Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published June 11, 2024 8:24 A.M.

(Hopewell Township, Pa) The board approved motions concerning procedures to follow with Hopewell and Independence Township Police Departments  when incidents occur in Hopewell Township and Independence Township whether  on school property or transportation.

(Monaca, Pa)  Community College of Beaver County (CCBC) has entered a nationwide memorandum of understanding with AOPA Foundation, Inc. to grant up to 10 credits to students who complete the 9th, 10th, and 11th grade AOPA Foundation High School Aviation STEM Curriculum. The agreement allows high school students to jumpstart their college and professional careers within aviation.

“Not unlike our own Aviation High School Academy, the AOPA Foundation High School Aviation STEM program has experienced explosive student growth over the last several years. CCBC is excited to enter into this agreement to advance and support the Foundation’s goal of unlocking pathways to aviation careers for teens,” said Dr. John Higgs, dean of the James M. Johnson School of Aviation Sciences.

“As a result, we are ensuring that high school students can economically leverage CCBC’s expertise in aviation education and accelerate towards successful careers as pilots, air traffic controllers, or other industry professionals.”

Students must earn a B or better in AOPA Foundation Curriculum classes and matriculate to CCBC the semester after graduation to earn these credits. In addition, piloting students must provide documentation that they passed the FAA Private Pilot Knowledge Exam.

Students will earn credit for AVIP120-Foundations and Development of Aviation for the 9th grade course and credit for AVIP160- Private Pilot Flight Theory and AVIC160-Flight Theory Fundamentals 1 for the 10th and 11th grade courses.

“The AOPA Foundation is thrilled to have signed our first national agreement with CCBC. The agreement opens doors for students from more than 1,400 high schools nationwide to matriculate to CCBC or its satellite locations to become air traffic controllers or professional pilots.

The AOPA Foundation and CCBC share the vision of keeping the skies free and available to anyone who dreams of a career in
aviation and aerospace, and this relationship is an example of how to turn that vision into reality,” stated Dan Justman, Vice-President, You Can Fly, a STEM.org Accredited Educational Program.

CCBC continues to be a premier leader in aviation education, with a graduate in every tower in the U.S. and in the cockpit of every major airline.

Danielle Smith – Keystone State News Connection
Photo: Pennsylvania would need to lift 198,000 children out of poverty to rank first in the nation for the lowest child poverty rate. (luckybusiness/Adobe Stock)

Pennsylvania ranks 20th in the nation for overall child well-being, in the new 2025 Kids Count Data Book.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation report ranks states on how kids are doing in terms of economic well-being, education, health and more.

Kari King, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, said despite the state’s rank of 20th for children’s health, it still has about 147,000 kids who are uninsured. King stressed the importance of Medicaid and warned proposals in Congress to reduce federal Medicaid spending by about $800 billion could jeopardize children’s access to health care.

“We are making sure that we’re lifting up in Pennsylvania: 1.2 million kids receive their health insurance through Medicaid and it’s providing health insurance to individuals in the state,” King explained. “It’s so important for kids, to make sure that they’re growing and developing in a healthy way.”

The report ranked Pennsylvania 22nd in the nation for kids economic well-being. It said in 2023, about 16% of children in the state lived in poverty. That’s roughly 404,000 kids with household incomes below $30,000 a year for a family of four.

King pointed out many children benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which would also face major cuts in the big budget bill passed by the U.S. House and now awaiting a vote in the Senate.

“The bill proposes $300 million in cuts to the SNAP program, which again, is very concerning,” King emphasized. “In Pennsylvania, 24% of kids and young adults — so, those under the age of 21 — receive a SNAP benefit. That’s about 760,000 young Pennsylvanians.”

Leslie Boissiere, vice president of external affairs for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, said the nation cannot lose sight of the racial disparities seen in the indicators, particularly among Black, Latino and Native American children.

“For example, the child well-being outcomes on 15 out of 16 indicators, for Native kids, are lower than the national average,” Boissiere pointed out. “If you look at Black kids, it’s 8 out of 16 indicators, where Black kids’ outcomes are lower than the national average.”

Boissiere noted investing in today’s kids is investing in the nation and in a strong economy because they are tomorrow’s workforce.

FILE – The logos for streaming services Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and Sling TV are pictured on a remote control on Aug. 13, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

Disney will pay Comcast’s NBCUniversal nearly $439 million for its stake in Hulu, taking full control of the streaming service.

