(File Photo: Source for Photo: Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Three weeks after lung cancer surgery, Pope Leo XIV is embarking on the longest and farthest trip of his pontificate: a 12-day, three-nation tour of Latin America that carries more personal and historic weight than any of his voyages to date.

The U.S.-born Leo is returning home to Peru, where the former Robert Prevost lived for two decades as a missionary priest and learned to be the pastor he is today. Leo holds Peruvian citizenship and is so attached to Peru’s people he gave them a shoutout in Spanish from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on the night of his election.

Leo is also going to Argentina, the home of his predecessor, Pope Francis, to whom Leo owes his pontificate. It will be a homecoming of sorts there, too, since Francis never returned to Argentina after his 2013 election, leaving a complicated legacy that Leo will now have to navigate.

Leo starts his trip Friday in Uruguay, the least Catholic, most secular country in all of Latin America, where not even the big Catholic feast days get their due: Christmas in Uruguay is officially “Family Day” and Holy Week is “Tourism Week.”

Leo is nevertheless expected to draw huge crowds throughout his trip and will likely raise issues of concern to his still-young pontificate: economic injustice, the plight of Indigenous peoples and the Amazon, and the church’s dreadful legacy of clergy sexual abuse.

But many eyes will be on Leo himself for having confirmed this grueling trip at all so soon after surgery Oct. 13 to remove a cancerous tumor from his lung.

When doctors announced that Leo required no further treatment, they also said there was no reason why he couldn’t make the Nov. 6-17 trip. It includes a dozen flights and two helicopter rides covering 31,000 kilometers (19,000 miles), the longest of Leo’s pontificate.

While popes always travel with ample medical care, the Vatican said no special or additional provisions are planned for Leo, including when the 71-year-old travels to Cusco, Peru, at an altitude of 3,400 meters (11,200 feet).

“We’re not talking of a permanent condition,” said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni. “We’re talking about something that you heal from, because it is surgery.”

(File Photo of a Road Work Ahead Sign)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Conway Borough, PA) PennDOT District 11 announced that utility work requiring an overnight closure on Route 65 (Ohio River Boulevard) in Conway Borough will occur tonight, weather permitting. 

Beginning at approximately 7 P.M. tonight, there will be an overnight closure of southbound Route 65 between Crows Run Road and 11th Street through 5 A.M. tomorrow.

All traffic going southbound will be detoured. 

Pipeline crossing installation work wil be conducted by Team Fishel will conduct on behalf of Columbia Gas.  

According to a release from PennDOT District 11, here is the detour for this work:

Posted Detour 

• From Route 65 turn onto Crows Run Road (Route 2004), Crows Run Road turns into Freedom Crider Road 

• Continue into the roundabout and take south Route 989 toward Ambridge  

• Turn right onto Conway Wallrose Road (Route 2008) 

• Conway Wallrose Road (Route 2008) becomes 13th Street 

• Bear left onto 7th Avenue 

• Bear right onto 11th Street 

• End Detour 

(File Photo of Water)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Conway, PA) A boil water advisory was issued for Conway Borough. 

According to Conway Borough Council Vice President Patty Then, a water line broke as crews worked to replace a gas line along Route 65 near 13th Street.  

That borough shut off water service from First to Fifth Avenues so repairs could be made. 

Then also stated that those that lost water need to boil it until the borough clears the advisory. 

Anybody who lives above Fifth Avenue will not be impacted by this advisory. 

(Credit and Caption for Photo: The scene of a fatal crash in Penn Township Tuesday, Nov. 3. Matthew Glover/Butler Eagle)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Penn Township, PA) According to Penn Township police, a 38-year-old man from Beaver County died on Tuesday afternoon after he crossed into the oncoming lane of traffic in a Penn Township area.

Penn Township Police Chief Scott Longdon confirmed that the crash occurred at the intersection of Brownsdale and Powell roads, it involved two vehicles and David Powers of New Galilee was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Longdon confirmed that Powers was driving a Honda CR-V when he crossed into oncoming traffic and hit a Ford F-350 pickup truck. 

