50,000 Pennsylvanians Download COVID Alert PA App in first 24 Hours, Governor Urges Everyone to Make Your Phone Part of the Fight

Harrisburg, PA – Yesterday, Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine announced the availability of the COVID Alert PA app that can notify users if they may have been exposed to COVID-19 without revealing their identity or location. Since the announcement, 50,000 Pennsylvanians have downloaded the app, and the governor is encouraging more to follow suit.

“I encourage all Pennsylvanians to download the app on a personal mobile device to help in the fight against COVID-19,” Gov. Wolf said. “The more people who download the app, the more effective it will be in helping to stop the spread of COVID. Please download it today and make your phone part of the fight.”

COVID Alert PA is a free, voluntary mobile app developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health in partnership with NearForm, UPenn and MIT Lincoln Laboratory using the Apple and Google Exposure Notification System. The app’s features include an interactive COVID-19 symptom checker, opt-in for alerts for potential exposures to the virus, updates on the latest public health data about COVID-19 in PA and advice for what to do if you have a potential exposure to COVID-19.

The app can be found in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store by searching for “covid alert pa.”

The app is designed with privacy at the forefront. The app does not use GPS, location services, or any movement or geographical information. It will never collect, transmit or store personal information. In other words, it is completely anonymous.

Here’s how COVID Alert PA works:

• The app uses anonymous Bluetooth low energy proximity technology to know when your phone is within 6 feet of another phone with the app for 15 minutes or more.
• When an app user confirms a positive COVID-19 test result in the app, it will check to see if it matches any of the anonymous Bluetooth close contact interactions your phone has had over the last 14 days.
• If there is a match, COVID Alert PA may send an alert after taking into account the date, duration of exposure and the Bluetooth signal strength (which is used to estimate how close your phone was to the phone of the person having a positive test result).

“Our success in overcoming the virus depends on all of us and our collective behaviors, including wearing a mask, social distancing, proper hygiene and staying home if you feel sick,” Dr. Levine said. “The COVID Alert PA app is an additional powerful tool that can be used on a voluntary basis to help keep yourself and those you care about safe.”

Find more information on the COVID Alert Pennsylvania app here

Keystone State News Connection

September 23, 2020

An Unusual Partnership Works to Feed Hungry Kids

Andrea Sears

HARRISBURG, Pa. – A group battling childhood hunger has enlisted a major media company to help get meals to kids while schools are closed by the COVID pandemic.

“Turn Up, Fight Hunger” is an unusual collaboration between the No Kid Hungry campaign and Discovery, Inc. In less than a year, the partnership has helped connect children across the country with more than 520 million meals, and with many schools closed, the task of getting food to kids has grown even harder.

Since the pandemic began, said Eleni Towns, the No Kid Hungry campaign’s associate director, as many as one in four face hunger.

“Kids need food to learn and to grow healthy,” she said, “but districts across Pennsylvania are facing really significant challenges in terms of having to reach those kids.”

When schools first closed earlier this year, she said, No Kid Hungry invested more than $27 million in schools and community groups nationwide.

Alexa Verveer, Discovery’s executive vice president for public policy, corporate and government affairs, said its slate of television programs reaches one of every four women daily in the United States, so it decided it was a good fit to spread the message and spur action.

“We can bring a passionate audience on the Discovery side, coupled with expertise on our nonprofit partner’s side, to deliver on doing something that’s truly meaningful,” she said.

The “Turn up, Fight Hunger” five-year goal is to get 1 billion meals to kids across the country, Verveer said.

Towns said charitable groups can’t do it all; government programs play an important role fighting food insecurity for lower-income families.

“We’ve been advocating strongly to extend waivers and flexibility at the federal level to allow schools to adapt meal programs to meet the need,” she said, “and really making sure that other federal programs, like SNAP or Pandemic EBT or WIC, also have the flexibility to meet the needs of low-income parents.”

Towns said No Kid Hungry has committed to investing another $35 million this fall to help ensure that kids who have depended on school meal programs get enough to eat.

(WASHINGTON, DC) – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act (S.785) to increase veterans’ access to integrative health care and mental health services to improve the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) suicide prevention efforts.  Representative Conor Lamb (PA-17) led multiple provisions included in the final legislation which is now headed to the President’s desk to be signed into law.  In addition, the House passed the bipartisan Veterans’ Comprehensive Prevention, Access to Care, and Treatment Act of 2020, or Veterans’ COMPACT Act.  Introduced by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, on which Lamb serves as Vice Chair, the bill features provisions that complement S.785.