The move closes out an appraisal process that’s dragged on for a few years. Disney said in November 2023 that it was acquiring a 33% stake in Hulu from Comcast for at least $8.6 billion. That amount reflected Hulu’s guaranteed floor value of $27.5 billion, according to a regulatory filing.

Disney has run Hulu since 2019, when Comcast ceded its authority to Disney and effectively became a silent partner.

Hulu began in 2007 and quickly evolved into as a service backed by entertainment conglomerates who hoped to stave off the internet with an online platform for their own TV shows. Disney joined in 2009, planning to offer shows from ABC, ESPN and the Disney Channel. A decade later, Disney gained majority control of the business when it acquired 21st Century Fox.

Disney said in a regulatory filing on Monday that its appraiser arrived at a valuation below the guaranteed floor value during the initial phase of the appraisal process, while NBCUniversal’s appraiser arrived at a valuation substantially in excess of the guaranteed floor value.

A third appraiser was brought in and concluded that The Walt Disney Co. will pay $438.7 million for the Hulu stake.

“We are pleased this is finally resolved. We have had a productive partnership with NBCUniversal, and we wish them the best of luck,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. “Completing the Hulu acquisition paves the way for a deeper and more seamless integration of Hulu’s general entertainment content with Disney+ and, soon, with ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product, providing an unrivaled value proposition for consumers.”

The transaction is anticipated to close by July 24. It’s not expected to impact Disney’s fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings forecast.

Shares of Disney rose slightly in morning trading on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Elon Musk stepped back from his explosive feud with U.S. President Donald Trump, writing on X that he regrets some of his posts about his onetime ally and that they went “too far.”

Early Wednesday morning, he posted “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”

Musk’s break with a president whom he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect appeared to put an end to his influence in the White House and prompted concerns about effects on his companies. As a major government contractor, Musk’s businesses could be particularly vulnerable to retribution, and Trump has already threatened to cut Musk’s contracts.

Musk earlier deleted a post in which he claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Meanwhile, other posts that irritated Trump, including ones in which Musk called the spending bill an “abomination” and claimed credit for Trump’s election victory, remained live.

On Sunday, Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker that he has no desire to repair their relationship and warned that Musk could face “ serious consequences ” if he tries to help Democrats in upcoming elections.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump made no secret of his willingness to exert a maximalist approach to enforcing immigration laws and keeping order as he campaigned to return to the White House. The fulfillment of that pledge is now on full display in Los Angeles.

The president has put hundreds of National Guard troops on the streets to quell protests over his administration’s immigration raids, a deployment that state and city officials say has only inflamed tensions. Trump called up the California National Guard over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the first time in 60 years a president has done so — and is deploying active-duty troops to support the guard.

By overriding Newsom, Trump is already going beyond what he did to respond to Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when he warned he could send troops to contain demonstrations that turned violent if governors in the states did not act to do so themselves. Trump said in September of that year that he “can’t call in the National Guard unless we’re requested by a governor” and that “we have to go by the laws.”

But now, the past and current president is moving swiftly, with little internal restraint to test the bounds of his executive authority in order to deliver on his promise of mass deportations. What remains to be seen is whether Americans will stand by him once it’s operationalized nationwide, as Trump looks to secure billions from Congress to dramatically expand the country’s detention and deportation operations.

For now, Trump is betting that they will.

“If we didn’t do the job, that place would be burning down,” Trump told reporters Monday, speaking about California. “I feel we had no choice. … I don’t want to see what happened so many times in this country.”

‘A crisis of Trump’s own making’

The protests began to unfold Friday as federal authorities arrested immigrants in several locations throughout the sprawling city, including in the fashion district of Los Angeles and at a Home Depot. The anger over the administration’s actions quickly spread, with protests in Chicago and Boston as demonstrations in the southern California city also continued Monday.

But Trump and other administration officials remained unbowed, capitalizing on the images of burning cars, graffiti and Mexican flags — which, while not dominant, started to become the defining images of the unrest — to bolster their law-and-order cause.

Leaders in the country’s most populous state were similarly defiant.

California officials sued the Trump administration Monday, with the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, arguing that the deployment of troops “trampled” on the state’s sovereignty and pushing for a restraining order. The initial deployment of 300 National Guard troops was expected to quickly expand to the full 4,000 that has been authorized by Trump.

