AAA: Western PA Gas Prices Increase; Hurricanes Still Impacting Gasoline Supplies
Gas prices in Western Pennsylvania are three cents higher this week at $3.373 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report.

This week’s average prices: Western Pennsylvania Average                 $3.373
Average price during the week of September 13, 2021                            $3.343
Average price during the week of September 21, 2020                            $2.534

The average price of unleaded self-serve gasoline in various areas:      

$3.353      Altoona
$3.359      Beaver
$3.384      Bradford
$3.363      Brookville
$3.360      Butler
$3.437      Clarion
$3.345      DuBois
$3.449      Erie
$3.337      Greensburg
$3.360      Indiana
$3.347      Jeannette
$3.368      Kittanning
$3.357      Latrobe
$3.351      Meadville
$3.464      Mercer
$3.293      New Castle
$3.350      New Kensington
$3.459      Oil City
$3.339      Pittsburgh
$3.359      Sharon
$3.347      Uniontown
$3.459      Warren
$3.343      Washington

Trend Analysis:

The national gas price average rose two cents on the week to $3.19, matching a seven-year-high last seen in early August. While the post-Labor Day period usually sees less demand and lower gas prices, this year, the impact of Hurricane Ida, followed two weeks later by Hurricane Nicholas, has slowed oil production and refinery recovery along the Gulf Coast.

 

Hurricane Nicholas complicated and slowed the recovery from Ida, but the seasonal drop-off in demand helped mitigate price increases on the week. However, this is only the mid-point for hurricane season and there have already been 17 named storms. Motorists could see price fluctuations into October.

True to seasonal form, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports gasoline demand has fallen 8% to 8.9 million barrels per day, the lowest since Memorial Day.

 

Approximately 23% of offshore Gulf of Mexico oil production remains offline. However, most storm-affected refineries are reporting some level of restarting. Once fully back online, refinery production will help to increase domestic supply levels, which took another step back by 2 million barrels to 218 million barrels in EIA’s latest report. This is the lowest stock level since the post-Hurricane Harvey period in 2017. The tightened supply level has contributed to an increase in oil prices, which hit a high of $72 per barrel last week, a level not seen since July. If the price of oil remains at this level or goes higher, it will likely result in higher prices at the pump.

 

Today’s national average of $3.19 is two cents more than a month ago and is $1.01 more than a year ago.

Motorists can find current gas prices nationwide, statewide, and countywide at GasPrices.AAA.com.

AAA East Central is a not-for-profit association with 72 local offices in Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia serving 2.7 million members.  News releases are available at news.eastcentral.aaa.com.  Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

(Patterson Heights, Pa.) The Patterson Heights Volunteer Fire Department announced on their Facebook Page around midnight last night that “at 8:34 PM on Tuesday evening, September 21, 2021, Lieutenant Sam Stadterman passed away peacefully after a hard fought battle with Esophageal Cancer.” We first told you about Sam and his battle back in March of this year. The post went on to say that” Sam was a great first responder and dedicated line officer for the PHVFD. His invaluable leadership will be sorely missed. Rest easy, brother, we’ll take it from here. Your contributions to not only the PHVFD, but fire service as a whole to Beaver County will not be forgotten. Please keep his wife, Lisa and family in your prayers.”

Sam is survived by his wife Lisa and two step-daughters.

(Conway, Pa.) Law enforcement officers converged on the home of David Dofner on 13th Street in Conway on yesterday morning after he was spotted by multiple people waving guns at drivers as they passed by his home.
Police obtained a search warrant for Dofner’s house and tried to make contact with him over a PA system in which he refused to come out. Eventually a neighbor was able to contact Dofner over the phone and he still refused to come out saying the only way he was coming out is if law enforcement shot him or they “shot it out.”
At one point Dofner was spotted in his doorway with a pistol in his left hand. SWAT negotiators eventually got him to come outside where he was pepper balled before being taken into custody.
Dofner faces charges of terroristic threats and recklessly endangering another person.

Police seized about 30-50 weapons from the home including assault rifles, hunting rifles, shotguns and handguns. There were also more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
Police are working to see if the guns were legally his.

“The future continues to be bright in Midland.”

Those words, coming from MITCS Board of Directors Jerry Hodge, summed up the optimistic atmosphere as the Midland Innovation & Technology Charter School had its official groundbreaking at its site on Tuesday; a site currently sandwiched in between the Whemco and Valmont plants in Midland.

The new trade school for students Grades 9-12 will become the third charter school in Midland following PA Cyber and Lincoln Park Performing Arts, and it will be the first of the three to focus on real-world skills in a hands-on learning environment. Chris Shovlin, who is an MITCS Organizing Committee member and had spoken to Beaver County Radio about the MITCS in recent weeks, emceed the groundbreaking and spoke of the future of education and prosperity in Beaver County.