Police are waiting for the report of the coroner and they noted that the investigation into this incident is ongoing.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Police respond to an active shooter situation at the Tree of Life synagogue on Wildins Avenue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pa., on Saturday, October 27, 2018. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette via AP)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Attorneys for the man who shot and killed eleven people at the former Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh want his death sentence vacated and the chance for him to live out his days in jail. 

These attorneys made their case in a federal appeals court on Tuesday. 

A team of federal public defenders cited a bunch of reasons why a three-judge panel should give fifty-four-year-old Robert Gregory Bowers that chance, even though they conceded that Bowers had caused “profound and irreparable harm.”  

They not only that argued his death sentence should be vacated, but also that a new sentencing hearing would be held. 

Bowers is a resident of Baldwin who is currently spending his days waiting for execution on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana. 

(Credit for Photo: Photo Courtesy of Commonwealth Media Services, Caption for Photo: Pennsylvania Auditor General Tim DeFoor joins State Senator Devlin Robinson and State Rep. Valerie Gaydos at Moon Township Police Department to announce the distribution in state aid to support municipal pension plans across Pennsylvania.)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Moon Township, PA) Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor joined State Senator Devlin Robinson and State Representative Valerie Gaydos in Moon Township yesterday to announce that over 1,400 municipalities across Pennsylvania have received just over $427 million in state aid to support municipal pension plans for firefighters, police, fnon-uniformed employees. 

A total of 1,441 municipalities and regional departments received a total of $427,788,682.09 in aid to support pension plans that cover non-uniformed employees, police officers and paid firefighters.

(File Photo of State Representative Aaron Bernstine)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) Incumbent Republican candidate Aaron Bernstine will go back to Harrisburg to represent the 8th State House District of Pennsylvania for the next two years. 

According to unofficial election results in summary reports from Butler County’s Bureau of Elections and Lawrence County’s Voter and Elections Services, Bernstine won this district, which includes parts of Butler and Lawrence counties, by a considerable margin.

This comes after the November 3rd midterm elections on Tuesday. 

Bernstine earned about 63% of the votes and his Democratic challenger Rick Telesz earned about 37% of the votes. 

Bernstine earned a degree in business management from Penn State University and assumed his office in the House of Representatives in 2017.

He also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh and received a Master of Business Administration Degree from that same university.

Bernstine resides at his family farm in New Beaver Borough.  

(Credit for Photo: Photo Courtesy of Eddie Trizzino/Butler Eagle)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Butler County, PA) Voters in Adams Township and Mars Borough cast ballots yesterday on a proposal to consolidate the two municipalities into a single entity named Mars Township.

This municipal merger has now been approved, because 6,246 votes were in favor of it and 2,456 votes were against it.

The merge will take effect on January 1st, 2028.

Local officials stated that merging Adams Township and Mars Borough would improve regional planning and grant access, as well as increase assets for economic growth, facilitate the construction of a new library in downtown Mars and provide 24-hour police protection for Mars Borough.

(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) A man from Beaver County who was arrested on August 2nd, 2024 in a police standoff in Maryland on accusations that he sexually assaulted a local boy is waiting for his sentencing.

A date for sentencing will be determined for forty-eight-year-old Jack Edgar Primmer of Freedom, who was found guilty on Friday on 34 charges, which included creation of child pornography, indecent assault and rape.

Primmer faces possible decades in jail on charges that also include corruption of a minor and possession of child pornography.

He was already a registered sex offender and was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy at his Beaver County home in 2022 and 2023.

Police also stated that they found child pornography videos on his laptop computer.

Police tracked Primmer to Frederick, Maryland, and they tried to take him into custody on August 2nd, 2024, but Primmer barricaded himself in a Super 8 hotel room and told officers that he had a gun.

According to a report from the Beaver County Times, shots were fired during the incident and Primmer was treated at a hospital in Baltimore for wounds before he was extradited to Pennsylvania.