The state’s senior Democratic senator, Alex Padilla, said in an interview that “this is absolutely a crisis of Trump’s own making.”

“There are a lot of people who are passionate about speaking up for fundamental rights and respecting due process, but the deployment of National Guard only serves to escalate tensions and the situation,” Padilla told The Associated Press. “It’s exactly what Donald Trump wanted to do.”

Padilla slammed the deployment as “counterproductive” and said the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department was not advised ahead of the federalization of the National Guard. His office has also pushed the Pentagon for a justification on the deployment, and “as far as we’re told, the Department of Defense isn’t sure what the mission is here,” Padilla added.

Candidate Trump previewed immigration strategy during campaign

Much of this was predictable.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump pledged to conduct the largest domestic deportation operation in American history to expel millions of immigrants in the country without legal status. He often praised President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s military-style immigration raids, and the candidate and his advisers suggested they would have broad power to deploy troops domestically to enact Trump’s far-reaching immigration and public safety goals.

Trump’s speedy deployment in California of troops against those whom the president has alluded to as “insurrectionists” on social media is a sharp contrast to his decision to issue no order or formal request for National Guard troops during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, despite his repeated and false assertions that he had made such an offer.

Trump is now surrounded by officials who have no interest in constraining his power. In 2020, Trump’s then-Pentagon chief publicly rebuked Trump’s threat to send in troops using the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that empowers the president to use the military within the U.S. and against American citizens.

Current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signaled support on his personal X account for deploying troops to California, writing, “The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE,” referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The Defense Department said Monday it is deploying about 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles to support National Guard troops already on the ground to respond to the protests.

White House responds to an ‘incompetent’ governor

Protesters over the weekend blocked off a major freeway and burned self-driving cars as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades in clashes that encompassed several downtown blocks in Los Angeles and led to several dozen arrests. Much of the city saw no violence.

But the protests prompted Trump to issue the directive Saturday mobilizing the California National Guard over Newsom’s objections. The president and his top immigration aides accused the governor of mismanaging the protests, with border czar Tom Homan asserting in a Fox News interview Monday that Newsom stoked anti-ICE sentiments and waited two days to declare unlawful assembly in the city.

Trump told Newsom in a phone call Friday evening to get the situation in Los Angeles under control, a White House official said. It was only when the administration felt Newsom was not restoring order in the city — and after Trump watched the situation escalate for 24 hours and White House officials saw imagery of federal law enforcement officers with lacerations and other injuries — that the president moved to deploy the Guard, according to the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

“He’s an incompetent governor,” Trump said Monday. “Look at the job he’s doing in California. He’s destroying one of our great states.”

Local law enforcement officials said Los Angeles police responded as quickly as they could once the protests erupted, and Newsom repeatedly asserted that state and city authorities had the situation under control.

“Los Angeles is no stranger to demonstrations and protests and rallies and marches,” Padilla said. “Local law enforcement knows how to handle this and has a rapport with the community and community leaders to be able to allow for that.”

The aggressive moves prompted blowback from some of Trump’s erstwhile allies. Ileana Garcia, a Florida state senator who in 2016 founded the group Latinas for Trump and was hired to direct Latino outreach, called the recent escalation “unacceptable and inhumane.”

“I understand the importance of deporting criminal aliens, but what we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings — in many cases, with credible fear of persecution claims — all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal,” said Garcia, referring to Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff and key architect of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The tactics could be just a preview to what more could come from the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. GOP lawmakers are working to pass a massive tax-and-border package that includes billions to hire thousands of new officers for Border Patrol and for ICE. The goal, under the Trump-backed plan, is to remove 1 million immigrants without status annually and house 100,000 people in immigration detention centers.

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Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

HARRISBURG, PA –Today, State Senators Jay Costa and Camera Bartolotta reintroduced legislation to prevent Electric Shock Drowning (ESD) in Pennsylvania’s docks and marinas.

ESD has become the catch-all phrase to encompass all in-water shock casualties and fatalities. ESD is usually the result of the passage of a low-level AC current through the body with sufficient force to cause skeletal-muscular paralysis. Such a current can render a swimmer unable to move, swim, or attempt to stay afloat while immersed in fresh water, eventually causing the person to drown.

This legislation will require all boat docks and marina operations comply with the following:

1. Provide appropriate main overcurrent protective devices or ground fault protection
2. Provide an initial electrical inspection and then every five years thereafter.
3. Install permanent safety signage notifying the public of electric shock hazards in water around boats, docks and marinas.

