Academy delays 2021 Oscars ceremony because of coronavirus
By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer
For the fourth time in its history, the Oscars are being postponed. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday that the 93rd Academy Awards will now be held on April 25, 2021, eight weeks later than originally planned because of the pandemic’s effects on the movie industry. The Academy’s Board of Governors also decided to extend the eligibility window beyond the calendar year to Feb. 28, 2021. Other entertainment industry awards shows are also in flux, like the Tony Awards. The 74th Tony Awards, originally set for June 7, has been postponed indefinitely.

Midland, PA (June 5, 2020) – Lincoln Park has been working on and is ready to roll out a new “Hungry For Art” Campaign. As an organization, Lincoln Park aims to serve the community through meaningful, joyous, and thought provoking presentations of musicals, plays, and dance performances. Because they are currently not able to provide the public with this service due to Covid-19, Lincoln Park has turned their attention to other outlets to help our surrounding areas through creative and inspiring ideas, thus the birth of the “Hungry for Art” campaign.

Lincoln Park has been working to keep their valued team employed and working towards the future of live performances. Recognizing that every industry, organization and non-profit has also been affected by the Coronavirus, Lincoln Park has partnered with BeavTown T’s in Beaver, PA on this community cause that benefits Faith Restorations Food Pantry in Monaca, PA through original designed, limited run t-shirts bearing the language “Hungry for Art”. Lincoln Park Cares, an arm of the organization dedicated to giving back and helping the under-served, will match the sales of the shirts up to $1,000 in hopes of increasing the total contributions to Faith Restorations.

‘We truly miss coming together to celebrate the world of arts and entertainment, and know that our patron base and team members are excited to get involved in a campaign that is aimed to help those in need,” said Justin Fortunato, Producing Artistic Director at Lincoln Park. All proceeds raised from this campaign will be donated to Faith Restorations Food Pantry, who is currently in the middle of a fundraising campaign to help them adequately serve the people of Beaver County and meet the increased demand brought on by the current pandemic.
“We are honored to be able to be a part of this important cause and will continue to create ways that our organization can serve our community in the immediate and long term future,” commented Fortunato.
Shirts can be purchased for $25 by visiting LincolnParkArts.org or by following all of Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center’s and BeavTown’s social media accounts. A direct link to buy shirts can be found here: https://www.beavtown.com/collections/hometown-collab/lincoln-park.

Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center is the region’s premier arts-and-education destination, and is located in a beautiful park setting in Midland (Beaver County) Pennsylvania. The Center is home to the renowned Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, and creates authentic, real-world learning opportunities for young people by offering high-quality, professionally-produced musicals, plays, concerts, ballets, readings, and exhibits for patrons of all ages.

More virus-test sites opening across northern Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — More free coronavirus drive-through testing sites will open in Walmart parking lots across northern Pennsylvania as Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration seeks to expand testing to areas where there is little available. The administration said the nine new sites will open Wednesday at Walmart parking lots in Sayre, State College, Edinboro, New Castle, Grove City, Coal Township, Selinsgrove, Lewisburg and Mansfield. That brings the total number of free coronavirus drive-through testing sites in Walmart parking lots to 19, it said. People seeking a test must register online a day in advance. Meanwhile, UPMC Northwest also opened a testing site in Reno, in Venango County, by appointment only.

Lawmakers advance proposals on police hiring, training
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Two bills to change how police are hired and trained are moving ahead in the Pennsylvania Legislature after unanimous committee votes. The House Judiciary Committee OK’d the proposals on Monday, a week after black state representatives commandeered the speaker’s dais to pressure majority Republicans to take action on stalled bills involving how police interact with people. The committee voted to mandate thorough background checks for law enforcement officers and require applicants’ former employers to provide information on their job history. The committee also approved a measure that would mandate training in how to interact with people of various racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds.

Driller charged over contamination in ‘Gasland’ town
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press
An energy company faces felony charges for polluting residential water wells in a Pennsylvania community that has long been a battleground in the national debate over natural gas drilling and fracking. Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. was charged Monday following a grand jury investigation that found the company failed to fix faulty gas wells in Dimock and surrounding communities that leaked methane into residential water supplies. The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office charged Cabot with a total of 15 criminal counts. The company has long insisted the gas in Dimock’s aquifer is naturally occurring,

Justices rule LGBT people protected from job discrimination
By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ruled that a landmark civil rights law protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment. It’s a resounding victory for LGBT rights from a conservative court. The court decided by a 6-3 vote Monday that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against gay and lesbian workers. The ruling also covers transgender people. The opinion was written by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch. It’s expected to have a big impact for the estimated 8.1 million LGBT workers across the country because most states don’t protect them from workplace discrimination.

