Gov. Wolf to Nominate Noe Ortega to Serve as Education Secretary

Harrisburg, PA — Governor Tom Wolf announced today his intention to nominate current Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) Deputy Secretary of Postsecondary and Higher Education Noe Ortega to serve as the next Secretary of Education. Ortega will replace Pedro Rivera, who will continue to serve as Secretary until he becomes President of Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology on Oct. 1, 2020.

“Noe Ortega has a proven record of advocating for equity and access for all students,” said Gov. Wolf. “Recently, Noe has been spearheading Pennsylvania’s efforts to diversify our educator pipeline to make our classrooms better reflect the students we educate, and his expertise will continue to advance the department’s mission of ensuring Pennsylvania’s learners have access to the educational opportunities that will help them succeed.”

Before joining PDE in 2017, Ortega spent eight years at the University of Michigan (U-M), where he held several academic and administrative roles, including working as the Assistant Director and Senior Research Associate at the National Center for Institutional Diversity and as the Managing Director for the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good. Ortega also spent nearly a decade working in the areas of financial aid and enrollment management at both public and private universities in Texas and served as a P-16 Specialist for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. He also spent nearly seven years as director of a language institute in Japan where he trained teachers in the area of early childhood language acquisition.

“Under Pedro Rivera’s leadership Pennsylvania adopted the landmark basic education funding formula, the Future Ready PA Index, an innovative school measuring tool for communities to more easily evaluate how their schools are performing, and implemented a school improvement strategy to provide struggling schools with resources and guidance to help them develop plans responsive to local conditions and needs,” said Gov. Wolf. “His leadership has been critical during the commonwealth’s response to COVID-19 and the relationships he cultivated with education stakeholders during his tenure have strengthened the ties between state and local partners and allowed local schools to inform state education policy.”

HARRISBURG – Attorney General Josh Shapiro today permanently shut down Equitable Acceptance’s efforts to operate in Pennsylvania, and is requiring the company to cancel nearly $200,000 in debt for its former Commonwealth customers.Rather than helping customers who had already been scammed by debt relief companies, Equitable Acceptance capitalized on an already predatory industry and charged unacceptably high interest rates.

“Equitable Acceptance scammed people who were simply trying to pay down their student loans and today we’ve kicked them out of Pennsylvania and canceled hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for Pennsylvanians,” said Attorney General Shapiro. “Student loan debt is a huge burden for far too many in our Commonwealth, which is why we’re fighting for borrowers everyday. When companies like Equitable Acceptance come along, prey on Pennsylvanians and try to rip them off with high-interest pay-back schemes, we will hold them accountable.”

Equitable Acceptance provided financing to borrowers to pay debt relief companies to enroll them in student loan repayment programs offered through the US Department of Education, including income-driven repayment (IDR) plans such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.  Despite the fact that consumers can enroll in IDR and PSLF for free, these debt relief companies charged consumers on average more than $1,300 in fees for their services.  Equitable Acceptance then charged these borrowers interest rates ranging from 17.99% to 20.99% for the financing.  Even worse, some of these student loan debt relief companies were scams that took advantage of borrowers and failed to provide any of the services as advertised.

Tackling the abuses in the student loan industry has been a top priority for Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who has taken action against for profit schools, student loan servicers and bogus student loan debt relief companies.  Since taking office in 2017, Attorney General Shapiro has secured more than $50 million in debt cancellation for student borrowers in Pennsylvania. The Attorney General sued and shut down a student loan debt relief scam, Student Loan Relief, LLC. He has also sued the U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, for her unlawful attempts to rescind rules to protect student loan borrowers. In the case of the Borrower Defense to Repayment rule, the Attorney General obtained a nationwide injunction in 2018, which made millions of borrowers who were defrauded by for-profit colleges eligible for cancellation of their federal loans.

Just last week, the Attorney General won a major victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which allowed his lawsuit against Navient Solutions, the second-largest student loan servicer, to proceed toward trial.
On June 30, the Office also announced a partnership with Summer, an organization helping borrowers with navigating student debt, to provide free student loan assistance to all Pennsylvanians.

“I also want to remind borrowers who are paying back student loans that there’s no need to pay companies to enroll you in any income-driven repayment plans offered by the U.S. Department of Education,” concluded Attorney General Shapiro. “Instead, interested Pennsylvanians should apply for these services, for free, at meetsummer.org/pa, studentloans.gov, or by calling the company that services their student loans.”

The settlement was filed in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas by Senior Deputy Attorney General Amy L. Schulman of the Pittsburgh Regional Office.

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Fire Broke out early this morning in a New Castle Home on East Lutton Street. The Fire is reported to have started in the kitchen. A woman who lives at the home had to be rescued from the second floor after she got out of the house safely and then reentered the house to rescue her pets. The woman was transported to a local hospital and there was no word on her condition.

Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is announcing inspection activities on the southbound Route 65 ramp to Pleasant Street in Rochester Borough, Beaver County will begin Tuesday, August 5 weather permitting.

Traffic shifts will occur on the ramp that carries traffic from southbound Route 65 to Pleasant Street weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Monday, August 10 as crews from the Larson Design Group conduct bridge inspection work.  Additionally, single-lane restrictions will occur on Route 65 under the ramp.

Motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles, including color-coded winter conditions on 2,900 miles, by visiting www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information, and access to more than 1,000 traffic cameras.

511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional twitter alerts accessible on the 511PA website.

Wolf ed head takes new job as schools grapple with reopening
By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s top education official is leaving the job as schools grapple with plans to develop and implement pandemic reopening plans. The board of Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster on Tuesday hired Education Secretary Pedro Rivera to be its next president. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf says he plans to nominate one of Rivera’s top deputies to succeed him. Wolf says he’ll nominate Noe Ortega, the deputy secretary for post-secondary and higher education. Rivera has been part of Wolf’s cabinet since the start of his first term more than five years ago.

Trump signs $3B-a-year plan to boost conservation, parks
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has signed into law legislation that will devote nearly $3 billion annually to conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands. The Great American Outdoors Act authorizes spending about $900 million a year, double current spending, on the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund. It would authorize another $1.9 billion a year to be spent to make improvements at national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and range lands. Supporters call it the most significant conservation legislation in nearly half a century. Opponents say the spending is not enough to erase an estimated $20 billion maintenance backlog.

(File Photo)

(Beaver, Pa.) Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier announced via press release  that his office filed a criminal complaint Tuesday, August 4, 2020, charging 18 year old Michael J. Allen Barbuto with Criminal Homicide in the July 15, 2020 death of his older brother Vincent Shawn Barbuto.

The statement said that a joint investigation was conducted between the Beaver County Detectives Bureau and the Hopewell Twp. Police Department.

At about 10:53 p.m. on Wednesday, July 15, 2020, Hopewell Township Police Officers responded to a call at  2412 West Main St., for a male unresponsive in the residence. Vincent Shawn Barbuto was declared dead at the scene by the Beaver County Coroner‘s office. The cause of death was homicide by multiple gunshot wounds. The victim, Vincent Shawn Barbuto, aged 29, was a resident of Hopewell Township. Michael Barbuto, is a resident of Center Township.

In the Press release the District Attorney’s office states  that an arrest warrant has been issued for Michael  and investigators are in contact with his attorney to schedule for his surrender and arraignment. No bail or bond will be permitted by statute as the charge is Criminal Homicide. 

Stay tuned to Beaver County Radio for more on this developing story.