Category: News

Pittsburgh Penguins trade goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic to the San Jose Sharks for a 2028 third-round NHL draft pick

(File Photo of the Pittsburgh Penguins logo with the 2016 background color)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins traded goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic to the San Jose Sharks for a 2028 third-round NHL draft pick. The only goaltender currently on the NHL roster for the Penguins is Tristan Jarry. The Penguins also have goaltenders who both played for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, Joel Blomqvist and prospect Sergei Murashov. Blomqvist played fifteen games last season for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Murashov also played for the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL.

Man stabbed by another man in the East Hills neighborhood of Pittsburgh that was trying to stop an assault that was happening at the time

(File Photo of Police Siren Lights)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) According to police, a man was stabbed late Monday night in the East Hills neighborhood of Pittsburgh by another man that was trying to stop an assault that was happening. This occurred on Wilner Drive at about 10:30 p.m. A man was found stabbed in the head, chest, and back when officers arrived at the scene. An investigation confirms the man that got stabbed was assaulting a woman and a man got stabbed trying to stop it. Police note that charges are expected to be given to the suspect who is in stable condition after he got taken to the hospital and the other man is not at this time expected to receive charges from the incident.

Bill proposing to end Sunday hunting ban in Pennsylvania set for a decision from Governor Josh Shapiro on whether to sign it or not

(File Photo of Deer Approaching Sign)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) A bill that proposes to end the ban on hunting on Sundays in Pennsylvania is now going to a decision from Governor Josh Shapiro on whether to sign it or not. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives approved that last step of House Bill 1431 on Monday with a vote of 142-61. Democratic Representative Mandy Steele of Allegheny County had a version of the bill that was streamlined which was approved by the Senate on Thursday, 34-16. The bill lets the Pennsylvania Game Commission board of commissioners say which Sundays people can hunt in Pennsylvania. 

Aliquippa man charged for causing a two-vehicle crash on I-376 West

(File Photo: Caption for Photo: police car lights at night in city with selective focus and bokeh background blur) Credit for Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images/iStockphoto/z1b)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Aliquippa, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver report that a man from Aliquippa was charged after causing a two-vehicle crash on I-376 West close to Gringo Independence Road on Saturday. Twenty-year-old Jesse Gutierrez did not have control of his car during the heavy rain that day and hit a guide wire on the left side of the road. Twenty-one-year-old Connor Antoszeski of Imperial, Pennsylvania then hit the back of the car of Gutierrez after the car of Gutierrez spun uncontrollably. Gutierrez was then charged by police.

Woman from Freedom arrested for animal cruelty in New Galilee Borough

(File Photo of Handcuffs)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(New Galilee Borough, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver report that a woman from Freedom was arrested for being cruel to a dog in New Galilee Borough on June 22nd, 2025. Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Michele was found on 502 Washington Avenue. An investigation confirms a malnourished dog was with Michele. According to a veterinarian report, this dog had prominent bones and was moderately muscular, but had no access fat. The hip bones of the dog had ulcers, and its fur had urine on it. 

Monaca woman arrested for possessing drugs in Aliquippa which led to her driving under the influence there

(File Photo of A Police Siren Light)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Aliquippa, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver report that a woman from Monaca was arrested for possessing drugs in Aliquippa on Monday. Sixty-three-year-old Kathleen Taormina was stopped by police during a traffic stop on the 2000 block of Sheffield Road. According to police, Taormina was found for both possessing crack cocaine and for driving under the influence and her charges are pending. 

Nearly $500,000 secured to help processing plant at Brunton’s Dairy farm in Beaver County rebuild

(File Photo of State Representative Rob Matzie)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Ambridge, PA) According to a release from State Representative Rob Matzie’s office, newly secured funding of $460,718 will support Brunton Dairy’s efforts to rebuild the farm’s processing plant. In 2023, that plant at Brunton’s Diary farm was destroyed by a fire. Matzie confirmed that the money will help jobs to be restored, give operations modernization and save energy. Pennsylvania’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure program is where the funding came from.

University of Pennsylvania updates swimming records set by Lia Thomas, settling with feds on transgender athletes case

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Swimmers including Penn’s Lia Thomas, lane 4, dive into the water at the start of a qualifying heat of the 200 yard freestyle at the Ivy League Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at Harvard University, Feb. 18, 2022, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday modified a trio of school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and said it would apologize to female athletes “disadvantaged” by her participation on the women’s swimming team, part of a resolution of a federal civil rights case.