US revokes emergency use of malaria drugs vs. coronavirus
By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators are revoking emergency authorization for malaria drugs promoted by President Donald Trump for treating COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are unlikely to be effective in treating the coronavirus. Citing reports of heart complications, the FDA says the drugs pose a greater risk to patients than any potential benefits. The decades-old drugs are also prescribed for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. They can cause heart rhythm problems, severely low blood pressure and muscle or nerve damage. The move means that shipments of the drugs obtained by the federal government will no longer be distributed to state and local health authorities for use against the coronavirus.

Pennsylvania Launches New Policies to Increase Diversity Among State Contractors 

Harrisburg, PA – Continuing his commitment to small businesses (SBs) and small diverse businesses (SBDs), Governor Tom Wolf announced new procurement changes to improve opportunities for minority-, women-, LGBT-, veteran- and disabled-owned businesses ­– to compete for state government contracts and succeed in the commonwealth’s economy.

“This is another important step forward in the ambitious project my administration launched five years ago to open doors for small and diverse businesses in state contracting and to make the process more inclusive and diverse,” said Governor Wolf. “We have made progress, but there is more work to do. We cannot allow some people to be shut out of a chance to get a state contract. Our economy and our communities work best when everyone has a fair chance of success.”

Today’s actions are the direct result of the governor’s Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities in Commonwealth Procurement and in Pennsylvania’s Economy executive order signed in 2015. The order created the Bureau of Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities (BDISBO) within the Department of General Services, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Diversity Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities and led to the 2018 Statewide Disparity Study which examined disparities in the commonwealth’s contracting system and made recommendations for improvement.

“These policy and program changes will allow us to increase opportunities for small diverse businesses in state contracts,” said Department of General Services Secretary Curt Topper. “Historically, the state contracting process has been uneven, inconsistent and unfair in providing opportunities for SBs and SDBs to do business with the commonwealth.”

There are three new changes taking effect.

First, each competitive state procurement will use  goal setting for SDB participation on each solicitation with the intent to achieve a 26.3 percent state contract spending with SDBs .The goals are determined using an analysis and calculation of the percentage of DGS verified SDBs available to do the specific work as determined by the Disparity Study and other factors. Goal setting replaces the previous scoring process used to evaluate proposals and starts today for construction solicitations over $300,000 and on August 17, 2020 for goods and services solicitations over $250,000.

Second, the department has set a goal of 4.6 percent of state contract spend to veteran-owned businesses through the new Veteran Business Enterprise (VBE) program as recommended by the Commonwealth Disparity Study. To increase the availability of VBEs, the commonwealth will now consider a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Enterprises as both an SDB firm and a VBE firm. This consideration is granted providing the applicant holds approved third-party certification from the Veterans Affairs Vets First Verification Program and eliminates the need to go through an additional third-party SDB certification process. The department will consider contract-specific goals for VBE participation on each individual solicitation over the dollar thresholds identified for SDB goal setting, and the VBE contract specific goals will be calculated based upon availability of VBE firms.

Third, the administration has tasked all state agencies under the governor’s jurisdiction to have at least 15 percent of their contract spending go to eligible, state-certified small businesses through the Small Business Reserve (SBR) Program. The program helps all DGS-certified small businesses to compete as prime contractors on state contracting opportunities. Each agency has an executive-level employee responsible for ensuring the goal is achieved.

“We are committed to achieving the commonwealth’s goal to do 26 percent of our business with small diverse businesses has truly been a group effort,” said Deputy Secretary for Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities Kerry Kirkland. “Through the hard work of the Bureau of Diversity Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities staff along with the Advisory council and our legislative supports, we are positioning our small and small diverse businesses for success and sustainability in our economy.”

Kirkland praised the hard work of the BDISBO staff and involvement of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Diversity, Inclusion and Small Businesses Opportunities has led to the implementation of key policy and program changes such as: using the best value contracting method to increase SDB participation in contracting opportunities; creating the Agency liaison Program to ensure that SB/SDB contracting opportunities are part of all annual commonwealth agency purchasing plans; and creating the Mentor-Protégé Program that pairs prime contractors and/or suppliers with DGS-verified SDBs to provide developmental assistance and help them successfully solicit and perform on commonwealth contracting opportunities.

Visit the Bureau of Diversity, Inclusion, and Small Business Opportunity for more detailed information on the new policies and programs as well as the Wolf Administration’s efforts to diversity state contracting and opportunities for small and diverse businesses.