The 2020 Beaver County Annual Snow Shovel Riding Contest is being moved to next Saturday, January 18th, in the hope for better conditions. According to Beaver County Director of Recreation, Tim Ishman, the 57th Annual event is being postponed due to weather conditions that are not favorable to this particular contest. The predicted high for Saturday is 66 degrees, not exactly snow shovel riding weather. So once again, the event is being postponed to next Saturday. If it is canceled for a second time, the event will be scrapped for the entire season.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Pennsylvania judge has ruled that parents of children in the Roman Catholic Church and survivors of sexual abuse by clergy members can move forward with a lawsuit against the Diocese of Pittsburgh alleging that it has not fulfilled its obligations under state law to report child sexual abusers. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the lawsuit is the first time a private citizen has been allowed to challenge an institution to prove it is complying with a reporting law. The ruling Tuesday granted a preliminary dismissal to the state’s other dioceses because the lawsuit did not include specific allegations against them.

Health officials say Allegheny County has had its first flu-related death of the season. It’s reported the victim was over 90-years-old and was also battling some underlying medical conditions. So far this season, Allegheny County is leading the commonwealth with more than 51-hundred confirmed flu cases, with 34 leading to hospitalizations. At this time last year, there were only 212 confirmed flu cases in the county.

Federal investigators are meticulously working to find the cause of this past weekend’s deadly crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. National Transportation Safety Board officials released a video yesterday that shows up-close scenes of the wrecked tour bus and tractor-trailers. A preliminary cause of the crash that killed five people and injured nearly 60 is expected within ten days.

WEATHER FORECAST FOR THURSDAY, JANUARY 9TH, 2020

 

TODAY – PARTLY SUNNY. HIGH – 43.

TONIGHT – CLOUDY. LOW NEAR 40.

FRIDAY – RAIN. HIGH – 55.

SATURDAY – RAIN. NEAR RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES.
HIGH – 66.

SUNDAY – MORNING CLOUDS FOLLOWED BY SOME
AFTERNOON SUNSHINE. MORNING HIGH OF 55
WITH TEMPS FALLING TO NEAR 40.

A shooting in Aliquippa overnight is under investigation…as we hear in this report from Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — An increasingly diverse Virginia General Assembly convened Wednesday, led for the first time in more than two decades by Democrats who are promising to enact a litany of changes. The House quickly elected Eileen Filler-Corn at the new speaker, the first woman to serve in that role.  She is also the first Jewish speaker. African American lawmakers are set to have most power at the legislature in Virginia’s 400 year history. In the weeks since Democrats retook control of the state House and Senate, they have laid out an ambitious agenda. It includes high-profile issues Republicans thwarted for years, including gun control measures and criminal justice reforms.

A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that much of the world is skeptical that President Donald Trump will do the right thing on foreign affairs after nearly three years in office. Majorities in many of the 33 countries surveyed disapprove of Trump’s use of tariffs, efforts to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, limits on immigration to the U.S. and withdrawal from international climate change agreements. A bright spot for Trump is the direct talks he’s had with North Korea’s leader about denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. Those negotiations garnered the most support, though not a majority in most countries. The survey results were released Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and Iran stepped back from the brink of possible war Wednesday, as President Donald Trump indicated he would not respond militarily after no one was harmed in Iran’s missile strike on two Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops. Trump says Iran appeared to be “standing down. The Iranian strikes had come days after Trump authorized the targeted killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force. Trump said Americans should be “extremely grateful and happy” with the outcome. Speaking from the White House, Trump announced that the U.S. will immediately place new sanctions on Iran “until Iran changes its behavior.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says “there will be no haggling” over the terms of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. He’s urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to send over the abuse and obstruction articles of impeachment so the Republican-controlled Senate can begin the trial. McConnell says there’s nothing to negotiate. He says he has the 51 votes needed to move forward without an agreement on witnesses or documents that the Democrats are demanding. Pelosi didn’t mention her impeachment plans during a Wednesday caucus meeting with House Democrats. The trial could begin as soon as this week if Pelosi were to send over the impeachment charges.