The U.S. Education Department and Penn announced the voluntary agreement of the high-profile case that focused on Thomas, who last competed for the Ivy League school in 2022, when she became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title.

The department investigated Penn as part of the Trump administration’s broader attempt to remove transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports, concluding the university in Philadelphia had violated the rights of female athletes.

Under the agreement, Penn agreed to restore all individual Division I records and titles to female athletes who lost to Thomas and send a personalized apology letter to each of those swimmers, the Education Department said.

By Tuesday afternoon, the Penn website showed other athletes holding the school’s top times in Thomas’ events. The site was annotated with a note that read, “Competing under eligibility rules in effect at the time, Lia Thomas set program records in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle during the 2021-22 season.”

“While Penn’s policies during the 2021-2022 swim season were in accordance with NCAA eligibility rules at the time, we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules,” Penn President J. Larry Jameson said. “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”

As part of the settlement, the university must also announce that it “will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs” and it must adopt “biology-based” definitions of male and female, the department said.

In his statement, Jameson said Penn has always been in compliance with NCAA and Title IX rules as they were interpreted at the time, and that the university has never had its own policies around transgender athlete participation. The school has followed changes to eligibility guidelines as they were issued earlier this year, he said. The NCAA changed its participation policy for transgender athletes in February, limiting competition in women’s sports to athletes who were assigned female at birth.

“Our commitment to ensuring a respectful and welcoming environment for all of our students is unwavering,” Jameson said. “At the same time, we must comply with federal requirements, including executive orders, and NCAA eligibility rules, so our teams and student-athletes may engage in competitive intercollegiate sports.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it a victory for women and girls.

“The Department commends UPenn for rectifying its past harms against women and girls, and we will continue to fight relentlessly to restore Title IX’s proper application and enforce it to the fullest extent of the law,” McMahon said in a statement.

Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines thanked President Donald Trump on social media and wrote of the settlement, “ Are pigs flying?” Gaines has said she started her activism against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports after sharing a locker room with Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championships.

The Education Department opened its investigation in February and concluded in April that Penn had violated Title IX, a 1972 law forbidding sex discrimination in education. Such findings have almost always been resolved through voluntary agreements. If Penn had fought the finding, the department could have moved to refer the case to the Justice Department or pursued a separate process to cut the school’s federal funding.

In February, the Education Department asked the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFSHSA, to restore titles, awards and records it says have been “misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories.”

The most obvious target at the college level was in women’s swimming, where Thomas won the national title in the 500-yard freestyle in 2022.

The NCAA has updated its record books when recruiting and other violations have stripped titles from certain schools, but the organization, like the NFSHSA, has not responded to the federal government’s request and did not respond to emails seeking comment Tuesday. It was not clear how either would determine which events had a transgender athlete participating years later.

Hamas says it’s ready for a ceasefire but wants a complete end to the war in Gaza

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Abdel Hadi Bashir mourns the loss of his two daughters, Sabah and Mira who were killed in an Israeli army airstrike of the Gaza Strip, at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

CAIRO (AP) — Hamas suggested Wednesday that it was open to a ceasefire agreement with Israel, but stopped short of accepting a U.S.-backed proposal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump hours earlier, insisting on its longstanding position that any deal bring an end to the war in Gaza.

Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. The U.S. leader has been increasing pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas to broker a ceasefire, and hostage agreement and bring about an end to the war.

Trump said the 60-day period would be used to work toward ending the war — something Israel says it won’t accept until Hamas is defeated. He said that a deal might come together as soon as next week.

But Hamas’ response, which emphasized its demand that the war end, raised questions about whether the latest offer could materialize into an actual pause in fighting.

Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said that the militant group was “ready and serious regarding reaching an agreement.”

He said Hamas was “ready to accept any initiative that clearly leads to the complete end to the war.”

A Hamas delegation is expected to meet with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the proposal, according to an Egyptian official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the talks with the media.

Israel and Hamas disagree on how war should end

Throughout the nearly 21-month-long war, ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly faltered over whether the war should end as part of any deal.

Hamas has said that it’s willing to free the remaining 50 hostages, less then half of whom are said to be alive, in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war.

Israel says it will only agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and exiles itself, something the group refuses to do.

