(File Photo of Police Siren Lights)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Robinson Township, PA) The LA Fitness in Robinson Township is closed for the remainder of this week after an explosion occurred inside the gym yesterday. 

According to emergency responders, they were called to the gym around 11:30 after a water heater that was located in a back room exploded. 

Police confirmed that a gas leak was the cause of the explosion. 

An officer on the scene stated that one of the workers of the gym suffered a minor head injury from the shockwave of the blast. 

LA Fitness employees told its patrons that the gym would be closed for several days.  

Members of the gym were told to go to the LA Fitness location in Bridgeville during that time. 

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – A campaign rally site for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is empty and littered with debris on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Moon Township, PA) James Copenhaver of Moon Township has died.

Copenhaver was one of the three campaign rally attendees shot on July 13th, 2024 during an assassination attempt on then-candidate, now President Donald Trump.

Copenhaver was 76 years old and his lawyer announced his death yesterday.

Copenhaver was seen in the bleachers during the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a nearby rooftop. 

President Trump’s right ear was grazed with one bullet. Copenhaver was struck in the arm and in the abdomen, which were wounds that left him walking with a cane and suffering lingering injuries. 

Crooks was shot and killed by a counter sniper team from the Secret Service.  

Two other attendees were also shot during the assassination attempt. 

David Dutch was the only person who survived the attack besides Copenhaver. 

Corey Comperatore, who was a firefighter, was the only one who was killed during the attack, but he became a hero because he shielded his family from gunfire before he died.

(File Photo of a Police Siren Light)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Aliquippa, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver reported yesterday that they arrested two people for possessing drugs in Aliquippa on August 28th.

Police stopped forty-one-year-old Brittany Tucker of Aliquippa because she committed a vehicle violation in the area 108 Economy Street at 7:40 p.m.

According to police, Tucker was subsequently arrested for driving under the influence of a controlled substance.

Police were at the same location at 8:08 p.m. and made contact with forty-two-year-old Corey Tucker of Pittsburgh and they confirm that he was subsequently arrested because he possessed drug paraphernalia.

Charges are pending against Corey Tucker. 

(File Photo of Handcuffs)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Ambridge Borough, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver reported that twenty-year-old Olivia Taylor Edwards of Red Oak, Texas was arrested after possessing drugs in Ambridge Borough yesterday.

Police conducted a traffic stop along 2206 Duss Avenue at 5:13 p.m.

After an investigation occurred, Edwards was found to be in possession of suspected marijuana and was found to be impaired.

Charges will be filed against her.  

(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Youngstown, OH) The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today that Mercy Health Physicians Youngstown, LLC and Bon Secours Mercy Health, Inc. (Mercy) in Youngstown, Ohio violated federal law by subjecting a Jewish orthopedic surgeon to unfavorable terms and conditions of employment and firing him because of his religion and race, shortly after the October 7th, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel. 

According to the EEOC’s suit, the surgeon had a successful practice with Mercy for many years and performed well, including exceeding Mercy’s productivity goals

However, Mercy subjected the surgeon to remarks that were antisemitic throughout his employment and fired him in November of 2023, as well as advising him that he was being let go for a reason that was not his work performance.  

The EEOC charged that during the employment of the surgeon, Mercy also subjected him to treatment that was unfavorable which interfered with his practice because of his race and religion. 

This alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and this prohibits discrimination on the basis of race and religion.

The EEOC filed suit (called EEOC v. Mercy Health Physicians Youngstown, LLC and Bon Secours Mercy Health, Inc., Case No. 1:26-cv-02500-CEF) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio after the commission first attempted to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its process of administrative conciliation.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Allegheny County workers scan mail-in and absentee ballots at the Allegheny County Election Division Elections warehouse in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022. A federal appeals court must decide if Pennsylvania voters who put the wrong date on the envelope containing their mail-in ballots should have their votes thrown out. The case argued Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, in Philadelphia could be significant in this year’s presidential contest. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Washington, D.C.) Congressman Chris Deluzio (D-PA-17), U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Congressman Raúl Ruiz (D-CA-25) recently introduced bicameral legislation to protect election workers and voters from intimidation and threats of violence at polling places.    

The Freedom from Intimidation in Elections Act of 2026 would help ensure that every election worker and voter has the right to conduct their official duties and cast their ballots free from fear and intimidation.  

It would update the existing anti-intimidation provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to limit the presence of visible firearms at the locations where voters are casting their ballots or election workers are performing their official duties, which empowers poll workers and election officials to continue administering elections safely.  

(File Photo of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General Logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday recently announced that the state of Pennsylvania, as part of a coalition of 44 attorneys general, has settled with the Laboratory Corporation of America (Labcorp) resolving a multistate investigation into the 2019 data breach at Labcorp’s debt collector, Retrieval-Masters Creditors Bureau.

The Retrieval-Masters Creditors Bureau, which does its business as American Medical Collection Agency (“AMCA”), was responsible for a breach that potentially exposed the personal information of over 27.5 million people nationally, and as many as 218,408 Pennsylvanians.

The settlement requires that Labcorp and some associated debt collectors would bolster protections, and response and notification plans that involve patient information

Labcorp will pay over $2.28 million to the states and over $43,000 to the state of Pennsylvania. 

(Credit for Photo: Photo Courtesy of the City of New Brighton, Pennsylvania, Posted on Facebook on September 24th, 2026)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(New Brighton, PA) According to a Facebook post from The New Brighton Volunteer Fire Department today, that department has secured $869,416.95 in federal funding through the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Fiscal Year 2025 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program.

The total approved project budget reaches $912,887.80 because it is combined with a local cost-share contribution of $43,470.85.

This grant award enables the purchase of a new fire engine to replace an aging apparatus that is currently in service.

This federal investment will directly support local emergency personnel by the upgrades of essential equipment and enhancements of overall public safety and fire response capabilities throughout the area of New Brighton and the municipalities that surround it. 

New Brighton Borough and Fire Department officials also thanked Congressman Chris Deluzio and his staff for their ongoing advocacy and support in securing federal funding that is for the first responders of Western Pennsylvania.