This legislation has been championed by the family and friends of James DeAngelo, a McMurray hockey player who died of electric shock drowning on July 4, 2021, at the age of 23. John Hilzendeger started The James DeAngelo Foundation to promote electric shock drowning awareness and prevention.

“I cannot imagine losing a child to such a terrible travesty as Electric Shock Drowning, and it’s a solemn honor to be doing my part to prevent this from happening to anyone else,” said Senator Costa. “This commonsense legislation will go a long way in ensuring that spending time in Pennsylvania’s beautiful bodies of water does not end in a preventable catastrophe. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate and House to address this issue and deliver on safer recreation boating opportunities.”

So far, a bipartisan group of sixteen State Senators have joined as cosponsors to the legislation in addition to Senator Jay Costa and Senator Camera Bartolotta as prime sponsors. Those legislators include Senator Art Haywood, Senator Nick Miller, Senator Judy Schwank, Senator Doug Mastriano, Senator Elder Vogel, Jr., Senator Tina Tartaglione, Senator Carolyn Comitta, Senator Dave Argall, Senator Vincent Hughes, Senator Wayne Fontana, Senator Tim Kearney, Senator Nick Pisciottano, Senator Nikil Saval, Senator Amanda Cappelletti, Senator Lindsey Williams, and Senator James Malone.

“After the heartbreaking loss of a young boy to drowning in Washington County, I’ve made water safety one of my top priorities,” Senator Bartolotta said. “Pennsylvania’s many lakes, rivers, and streams offer incredible outdoor experiences, but they also demand that we take responsible steps to protect lives. This bill will empower people with the knowledge they need to make safe, informed choices while enjoying the outdoors.”

Only 28% of the 177,000 young children in Pennsylvania eligible for child care subsidies are getting help, highlighting major gaps in access, according to the Start Strong PA Campaign. (Irina/Adobe Stock)
Danielle Smith – Keystone State News Connection

Pennsylvanians will rally in Harrisburg today to call attention to the urgent child care teacher shortage across the state.

The Pennsylvania Child Care Association is urging lawmakers to support the $55 million proposed in the state budget for early child care educators.

Diane Barber, executive director of the Pennsylvania Child Care Association, said it is important for lawmakers to prioritize early childhood education funding and take action to ensure child care educators are paid fairly and supported professionally.

“In the last three weeks, I know of six child care programs that have closed, and basically it has to do with they can’t staff the class,” Barber reported. “We have lots of empty classrooms. We have waiting lists for families, and it’s really hard to fill those slots when what you’re offering is $15.15 an hour.”

Barber noted they have several speakers including Rep. Jeannie McNeil, D-Lehigh, who has introduced House Bill 506, which would actually create the recruitment and retention funding. The state House and Senate must pass the budget by June 30.

Barber explained they are in Harrisburg at the Capitol to urge lawmakers to see this not just as an investment in child care teachers but in the families across Pennsylvania who rely on child care.

“The governor and the General Assembly actually passed some bills around tax credits, both for families and for businesses who helped pay for child care,” Barber acknowledged. “But if there’s no child care to pay for because child care can’t find teachers, tax credits don’t go very far, so they only work for families who actually have child care.”

Barber added The Pennsylvania Child Care Association is a nonprofit and part of the Start Strong PA campaign. A survey found more than 3,000 child care teacher vacancies across Pennsylvania, based on responses from just 1,100 programs. Advocates will meet with lawmakers and hold a news conference. The rally is to start at 1:30 p.m.

FILE – An historical marker at the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., is seen on Feb. 21, 2023. Authorities could temporarily seize firearms and background checks would be expanded for gun buyers, under two bills passed Monday, May 22, 2023, in the Pennsylvania House, where Democrats are using their razor-thin majority to push gun-control measures after a yearslong standstill in the politically divided government. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Proposals that would let survivors of childhood sexual abuse file lawsuits in Pennsylvania beyond the state’s current statute of limitations passed the state House on Monday, the latest development in a yearslong lobbying campaign.

One of the two bills is a common piece of legislation that now heads to the GOP-controlled Senate for consideration. It passed the House 122-80, with Democrats voting unanimously for it while a majority of Republicans were opposed.

The other piece of legislation moves the state closer to putting a constitutional amendment about the issue before voters, which would require three more legislative votes before the statewide referendum. That bill passed the House 138-64, again with unified Democrats.