An Israeli official said that the latest proposal calls for a 60-day deal that would include a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a surge in humanitarian aid to the territory. The mediators and the U.S. would provide assurances about talks on an end to the war, but Israel isn’t committing to that as part of the latest proposal, the official said.

The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the details of the proposed deal with the media, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

It wasn’t clear how many hostages would be freed as part of the agreement, but previous proposals have called for the release of about 10.

Israel has yet to publicly comment on Trump’s announcement. On Monday, Trump is set to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks at the White House, days after Ron Dermer, a senior Netanyahu adviser, held discussions with top U.S. officials about Gaza, Iran and other matters.

Trump issues another warning

On Tuesday, Trump wrote on social media that Israel had “agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize the 60 Day CEASEFIRE, during which time we will work with all parties to end the War.”

“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” he said.

Trump’s warning may find a skeptical audience with Hamas. Even before the expiration of the war’s longest ceasefire in March, Trump has repeatedly issued dramatic ultimatums to pressure Hamas to agree to longer pauses in the fighting that would see the release of more hostages and a return of more aid to Gaza’s civilian populace.

Still, Trump views the current moment as a potential turning point in the brutal conflict that has left more than 56,000 dead in the Palestinian territory. The Gaza Health Ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its death count, but says that more than half of the dead are women and children.

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.

The war has left the coastal Palestinian territory in ruins, with much of the urban landscape flattened in the fighting. More than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been displaced, often multiple times. And the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, pushing hundreds of thousands of people toward hunger.

Bryan Kohberger is due to appear in court to plead guilty in University of Idaho stabbings

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – A flyer seeking information about the killings of four University of Idaho students who were found dead is displayed on a table along with buttons and bracelets on Nov. 30, 2022, during a vigil in memory of the victims in Moscow, Idaho. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — More than two years after the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students shocked the rural community of Moscow, Idaho, the former criminal justice doctoral student charged in the murders is expected in court Wednesday to plead guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty.

Bryan Kohberger agreed to the plea deal in the past few days, just weeks before his trial was to begin, after his attorneys tried but failed to have execution stricken as a possible punishment. The deal drew mixed reactions from the victims’ families, ranging from support to outrage that Kohberger would live.

“Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world,” Aubrie Goncalves, the 18-year-old sister of victim Kaylee Goncalves, wrote in a Facebook post. “Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever. That reality stings more deeply when it feels like the system is protecting his future more than honoring the victims’ pasts.”

The small farming community of Moscow, in the northern Idaho panhandle, had not had a homicide in about five years when Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were found dead at a rental home near campus on Nov. 13, 2022. Autopsies showed the four victims were all likely asleep when they were attacked. Some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times.

The killings prompted a massive hunt for the perpetrator. That included an elaborate effort to track down a white sedan that was seen on surveillance cameras repeatedly driving by the rental home, using genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect, and using cellphone data to pinpoint his movements the night of the killings.

At the time, Kohberger was a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University, about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) west of the University of Idaho. He was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.

Online shopping records showed that Kohberger had purchased a military-style knife months earlier — as well as a sheath like the one found at the scene.

No motive has emerged for the killings, nor is it clear why the attacker spared two roommates who were in the home. Authorities have said cellphone data and surveillance video show that Kohberger visited the victims’ neighborhood at least a dozen times before the killings.

Kohberger is due to appear at 11 a.m. MDT Wednesday before Idaho Fourth Judicial District Judge Steven Hippler in Boise, where the case was moved due to pretrial publicity in northern Idaho. Hippler must approve the plea deal. If Kohberger pleads guilty as expected, he would likely be sentenced in July.

While the Goncalves family opposed the agreement and said they would seek to stop it, they also argued that any such deal should require Kohberger to make a full confession, detail the facts of what happened and provide the location of the murder weapon.

“We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was,” they wrote in a Facebook post.

The family of Chapin — one of three triplets who attended the university together — supports the deal, their spokesperson, Christina Teves, said Tuesday. Attorney Leander James, who represents Mogen’s mother and stepfather, declined to give their views but said he would deliver a statement on their behalf after Wednesday’s hearing. Mogen’s father, Ben Mogen, told CBS News he was relieved by the agreement.

“We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don’t want to have to be at, that we shouldn’t have to be at, that have to do with this terrible person,” he said. “We get to just think about the rest of lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids.”