“Over the decades, Midland had become a capital of industry and then it became a capital of modern charter and cyber school education,” Shovlin stated. “[MITCS] is a response to the children of Southwestern Pennsylvania who are thirsting for an education that–through authentic learning and built on the axiom of intentional diversity–will provide opportunities for them to find gainful employment [and] earn the types of wages that will keep them here, so that they can make their homes here and raise their families here.”

Among the options to be provided by the MITCS is the Dr. Cyril H. Wecht Academy of Forensic Sciences & Law. Dr. Wecht, the famed pathologist from Pittsburgh, acknowledged his gratefulness at the recognition at the groundbreaking ceremony.

“I am very, very honored and extremely proud to have had this school in the Midland Charter School,” said Dr. Wecht. “For me, it is a great honor.”

Joining Dr. Wecht in the category of naming honors was Charles J. Betters, a man who was credited several times over during the groundbreaking ceremony as the brainchild and engine to push the existence of the MITCS towards its current reality. To that degree, the first building in the MITCS will be named the Charles J. Betters Innovation Center in his honor.

The MITCS also received a $500,000 grant from PGT Trucking, presented by PGT President Pat Gallagher who also made a speech at Tuesday’s groundbreaking.

For more photos from the ceremony, check out the gallery below:

NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. – Westminster College will host Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) Visiting Fellow and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman during a series of online events from Monday, Oct. 4 through Wednesday, Oct. 6.

 

Whitman, who is also the former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), will speak virtually with different Westminster College classes, discussing issues ranging from her career in politics to environmental policy.

 

On Monday, Oct. 4, Whitman will share her perspectives on the theme of “Getting and Surviving a Career in Politics” with political science students, followed by conversations on the theme of “The EPA and Perspectives on Climate Change, Then and Now” with environmental science students. That evening, she will discuss “Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance” with students, alumni and faculty who are involved with Westminster’s Analyst Program.

 

On Tuesday, Oct. 5, Whitman will speak with students in the Governmental Accounting course, sharing perspectives on topics such as the government’s responsibility on how taxpayer dollars are spent, as well as the financial and societal benefits of facilitating environmentally sustainable practices within government operations.

 

On Tuesday she will also share her experiences around the theme of “Conflict Management, to Service/Community Engagement and Leadership” with communication students, followed by a conversation on the theme of “The Current Health of America’s Democracy” with political science students.

 

Whitman will offer a campus-wide virtual event, “Environmental Policy and Politics,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4. This conversation is sponsored by the Department of Political Science, the First-Year Program and the Center for the Environment.

 

On Wednesday, Whitman will discuss “Why Sustainability Matters” with first-year students enrolled in the Introduction to a Liberal Arts Education course, followed by reflections on “Lessons Learned from Governmental Public Communications” with students in the College’s strategic communications program. Whitman will round out her virtual sessions with a conversation on “The Social, Political and Economic Facets of Environmental Issues” with environmental science students.

 

Whitman served as New Jersey’s 50^th and first female governor from 1994 to 2001. She served the EPA under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003. She now is president of the Whitman Strategy Group, a consulting firm that specializes in energy and environmental issues.

 

She is the author of a New York Times best seller, “It’s My Party Too,” which was published in January 2005. Whitman holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Wheaton College in Norton, Mass.

 

The CIC Visiting Fellows program brings prominent artists, diplomats, journalists, business leaders and other professionals to college campuses across the United States. For more than 45 years, Visiting Fellows have been introducing students and faculty members at liberal arts colleges to a wide range of perspectives on life, society, community and achievement.

 

For more information about any of the events, please contact the Westminster College Office of Academic Affairs at 724-946-7122 or acadaff@westminster.edu.

Redistricting panel pares plan on where to count inmates
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s five-member panel redrawing the boundaries of state legislative districts is paring back a new policy to count state prison inmates in their home districts. It’ll now be limited to those whose sentences expire in under 10 years. Tuesday’s swing vote was from the Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission chairman, ex-Pitt chancellor Mark Nordenberg. Republicans and Democrats on the panel kept their positions from a vote on a more expansive policy at an earlier meeting, but Nordenberg switched sides. That Aug. 24 vote was to count state inmates in their home districts, except for those serving life sentences and those living in other states when they became incarcerated.

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) — The disappearance and almost-certain death of Gabby Petito and the police hunt for her boyfriend have generated a whirlwind online. A multitude of armchair detectives and others have been sharing tips, possible sightings and theories by way of TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and other sites. Whether the frenzy of attention and online sleuthing has helped the investigation is not clear. But it has illuminated the intersection between social media and the public fascination with true-crime stories.

Justices to hear argument in victims’ rights amendment case
By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The fate of a constitutional amendment for victims’ rights that Pennsylvania voters apparently approved overwhelmingly nearly two years ago is about to go before the state’s highest court. The state Supreme Court justices will hear oral argument in Harrisburg Tuesday regarding whether the so-called Marsy’s Law amendment should have been split into more than just one ballot question. The court is considering whether to uphold a divided decision in January by Commonwealth Court. The lower court ruled the referendum ran afoul of a Pennsylvania Constitution provision that requires amendments to address a single subject only. The amendment has not gone into effect.