(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Recently, Brady’s Run Park had issues with water getting from its main source to all of the shelters in the area. Public Works Director Dan Colville spoke about the issues, as well as the repairs, at the Commissioners’ work session on Wednesday.

 

Colville also mentioned that he’d like to see any new water lines installed to be smaller in size; from 4 inches down to 2.

He also got into a somewhat lively discussion with the Commissioners over the road construction that needed done at Marion Township. The discussion arose when Commissioner Sandie Egley had mentioned that a for-profit organization was looking to install a dog park up at Brush Creek; and though Commissioner Tony Amadio agreed, he felt that the deteriorated roads near the park needed fixed. When Colville was asked about possible solutions, he said that any patching would fall apart just as quickly as it was built and that a tar-and-chip solution would be more suitable if time-consuming. Colville also mentioned that he would need to find out a cost estimate for these solutions first.

On a more positive note, Commissioner Amadio spoke highly of the possibilities for Beaver County Residents as the new Amazon building moving “next door” in Findlay Township (Allegheny County) was announced Tuesday:

 

The Commissioners’ next work session is scheduled for August 7 at 10:00 AM.

WEATHER FORECAST FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 31ST, 2019

 

TODAY – MOSTLY CLOUDY. ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS
DEVELOPING THIS AFTERNOON. HIGH – 84.

TONIGHT – A FEW CLOUDS. LOW – 63.

THURSDAY – SUNSHINE AND CLOUDS MIXED. HIGH – 84.

Despite factory fires on the Eastern side of the state, Beaver County and surrounding areas are experiencing a dip in gas prices, not only from previous weeks, but also from last year. Beaver County Radio News Intern, Christina Sainovich, has the story…

The Beaver County Sheriff’s office, led by Tony Guy, has recently added a new sticker to each of their patrol cars. This addition is meant to honor The United States, and what it stands for. Beaver County Radio News Intern, Christina Sainovich, has details…

 

2 dead, 2 wounded in shooting at Walmart in Mississippi
By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press
SOUTHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — A gunman described as a disgruntled Walmart employee fatally shot two co-workers and wounded a police officer before he was shot and arrested Tuesday at a Walmart store in northern Mississippi, authorities said.
Southaven Police Chief Macon Moore said the man, whom he did not name, shot a Southaven police officer, who was protected by a bulletproof vest and suffered minor injuries. The chief said a second Southaven officer shot the suspect, who was then taken for surgery to a hospital in neighboring Memphis, Tennessee.
Both the people killed were Walmart employees, Moore said. Employees told The Associated Press that the first was shot in the parking lot, and the second was shot inside the store.
Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite described the suspect as a disgruntled worker with a grievance against his employer.
“It wasn’t an accident,” said Travis Jones, an overnight stocker who was working when he heard shots. “He knew what he was doing when he came in there.”
Jones said he saw the body of a store manager on the floor as they ran out of the store. “It was an ugly scene,” he said.
Nicholas Gales said the other slain worker was his brother, Brandon Gales. Jones called Brandon Gales his best friend, and described him as a father of four.
The shooting at about 6:30 a.m. brought a massive police response to the shopping complex, at a busy exit off Interstate 55 in Southaven, a suburb of 55,000 people.
Carlos Odom, 35, had just made his usual visit to his cousin, who works there, and said he was leaving when he heard more than a dozen shots.
“I just hear gunshots,” Odom said. “Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow.”
“When the cops run into the Walmart, you hear more gunshots,” Odom said. “After that, it stopped.”
Odom said he ran out into the parking lot and later spoke by phone with his cousin, who told him one of the victims was an employee, and the gunman worked there as well.
Phil Cox, 70, said had just bought some nasal spray and was in the parking lot when he thought he heard a gunshot, and then saw a man who may have been the shooter run into the store. He got into his truck to leave as police began arriving.
“Everything went crazy at that point,” Cox said, expressing sympathy for employees. “It’s just hard to believe what happened here, but it seems like it’s happening everywhere.”
Officers kept working to clear the store hours after the shooting, Moore said, in part because they found a suspicious package and called a bomb squad.
Moore said about 60 employees were working at the time. They were taken to the parking lot of an adjoining Chili’s restaurant and interviewed by officers. Some embraced, while one was placed in an ambulance. Others gathered in a circle to pray.
“The entire Walmart family is heartbroken by the loss of two valued members of our team,” Walmart U.S. President and CEO Greg Foran said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “We feel tragedies like this personally, and our hearts go out to the families of our two associates and the officer who was injured.”
The company is relieved the suspect was apprehended, and appreciates the quick response by authorities and its employees, Foran said.
“We’ll continue to focus on assisting law enforcement in their investigation and on supporting our associates,” he added.
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Associated Press writers Jeff Amy and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed.

