House State Government Committee to Hold Hearings on 2020 Election

HARRISBURG – Interim Pennsylvania House State Government Committee Majority Chairman Seth Grove (R-Dover) announced Tuesday that the committee will begin holding hearings on the process undertaken in the 2020 election.

“Regardless of outcomes it is incumbent upon the Legislature to ensure that Pennsylvania has free, fair and secure elections. Over the course of the past several weeks, Pennsylvania’s elections experienced a process failure because of undue and ill-conceived interference in our elections by the Pennsylvania Department of State and five Democrat justices on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. We need to investigate what transpired so we can develop a comprehensive legislative fix to ensure that the people of Pennsylvania can have faith in their future elections,” Grove said. “That review must happen now, while all the evidence remains before us and the events leading up to our General Election are fresh in the minds of all participants.”

Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre/Mifflin) supported the effort and agreed that the committee’s work should begin immediately.

“A thorough review of this year’s election process is necessary. Having safe and secure elections with reliable results should not be a Republican or Democrat issue. That is why we are using the bipartisan standing committee structure to handle this legislative function,” Benninghoff said. “The time for reviewing the 2020 election is now, while the incidents and concerns of the election are before us, to guarantee that future elections are conducted with the integrity and confidence Pennsylvanians and Americans deserve.”

Pope Francis vows to end sexual abuse after McCarrick report
By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is vowing to rid the Catholic Church of sexual abuse and offering prayers to victims of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Wednesday’s pledge came a day after the Vatican released its detailed report into the decadeslong church cover-up of McCarrick’s sexual misconduct. Francis concluded his weekly general audience by recalling that the report into the “painful case” of the former high-ranking American cardinal had been released Tuesday. He said he was renewing his “closeness to victims of any abuse and commitment of the church to eradicate this evil.” He then paused silently for nearly a minute, apparently in prayer.

Trump to emerge from White House to mark Veterans Day
By ZEKE MILLER and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will participate in the Veterans Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday. It will be his first public appearance after spending the last several days holed up at the White House tweeting angry, baseless claims of voter fraud after his election loss. Trump hasn’t made public comments since President-elect Joe Biden surpassed the 270 electoral votes on Saturday needed to win the presidency. But he’s offered a barrage of postings on Twitter alleging unfounded claims of irregularities in voting in several battleground states that went for Biden. Trump will be joined at Arlington National Cemetery by first lady Melania Trump as well Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence.

(Monaca, Pa.) One in ten babies is born prematurely in the United States and about 380,000 babies are born prematurely each year. The Community College of Beaver County is helping the March of Dimes bring awareness to premature births by lighting the Historic Community College Dome in Purple throughout the month of November in support of Prematurity awareness month. It’s all part of CCBS’s community engagement focus in which they have partnerships that promote community development, expand economic potential and provide lifelong learning opportunities.

CCBC President Roger W. Davis serves on the Western Pennsylvania March of Dimes Board of Directors. The CCBC Dome has hosted the Beaver County March for Babies since 2017. Learn more about how you can help prevent premature births at www.marchofdimes.org

The Dome will be lit purple everyday in November except for November 11-13 when it will be lit in red and blue to honor US Veterans

Story by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano

(Rochester, Pa.) Rochester Police and firefighters received a call to the sewer plant yesterday after a worker fell 30 feet into a hole.   Firefighters were able to lift the worker out of the hole with the proper equipment.   Police officer John Farmer said that the worker was life flighted to a Pittsburgh  hospital, Farmer said that the worker’s injuries appeared to be minor

Republican Garrity claims victory in state treasurer’s race
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican candidate Stacy Garrity is claiming victory over incumbent Democrat Joe Torsella in the Pennsylvania state treasurer’s race. Garrity is a retired U.S. Army Reserves colonel who is vice president of a tungsten smelting plant near hear home in Athens, Bradford County. Torsella conceded Tuesday via a video he posted on Twitter. The Associated Press hasn’t called the race because it’s not clear if Garrity will finish with a large enough lead to avoid an automatic statewide recount. Garrity repeated her campaign message that a major goal was to use the Treasury Department’s leverage to push lawmakers and the governor to limit state government spending to money that has been formally appropriated by the Legislature.

Election breathes new life into false ‘dead voter’ claims
By ARIJETA LAJKA Associated Press
As baseless allegations of voter fraud continue to circulate online, social media users are falsely claiming that people cast extra votes using the identities of dead people in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Michigan. There’s no evidence that this happened. Experts tell The Associated Press it is common for state voter rolls to include voters with birthdates that make them appear impossibly old, but these are usually explained by human error, software quirks or voter confidentiality issues. And sometimes a person simply shares a name and birthdate with someone else.

Tally may bring challenges under Pennsylvania recount rules
By MARC LEVY and MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania counties are grinding through ballot counting after a high-turnout election that tested a new vote-by-mail law, as President Donald Trump sought to reverse a winning margin for former Vice President Joe Biden. Preliminary counts due at the close of business Tuesday from counties to the state elections bureau will be watched for how they might affect the presidential race numbers. Thousands of ballots, however, will not make it into those counts. But they’re being watched for how they might affect the presidential race. They also may lead recount requests by precinct. Biden held a 48,000-vote margin Tuesday night. That’s too wide a gap for a mandatory recount.