(Story by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Curtis Walsh)

(Chippewa Township, PA) Chippewa Township has finally passed their Marijuana Decriminalization Ordinance 261 that we spoke about earlier this year. Under the ordinance, possessing a small amount of marijuana, 30 grams or less, or 8 grams of hashish, will now be treated as a summary offense, resulting in a $300 ticket rather than a criminal charge. The ordinance also applies to paraphernalia. Chippewa is the first township in the state to pass an ordinance of this kind. The driving factor behind the ordinance is that the police face issues involving hours of paperwork and overtime pay to officers for marijuana related offenses. This ordinance will apply mainly to first time offenders, those who are caught with marijuana on multiple occasions will still face the risk of a criminal charge.

(Story by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano)

Central Valley School Board met on ZOOM Thursday night and approved the 2020-2021 graduating class of 2021. Dr. Nick Perry, superintendent reported 150 students will graduate June 4, 2021
Classes for 2021-22 school year were approved by the board. The board approved a contract with Medic-Rescue for medical transport beginning July 1, 2021- June 30, 2020. Cost is $3,400 a year.

(Story by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano)

(Aliquippa, PA) On Wednesday, the City Council of Aliquippa, Mayor Dwan B. Walker, Councilman Donald C. Walker III and their team received the 2021 Governor’s Awards for Local Government Excellence in a remote ceremony at Governor Wolf’s residence. The award was in recognition of the city’s contribution to local government in Pennsylvania. The award was supported with a House of Representatives, according to PA State Representative Rob Matzie.. He said the state looks forward to a continued partnership for a better Aliquippa.

Aliquippa School Board approved several motions at Wednesday night’s meeting. An agreement between the school district and the Beaver County Mental Health Association , an agreement with Pressley Ridge, and 1 year contract with Medic Rescue at a rate of $3,400 effective July 1, 2021 through and including June 30, 2022. A new one year contract with Nutrition Group, Inc. is effective July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022. Adult cafeteria prices for lunch were increased by .$.25 for the 2021-2022 school year.
Summer school sessions for the elementary school are June 14-July 9, July 12 to August 5, and August 9-20, 2021 from 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m.. JSHS summer school is scheduled for June 14-July , 2021 from 8:15 a.m. to noon. All costs are covered by ESSR funding. Dates are subject to change based on student enrollment. Board secretary Delcine McBride’s salary beginning July 1m 2021 and ending June 30, 2025 will be an annual stipend of $1,800.00.
The board tabled the resignation of business manager/board treasurer Debbie Engleman.
The board’s next regular meeting, is. scheduled for Wednesday, June 17 at 6 p.m. in the JSHS Black Box Theater.

Nearly one-third of federal correctional officer jobs in the United States are vacant, and that’s forcing prisons to use cooks, teachers, nurses and other workers to guard inmates. At a federal penitentiary in Texas, prisoners are locked in their cells on weekends because there aren’t enough officers to watch the inmates. Elsewhere in the system, fights are breaking out and inmates have escaped in recent months. The Justice Department budgeted for 20,446 full-time correctional officer positions in 2020, but the agency that runs federal prisons says it currently employs 13,762 officers. The Bureau of Prisons insists that many of its facilities still have a full complement of officers who focus solely on maintaining order.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois man accused of killing two people during a protest in Wisconsin over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, is expected to make his first in-person court appearance. Rittenhouse is set to appear at a status conference Friday morning in Kenosha County Circuit Court. Rittenhouse’s attorneys and prosecutors are expected to iron out deadlines and other housekeeping matters ahead of his trial in November. Rittenhouse is charged with killing two men and wounding a third during the August protests. Rittenhouse was 17 at the time. He maintains he was defending himself. COVID-19 protocols forced Rittenhouse to make his earlier court appearances virtually but those restrictions have now been lifted.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A senior adviser to Donald Trump is taking to Twitter to stress that the former president has made no endorsement of anyone to become governor of Pennsylvania. Thursday’s statement by the adviser, Jason Miller, comes a day after a Republican state senator said that Trump had asked him to run for governor in 2022 and promised to campaign for him. Miller, on Twitter, reiterated that Trump “has not made any endorsement or commitments yet” in the race. The state senator, Doug Mastriano, hasn’t declared his candidacy. However, Lou Barletta, the Republican Party’s Trump-endorsed nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018, has declared his candidacy for governor.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — With voters shifting major new responsibilities to them, Pennsylvania’s state lawmakers are now tasked with deciding whether hundreds of state government regulations waived during the COVID-19 pandemic should be reinstated. This massive review is fueled by Tuesday’s referendum in which voters curbed the governor’s emergency powers by approving constitutional amendments that give lawmakers much more power over disaster declarations. A key component of a disaster declaration is a governor’s authority to waive a regulation. On Thursday, Gov. Tom Wolf renewed the disaster declaration, his fifth straight in response to the coronavirus. Under the provisions of the constitutional amendments approved Tuesday, it will expire in three weeks.

Pennsylvania is firing a company that performed COVID-19 contact tracing and exposed the private medical information of tens of thousands of residents. That’s according to the state health secretary. Employees of Insight Global used unauthorized Google accounts to personal information about residents who had been reached for contact tracing. The state had planned to drop Insight Global once its contract expires at the end of the July, but the Health Department told House Republicans on Thursday that it will terminate the contract early, on June 19.