Hawaii vacation of 3 friends from East Coast ended in death
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press
HONOLULU (AP) — A New Jersey man says a Hawaii vacation with his two friends from Pittsburgh ended in death after one of them became “psychotically” drunk. Alexander Germany-Wald of Montclair, New Jersey, testified at a preliminary hearing for his college buddy, Benjamin Fleming, who is charged with murder in the strangulation of their friend, Abhishek Gupta. Germany-Wald says he and Gupta got into a fistfight at their Big Island vacation rental after Gupta was asked to leave a bar. Germany-Wald says Fleming intervened and restrained Gupta, who later stopped breathing. Germany-Wald and Fleming were arrested. Germany-Wald was later released, and Fleming was charged with murder.

Story by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano

(Hopewell Twp., Pa.) PA State Police in Beaver are reporting that a camper trailer came dislodged from a truck while travelling on I-376 in Hopewell Township Tuesday night around  6:30 p.m. . When Troopers arrived on the scene the vehicle was  blocking the road , Troopers closed the section of road and provided traffic control while the  roadway was cleared. No injuries were reported

(Potter Twp., Pa.) Pa State Police in Beaver are reporting  that a 2016 Peterbuilt Truck was traveling south along Pa. Route 18 around 6 pm on March 21, 2021 in Raccoon Twp. when the exhaust stack on the passenger’s side struck a low hanging wire. As the truck traveled along a left-handed curve the wire pulled the exhaust stack down causing it to become removed from the truck. When troopers arrived on the scene they found that a low hanging wire was pulled away from the roadway by a support wire that was attached to a dead tree that had broken off causing the wire to hang over the roadway. Troopers notified Verizon and Duquesne Light who completed repairs before officers left the scene. No Injuries were reported.

(Moon Township, PA,) A new Adult Behavioral Health Unit opened at Heritage Valley Health System’s Kennedy Township hospital campus on Tuesday, April 7, 2021 . The newly constructed 24-bed adult Behavioral Health Unit (BHU) focuses on the treatment and care of individuals, ages 18 and older, with behavioral health disorders.

“The new unit was developed with thoughtful input from our clinical staff working with architects and engineering professionals. The environment supports the emphasis we provide on therapeutic communication by offering expanded group areas, privacy, and safety features,” said Linda Homyk, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, Heritage Valley Health System. “Specific attention was given to adding features to enhance patient safety and adhere to evolving environmental requirements for reducing self-harm set forth by Joint Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.”

The unit complements the existing geriatric behavioral health unit at Heritage Valley Kennedy. Additionally, three new intake rooms were added to the emergency department at the Kennedy Township hospital, for those arriving with specific behavioral health needs. With this new unit opening, the behavioral health unit at Heritage Valley’s Sewickley campus will close and current staff will transition to the new unit.

Heritage Valley Health System has a long tradition of serving the behavioral health care needs in the community. The Heritage Valley Health System Board of Directors and leadership team is committed to providing high-quality behavioral health care. Beyond the inpatient behavioral health care at Heritage Valley Kennedy and Heritage Valley Beaver hospitals, the Health System continues a long-standing partnership with Staunton Clinic, an outpatient mental health and resource coordination center, that enables care to continue, uninterrupted, when patients return home. 

“Heritage Valley’s continuum of behavioral health care services is one of the many ways the Health System seeks to expand our reach and mission to improve the health and well-being of the communities we serve,” added Ms. Homyk. 

(Photo of Jim from Rosalind’s 100th Anniversary Celebration Oct. 4, 2014)

(New Brighton, Pa.) A man known to many as simply “The Candyman” has passed away.

71-year-old Jim Crudden the long time owner of Rosalind Candy Castle in New Brighton passed away unexpectedly while surrounded by his family on Good Friday.  The announcement was made in a Facebook post on Rosalind Candy Castle’s page on Friday Evening.

The post stated that our Father was and amazing person. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather. He will be missed by all that knew him. We will all miss his humor, laughter, generosity, leadership and kindness. Jim had a passion for giving to the community. We encourage donating time or money to local groups and organizations in his honor. He loved to help others. We love you dad and you will be missed so much. Till we meet again.

Born August 16, 1949 in Rochester, Jim was a 1967 graduate of New Brighton High School and attended Robert Morris University, graduating in 1971 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree. Upon graduation, Jim worked at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Beaver as a Production Coordinator and was promoted to Buyer in the Purchasing Department. In 1979 he left Westinghouse to join the family business at Rosalind Candy Castle in New Brighton. He learned the craft of making chocolates from his father, John Crudden and his uncle, Med Zaluska. Jim was the retired President of Rosalind Candy Castle.

 

Jim will be sadly missed and he did so much for his family and community. He was a kind and giving man that would help anyone he could, so as you are having that piece of Rosalind’s Chocolate that you just got in your Easter Basket say a pray for Jim and the entire Crudden family in their time of need.

Jim’s viewing is tomorrow from 2-4 & 6-8 in the J&J Spratt Funeral Home in New Brighton,
He will be buried in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery, New Brighton.

Keystone State News Connection

April 7, 2021

Available files: mp3 wav jpg

Andrea Sears

HARRISBURG, Pa. – A judge has set Sept. 9 as the tentative trial date for a lawsuit that claims the General Assembly has violated Pennsylvania’s state constitution by failing to provide adequate and equitable funding for public education.

The lawsuit was filed in 2014 by the Education Law Center and the Public Interest Law Center on behalf of several school districts, parents and education and civil-rights organizations.

According to Maura McInerney, legal director at the Education Law Center, state funding for education falls far short of a benchmark written into the Pennsylvania School Code by the General Assembly in 2008.

“In accordance with those adequacy targets, bringing them up to date in terms of cost of living,” she said, “it would be $4.6 billion that was required in order to ensure full funding.”

Legislative leaders, who are defendants in the suit, have said they’ll argue there is no connection between the amount of money districts spend and student performance.

Five years ago, the Legislature adopted a new education-funding formula, but it only applies to new spending – or only about one-tenth of the education budget. McInerney said students of color disproportionately are affected by the ongoing lack of funding.

“Eighty-percent of Black and Latinx students attend a district that receives less education funding than they would under the state’s current funding formula adopted in 2016,” she said.

McInerney added that students who attend poorly funded schools are far less likely to attend and graduate from college than those in well-funded districts.

The current system forces school districts to pick up a substantial portion of education costs, primarily through property taxes. McInerney said that creates a spending gap between wealthy and poor districts.

“On average, the gap is $4,800 per student,” she said, “in terms of the gap between low-wealth and high-wealth school districts.”

The court will finalize the trial date at a pretrial conference in June. Attorneys expect the trial to last several weeks.