“Today proves that we are willing to cross party lines to save the lives of our veterans and give them access to the best in health care,” said Lamb.  “The future of health care is a mix of old and new, and our veterans should be first in line.  Veterans want the choice to use age-old practices like yoga, meditation and acupuncture, but they should also benefit from scientific advances like detecting the biomarkers that will allow us to better treat the invisible wounds of war.  Much work remains to eliminate veteran suicide, but this is an essential step forward.”

Lamb’s provisions included in the S.785 include:

• Testing, Researching, and Expanding Alternative Treatments (TREAT) Act: Requires the VA to establish a pilot program to provide complementary and integrative health services for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.  The bill also requires a study on the health benefits of providing integrative health treatments such as yoga, meditation, acupuncture, chiropractic care and other treatments that help with mental or physical health conditions.
• VA Precision Medicine Act: Calls on the VA to develop and implement the “Precision Medicine Initiative for Veterans” to identify and validate brain and mental health biomarkers among veterans, with specific consideration for depression, anxiety, PTSD, TBI and bipolar disorder.  The bill also requires that the VA develop robust data privacy and security measures to ensure that the information of veterans participating in the initiative is kept private and secure.
• VA Data Analytics and Technology Assistance (DATA) Act: Expands the VA’s ability to further contract and work with outside academic and research entities to conduct analyses and evaluation of the vast amounts of data VA collects through its electronic health records and research programs.

Provisions included in the Veterans’ COMPACT Act would:

• Provide acute crisis care for emergent suicide symptoms (ACCESS Act);
• Create a pilot program on information sharing between Department of Veterans Affairs and designated relatives and friends of veterans regarding the assistance and benefits available to the veterans;
• Conduct an annual report on the Solid Start program of the Department of Veterans Affairs;
• Create an education program for family members and caregivers of veterans with mental health disorders;
• Make an Interagency Task Force on Outdoor Recreation for veterans;
• Contact veterans that have not had contact with VA in two or more years to encourage them to receive comprehensive exams so that they continue their eligibility for coverage of emergency care not related to service-connected disabilities;
• Require annual VA Police de-escalation and crisis intervention training;
• Conduct a gap analysis of Department of Veterans Affairs programs that aid women veterans who are homeless; and
• Provide a report on locations where women veterans are using health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Click here to learn more about the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act (S.785) and visit Lamb’s website to see him speak on the House floor in support of the legislation.

Grand jury indicts 1 police officer in Breonna Taylor death
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A grand jury has indicted one officer on criminal charges six months after Breonna Taylor was fatally shot by police in Kentucky. The jury presented its decision against fired officer Brett Hankison Wednesday to a judge in Louisville, where the shooting took place. Taylor was shot multiple times by officers who burst into her home on March 13 during a narcotics investigation. The jury announced that Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment — not for shooting Taylor but for firing into into neighboring apartments the night of the March 13 encounter.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Dorsett, Namath, Revis, Walker-Kimbrough–a lot of champions and award winners have been associated with Beaver County throughout the years. Now you can add the name Fedeles to that list.

Garen Fedeles, who has served as Beaver County’s main lawyer since 2017 was recognized as the state’s top solicitor for 2020 by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. Commissioner Chariman Dan Camp made the announcement during the September 23 work session, and spoke of Fedeles’ accomplishments and busy schedule during it.

“Not only does he represent Beaver County, but he also represents a list of municipalities, schools and authorities…

• Midland Water
• Ambridge Water
• Canonsburg Water
• Rochester Township Water
• Rochester Township
• Rochester School District
• Beaver Borough
• Darlington Township

…are a few that his team represents, and there are more to that,” Camp said.

“I was presented a wonderful opportunity to be able to do something I enjoy,” Fedeles proclaimed after the announcement was made. “I’ve been fortunate to work with great leadership, great department heads and elected officials…and I’ve been lucky to be able to be in a position to help the citizens of Beaver County.”

The CCAP’s annual awards dinner that was to be held at Seven Springs resort later this year was scrapped due to the pandemic, so Fedeles will be receiving his award formally at the October 8 public meeting at the Beaver County Courthouse.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

After a week of contemplation, the Board of Commissioners made a statement in regards to a District Judge’s overruling of Governor Tom Wolf’s occupancy limits, specifically in regards to the Ice Arena.

“It looks like, at least for the foreseeable future”, spoke solicitor Garen Fedeles, “we’re not going to have to follow the 25 person-250 outdoor person limitation that was put in place by the governor until that appeal is heard on the appeal’s court case, which could take months.”