Top aides leave Dem campaign arm amid diversity complaints
By ALAN FRAM Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A mass departure of top aides shook House Democrats’ campaign arm Tuesday, an exodus prompted by complaints from Hispanic and black lawmakers that the organization’s staff lacked diversity.
Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement late Monday that she had “fallen short” and promised to “work tirelessly to ensure that our staff is truly inclusive.” Executive Director Allison Jaslow announced her departure and a DCCC aide said five other senior aides had also resigned.
The tumult comes in a period when race has become a partisan battlefield, following a series of Twitter attacks by President Donald Trump on House Democrats of color. In his latest blasts, he has disparaged Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings and his city of Baltimore, which is majority black.
The shake-up also occurred as both parties are already fundraising and recruiting candidates for the 2020 elections, in which Democrats will be defending their House majority. The DCCC outspent its counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, in the 2018 elections that saw Democrats regain House control after eight years in the minority.
Lawmakers complaining about the DCCC’s staff have included Texas Democratic Reps. Filemon Vela and Vicente Gonzalez and Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Bustos, 57, became chairwoman of the campaign committee following the 2018 elections, arguing she would be effective because she has represented a swing district that swung to support Trump in 2016.
Hispanic lawmakers became disenchanted after she replaced top staffers, including many minorities, with aides who were largely white, said an aide to Gonzalez who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. New committee leaders often name long-time aides to their staffs.
In a statement last weekend, Gonzalez and Vela said the DCCC was “in complete chaos.” They said Bustos should appoint a person of color to be executive director “to restore confidence in the organization and to promote diversity.”
Fudge also told Politico, which first reported about the DCCC’s disarray, about her unhappiness about the committee’s lack of diversity.
“It is shocking, and something needs to be done about it,” she said.
Gabrielle Brown, spokeswoman for the Congressional Black Caucus, said black House lawmakers have been holding meetings with DCCC officials for months at which they expressed similar concerns. None of the lawmakers complained about the DCCC’s performance this year in raising money and finding candidates to challenge Republicans, the committee’s main job.
Bustos has also encountered broader problems that have caused divisions within the party.
Liberals in and out of Congress were angered when she announced the DCCC would not do business with political consultants who help Democrats challenging incumbent House Democrats. Much of DCCC’s money comes from dues paid by House Democrats, and incumbents have argued that an organization they finance should not give some of its lucrative business to consultants who work for challengers trying to unseat them.
Many Democrats were also unhappy when Bustos planned to attend an event in support of fellow Illinois Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski, an abortion opponent and one of the most conservative house Democrats. Bustos ended up not attending.
A House leadership aide said top Democrats largely faulted the now-departed Jaslow for not quickly responding to the complaints. The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the situation publicly, said leaders did not believe Bustos should leave her post.
Jaslow, an Iraq war veteran, said in a statement that “sometimes selfless service means having the courage to take a bow for the sake of the mission — especially when the stakes are so high.”

DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump says he’ll be watching the next Democratic presidential debate and predicts Joe Biden will be the likely 2020 presidential nominee for the Democrats. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday before leaving on a trip to Jamestown, Virginia, Trump said he’ll be watching as 10 Democratic candidates square off in Detroit and took a jab at Biden, who has often criticized him. Biden will be among another 10 candidates debating on Wednesday.

JAMESTOWN, Va. (AP) — Black lawmakers in Virginia who boycotted a visit by President Donald Trump are blasting Trump for his recent disparaging remarks about minority members of Congress. During an emotional ceremony at a Richmond site where a notorious slave jail once stood, members of Virginia’s legislative black caucus took turns criticizing Trump as the president spoke about 60 miles away in historic Jamestown.

Trump claims black people love his comments about Baltimore
By JILL COLVIN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is claiming a groundswell of African American support in response to his comments denigrating Rep. Elijah Cummings and his majority-black Baltimore district, despite polling showing consistently negative numbers.
Speaking to reporters as he left the White House on Tuesday, Trump claimed the building had been flooded with thousands of letters, emails and phone calls thanking him for “getting involved” and exposing corruption.
“They really appreciate what I’m doing, and they’ve let me know it,” said the Republican president. The White House did not immediately provide any evidence backing up Trump’s claims.
Trump’s comments came in response to fierce backlash against his earlier remarks lashing out at Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and calling his district a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” Trump also is under fire for his ongoing attacks on four Democratic congresswomen of color, whom he tweeted should “go back” to their countries — even though three of the four were born in the United States and all are U.S. citizens.
But Trump on Tuesday nonetheless declared himself “the least racist person” in the world, despite his recent comments and racist tweets. And he said “African American people love the job” he’s doing, despite the fact that numerous polls have shown African Americans are overwhelmingly negative in their assessments of his performance.
Approval among black Americans has hovered around 10% over the course of Trump’s presidency, according to Gallup polling, with 8% approving in June.
Polling also suggests his recent attacks could hurt Trump with suburban voters — and especially women — whom he may need to win next year. Trump in recent days, however, has expressed to advisers on his reelection team that he believes his broadsides against the minority Democrats will help excite his core supporters.
“I think I’m helping myself because I’m pointing out the tremendous corruption that’s taking place in Baltimore and other Democratic run cities,” Trump said Tuesday, as he continued to hammer his criticism.
“Those people are living in hell in Baltimore,” he said, adding he was open to some kind of unspecified federal involvement.
“If they ask,” he said, “We will get involved.”
Vice President Mike Pence, speaking to reporters in Columbus, Ohio, also defended Trump, pointing to the low black unemployment rate and criminal justice reform legislation that Trump signed into law last year.
“President Trump is someone who calls it like he sees it,” said Pence. “President Trump believes in being able to say when things are not what they should be, to call on leadership, to call on state leadership, and say you have to do better.”
Black unemployment did reach a record low during the Trump administration: 5.9 percent in May 2018. It currently stands at 6 percent. But many economists view the continued economic growth since the middle of 2009, when Democratic President Barack Obama was in office, as the primary explanation for hiring.
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Associated Press Deputy Polling Director Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.