(File Photo of Police Lights)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Center Township, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver report that criminal charges will be filed after an Aliquippa man caused a two-vehicle crash on I-376 East on Sunday. At 7:48 p.m., a thirty-nine-year-old unidentified male driver from Aliquippa caused a crash and was discovered to be under the influence. That is all the details that we have at this time.
(File Photo of Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Badge)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Koppel Borough, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver are still investigating a fight that took place at McDowell’s Bar in Koppel Borough on Friday. At 12:03 a.m., a person left the scene after troopers arrived. The same person went back to speak with troopers and Medic Rescue transported that person after the incident and an injury evaluation. That is all the details we have at this time.
(File Photo: Source for Photo: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro arrives to deliver his budget address for the 2025-26 fiscal year to a joint session of the state House and Senate at the Capitol is seen, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is recommending the closure of Rockview state prison and the Quehanna boot camp, both in central Pennsylvania, amid longer-term national trends of shrinking prison populations.
The administration said on Monday it expects to save more than $100 million in future fiscal years, once the facilities are closed. Prison staff will be guaranteed a job offer at their existing pay and classification at a nearby correctional institution, the administration said.
It added that public comment will be accepted for three months before a final decision is made. The state’s 24 prisons are at about 82% capacity, according to Department of Corrections data.
Shapiro announced last week when he released his budget proposal that he would close two prisons amid steeply rising Medicaid costs.
The union that represents prison staff, the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, has said it will fight the closures and warned that closing two prisons will endanger officers and inmates. Violence in the prisons has dropped, in part, because the prison population is spread more evenly, the union said.
Still, half of all prisons were over 90% capacity last year and four were over 100% capacity, the union said.
Rockview, in Centre County, was built in 1915 and is the second-oldest state prison, the corrections department said. It has about 650 staff and houses about 2,100 inmates out of a capacity of more than 2,500, the department said.
Quehanna boot camp, in Clearfield County, is designed for lower-risk inmates and lacks traditional prison security measures, such as a fence. It has about 230 staff and houses about 350 inmates out of a capacity of about 600.
All told, state prisons hold just over 38,000 inmates, as of December. That figure has crept up in the past couple years, but is down from about 45,000 five years ago and 49,000 a decade ago, when many prisons were over capacity.
Shapiro’s predecessors closed three prisons over the past decade and opened one new one, Phoenix, in suburban Philadelphia. Shapiro’s administration also said it would close halfway houses, called community corrections centers, in Greene and Berks counties.
(File Photo of the New Brighton Area School District Logo)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(New Brighton, PA) New Brighton High School will present their 2025 musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” The New Brighton high school auditorium will host the show which begins at 7 p.m. on February 20th, February 21st, and February 22nd. Reserved seat admission tickets cost $10. The website to purchase those tickets can be found below:
You can purchase tickets at https://cur8.com/15402/project/128757.
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(File Photo of Open Sign on Door)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Ambridge, PA) A new restaurant has opened in Ambridge called Kagura Sushi. Kagura Sushi is on 1400 Duss Avenue and offers freshly made Japanese cuisine including both poke and sushi bowls as well as California rolls. The restaurant is open seven days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. for both carryout or dining inside. GrubHub and Doordash can also provide food orders from Kagura Sushi.
(File Photo of a boy drinking water out of a water fountain)
(Reported by Danielle Smith of Keystone News Service)
(Harrisburg, PA) Pennsylvania is working to eliminate lead pipes under the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, which require most lead pipes to be removed within ten years. The EPA estimates that ten to twenty percent of human exposure to lead may come from drinking water. Mora McLaughlin with Pittsburgh Water says it aims to meet benchmarks such as replacing lead service lines and improving corrosion control, using a prioritization model to allocate resources effectively, especially in neighborhoods that are most at need or at risk for lead contamination. McLaughlin notes that Pennsylvania has received more than 90 million dollars in low-interest loans through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act for replacing lead pipes with copper, achieving an average of fifteen hundred replacements annually.
(File Photo of the Dome at CCBC)
(Reported by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano)
(Aliquippa, PA) The Aliquippa School District will host a Youth Ambassadors Event at the Community College of Beaver County. The event will take place at the Dome at CCBC from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 12th. Sixth through twelfth grade students will learn about mental health awareness and resources available for those having mental health issues.
(File Photo of the Beaver County Maple Syrup Festival Logo)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Beaver County, PA) The Beaver County Maple Syrup and Music Festival will return to the Lodge at Brady’s Run Park on Saturday, April 12th and Sunday, April 13th from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There will be activities for children, live music, craft sales, food drives and more. Visitors can also have pancakes that are all-you-can-eat with Pennsylvania maple syrup. The prices to eat are $15 for It is $12 for seniors, first responders and military veterans and $10 for kids 4 to 12 years old. The admission to eat is free for kids three years old or younger. You can contact these emails for more information if you want to help at the festival. Adults have their choice of pancakes, three links of sausage and a drink. Kids have their choice of a drink, two pancakes, and two sausage links.
You can also speak with the organizers of the festival by voicemail by calling 855-787-4221.
(File Photo of Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Badge)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Hanover Township, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver report that a man from Pittsburgh was arrested for driving under the influence in Hanover Township on January 25th, 2025. At around 11:30 p.m., twenty-seven-year-old Eric Rattenni of Pittsburgh was found by police walking on U.S. Route 30. Police discovered that Rattenni was intoxicated. Rattenni took chemical testing and his results showed that he took marijuana and had a blood alcohol level of 0.20% during the incident.