The decision was pressed by local parents, whose children were considered to be at risk if they were left to practice under minimal supervision, with the possibility of contact-based injury more likely at higher levels of competition.

“It seems that parents will be able to enter the facility for the sake of assisting their kids or watching their kids practice, so as long as they continue practicing social distancing and wearing masks,” Fedeles added.

No comments were made by Fedeles or anyone else on the board in regards to how this will effect ongoing sports, particularly high school football.

Mars drops Uncle Ben’s, reveals new name for rice brand
By ALEXANDRA OLSON AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The Uncle Ben’s rice brand is changing its name to Ben’s Original. Parent company Mars Inc. is the latest company to drop a logo criticized as a racial stereotype. Mars said the Ben’s Original packaging will hit stores in 2021. Since the 1940s, the rice boxes have featured a white-haired Black man, sometimes with a bowtie. Critics have said the image evoke servitude. Global President for Mars Food Fiona Dawson says the company is still deciding on an image to accompany the new name. Pressure on brands to retire racial imagery have intensified amid the Black Lives Matter protests over police killings of unarmed African Americans. Aunt Jemima and Eskimo Pie are among other brands that are retiring racial logos.

HARRISBURG― Attorney General Josh Shapiro today announced state charges against 20 inmates and accomplices in three state prisons in central and eastern Pennsylvania. These arrests are linked to at least two existing rings, or organized groups of inmates and outside accomplices who conspired to provide false information on COVID-19 unemployment benefit applications.

 

“After announcing our first round of arrests in these COVID unemployment scams, I promised that there were more to come,” said Attorney General Shapiro. “Today, 20 more individuals have been charged with illegally taking benefits away from hard-working Pennsylvanians who are struggling during this crisis. These arrests are not the end of our investigation, and I’ll continue working with my colleagues at the federal level to track down those heading these schemes, along with those who are willfully participating and breaking the law.”

 

The first and larger ring was operated in Centre County, out of State Correctional Institution (SCI) Benner. The second ring was operated in Schuylkill County, out of SCI Mahanoy.

 

The Benner ring included two ringleaders and eight additional co-conspirator inmates. Adele Moore, of State College, and James G. Neff Zonge, an inmate at SCI Benner, began operating the fraud ring out of SCI Benner after Moore successfully applied for COVID-19 unemployment benefits on behalf of Neff Zonge. Moore and Neff Zonge established a system in which Moore would use an inmate’s personal identifying information, apply for COVID-19 benefits from her address, and then give the inmate a portion of the collected benefits. Moore would often keep the majority of the money for her own personal use. In total, the SCI Benner ring obtained $153,470 in fraudulent COVID-19 unemployment benefits.

 

The Mahanoy ring included two ringleaders, Wendy Danfora and Markal Munford, as well as two additional inmates. Danfora, of York, also took the personal identifying information of her inmate co-conspirators to apply for COVID-19 unemployment benefits. As part of the scheme, Danfora gave a portion of the benefits to the inmates, but kept the majority for her personal use. In total, the SCI Mahanoy ring obtained $109,900 in fraudulent COVID-19 unemployment benefits.

 

There were also six individual inmates arrested without any known links to a ring. These arrests are part of an ongoing investigation by the Office of Attorney General in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the eastern district of Pennsylvania.

 

Individuals are only eligible for PUA benefits if they are both unemployed for reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic and available to work. In order to receive benefits, an individual must access the PUA website and file a PUA claim. The applicant is required to enter personal identifying information and answer eligibility questions. Individuals who are serving a sentence of incarceration, or who are detained pending a criminal trial, are neither available for work nor unemployed for reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, they are not eligible to receive PUA benefits for the period of their incarceration.

 

Individuals who apply for emergency unemployment benefits when they are employed or incarcerated are breaking federal and state law. Individuals found to be involved with organized efforts to obtain emergency unemployment benefits illegally can face significant prison time and financial penalties. In some instances, like the arrests today, ringleaders of these schemes can face over 60 years, and their co-conspirators can face well over 40 years.

 

Members of the Benner ring include:

 

Adele B. Moore: Not incarcerated and resides in State College, Centre County. Moore first filed for PUA for herself and for inmate Jacob Snook. Moore then conspired with Neff Zonge to file PUA for inmates Butler, Lyter, Baker, Young, Sullivan, Leidig, and Klecha. Moore received a total of approximately $7000.00 from the inmates for filing the applications and from two of the inmate debit cards that she received for the inmates at her residence.