“This is about a group of survivors who have been denied access to our court system,” Democratic Rep. Nate Davidson said during debate. “And we have the opportunity to finally get it right.”

Davidson is a primary sponsor of the legislation.

The same pair of proposals received House approval more than two years ago, but died without action in the state Senate.

Support for allowing abuse victims more time to sue gained momentum after a landmark grand jury report in 2018 about child abuse over many decades by Roman Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania.

FILE – President Donald Trump pumps his fist before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, March 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — When children of wealthy families reach adulthood, they often benefit from the largesse of parents in the form of a trust fund. It’s another way they get a leg up on less affluent peers, who may receive nothing at all — or even be expected to support their families.

But what if all children — regardless of their family’s circumstances — could get a financial boost when they turn 18?

That’s the idea behind a House GOP proposal backed by President Donald Trump. It would create tax-deferred investment accounts — coined “Trump Accounts” — for babies born in the U.S. over the next four years, starting them each with $1,000. At age 18, they could withdraw the money to put toward a down payment for a home, education or to start a small business. If the money is used for other purposes, it’ll be taxed at a higher rate.

“This is a pro-family initiative that will help millions of Americans harness the strength of our economy to lift up the next generation,” Trump said at a White House event Monday for the proposal. “They’ll really be getting a big jump on life, especially if we get a little bit lucky with some of the numbers and the economy.”

While the investment would be symbolically meaningful, it’s a relatively small financial commitment to addressing child poverty in the wider $7 trillion federal budget. Assuming a 7% return, the $1,000 would grow to roughly $3,570 over 18 years.

It builds on the concept of “ baby bonds,” which two states — California and Connecticut — and the District of Columbia have introduced as a way to reduce gaps between wealthy people and poor people.

At at time when wealth inequality has soured some young people on capitalism, giving them a stake in Wall Street could be the antidote, said Utah Republican Rep. Blake Moore, who led the effort to get the initiative into a massive House spending bill.

“We know that America’s economic engine is working, but not everyone feels connected to its value and the ways it can benefit them,” Moore wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner. “If we can demonstrate to our next generation the benefits of investing and financial health, we can put them on a path toward prosperity.”

Families of all income levels could receive ‘Trump Accounts’

The bill would require at least one parent to produce a Social Security number with work authorizations, meaning the U.S. citizen children born to some categories of immigrants would be excluded from the benefit. But unlike other baby bond programs, which generally target disadvantaged groups, this one would be available to families of all incomes.

Economist Darrick Hamilton of The New School, who first pitched the idea of baby bonds a quarter-century ago, said the GOP proposal would exacerbate rather than reduce wealth gaps. When he dreamed up baby bonds, he envisioned a program that would be universal but would give children from poor families a larger endowment than their wealthier peers, in an attempt to level the playing field. The money would be handled by the government, not by private firms on Wall Street.

“It is upside down,” Hamilton said. “It’s going to enhance inequality.”

Hamilton added that $1,000 — even with interest — would not be enough to make a significant difference for a child living in poverty.

A Silicon Valley investor who created the blueprint for the proposal, Brad Gerstner, said in an interview with CNBC last year that the accounts could help address the wealth gap and the loss of faith in capitalism that represent an existential crisis for the U.S.

“The rise and fall of nations occurs when you have a wealth gap that grows, when you have people who lose faith in the system,” Gerstner said. “We’re not agentless. We can do something.”

Critics say poor families have more immediate needs

The proposal comes as Congressional Republicans and Trump face backlash for proposed cuts to programs that poor families with children rely on, including food assistance and Medicaid.

Even some who back the idea of baby bonds are skeptical, noting Trump wants to cut higher education grants and programs that aid young people on the cusp of adulthood — the same age group Trump Accounts are supposed to help. Pending federal legislation would slash Medicaid and food and housing assistance that many families with children rely on.

Young adults who grew up in poverty often struggle with covering basics like rent and transportation — expenses that Trump Accounts could not be tapped to cover, said Eve Valdez, an advocate for youth in foster care in southern California. Valdez, a former foster youth, said she was homeless when she turned 18.

Accounts for newborn children that cannot be accessed for 18 years mean little to families struggling to meet basic needs today, said Shimica Gaskins of End Child Poverty California.

“Having children have health care, having their families have access to SNAP and food are what we really need … the country focused on,” Gaskins said.

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Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.