(Hopewell Twp., Pa.) Dr. Michelle Miller received the  Jean E. Winsand  2020 Distinguished  Woman in Education Award .recently The event was held at Upper St. Clair High School , according to Board President Jeff Winkle. According to information on the award, it honors a woman who has made a significant  and positive difference throughout her career.

(Big Beaver Boro, Pa.) Pa State Police in Gibsonia are reporting that they were dispatched to a report of an accident on Toll Interstate 376 on Friday night around 10 PM for a one vehicle accident Eastbound in Big Beaver Boro.
Upon arriving at on the scene and investigating Troopers learned 37-year-old Derek Weidner of New Brighton was driving a 2012 Chrysler 300 while traveling East on Toll 376 in the right lane when he lost control of his vehicle due to falling asleep at the wheel. The vehicle then struck a mile post sign, the curb, and then flipped over several times on roadway and came to an uncontrolled final rest facing Northeast with severe damage. Troopers reported that Weidner was not transported to the hospital but was suspected of minor injuries. He was cited by State Police for not Driving a Vehicle at Safe Speed.

(North Sewickley Twp., Pa) Pa State Police in Gibsonia are reporting that they were dispatched to a report of an accident on the Pa Turnpike on Friday night, April 9, 2021 around 11 PM at mile marker 18.5 in North Sewickley Twp.
Troopers report that when arriving on the scene and investigating they learned that Brian Gehring from Bridgeville, Pa., who was driving his 2000 Honda Civic, was in the right lane on the Pa Turnpike traveling East when a deer ran out in front of the vehicle Gehring was operating. Gehering swerved to miss the deer and lost control of the vehicle and went off the roadway and struck an embankment rolled over and landed back on it wheels. Gehring then drove down the shoulder of the road to find the nearest mile marker and call authorities. Gehring was transported to UPMC Presbyterian for suspected minor injuries.
Gehring received a warning from Troopers for not properly driving on high ways laned for traffic.

AAA: Western PA Gas Prices Up Slightly; National Average Stabilizes
Gas prices in Western Pennsylvania are a penny higher this week at $3.000 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report.

This week’s average prices: Western Pennsylvania Average                  $3.000
Average price during the week of April 5, 2021                                         $2.993
Average price during the week of April 13, 2020                                       $2.147

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

$2.956      Altoona
$3.061      Beaver
$3.097      Bradford
$2.892      Brookville
$3.033      Butler
$2.896      Clarion
$2.959      DuBois
$3.062      Erie
$2.929      Greensburg
$3.078      Indiana
$2.995      Jeannette
$2.999      Kittanning
$2.998      Latrobe
$3.084      Meadville
$3.099      Mercer
$2.839      New Castle
$3.078      New Kensington
$3.099      Oil City
$3.026      Pittsburgh
$2.868      Sharon
$2.981      Uniontown
$3.099      Warren
$2.888      Washington

Trend Analysis:
After a wild March, Americans are seeing some stability at the pump. This is thanks in part to a small decrease in demand, cheaper crude prices, and an increase in refinery utilization. Today’s national average ($2.86) is one cent cheaper on the week, but more expensive on the month (+3 cents) and year (+$1.00). 40 states’ averages either increased or decreased by a penny or had no change at all this week.

At 84%, refinery utilization is at its highest measurement this year. This strong utilization rate, as measured by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), helped contribute to the addition of 4 million barrels of gasoline, pushing overall supply levels to 234.5 million barrels for the week ending April 2.

For the first time in nearly two months, crude oil prices last week held below $60/barrel for five straight days. The cheaper price is a positive indicator for more stability at the pump.

With a 1.25% decrease, demand dropped slightly to 8.7 million b/d. This is well above the 5.5 million b/d recorded one year ago, but still significantly lower than the 9.8 million b/d seen in early April 2019.

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

AAA East Central is a not-for-profit association with 73 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.

BUCKS COUNTY – State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) announced today that he will be introducing legislation to guarantee a more timely count of ballots on Election Day by allowing counties additional time to pre-canvass mail-in ballots.  The legislation would permit county boards of election to begin pre-canvassing mail-in ballots beginning 21 days before Election Day.

“We saw more than 2.6 million Pennsylvanians vote by mail in the 2020 general election, yet the final results were not known for five days.  If we want a timely counting of ballots on Election Day, we must allow election officials to begin handling the influx of mail-in ballots sooner,” said Sen. Santarsiero.

In 2019, the General Assembly passed Act 77 updating Pennsylvania’s election code to allow for no-fault absentee voting by mail, beginning 50 days before an election.  The Election Code was then amended in April 2020 to permit counties to begin pre-canvassing ballots, but not tally the results, beginning at 7:00 AM on Election Day.

“The change to the Election Code in 2020 was a good start, but as we saw from how long it took to count all the ballots, it just doesn’t go far enough to provide counties with the time they need to process these ballots,” continued Santarsiero.   “Allowing for a 21 day pre-canvass will ease the burden on our county election administrators, which is something other states with mail-in ballot programs have been doing successfully for many years.”

Sen. Santarsiero was recently appointed to the Senate’s Special Committee on Election Integrity and Reform, which has been hearing testimony from election administrators across the country about how they safely and efficiently oversee elections.  Last week, Sen. Santarsiero announced he would be introducing the Safe Drop Act, which would make it easier to vote by requiring counties have 1 ballot drop box location for every 20,000 voters.

Man accused of leaving impeachment manager vulgar voicemails
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Authorities have charged a man accused of leaving harassing and vulgar voicemails at the Pennsylvania district office of U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean as she worked as an impeachment manager in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. Stephen M. Cilurso, of Aldan, Pennsylvania, was arraigned last week on a misdemeanor and summary charge of harassment. Authorities say Montgomery County detectives traced 19 voicemails to Cilurso’s number. In a transcript of the voicemails, Cilurso used vulgar, graphic and sexually explicit language, repeatedly talks about rape, Dean’s role as an impeachment manager, Dean’s granddaughter and the far-right group the Proud Boys. Court papers didn’t list a lawyer.

(Story by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Curtis Walsh)

The New Brighton Area School Board held their first of two monthly meetings tonight where they went over multiple items slated for approval during their next meeting.  One item of discussion was for the approval to lease classroom space to two companies for the 2021-2022 school year.  The companies leasing the space would be the operators of Head Start and Tiny Tots.  Also among the discussion was the approval to exonerate school property taxes for 2019 and 2020 for a property located at 907 10th Street, New Brighton, which was purchased by a Pittsburgh company from the repository of unsold property.  The approximate cost of the exoneration is $2,386.09.  The board then spoke on resolution No. 5, which would approve the Beaver County Career and Technology Center’s general fund budget of $6,234,249.00 for the 2021-2022 school year.  Another item discussed was for a three year agreement with the New Brighton Police Department to provide coverage at athletic and school events until 2024.  The board is also looking to establish a co-op agreement with the Freedom Area School District to allow New Brighton students to participate in their Varsity Boys Soccer Team beginning for the 2021-2022 school year.  This is due to dwindling numbers of players on the current New Brighton team, last years team was said to only be 11 players.  They would like to establish a co-op agreement with Freedom for Varsity Wrestling as well.