 

James G. Neff Zonge: Inmate at SCI Benner from State College, Centre County. Neff Zonge first had Adele Moore attempt to file PUA for him. His PUA was filed but not approved. Neff Zonge then provided the names of his inmate associates from inside SCI Benner. Neff Zonge provided Moore with the name, DOB, SSN, and mailing address for inmates Butler, Lyter, Baker, Young, Sullivan, Leidig, and Klecha. Neff Zonge received approximately $3000.00 from the inmates for help filing PUA.

 

Todd A. Butler: Inmate at SCI Benner from Columbiana, Ohio. Todd Butler provided his name, DOB, and SSN to Neff Zonge to have Adele Moore file for PUA for him. Butler received $9930.00 in UC payments.

 

Michael C. Lyter: Inmate at SCI Benner from Harrisburg, Dauphin County. Wife now lives in Perry County. Lyter provided his name, DOB, mailing address, and SSN to Neff Zonge to have Adele Moore file for PUA for him. Lyter received $12,315.00 in UC payments.

 

Ronald E. Baker: Inmate at SCI Benner from Glen Rock, PA, York County. Baker provided his name, DOB, mailing address, and SSN to Neff Zonge to have Adele Moore file for PUA for him. Baker received $13,110.00 in UC payments.

 

Derek L. Young: Inmate at SCI Benner from Watsontown, PA, Northumberland County. Young provided his name, DOB, mailing address, and SSN to Neff Zonge to have Adele Moore file for PUA for him. Young received $9930.00 in UC payments.

 

James E. Sullivan: Inmate at SCI Benner from Hawley, PA, Wayne County. Sullivan provided his name, DOB, mailing address, and SSN to Neff Zonge to have Adele Moore file for PUA for him. Sullivan received $9930.00 in UC payments.

 

James M. Leidig: Inmate at SCI Benner from Chambersburg, PA, Franklin County. Leidig provided his name, DOB, mailing address, and SSN to Neff Zonge to have Adele Moore file for PUA for him. Leidig received $22,245.00 in UC payments.

 

Joseph E. Klecha: Inmate at SCI Benner from Montrose, PA, Susquehanna County. Klecha provided his name, DOB, mailing address, and SSN to Neff Zonge to have Adele Moore file for PUA for him. Klecha received $12,315.00 in UC payments.

 

Jacob P. Snook: Inmate at SCI Benner, From Bellefonte, Centre County. Snook was the first of the SCI Benner inmates to successfully commit PUA fraud. Snook received $10,125.00 in UC payments.

 

Total Theft: $109,900

 

Members of the Mahanoy ring include:

 

Wendy Danfora: Co-Conspirator from York, PA, York County. Danfora is the girlfriend of inmate Markal Munford, who is incarcerated at SCI Mahanoy. Danfora conspired with Munford to file for PUA benefits for themselves, family members and other inmates at SCI Mahanoy.

 

Markal Munford: Inmate at SCI Mahanoy, Frackville, PA, Schuylkill County. Munford provided the names, dates of birth, and social security numbers for other inmates through prison communications to his girlfriend, Danfora, starting at the end of May 2020.  They frequently discussed the scheme during their telephone calls. Danfora kept the funds to spend on herself and three children.  Between Danfora and Munford, they are responsible for at least 13 fraudulent filings, which total $78,994.

 

Inmates at SCI Phoenix who applied for fraudulent COVID-19 unemployment benefits include:

 

Jermaine Plumer: Received $18,264.00 worth of PUA paid out after he provided personal identifying information to non-incarcerated individuals.

 

Rafael Rodriguez: Received $22,109.00 worth of PUA paid out after he provided personal identifying information to non-incarcerated individuals.

 

Dwayne Washington: Received $3,510.00 worth of PUA paid out after he provided personal identifying information to a non-incarcerated individual.

 

Leroy Barnes: Was never paid, but did provide his personal identifying information to a non-incarcerated individual to have them complete a PUA application on his behalf.

 

Andrew Simms: Was never paid, but did provide his personal identifying information to a non-incarcerated individual to have them complete a PUA application on his behalf.

 

Dexter Pitts a/k/a Kevin Perry: Received $3,150.00 worth of PUA paid out after he provided his personal identifying information to a non-incarcerated individual.

 

The case will be prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Heather Castellino.

 

If you believe you have been a target or victim of coronavirus-related fraud, please report it to the Attorney General’s tip line at pricegouging@attorneygeneral.gov.

 

A criminal complaint is only a formal charging document and is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.