travel for the Fourth of July weekend, with 85% of them planning to drive to their destinations. The national average is 53 cents less than a month ago, but 58 cents more than a year ago. The report states that the average price that you can expect for a gallon of unleaded gas here in Beaver County is around $4.59. According to a release from AAA East Central, here are the average prices of unleaded self-serve gasoline this week in various areas:

$3.942      Altoona
$4.592      Beaver
$4.280      Bradford
$4.089      Brookville
$4.366      Butler
$4.061      Clarion
$4.169      DuBois
$3.900      Erie
$4.026      Greensburg
$4.302      Indiana
$3.970      Jeannette
$4.512      Kittanning
$4.232      Latrobe
$4.176      Meadville
$4.342      Mercer
$4.341      New Castle
$4.433      New Kensington
$4.456      Oil City
$4.469      Pittsburgh
$3.758      Sharon
$4.503      Uniontown
$4.004      Warren
$4.393      Washington

(File Photo of the Cornerstone of Beaver County Logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver Falls, PA) The Cornerstone of Beaver County has released the dates, times and locations of local cooling centers because of the extremely high temperatures this week. Extreme heat can put people and families at a higher risk for heat-related illnesses such as dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and it can exacerbate preexisting conditions like mental illness and lung and heart disease. According to the Cornerstone of Beaver County, here is a complete list of cooling center locations and their hours of operation:

The Cornerstone of Beaver County (TCBC)

Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

600 6th Street, Beaver Falls

724-846-6400

 

New Brighton Municipal Building

Monday – Thursday from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.

610 3rd Avenue, New Brighton

724-846-1870

 

Uncommon Grounds 

Tuesday-Thursday from 9 a.m.- 3 p.m.

380 Franklin Avenue, Aliquippa

724-375-6141

 

YMCA of Beaver County

Monday – Friday from 5 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Saturday from 6 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sunday from 12 – 5 p.m.

2236 Third Avenue, New Brighton

724-891-8439

 

Koppel Volunteer Fire Department 

Monday – Friday from 8 a.m.- 6 p.m.

5525 5th Avenue, Koppel

724-846-5973

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Department of Elections workers sort mail-in ballots for the California primary election at City Hall on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day, a persistent target of President Donald Trump.

The 5-4 decision rejected a Republican-led attack on laws in more than half the states and the District of Columbia that permit mailed ballots to arrive and be counted some number of days after the election, provided they are postmarked by Election Day. The outcome spares officials the headache of changing their ballot rules just a few months before the 2026 midterm congressional elections.

In just over half those states, the more forgiving deadlines apply only to ballots cast by military and overseas voters.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the court’s majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberal justices.

Federal laws setting a single Election Day “leave open when those votes must be received,” Barrett wrote.

Congress could change the law, she said. “If varied deadlines for ballot receipt similarly call for a national solution, the American people must choose it through their elected representatives,” Barrett wrote.

The legal challenge was part of Trump’s broader attack on most mail balloting, which he has said breeds fraud despite strong evidence to the contrary and years of experience in numerous states. Trump has repeatedly claimed that his loss to Joe Biden in 2020 resulted from fraud even though more than 60 court decisions and his own attorney general said that argument had no merit.

Trump called the court ruling a “tremendous loss” and renewed his call for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which has made it through the House of Representatives but not the Senate.

“There is only one reason to oppose — CHEATING!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The court heard arguments in March in a case from Mississippi pitting the state against Trump’s Republican administration and the Republican and Libertarian parties. At issue was whether federal law sets a single Election Day that requires ballots to be both cast by voters and received by state officials.

The federal appeals court in New Orleans struck down a Mississippi law allowing ballots to be counted if they arrive within five business days of the election and are postmarked by Election Day.

The outcome is a “sigh of relief” for a lot of election administrators, said Stephen Richer, a Republican and the former top election administrator in Arizona’s Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.

A ruling in favor of the Republican National Committee “would have created a whole host of administrative challenges for the affected states,” said Richer, who is now a legal fellow at the Cato Institute.

RNC officials did not immediately respond Monday to email and telephone requests for comment.

(File Photo of Handcuffs)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Allegheny County, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Pittsburgh reported today that a Cranberry Township man was arrested and has since been released after he was driving under the influence of alcohol in Allegheny County. Gary Gene Mell II was arrested on Friday at 6:27 p.m. on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in West Hampton Township. According to police, Mell was reported to be driving erratic on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and he exhibited signs of intoxication. He also failed a preliminary blood test before being transported to AHN Harmar for a blood draw. He was released to his wife and charges will be filed against him.