Across the country, Americans are tuning in to the first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. Many are watching on TV, others on their phones. The proceedings are landing on a jaded and weary public, with little certainty the hearings would change minds. Cattle rancher Jeffery Gatzke was tuning in between morning chores on his South Dakota farm. He says Democrats and the Washington establishment are just trying to thwart an outsider president.
Many Pennsylvania school districts are struggling with a shortage of bus drivers. Mike Berk, executive director of the Pennsylvania School Bus Association, says the situation has gotten “progressively worse.” Some drivers have had to double up on runs, forcing students to spend twice as much time on the bus. But we wanted to know…is there a school bus driver shortage here in Beaver County? Our news correspondent Sandy Giordano went searching for the answer…
BREAKING NEWS: There was an accident Route 51 this morning. As Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano reports, there were no injuries. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…
The U.S. Forest Service is taking comments on a proposal to exempt a national forest in Alaska from what’s known as the Roadless Rule. In Pennsylvania, it’s the same rule that protects some 25,000 acres in the Allegheny National Forest. Opponents of rolling back the rule warn that what starts in Alaska’s Tongass (TAWN-gus) National Forest could have a domino effect on other public lands. Andrea Sears reports from Harrisburg…
One Beaver County municipality has made the list of the top 50 safest cities in Pennsylvania. Brighton Township placed eighth on a recent Security Baron report ranking the state’s safest cities. The report looked at violent crime, property crime and other factors and Brighton Township was #8 in the report. Some of the other notable finds…Findlay Township was 39th…in second place was O’Hara Township in Allegheny County…and the safest city in Pennsylvania is Upper Yoder Township in Cambria County.
The Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors has named a local secretary to its Hall of Fame. 65-year-old Marilyn Zona – who has served as Marion Township’s secretary/ treasurer for 40 years – was named to the group’s secretary wing of its Hall of Fame. She joins Sandy Wright of Greene Township, who was enshrined in 2013, as the only other honoree from Beaver County. There are no secretaries included from Lawrence or Allegheny Counties.
In their first post-election work session, the Board of Commissioners got the latest update on the 2019 budget…an update that indicates a move in the right direction. Matt Drzik has more from the courthouse:
A $500,000 state grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority will fund streetscape renovations to a portion of Pennsylvania Avenue in Monaca. State Rep. Rob Matzie, D-Beaver/Allegheny made the announcement. Matzie said the renovations are needed because overhead utilities are being relocated to underground as part of the Monaca Gateway Initiative project – a major infrastructure overhaul designed to enhance traffic flow to and from the new Shell cracker plant under construction…
Matzie says the grant from the CFA Multimodal Transportation Fund will finance the following:
– the construction of 29-hundred linear feet of sidewalks.
– 12 crosswalks.
– 26 ADA-complaint curb ramps.
– the restoration of 14-hundred linear feet of roadway.
– stormwater management.
– installation of 18 streetlights.
– and streetscape amenities such as plantings, trash receptables and bike racks.
Monaca Borough is requesting a waiver to the local match requirement. The total project cost is approximately $2.3 million.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The FBI is investigating how Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration came to issue permits for construction on a multibillion-dollar pipeline to carry natural gas liquids across Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned. FBI agents have interviewed current or former state employees in recent weeks about the Mariner East pipelines, according to three people who spoke on condition of anonymity. Wolf’s administration has said in the past that the permits contained strong environmental protections.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A jury has convicted a man of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a New Kensington police officer almost two years ago. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against 31-year-old Rahmael Sal Holt in the November 2017 slaying of officer Brian Shaw. Prosecutors contend Holt was an armed drug dealer who had planned to rob the driver of the SUV that Shaw attempted to stop in New Kensington on the night of the shooting. Holt has maintained that he wasn’t the person who fired.
