EAST ROCHESTER MAYOR BOB KNOX IS URGING ALL BOROUGH RESIDENTS WHOSE PROPERTY WAS DAMAGED OR DESTROYED FROM THE VIOLENT STORMS THAT WREAKED HAVOC ON THE BORO TWO WEEKENDS AGO…TO COME TO TONIGHT’S COUNCIL MEETING:

AS FAR AS WHERE AND WHEN THE COUNCIL MEETING WILL BE HELD, HERE’S EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW…

AGAIN…THAT’S TONIGHT AT 7PM…AT THE LACOCK DWELLING COMMUNITY BUILDING IN EAST ROCHESTER.

An Independence Township man is accused of assaulting his wife and two E-M-T’s in March. Brian Brown is facing drunken driving, terroristic threats, and other charges for the March 27th incidents that ended in the 400-block of Independence Road. Brown is accused of being combative with first responders following a crash, then police found his wife had suffered minor injuries during a domestic dispute back at his apartment on Village Road. Brown’s preliminary hearing is set for May 20th.

Two people are behind bars and thousands of dollars in drugs are off the street after a raid in Ambridge. Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano has new details in this updated report…

Roughly a week after learning that the county owes nearly $400,000 to the IRS, an update on the situation was given by County Solicitor Garen Fedeles during the Commissioners’ weekly work session. Matt Drzik was there and has this report:

 

Lawmakers in Harrisburg have introduced legislation to abolish the death penalty in Pennsylvania. Don Rooney has more…

Pennsylvania’s roadways must be made safer, and legislation that would address distracted driving by mandating usage of “hands-free-only” technology is drawing bipartisan support in Harrisburg. House Bill 37 prime sponsor Rep. Rosemary Brown (R-Monroe, Pike) said Pennsylvania needs to join the other states that already ban hand-held cell phone use while driving…

 

WEATHER FORECAST FOR WEDNESDAY, MAY 1ST, 2019

 

TODAY – MOSTLY CLOUDY. A STRAY SHOWER OR
THUNDERSTORM POSSIBLE. HIGH – 83.

TONIGHT – CONSIDERABLE CLOUDINESS. OCCASIONAL
RAIN SHOWERS AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOW – 62.

THURSDAY – MIXED CLOUDS AND SUN WITH SCATTERED
THUNDERSTORMS. HIGH – 76.

Judge throws out ex-Penn State president’s conviction
By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge threw out former Penn State President Graham Spanier’s misdemeanor child-endangerment conviction on Tuesday, less than a day before he was due to turn himself in to begin serving a jail sentence.
The decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick in Scranton, Pennsylvania, gave state prosecutors three months to retry Spanier under the state’s 1995 child endangerment law, the version in place in 2001.
Joe Grace, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said the decision was under review. Spanier’s defense lawyer declined to comment.
Mehalchick agreed with Spanier that he was improperly charged under a 2007 law for actions that occurred in 2001, when he was responding to a complaint about former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky showering with a boy on campus.
“Spanier submits that this retroactive application is unreasonable and far more extensive than anyone in 2001 would have been able to reasonably foresee,” Mehalchick wrote. “The court agrees.”
Spanier had been due to report to jail early Wednesday to begin serving a minimum sentence of two months.
Spanier, 70, was forced out as Penn State president shortly after Sandusky was arrested in 2011 on child molestation charges. A year later, Spanier was accused of a criminal cover-up, although many of those charges were dismissed by an appeals court. The jury acquitted him of what remained by the time of his trial, except for the single count of child endangerment. Lisa Powers, a university spokeswoman, said Tuesday that Spanier remains a tenured faculty member on paid administrative leave.
Spanier’s lawyers argued that the application of the law to acts that occurred years before the measure was passed violated the U.S. Constitution.
But the judge did not agree with their argument that the statute of limitations had been improperly applied.
Spanier was convicted for how he and two of his top aides decided to respond to a report from graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary that he had seen Sandusky abusing the boy late on a Friday night in a team shower.
Spanier has said the abuse of the boy, who has never been conclusively identified, was characterized to him as horseplay.
Spanier and two of his top lieutenants, former athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz, agreed to notify The Second Mile, the charity for at-risk youth where Sandusky met many of his victims, but not to call police.
Spanier gave his approval to his deputies in an email, warning that “the only downside for us is if the message isn’t ‘heard’ and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it.”
Curley and Schultz were also charged criminally for their actions regarding Sandusky, but on the eve of trial they both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment and testified for the prosecution. Both have since served similar jail sentences.
Spanier did not testify at his trial and told the judge at sentencing that he regretted not intervening more forcefully.
Sandusky is doing 30 to 60 years in state prison and recently won an order for a new sentence.

North Carolina campus shooting leaves 2 dead, 4 injured
OpBy TOM FOREMAN Jr. Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Two people were killed and four injured Tuesday in a shooting Tuesday on a North Carolina university campus, prompting a lockdown and chaotic scene in North Carolina’s largest city.
UNC Charlotte issued a campus lockdown late Tuesday afternoon, saying shots had been fired.
“Shots reported near kennedy. Run, Hide, Fight. Secure yourself immediately,” the university said in an alert, referring to the school’s Kennedy building on campus.
Mecklenburg Emergency Medical Services Agency said on Twitter that two people were found dead at the scene, two others have life-threatening injuries and two others have injuries that are not life-threatening. They said the numbers could change.
Aerial shots from local television news outlets showed police officers running toward a building, while another view showed students running on a campus sidewalk.
The university later reported that law enforcement officers were sweeping campus buildings.
It was not immediately clear whether the victims were students or whether a suspect was in custody. School officials couldn’t be reached for immediate comment Tuesday evening.
The campus was to host a concert at the school’s football stadium.
The university has more than 26,500 students and 3,000 faculty and staff.