By ALEXANDRA JAFFE and JONATHAN LEMIRE Associated Press
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — President Joe Biden is offering comfort to the grieving and federal support for the efforts to search for the missing and rebuild after last week’s collapse of a high-rise condo building along the Florida coastline. Biden was to survey the devastation Thursday and meet with first responders hunting for survivors among the rubble in Surfside. But underscoring the dangers still present in the search, work was halted before Biden arrived due to concerns about the stability of the section still standing. Biden and his wife Jill arrived in Florida a week after the collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South beachfront condominium killed at least 18 people and left 145 missing.

By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Republican-crafted bill to ban so-called COVID-19 “vaccine passports” and restrict the health secretary’s actions during health emergencies is dead after a veto by Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor. The measure that split both legislative chambers along party lines last month was vetoed Thursday by Gov. Tom Wolf. Legislative Republicans had sought to prevent what they view as a violation of health privacy through stigmatizing policies requiring proof of vaccination. The bill would have kept colleges and universities that receive state money from mandating proof of COVID-19 vaccination to undertake any activity. It also would have kept the health secretary from ordering closures or directing people to engage in disease mitigation efforts.

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned that anyone who tries to bully China “will face broken heads and bloodshed.” That came Thursday in a defiant speech hailing the country’s rise that elicited loud cheers from a carefully chosen crowd at a celebration of the centenary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party. Xi appeared to be hitting back at the U.S. and others that have criticized the rising power’s trade and technology polices, military expansion and human rights record. The unusually forceful language also seemed aimed at revving up and playing to a domestic audience. The rally in some ways recalled the mass events held by Mao Zedong, communist China’s founding leader.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty in the deaths of two men has been sentenced to 26 to 52 years in prison. The bodies were found after a fire in western Pennsylvania more than three years ago. Sixty-one-year-old Vincent Smith was sentenced Wednesday in Allegheny County Court on earlier guilty pleas to voluntary manslaughter and arson endangering persons in the February 2018 blaze in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood. Authorities alleged that Smith was fighting with 71-year-old homeowner Steven Pariser and 54-year-old John Robert Van Dyke over marijuana when he beat them and threw them down the basement steps, hiding their bodies with trash bags and clothes before starting the fire.

Story by Beaver County Radio Correspondent, Sandy Giordano

(Aliquippa, PA) – Qualified police officers have until Friday, July 9, 2021 at 4 p.m. to apply for full time police officer positions in the City of Aliquippa. Minorities and females are urged to apply.

Story by Beaver County Radio Correspondent, Sandy Giordano

(Aliquippa, PA) – Aliquippa City Council approved a motion to hold a public hearing on Wednesday, August 4 at 7 p.m. to receive public comment on a proposed comprehensive revision to the city’s zoning ordinance and the zoning district map of the city’s code of ordinances. Council approved a recommendation by the city planning commission for a proposed subdivision submitted by the Beaver County Corporation for Economic Development for property on Woodlawn Road.

(Beaver Falls, Pa.) It’s your chance to ask the Beaver County Commissioners any questions you have. You can call 724-774-1888 if you have a question for the Commissioners.

“Ask the Commissioners” is brought to you by Beaver Valley Auto Mall and Laughlin Insurance.

Wolf vetoes GOP bill with voter ID, other elections changes
By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor has vetoed a Republican-crafted elections bill that would have mandated voter identification in all elections and made a host of other changes to election law. Gov. Tom Wolf said outside his Capitol offices Wednesday that he considers it a voter suppression measure. Wolf also used his line-item veto authority to eliminate $3.1 million in funding in separate budget legislation after Republican lawmakers claimed that it had been earmarked to create an election-auditing bureau under the independently elected auditor general. Wolf had said there was no such agreement to use the money for an election-auditing bureau.

Wolf signs off on revisions to Pennsylvania medical pot law
By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Medical marijuana patients can continue to get a three month’s supply at a time under revisions to the Pennsylvania program. Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday signed into law a bill that makes it easier for producers to remove contaminants such as yeast and mold from medical marijuana A proposal to allow patients to grow their own marijuana was defeated. Other changes include permanently allowing curbside dispensing. The new law adds to the list of serious medical conditions for which medical marijuana can be dispensed to include cancer remission therapy and neuropathies of the central nervous system.